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This research intends to investigate the relationship between financial information transparency and investor behavior in TSE, in order to provide safety trade and improve performance of the financial market in Iran. In last decade transparency of the financial market has been known as one of the most effective variables in determining investor strategy. This study examines perception of transparency among investors in TSE. In the study used by questionnaire and for analyzing the data, SPSS software and the test of correlation, Independent Sample Test and One-Way ANOVA have been used. Results showed that three dimensionsi.e. transparency of ownership structure, information disclosure and transparency of board structure effect on investor behavior, however investors give more attention to the information disclosure. Also investor’s perception of transparency dimension considering demographic variables is different.

In this article we investigate the investor reaction to dividend increases. because of the investor reaction ( buy, sale or saving of stock) reflect by trading volume, we study the trading volume in different period after the announcement of dividend increase for firms listed in Tehran stock exchange from 1379 to 1384. In first hypothesis the effect of dividend increases on trading volume was investigated using one-sample test.in second hypothesis using Correlation and Regression method, rellation between percent of dividend increases and percent of trading volume changes was investigated. The result of this study implies that dividend increase effect on stock trading volume. The result also interpret the investor reaction to dividend increase is a shot term reflex.

This paper examined the behavior of institutional and retail investors in Malaysia during the bulls and bears. The results revealed significant differences in behavioral patterns between these two groups of investors. For the institutional investors, obvious differences were found in the areas of overconfidence, liquidity preference, and price anchoring between these two distinct market trends. As for the retail investors, there were no obvious difference in investing behavior except in terms of liquidity preference and self-control. The overall results indicated that both investors exhibited overconfidence during both periods; nonetheless, they were somewhat rational by exercising self-control and being concerned with liquidity when making investment decisions. Both investors ranked dividend yield as the most important fundamental variable particularly during bearish market outlook. On the other hand, trend analysis was rated as the most important variable closely watched technical indicator during bullish market outlook. Consistent with the findings of both surveys, we provide evidence that dividend yield appeared to be significant risk factor as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between consumer confidence and stock returns over stock market fluctuations. In particular, I focus on whether the returns have asymmetric effects on confidence. The empirical results from both in-sample and out-of-sample tests provide strong evidence of the existence of an asymmetric linkage between stock returns and consumer confidence: the impacts of returns on confidence are larger in bear markets. Moreover, variables such as the term structure, changes in federal fund rates, changes in unemployment rates, and changes in world oil prices are found to be negatively associated with consumer confidence, as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Using comprehensive data from the Finnish stock market, we assess the explanatory value of the three most commonly cited explanations for the disposition effect: prospect theory, belief in mean reversion, and escalation of commitment. In general, the results provide evidence for the presence of the disposition effect. More importantly, the effect appears to be significantly more pronounced when investors are personally responsible for the initial investment decision. This finding suggests that investor behavior is influenced above all by self-justificatory concerns, an interpretation that is consistent with the escalation of commitment-based explanation of the disposition effect. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles featured in this issue are introduced, their relationships noted, and their key points highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investor trading behaviors are always an important issue in behavioral finance and market supervision. This study examines the relationship between investor behavior and future market volatility. We first introduce a two-period OLG model into the futures market, and develop an investor behavior model based on future contract price. We then extend the model to two scenarios: complete and incomplete information. We provide the equilibrium solution, and develop two hypotheses, which are tested with cuprum tick data in Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE). Empirical results show that the two-period OLG model for future market is consistent with the market situation in China. More specifically, investors with sufficient information such as institutional investors usually adopt the contrarian trading strategy, whereas investors with insufficient information, e.g., individual investors, usually adopt the momentum trading strategy. These findings reveal that investor behaviors in the Chinese futures market are different from those of in the Chinese stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to analyze investor behavior towards socially responsible mutual funds. The analysis is based on an experimental study where a sample of individuals takes investment decisions under different parameters of information about the investment alternatives and expected returns. In the experiment, each participant decides how to distribute an investment budget between two funds, returns on which are uncertain and change over time. Two treatments are