This study examines whether managers trade off alternative real earnings management mechanisms across four quarters in a year. Using a sample including firms that are suspected to have conducted real earnings management, I find that abnormal production costs are stable across four quarters during a year, but abnormal discretionary expenses are much lower in the fourth quarter than those in the other three quarters. The results suggest that over-production management has limitation resulting from the stickiness of production capacity so firms resort to cutting more discretionary expenditures in the fourth quarter.