Self-control is a personality trait that explains undersaving and nonparticipation decisions. We show that self-control failure also affects trading behavior among individuals on capital markets. We use smoking as the most socially accepted example of self-control failure among 13,644 German brokerage clients and compare the trading behavior of 3,553 smokers and 10,091 nonsmokers. Smokers are associated with a higher portfolio turnover unexplained by financial sophistication or wealth effects. Self-control failure also exacerbates overconfidence, social contagion, sensation seeking, and attention grabbing. Overall, self-control failure is costly because it increases the gap between gross and net returns of smokers relative to nonsmokers.

自我控制是一种人格特质，可以解释储蓄不足和不参与的决定。我们表明，自我控制失败也会影响资本市场上个人之间的交易行为。我们在 13,644 名德国经纪商客户中将吸烟作为最被社会接受的自我控制失败的例子，并比较了 3,553 名吸烟者和 10,091 名非吸烟者的交易行为。吸烟者与更高的投资组合周转率有关，而这无法用金融成熟度或财富效应来解释。自我控制失败还会加剧过度自信、社会传染、感觉寻求和注意力攫取。总体而言，自我控制失败代价高昂，因为它增加了吸烟者相对于非吸烟者的总回报和净回报之间的差距。