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Behavioural Finance and the Psychology of Investing

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CHAPTER 9

Behavioural Finance and the Psychology of Investing
“The investor’s chief problem, and even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself.” —Benjamin Graham

“There are three factors that influence the market: Fear, Greed, and Greed.” —Market folklore

Be honest: Do you think of yourself as a better than average driver? If you do, you are not alone. About 80 percent of the people who are asked this question will say yes. Evidently, we tend to overestimate our abilities behind the wheel. Is the same thing true when it comes to making investment decisions? 

You will probably not be surprised when we say that human beings sometimes make errors in judgment. How these errors, and other aspects of human behaviour, affect investors and asset prices falls under the general heading of “behavioural finance.” In the first part of this chapter, our goal is to acquaint you with some common types of mistakes investors make and their financial implications. As you will see, researchers have identified a wide variety of potentially damaging behaviours. In the second part of the chapter, we describe a trading strategy known as “technical analysis.” Some investors use technical analysis as a tool to try to exploit patterns in prices. These patterns are thought to exist (by advocates of technical analysis) because of predictable behaviour by investors.

Chapter 9 Behavioural Finance and the Psychology of Investing

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9.1

Introduction to Behavioural Finance
Sooner or later, you are going to make an investment decision that winds up costing you a lot of money. Why is this going to happen? You already know the answer. Sometimes you make sound decisions, but you just get unlucky when something happens that you could not have reasonably anticipated. At other times (and painful to admit) you just make a bad decision, one that could have (and should have) been

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