...Program 11 / 07 / 2012 Course title: Financial Theory and Research (Part 1 – Financial Markets and Asset Pricing) Team Member: Haotian Lin; Nan Bai; Wenyi Gu; Yibo Zang Summary Standard finance (modern portfolio theory), compared with Behavioral finance, is no longer modern: dating back to the late 1950s modern portfolio theory was developed (Statman 2008) Behavioral finance offers alternative explanation for investors and markets. Behavioral finance, which has been a controversial subject and is becoming more widely accepted, is finance from a broader social science perspective including psychology and sociology (Shiller 2003). Behavioral finance helps identify the financial market’s inefficient reaction to public information, which cannot be explained by traditional financial models with assumptions such as expected utility maximization, rational investors, and efficient markets (Ritter 2003; Statman 2008). Statman (2008) compares “normal” investors and rational investors by pointing out the difference that normal investors are reluctant to realize losses since normal investors are affected by cognitive biases and emotions. Statman also compares Behavioral Portfolio Theory and Markowitz mean-variance theory. Another comparison made by Statman is between Behavioral Asset Pricing Model (BAPM) and capital asset pricing model (CAPM), stating that the asset pricing model of standard finance is moving away from CAPM toward Fama and French three-factor model...
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...Libre des Sciences Commerciales Appliquées Review of Literature Behavioral Finance Presented to Dr. Mohamed EL-Hennawy Group Assignment Prepared By Albert Naguib Noha Samir Wael Shams EL-Din Moshira Gamil Marie Zarif January 2012 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | | | |List of Table………………………………………………………………………….. | |List of Figure ………………………………………………………………………… | |List of Abbreviations/Acronyms ……………………………………………………. | |Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. | |2. Appearance of Behavioral Finance…………………………………………………… | |2.1. Important Contributors…………………………………………………. ………. | |3. Behavioral Biases…………………………………………………………………… ...
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...Behavioural finance is part of finance that seeks to understand and explain the systematic financial market implications of psychological decision processes. It utilizes knowledge of cognitive psychology, social sciences and anthropology to explain irrational investor behavior that is not being captured by the traditional rational based models. INTRODUCTION Classical investment theories are based on the assumption that investors always act in a manner that maximizes their return. Yet a number of research show that investors are not always so rational. Human become puzzled when the uncertainty regarding investment decision engulfs them. People are not always rational and markets are not always efficient. Behavioral finance explains why individual do not always make the decisions they are expected to make and why markets do not reliably behave as they are expected to behave. Recent research shows that the average investors make decisions based on emotion, not logic; most investor’s buy high on speculations and sale low on panic mood. Psychological studies reveal that the pain of losing money from investment is really three times greater than the joy of earning money. Emotions such as fear and greed often play a pivotal role in investor’s decision; there are also other causes of irrational behavior. It is observed that stock price moves up and down on a daily basis without any change in fundamental of economies. It is also observed that people in the stock market move in herds...
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...FIN645 Introduction For many years, finance traditionalists have held on to the theory that markets are efficient and that prices correctly reflect the information available to the market as a whole. This has come to be known as the efficient market hypothesis which was originally postulated by Eugene Fama in 1965. After a thorough statistical study of the movements of investment prices Fama concluded that “such movements were essentially random and unpredictable” (Shefrin p.75). Fama pointed out that “in an efficient market, prices correspond to intrinsic (or fundamental) value” (Shefrin p.75). In short, what the theory concludes is that it is impossible to beat the market; that no investor can ever purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks at inflated prices. The market will always correct itself by incorporating all relevant information into the price of a security thus eliminating an individual investor’s ability to outperform. EMH has grown to become a cornerstone of financial theory and is still applied by many traditionalists when attempting to explain the behavior of financial markets. While there is much evidence in support of this theory there is an equal amount dissention. There are many who argue that there is ample evidence available that counters the central ideas of EMH and demonstrate its shortcomings such as: individuals who have shown that they can consistently beat the market as in the case of Warren Buffet; or the recent bursting...