conducted, each providing a different degree of information on the socially responsible (SR) character of one of the two investment alternatives. The results obtained suggest that although individuals' criteria for investment are essentially guided by returns and diversification, participants invest significantly more in a fund when they are explicitly informed about its SR nature. In particular, participants who declare being concerned about SR actually invest significantly more in the SR alternative. Furthermore, the level of SR faithfulness among a small group of investors is such that they invest the main share of their budget in the SR fund, even when the return differential is highly unfavorable. Providing clear information about the SR characteristics of an investment is crucial to help investors express their preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By performing Grey relation analysis, this study elucidates the relationship between investor sentiment and price volatility in the Taiwanese stock market. A sequential relationship is identified between investor sentiment and price volatility, and ranked according to order of importance. Analytical results show that short sales volumes may be an individual leading indicator useful in observing the effects of sentiment on price volatility, followed by open interest put/call ratios and trading volumes, and buy/sell orders. Institutional investors are related, to a lesser extent, to price volatility and sentiment. Qualified foreign institutional investors, or more rational investors, are the least influenced by price volatility, followed by securities investment trust companies and dealers. TAIEX options exert the strongest influence on sentiment during the study period, making them a valuable reference for gauging price volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research study provides new evidence regarding the nature of investor reactions to signals of a reputation for diversity. Employing event study methodology, we track returns for firms listed on DiversityInc.'s Top 50 Companies for Diversity over a five-year period. We find support for our hypothesis that the market will respond positively to the announcement of a firm's inclusion on the list. Counter to our second hypothesis, we find that market reaction is more positive for manufacturing firms than for service firms. This study provides practical evidence that a firm's investment in diversity and quality diversity management techniques will be recognized and rewarded by the market. In addition, we have added to the current literature by examining one specific component of social performance (diversity management) and its relationship with market valuation in an effort to better understand the construct as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a new approach to examine whether investors extrapolate from past returns to form expectations about future stock returns. Unlike prior research that relies on experiments or surveys to derive investors' expectations, we estimate expected returns directly from stock prices, the book value of equity, and analyst earnings forecasts. We find that the expected returns are positively related to both past market returns and past stock returns. However, investors' expectations seem to be overoptimistic (overpessimistic) for stocks that had extremely high (low) returns in the previous year. Furthermore, we find that investors' expectations about future earnings growth rates are also positively related to past growth rates. The results remain robust after we control for analyst optimism and measures of risk. Taken together, our results are consistent with the findings that investors extrapolate from past stock returns and past earnings growth rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is centered on those factors that are relevant for investors in equity Mutual Funds. More specifically it focuses on net flows that go to a fund and its relation with performance, costs and other variables. The methodology is based on Fama and MacBeth (1973), and results indicate a strong sensitivity of flows to past returns, and some evidence that investors react asymmetrically to bad or good past performance. Costs charged by the fund is a statistically significant variable and relevant for investor's decisions. Other results indicate some evidence on the relevance of fund size, and mutual funds related to banking firms apparently have no advantage to other funds in the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We argue that existing explanations for the stock-market investor''s disposition to “ride losers too long” are unsatisfactory because they abstract from any role for information processing. We propose instead that the disposition effect is a special case of “waning vigilance:” investors pay less attention to new information and analysis when making decisions about loss makers and are therefore slower to sell them when arguments in favor of holding cease to be valid. Results from a Thai individual investor survey are presented as empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis that vigilance is reduced following losses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Consumer decision making with regard to mutual funds is less than rational. Consumers tend to focus on past performance and virtually ignore a variable which has a more definite (and negative) impact on wealth—cost. FINRA, the mutual fund industry’s self-regulatory body in the USA, has recently changed its regulations for fund advertising to require that cost information be reported when performance information is present. We conducted an exploratory conjoint study to examine whether consumers might, in fact, use the additional information, and found that despite the highly salient presence of expense information, consumers overwhelmingly continue to use past performance when forming mutual fund preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the phenomenon of socially responsible investing has become more widespread. However, knowledge