In September, 2010 I wrote an article discussing the decline average holding periods on the major stocks exchanges of the world. One of the charts included in that post is the following chart for the NYSE:

Click to enlarge

The average holding period for stocks has declined on most major exchange for many years now for due to short-term mentality of individuals and institutions alike, lower transaction costs, growth of hedge funds, high-frequency trading, growth of ETFs, etc.According to one report, investors held stocks on the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) for  an average of two years in 1991 but only for five months in 2008. However this situation has improved since the financial crisis of 2008 and in 2010 the average holding period was eight months as shown in the chart below:

Source: Means, Ends and Dividends, March 2012, BlackRock Investment Institute