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...Financial Market Definition of 'Financial Market' Broad term describing any marketplace where buyers and sellers participate in the trade of assets such as equities, bonds, currencies and derivatives. Financial markets are typically defined by having transparent pricing, basic regulations on trading, costs and fees and market forces determining the prices of securities that trade. Some financial markets only allow participants that meet certain criteria, which can be based on factors like the amount of money held, the investor's geographical location, knowledge of the markets or the profession of the participant. Investopedia explains 'Financial Market' Financial markets can be found in nearly every nation in the world. Some are very small, with only a few participants, while others – like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the forex markets – trade trillions of dollars daily. Most financial markets have periods of heavy trading and demand for securities; in these periods, prices may rise above historical norms. The converse is also true – downturns may cause prices to fall past levels of intrinsic value, based on low levels of demand or other macroeconomic forces like tax rates, national production or employment levels. Information transparency is important to increase the confidence of participants and therefore foster an efficient financial marketplace. Financial Markets: Capital Vs. Money Markets ...
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...Efficient Market Discussion and Understanding of Finance As the 2013 Nobel Laureates in economic science, both of Eugene Fama, from the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller, from Yale University, have made famous contribution to the finance world. Even though their views toward market efficiency seem mutually contradictory, their theories has been highly valued by the finance academia as well as industry. This paper compares and contrasts the work of both of them and discusses how their work influence my understanding of finance. Fama is known for his work in initiating and developing the “efficient market hypothesis (EMH).” In his paper, Fama defines “efficient market” as “a market in which prices always fully reflect available information” (Fama 1970). If prices did reflect all available information, trading rules and fundamental analysis would not help investors to constantly earn abnormal return. This proposition has been checked by others and himself in the following papers: "Random Walks in Stock Market Prices (Fama 1965)," and "Filter Rules and Stock Market Trading Profits" (Blume, Fama 1966). Stock prices react to new information so quickly that it is almost impossible to trade on that piece of new information and profit from it. Furthermore, investors cannot earn abnormal returns without taking more systematic risk. To address the different types of information that stock prices could reflect, Fama prosed three types of market efficiency: (1) strong-form, where...
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...EFFICIENT MARKETS HYPOTHESIS AND OTHER THEORIES OF PRICING IN FINANCIAL MARKETS Name Course Title/Code Instructor’s Name Date Efficient Markets Hypothesis and other theories of pricing in financial markets Efficient market hypothesis (EMH) is a theory that emerged in the 1960s. It states that it is difficult to predict the market since the price has been set and reflect the current market conditions. It is a disputed and controversial theory. The theory is comparable to other theories of pricing in financial markets. Several strengths and shortcomings emerge through comparison with other theories of pricing (Blinder, et al., 2012). EMH states that no stock is a better buy when compared to others. It is the conclusion that leads to random choices. It is a vital tenet of finance theory. The EMH theory has a basis in other finance theories. It follows the classical theory of asset prices. To determine the connection, a situation where stocks are considered based on good deals. According to the EMH theory, these stocks are worth more than their relative prices. The worth of a stock is the present value of the expected dividends. In this regard, an individual will buy stocks at prices that are below this level. In essence, this is buying stocks that are undervalued assets (Kapil, 2011). Classical theory The classical theory follows the belief that the price of a stock is equal to the best estimate of the stock’s value. This equality means that the undervalued stocks are not real...
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...1.- Problem statement and motivation How do Financial Markets participants make decisions? How do these decisions affect the financial markets? With the financial markets in Asia being the largest in the world, such an interesting environment with participants displaying different levels of capitalism, financial market experience and knowledge, Asia is definitely a fertile ground for the study od behavioral finance. According to conventional financial theory, the world and its participants are, for the most part, rational "wealth maximizers". However, there are many instances where emotion and psychology influence our decisions, causing us to behave in unpredictable or irrational ways. Asians in general suffer from cognitive biases, more so than Westerners, often being viewed as ‘Gamblers. Behavioral finance is a relatively new field that seeks to combine behavioral and cognitive psychological theory with conventional economics and finance to provide explanations for why people make irrational financial decisions .It calls for investigation into higher mental processes, memory, perception, problem solving and thinking .This paper looks at some of the anomalies (i.e., irregularities) that conventional financial theories have failed to explain. In addition, review underlying reasons and biases that cause some people to behave irrationally. 2.- Brief survey of the literature The following areas of research have been covered, from the mid 1980’s to the main focus of the article(special...
