Investment Performance of Individual Investors: Evidence from the Korean Stock Market

We use unique equity holdings data for each type of investor to investigate the relationship between individual investors' shareholdings and variables such as corporate characteristics and stock returns in the Korean stock market. We find that stocks with the highest individual holdings underperform stocks with the lowest individual holdings. This return difference is attributable to individual investors' uninformed stock-picking skills resulting from lack of attention given to or misinterpretation of readily accessible firm fundamentals. The results also indicate that characteristics of stocks preferred by individual investors are associated with small capitalization, low stock price, low profitability, and high turnover.