Traditional economic and financial theory holds that individuals tend to make rational decisions when making choices; however, research demonstrates otherwise.

Investment psychology explores behavioural biases that impact investor decision-making, and provides strategies for overcoming them. This book will be of particular relevance for undergraduate and graduate students taking behavioral finance, investment or portfolio management courses.

Emotions and Decision Making

Emotions can significantly influence investment decisions, leading to decisions that are often irrational and counterproductive. According to research by neuropsychologist Antonio Damasio, key decision-making involves using sensory input, hormones and emotions together in selecting an option.

A rational approach to investing entails considering objective factors, including expected returns and risks. It acknowledges the inefficiencies caused by human behavior which result in price anomalies; additionally it takes into account subjective aspects like biases, sentiment analysis and psychological heuristics during decision-making processes.

Early decision theorists recognized emotions’ influence but struggled to incorporate them into their theories due to being unpredictable or measurable. Today, researchers have overcome these obstacles and can reliably measure emotions. Emotions’ roles in decision making can be divided into endogenous or exogenous feelings; endogenous ones originate directly from options being considered, while exogenous feelings stem from external stimuli – examples include hope, regret and fear as endogenous emotions while exogenous ones include herd mentality (the tendency of people to follow others’ actions), overconfidence bias and hindsight bias – three different categories that describe types of emotion’s role in decision-making decisions.

Emotions and Risk

Fear and greed can have an adverse effect on investment decisions by leading people down paths that lead them down an unpredictable path that leads to potential financial losses. Behavioural finance studies the impact of emotions as well as cognitive biases like confirmation bias, hindsight bias, anchoring effects on investment behaviour.

Fear of loss often motivates individuals to act more cautiously when investing, selling investments during market downturns to avoid loss and avoid potentially greater returns in the future. Unfortunately, this could mean missing out on potentially higher returns down the line.

Hope can lead individuals down a riskier investment path in hopes of high returns, however. Understanding behavioural influences on investing decisions and becoming aware of them is crucial in order to make more rational and informed choices that align with long-term financial goals – something known as behavioral investing. A version of this article first appeared on Verywell Mind.

Emotions and Time

Investing your hard-earned money can be an emotionally taxing experience, evoking feelings of anxiety, fear, and hope. When these emotions interfere with rational financial decision-making processes, reaching long-term investment goals becomes harder to do.

Behavioral finance recognizes that investors may be vulnerable to emotional and cognitive biases that cause them to deviate significantly from traditional investment principles. These biases include herding behavior – following others even when their actions don’t fit your objectives or risk tolerance; and heuristics, which provide quick solutions but can lead to suboptimal decisions without due scrutiny.

Investors must learn to separate emotions from investments, which requires discipline and mindfulness. Seeking professional advice, creating a well-considered investment strategy, reviewing your investments regularly, and engaging in self-reflection are all effective ways of mitigating emotional influences on financial outcomes. At HM Payson we can assist investors with this by helping to limit emotion-driven investment decisions as well as identify possible pitfalls which might lead to costly mistakes.

Emotions and Uncertainty

Financial decisions can be affected by our emotions, so understanding emotional triggers and managing them effectively will enable you to make wiser financial choices.

Behavioral finance examines emotional and psychological factors that may sway investor decision-making. It recognizes that markets can become inefficient due to human behavior, leading to price anomalies; additionally it acknowledges investors may be affected by emotions, cognitive biases and heuristics when making investment decisions.

Emotional and behavioral biases that could sabotage your investment decisions include confirmation bias, hindsight bias, anchoring, and hindsight optimism bias. Confirmation bias refers to the tendency of seeking information that confirms preexisting beliefs while disregarding information that contradicts them; hindsight optimism bias refers to believing you could have predicted events which happened previously resulting in lack of diligence when researching investments; anchoring is when one piece of data becomes too significant in decision-making processes leading to biased judgments being formed by all three of these psychological forces.

Regret aversion is another key aspect of investment psychology that needs to be considered, which refers to the tendency for individuals to prioritize avoiding losses over seeking profits. This may cause them to stick with losing investments or shirk risks that would bring greater returns.