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...Chapter 9 Behavioral Finance and Technical Analysis The effiecient market hypothesis makes two important predictions. First, it implies that security prices properly reflect whatever information is available to investors. Second, active traders will find it difficult to outperform passive strategies such as holding market indexes. A relatively new school of thought dubbed behavioral finance argues that sprawling literature on trading strategies has missed a larger and more important point by overlooking the first implication of efficient markets-the correctness of security prices. Behavioral finance are models that emphasize potential implications of psychological factors affecting investor behavior. Its premise is that conventional financial theory ignores how real people make decisions and that people make a difference. A growing number of economists have come to interpret the anomalies literature as consistent with several “irrationalities” that seem to characterize individuals making complicated decisions. 2 Broad Categories: 1. Investors do not always process information correctly and therefore infer incorrect probability distributions about furture rates of return. 2. Even given a probability distribution of returns, they often make inconsistent or systematically suboptimal decisions. Information Processing Errors in information processing can lead investors to misestimate the true probabilities of possible events or associated rates of return. Forecasting errors...
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...classes, such as private equity and real estate. It has a worldwide client base of institutional and retail clients, including governments, corporations, endowments, foundations and individuals. The equities segment accounts for $370 bn1 AUM spread over a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches including $76 bn in Behavioral Finance (“BF”) strategies. Hence, BF represents 10% of the AUM of the group and is growing at a fast pace. In the United States, the BF AUM has increased from $100m to $20bn within a space of three years. How do they compete in managing and marketing retail mutual funds? JP Morgan competes with other retail funds by introducing investment strategies to retail investors that are not widely present in the retail mutual fund industry and having an effective and strong marketing. It was among the first global funds to innovate and introduce a retail mutual fund based on behavioral biases by drawing on the relatively recent body of academic findings in BF. The JP Morgan marketing programme is designed to educate brokers to help clients avoid common human tendencies that affect the ability to pick stocks and understand market prices. By being sensitive to biases like overconfidence, loss aversion, recency and anchoring the team establishes a strong basis to develop trust and relationships with clients and customers. What is their strategy? JP Morgan BF funds...
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...Chapter 18 A SURVEY OF BEHAVIORAL FINANCE ° NICHOLAS BARBERIS University of Chicago RICHARD THALER University of Chicago Contents Abstract Keywords 1. Introduction 2. Limits to arbitrage 2.1. Market efficiency 2.2. Theory 2.3. Evidence 2.3.1. Twin shares 2.3.2. Index inclusions 2.3.3. Internet carve-outs 3. Psychology 3.1. Beliefs 3.2. Preferences 3.2.1. Prospect theory 3.2.2. Ambiguity aversion 4. Application: The aggregate stock market 4.1. The equity premium puzzle 4.1.1. Prospect theory 4.1.2. Ambiguity aversion 4.2. The volatility puzzle 4.2.1. Beliefs 4.2.2. Preferences 5. Application: The cross-section of average returns 5.1. Belief-based models 1054 1054 1055 1056 1056 1058 1061 1061 1063 1064 1065 1065 1069 1069 1074 1075 1078 1079 1082 1083 1084 1086 1087 1092 ° We are very grateful to Markus Brunnermeier, George Constantinides, Kent Daniel, Milt Harris, Ming Huang, Owen Lamont, Jay Ritter, Andrei Shleifer, Jeremy Stein and Tuomo Vuolteenaho for extensive comments. Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Edited by G.M. Constantinides, M. Harris and R. Stulz © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved . 1054 5.2. Belief-based models with institutional frictions 5.3. Preferences N. Barberis and R. Thaler 6. Application: Closed-end funds and comovement 6.1. Closed-end funds 6.2. Comovement 7. Application: Investor behavior 7.1. 7.2. 7.3. 7.4. 7.5. Insufficient diversification Naive diversification Excessive trading The selling decision...
