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One of an investor's prime concerns is the amount of money they will spend on transaction costs; whether those are brokerage commissions, SEC regulatory fees, margin interest, or if those costs are the slippage associated with the bid/ask spread.

The most common way to reduce transaction costs is pretty simple.

TRADE LESS

However, it would seem that although transaction costs are certainly eating away a good percentage of my return, from a review of my recent trading history, I tend to do better when trading more actively.

Also, all my profits are gone right now more or less due to a position that I was not ready to sell out on, even though I had been holding it a couple days and it hadn't been working out for me. It seems that even if my active trading decisions are either incorrect or not optimal, they are still better decisions FOR ME than any attempt at reducing transaction costs.

I think this is due to the fact that I view using an active short-term trading strategy not necessarily as a way to make a bunch of money quickly (although that is a distinct possibility) but rather as a methodology for reducing risk. Perhaps this strategy is more favored by the current market conditions also; the volatile moves, head-fakes, and frequent lack of consistent market direction lends itself much more to an active trading style; mitigating market risk is currently more important than mitigating business expense.

For most traders in most markets, taking too many trades is a sure path towards reduced returns. It seems that for myself, taking too few trades is a recipe for over-exposure to risk; and mainly for myself, too few trades means holding onto positions for simply too long.