Active at retirement: trading and performance of retirees

We study how trading behaviour and portfolio performance change around retirement among individual investors who remain active in the stock market. Using comprehensive administrative wealth data from the Swedish Tax Agency, we follow investors from two years before retirement through two years after retirement. While leverage declines following retirement, retirees who remain active in equity markets increase both trading frequency and portfolio breadth. Despite this increase in activity, retirees experience a decline in risk-adjusted performance. These findings highlight heterogeneity in post-retirement investment behaviour and underscore the importance of trading behaviour for portfolio outcomes later in life.