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...Efficient Capital Markets Topic 4 Davenport University FINC 620 - Financial Management June 3, 2016 Efficient capital markets Market Efficiency An efficient capital market is: “A market where information regarding the value of securities are incorporated into its prices accurately and in real time. Since the value of securities fluctuates depending on the present value of future cash flows, an efficient capital market enables these fluctuations to be reflected in the securities' current price” (Investorwords.com, n.d.). What this means is that investors who invest among the stock market try and determine if the market is efficient, and whether it accurately emulates all of the influential prominent forces that are put on prices, and affected by such forces in real time. The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) is a theory among investors that states that it is impossible to out-smart the market because the efficient market always mirrors current events and information making it impossible to veer buy stock underpriced or overpriced – prices will always reflect the fair market value based on market influences. The only way to succeed in the market is to gamble with high-risk returns (Investopedia. n.d.). How this all works is investors will buy up stock and generate cash flow into the stock market, looking for a return on one’s investment. They are not always satisfied with a return; they want to maximize the return more than...
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...Behavioral Finance By Albert Phung http://www.investopedia.com/university/behavioral_finance/default.asp Thank-you very much for downloading the printable version of this tutorial. As always, we welcome any feedback or suggestions. http://www.investopedia.com/contact.aspx Table of Contents 1) Behavioral Finance: Introduction 2) Behavioral Finance: Background 3) Behavioral Finance: Anomalies 4) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Anchoring 5) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Mental Accounting 6) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Confirmation and Hindsight Bias 7) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Gambler's Fallacy 8) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Herd Behavior 9) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Overconfidence 10) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Overreactions and Availability Bias 11) Behavioral Finance: Key Concepts - Prospect Theory 12) Behavioral Finance: Conclusion Introduction According to conventional financial theory, the world and its participants are, for the most part, rational "wealth maximizers". However, there are many instances where emotion and psychology influence our decisions, causing us to behave in unpredictable or irrational ways. Behavioral finance is a relatively new field that seeks to combine behavioral and cognitive psychological theory with conventional economics and finance to provide explanations for why people make irrational financial decisions. By the end of this tutorial, we hope that you'll have a better understanding of some...
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...literature in empirical finance is surveyed in its relation to underlying behavioral principles, principles which come primarily from psychology, sociology and anthropology. The behavioral principles discussed are: prospect theory, regret and cognitive dissonance, anchoring, mental compartments, overconfidence, over- and underreaction, representativeness heuristic, the disjunction effect, gambling behavior and speculation, perceived irrelevance of history, magical thinking, quasimagical thinking, attention anomalies, the availability heuristic, culture and social contagion, and global culture. Theories of human behavior from psychology, sociology, and anthropology have helped motivate much recent empirical research on the behavior of financial markets. In this paper I will survey both some of the most significant theories (for empirical finance) in these other social sciences and the empirical finance literature itself. Particular attention will be paid to the implications of these theories for the efficient markets hypothesis in finance. This is the hypothesis that financial prices efficiently incorporate all public information and that prices can be regarded as optimal estimates of true investment value at all times. The efficient markets hypothesis in turn is based on more primitive notions that people behave rationally, or accurately maximize expected utility, and are able to process all available information. The idea behind the term “efficient markets hypothesis,” a term...
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...Bougie 2011 CASE ANALYSIS: SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION THE PACIFIC FUTURES TRADING COMPANY For some time, theoretical and empirical evidence suggested that the Efficient Market Hypothesis, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, and other rational financial theories did a good job of predicting and explaining the behavior of investors. However, recently, the ‘rationality’ of financial markets - and more specifically investors - is a hot topic in the financial economics literature. Recent research has argued and shown that investors often make mistakes; they behave irrationally and exhibit a number of financially damaging biases, such as loss aversion, herding, overconfidence, and overreaction (Barber and Odean, 2001; DeBondt and Thaler, 1986; Fischoff and Slovic, 1980; Gervais and Odean, 2001; Huberman and Regev, 2001; Kahneman and Tversky, 1979). These irrationalities are frequently attributed to psychological factors such as fear, greed, regret, and other emotional responses to price changes and changes in personal wealth. A growing number of economists, psychologists, and financial-industry professionals have begun to use the terms ‘behavioral economics’ and ‘behavioral finance’ to differentiate themselves and their ideas from the standard, rational theories (such as the Efficient Market Hypothesis) in economics and finance. Akrisios Stathopoulos is the President of the Pacific Futures Trading Company (PFTC). Futures trading is a form of investment which involves speculating on the...
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