As Investors, Women Outperform Men

A Warwick Business School study, covering investment returns over three years, found that the U.K.'s women investors do better than the men.

Analysis of 2,800 investors found that not only did the female investors outperform the FTSE 100 over the last three years but they also outshone their male counterparts.

While annual returns on investments for men were on average a marginal 0.14 per cent above the performance of the FTSE 100, annual returns on the investment portfolios held by women were 1.94 per cent above it. This means returns for women investing outperformed men by 1.8 per cent.

The women did better than the men because they avoided speculative stocks, traded less frequently and were more willing to sell their losers. They were less likely to confuse investing with playing the lottery, more likely to keep calm and carry on.