Beyond Greed And Fear

Beyond Greed and Fear

Even the best Wall Street investors make mistakes. No matter how savvy or experienced, all financial practitioners eventually let bias, overconfidence, and emotion cloud their judgement and misguide their actions. Yet most financial decision-making models fail to factor in these fundamentals of human nature. In Beyond Greed and Fear, the most authoritative guide to what really influences the decision-making process, Hersh Shefrin uses the latest psychological research to help us understand the human behavior that guides stock selection, financial services, and corporate financial strategy. Shefrin argues that financial practitioners must acknowledge and understand behavioral finance--the application of psychology to financial behavior--in order to avoid many of the investment pitfalls caused by human error. Through colorful, often humorous real-world examples, Shefrin points out the common but costly mistakes that money managers, security analysts, financial planners, investment bankers, and corporate leaders make, so that readers gain valuable insights into their own financial decisions and those of their employees, asset managers, and advisors. According to Shefrin, the financial community ignores the psychology of investing at its own peril. Beyond Greed and Fear illuminates behavioral finance for today's investor. It will help practitioners to recognize--and avoid--bias and errors in their decisions, and to modify and improve their overall investment strategies.

Beyond Greed and Fear

The Psychology of Investing

A supplement for undergraduate and graduate Investments courses. See the decision-making process behind investments. The Psychology of Investing is the first text of its kind to delve into the fascinating subject of how psychology affects investing. Its unique coverage describes how investors actually behave, the reasons and causes of that behavior, why the behavior hurts their wealth, and what they can do about it. Features: What really moves the market: Understanding the psychological aspects. Traditional finance texts focus on developing the tools that investors use for calculating risk and return. The Psychology of Investing is one of the first texts to delve into how psychology affects investing rather than solely focusing on traditional financial theory. This text’s material, however, does not replace traditional investment textbooks but complements them, helping students become better informed investors who understand what motivates the market. Keep learning consistent: Most of the chapters are organized in a similar succession. This approach adheres to following order: -A psychological bias is described and illustrated with everyday behavior -The effect of the bias on investment decisions is explained -Academic studies are used to show why investors need to remedy the problem Growing with the subject matter: Current and fresh information. Because data on investor psychology is rapidly increasing, the fifth edition contains many new additions to keep students up-to-date. The new Chapter 12: Psychology in the Mortgage Crisis describes the psychology involved in the mortgage industry and ensuing financial crisis. New sections and sub-sections include “Buying Back Stock Previously Sold”, “Who Is Overconfident,” "Nature or Nurture?”, "Preferred Risk Habitat," "Market Impacts," "Language," and “Reference Point Adaptation.”