MASTER Flashcards
4 Basic Premises of Traditional Finance
- Investors are rational
- Markets are efficient
- Mean-Variance Portfolio Theory Governs
- Returns are Determined by risk
Behavioral Finance Assumptions
- Investors are “normal” (wants/desires/bias) - prone to cognitive mistakes
- Markets are NOT efficient
- The Behavioral Portfolio Theory Governs
- Risk alone does NOT determine returns
Affect Heuristic
judging something whether good OR bad
example = do they like/dislike some company based on NON-financial issues
Anchoring
attaching/anchoring one’s thoughts to a reference point even though there may be no logical relevance or is not pertinent to the issue in question
also known as conservatism OR belief perseverance
Availability Heuristic
relies on knowledge readily available in memory
may cause investors to overweight recent events or patterns while paying little attention to longer term trends
Bounded Rationality
rationality limited by available info, tractability of decision problem, cognitive limitations of their minds, & time available to make decision
decision makers act as “satisficers” seeking a satisfactory solution rather than an optimal one
one consequence = having additional info does NOT lead to an improvement in decision making d/t inability of investors to consider significant amounts of info
Confirmation Bias
“you do not get a second chance at a first impression”
people tend to filter info & focus on info supporting their opinions
Cognitive Dissonance
tendency to misinterpret info that is contrary to an existing opinion or only pay attention to the info that supports an existing opinion
Disposition Effect
also known as “Regret Avoidance” or “faulty framing”
investors do NOT mark stocks to market prices
investors create mental accounts when they purchase stocks & continue to mark their value to purchase prices even after market prices have changed
Familiarity Bias
investors tend to overestimate/underestimate the risk of investments in which they are unfamiliar/familiar with
example = only invested in employer’s stock because that’s what you know
Gambler’s Fallacy
investors often have incorrect understanding of probabilities which can lead to faulty predictions
investors may sell stock when it has been successful in consecutive trading sessions because they may NOT believe the stock is going to continue its upward trend
Herding
people tend to follow the masses or the “herd”
Hindsight Bias
looking back after the fact is known & assuming they can predict the future as readily as they can explain the past
Illusion of Control Bias
people overestimate their ability to control events
example = driving instead of flying even though much more likely to have a car accident vs plane accident because you are driving
Overconfidence Bias
investor mostly listens to themselves
mostly rely on skills/capabilities to do homework & make own decisions
causes many investors to OVERSTATE risk tolerance
Overreaction Bias
common emotion towards the receipt of news or information
Prospect Theory
value gains/losses differently, base decisions on perceived gains rather than perceived losses
investors are “loss averse” & have a symmetric attitude to gains & losses getting less utility from gaining
explains why investors may avoid higher risk investments even w/ strong risk adjusted returns
explains why they over insure against risks through low deductibles
Recency Bias
giving too much weight to recent observations or stimuli
Self-Attribution Bias
give yourself credit for all good outcomes
any bad outcomes d/t outside factors
Similarity Heuristic
used when a decision/judgment is made when an apparently similar situation occurs even though the situations may have very different outcomes
Herd Mentality
process of buying what & when others are
buying & selling
herd mentality LEADS TO buying HIGH & selling LOW
Naive Diversification
also known as 1/n diversification
equal amounts invested in every option available, common in 401(k) & other ER retirement plans
Representativeness
thinking that a good company is a good investment w/out regard to an analysis of the investment
Loss Aversion
investors prefer avoiding losses more than experiencing gains
unwillingness to sell a losing investment in hopes it will turn around
investors feel more pain from losses than enjoying gains