Trading costs for mutual funds are typically not disclosed and higher than you might think. That’s the finding of two recent studies profiled in the WSJ article That Fund’s Total Expenses Area Higher Than You Think.
A study of the top 100 mutual funds found that the median trading costs were 0.66% and the highest quintile averaged 1.99%.
A much larger study of U.S. stock funds found average trading costs of 1.44% overall and 2.96% in the top quintile.
The trading costs are in addition to the management fees, marketing expenses, sales loads and exit fees that funds charge investors.