The disposition effect, in dollars
The disposition effect is the best-documented bias in retail trading: winners get sold fast, losers get held and hoped on. The cost is measurable from any trade history.
The signature
- Average holding time on losers far above winners, while the average loss exceeds the average win. Even a good hit-rate loses money under that payoff shape.
- Odean (1998) documented the pattern across tens of thousands of retail accounts; it has replicated ever since.
How the cost is computed
- A deterministic counterfactual on your own fills: what the losses would have been had each loser been cut at the size of your average winner. Arithmetic, not prediction — what happened, not what will.
Check your own history
- Upload a brokerage CSV or statement — or paste a screenshot — and the coach quantifies the pattern in your trades, with the exact process rule that addresses it.
See what your own habits cost you
Upload a CSV or statement — or just paste a screenshot of your trades. A dollar-quantified discipline audit, free, no signup needed to try it.
Run your auditLast reviewed 2026-06-10. Broker interfaces change — if a step looks different, the broker's own help center has the latest path.