about the individual socially responsible investor is largely limited to descriptive and comparative accounts. The question of “why do some investors practice socially responsible investing and others don’t?” is therefore still largely unanswered. To address this shortcoming in the current literature, this paper develops a model of the decision to invest socially responsibly that is grounded in the cognition literature. The hypotheses proposed in the model are tested with an experimental survey. The results indicate that the framing of the investing situation influences the likelihood of engagement in socially responsible investing and how much return the individuals are willing to sacrifice when choosing socially responsible over conventional investments. The study does not find support for a relationship between expectations about corporate social responsibility and the likelihood of engagement in socially responsible investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyzes the behavioral relations of major investor groups in the stabilized Korean stock and futures markets after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Investor groups cannot be classified as positive or negative feedback traders on market returns when both stock and futures markets are considered, which is inconsistent with the results in Ghysels and Seon (2005). Foreign investors and domestic institutions tend to take opposite positions in both markets. The impact of foreign investors on the basis change is significantly negative in the futures market, whereas domestic institutions have a negative relation in the stock market. This supports the view that selling activity of foreign investors in the futures market pulls the futures price down compared with the index value and, consequently, induces the reverse cash-and-carry trade of domestic institutions. This relationship, which negatively influenced the Korean economy during the crisis, as shown in Ghysels and Seon (2005), still exists in the Korean financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop and test a model which links information acquisition decisions to the hedonic utility of information. Acquiring and attending to information increases the psychological impact of information (an impact effect), increases the speed of adjustment for a utility reference-point (a reference-point updating effect), and affects the degree of risk aversion towards randomness in news (a risk aversion effect). Given plausible parameter values, the model predicts asymmetric preferences for the timing of resolution of uncertainty: Individuals should monitor and attend to information more actively given preliminary good news but “put their heads in the sand” by avoiding additional information given adverse prior news. We test for such an “ostrich effect” in a finance context, examining the account monitoring behavior of Scandinavian and American investors in two datasets. In both datasets, investors monitor their portfolios more frequently in rising markets than when markets are flat or falling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Anecdotal evidence suggests and recent theoretical models argue that past stock returns affect subsequent stock trading volume. We study 3,000 individual investors over a 51 month period to test this apparent link between past returns and volume using several different panel regression models (linear panel regressions, negative binomial panel regressions, Tobit panel regressions). We find that both past market returns as well as past portfolio returns affect trading activity of individual investors (as measured by stock portfolio turnover, the number of stock transactions, and the propensity to trade stocks in a given month). After high portfolio returns, investors buy high risk stocks and reduce the number of stocks in their portfolio. High past market returns do not lead to higher risk taking or underdiversification. We argue that the only explanations for our findings are overconfidence theories based on biased self-attribution and differences of opinion explanations for high levels of trading activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article analyzes the phenomenon of performance persistence in Spanish equity pension plans between 1999 and 2006 to determine whether plans with higher performance in one period continue obtaining higher performance in the future. It also aims to determine the influence of past performance on investor behavior in order to examine whether money and investor flows of these portfolios are affected by past performance. The results reveal the existence of short-term performance persistence and a statistically significant relationship between historical returns and investment flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversification benefits appear to be a major reason why investors choose international equity funds. Funds less correlated with the US market tend to receive higher flows from investors. In addition, investors prefer funds that invest in a diversified portfolio of securities from different regions in the world to funds that focus only on a specific region. Risk-adjusted return is shown to exert greater effect on flows into international equity funds than raw return. International equity funds from fund families offering a greater number of investment objectives also receive higher flows. On the other hand, international equity fund investors do not appear to be sensitive to expenses or exchange rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although increasingly interested in individual investors' behavior and psychology, finance research has paid little attention to the fact that the same individuals who engage in investment behavior and trading of stocks of certain companies may also engage in other economic behavior, notably in the consumption of products. Recognizing this, as well as the increasing evidence of the role of company-related attitudes in individuals' investment behavior, the article presents a theoretical model concerning