Behavioral Finance and Investor Psychology
What happens inside a trader’s head when the market turns against them?
A three-day trading simulation with eight students reveals how cognitive biases shift hour by hour when markets turn sour, with loss aversion dominating even when the money is virtual.
Crypto’s “ecology of noise” and how investors try to survive it
A study of nineteen cryptocurrency investors finds that being flooded with conflicting information often produces exhaustion, anxiety, and snap decisions, suggesting that in crypto markets, more information can mean worse choices.
Can ChatGPT outperform a human financial planner? A controlled experiment weighs in
A new experiment pitting human financial advisors against ChatGPT found that AI and hybrid advice led to better projected portfolio outcomes, largely because participants were more willing to follow the recommendations.
The personality traits that predict smarter investing
A new study finds that personality traits like extraversion, openness, and agreeableness shape investment outcomes — and that financial literacy helps some personalities make better choices, but not others.
Who really buys into pump-and-dump stock scams? A look inside 110,000 investor accounts
A study of 470 pump-and-dump schemes and 110,000 investor accounts reveals who buys into stock scams, how much they lose, and why some keep coming back for more.
How researchers trained an AI to minimize portfolio risk from end to end
Researchers built a neural network that learns to filter the noise out of stock covariance estimates. Trained on a few hundred stocks, it scaled to 1,000 and produced lower-risk, steadier portfolios than standard methods across 25 years of...
Why talking about money might be the cheapest anxiety treatment you’re not using
Eight studies suggest that talking about personal finances, especially online and about things you can control, reduces financial anxiety by boosting your sense of control.
ChatGPT’s launch is linked to a rise in investor optimism, study finds
A new study tracks investor mood in stock and crypto markets before and after ChatGPT's 2022 launch, finding sentiment rose afterward, though the chatbot explains only a small share of the shift.
A simple anti-fraud step that 62% of investors ignore
Only 38% of U.S. retail investors have named a trusted contact for fraud alerts. A new study finds financial literacy helps, but only in high-trust communities.
Financial chores take minutes a day but deliver outsized stress, study finds
New research using American Time Use Survey data finds that financial tasks take just 8.3 minutes a day on average but rank among the most stressful and least enjoyable activities, with sharp differences by gender, income, and education.