how an individual's company-related attitudes, his/her tendency to buy/hold the company's stocks, and his/her tendency to buy/use the company's products are likely to interact. The proposed interaction is suggested to generate a potentially considerable leverage effect, ultimately on the stock price of a company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper jointly analyzes traditional and behavioral concepts in a simple experimental setting which allows for the assessment of the relative importance of each factor and their joint behavior. Various hypotheses are tested in three portfolio choice models. Markowitz [Markowitz, H., 1952. Portfolio selection. Journal of Finance 7, 77–92] findings are analyzed and extended by behavioral concepts and socio-demographic variables. Models are expressed as conjoint choice models represented by a multinomial logit model. Data is collected in an experimental setting. We show that the level of the risk-free rate, an individual''s risk aversion, market sentiment, self-assessed financial expertise, age and gender are determining factors of portfolio choice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper studies the dissemination of performance information in the mutual fund industry. We document a hump-shaped lag pattern for the reaction of mutual fund flows to past performance, i.e., we find that very recent performance is less important than performance several months ago. We attribute this pattern to the presence of less sophisticated investors that update performance information only infrequently. In the 1990s the effect is observed for all funds, but is especially pronounced for highly marketed funds. For the 2000s, we find a substantial increase in the overall probability of investors timely updating mutual fund performance information. As a result, the hump-shaped flow–performance lag pattern disappeared for all but the highly marketed funds. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

When an investor buys and sells the same stock on the same day, he is said to have made a day trade. Using the trading records of Finnish traders, this paper examines whether day trading is related to volatility of stock prices. I find a strong positive time-series relation between the number of day trades by individual investors and intraday volatility among heavily day traded stocks. This effect is robust after controlling for a previously documented volume–volatility relation. The result suggests that the joint hypothesis of price pressure and volatility induced day trading dominates the liquidity effects of day trading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Using brokerage account data from China, we study investment decision making in an emerging market. We find that Chinese investors make poor trading decisions: the stocks they purchase underperform those they sell. We also find that Chinese investors suffer from three behavioral biases: (i) they tend to sell stocks that have appreciated in price, but not those that have depreciated in price, consistent with a disposition effect, acknowledging gains but not losses; (ii) they seem overconfident; and (iii) they appear to believe that past returns are indicative of future returns (a representativeness bias). In comparisons to prior findings, Chinese investors seem more overconfident than U.S. investors (i.e., the Chinese hold fewer stocks, yet trade very often) and their disposition effect appears stronger. Finally, we categorize Chinese investors based on proxy measures of experience and find that “experienced” investors are not always less prone to behavioral biases than are “inexperienced” ones. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical models predict that overconfident investors will trade more than rational investors. We directly test this hypothesis by correlating individual overconfidence scores with several measures of trading volume of individual investors. Approximately 3,000 online broker investors were asked to answer an internet questionnaire which was designed to measure various facets of overconfidence (miscalibration, volatility estimates, better than average effect). The measures of trading volume were calculated by the trades of 215 individual investors who answered the questionnaire. We find that investors who think that they are above average in terms of investment skills or past performance (but who did not have above average performance in the past) trade more. Measures of miscalibration are, contrary to theory, unrelated to measures of trading volume. This result is striking as theoretical models that incorporate overconfident investors mainly motivate this assumption by the calibration literature and model overconfidence as underestimation of the variance of signals. In connection with other recent findings, we conclude that the usual way of motivating and modeling overconfidence which is mainly based on the calibration literature has to be treated with caution. Moreover, our way of empirically evaluating behavioral finance models—the correlation of economic and psychological variables and the combination of psychometric measures of judgment biases (such as overconfidence scores) and field data—seems to be a promising way to better understand which psychological phenomena actually drive economic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study establishes a two-stage investment decision-making model in order to examine the impact of race on investment behavior. Results show that although Blacks are less likely to own stocks than Whites, once ownership is accounted for, there is no difference in the portfolio allocation to risky assets. The model indicates racial disparities in risky asset ownership, which may be attributable to differences in information exposure and barriers to investment markets. The results suggest that a voluntary savings initiative accompanied by a graduated savings component could help remove investment barriers and enable access to more productive investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]