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Gov't may soon take over troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae ... - Baltimore Sun
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of ...

Volcker Says Finance System `Broken,' Losses May Rise (Update2) - Bloomberg
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said the U.S. financial system, dependent upon securitization rather than traditional bank loans, is broken, and may contribute to the weakest expansion since the 1930s. ``This ...

WSJ says gov't may soon back troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie ... - MSN UK News
Shares of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have tumbled in after-hours trading following a report by The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. government may soon step in to provide a financial boost to the two companies. On it's Web ...

Finance News From Yahoo

Citigroup: The Bad Boy of Finance (Washington Post)
Citigroup has looked like an octopus in a minefield lately. The world's largest bank measured by revenues, Citigroup (symbol C ) is involved in every aspect of finance you could name -- and appears to have made big mistakes in most of them. The company has written off and lost $53.6 billion through the credit crunch so far, which is more than any other bank or broker.

Council finance boss gets £500,000 golden handshake despite running Britain's 'worst' department (Daily Mail: World News)
The council said to be England's worst has agreed a £500,000 golden handshake for its finance chief. In a deal critics described as 'a reward for failure', Phil Halsall will receive a lump sum of £80,000 when he takes early retirement.

Finance rejects proposed VAT tweaks (GMA News)
MANILA, Philippines - The Finance department has rejected legislative moves to exempt certain sectors from the value-added tax (VAT), saying the revenues, which mostly come from high income earners, are needed as their use will benefit those in the lower income brackets.

Finance News From Google

Obama Campaign National Finance Committee Member Criticizes ... - ABC News

Obama Campaign National Finance Committee Member Criticizes ...
ABC News - 3 hours ago
Ingraham was taking issue with a column by Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn asking whether Palin's 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy is raising "the ...


Volcker Says Finance System `Broken,' Losses May Rise (Update2) - Bloomberg

Volcker Says Finance System `Broken,' Losses May Rise (Update2)
Bloomberg - 3 hours ago
By Steve Matthews and Doug Alexander Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said the US financial system, dependent upon ...


Barack Obama's Finance Lesson - Forbes

Barack Obama's Finance Lesson
Forbes, NY - 7 hours ago
Someone needs to sit him down and give him a lesson in entrepreneurial finance. A man with degrees from Columbia and Harvard, if he puts his mind to it, ...




The field of finance refers to the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated. The term "finance" may thus incorporate any of the following:

  • The study of money and other assets
  • The management and control of those assets
  • Profiling and managing project risks
  • The science of managing money
  • The industry that delivers financial services
  • As a verb, "to finance" is to provide funds for business or for an inidual's large purchases (car, home, etc.).

An entity whose income exceeds its expenditure can lend or invest the excess income. On the other hand, an entity whose income is less than its expenditure can raise capital by borrowing or selling equity claims, decreasing its expenses, or increasing its income. The lender can find a borrower, a financial intermediary such as a bank, or buy notes or bonds in the bond market. The lender receives interest, the borrower pays a higher interest than the lender receives, and the financial intermediary pockets the difference.

A bank aggregates the activities of many borrowers and lenders. A bank accepts deposits from lenders, on which it pays the interest. The bank then lends these deposits to borrowers. Banks allow borrowers and lenders, of different sizes, to coordinate their activity. Banks are thus compensators of money flows in space.

A specific example of corporate finance is the sale of stock by a company to institutional investors like investment banks, who in turn generally sell it to the public. The stock gives whoever owns it part ownership in that company. If you buy one share of XYZ Inc, and they have 100 shares outstanding (held by investors), you are 1/100 owner of that company. Of course, in return for the stock, the company receives cash, which it uses to expand its business in a process called "equity financing". Equity financing mixed with the sale of bonds (or any other debt financing) is called the company's capital structure.

Finance is used by iniduals (personal finance), by governments (public finance), by businesses (corporate finance), as well as by a wide variety of organizations including schools and non-profit organizations. In general, the goals of each of the above activities are achieved through the use of appropriate financial instruments, with consideration to their institutional setting.

Finance is one of the most important aspects of business management. Without proper financial planning a new enterprise is unlikely to be successful. Managing money (a liquid asset) is essential to ensure a secure future, both for the inidual and an organization.

Questions in personal finance revolve around

  • How much money will be needed by an inidual (or by a family) at various points in the future?
  • Where will this money come from (e.g. savings or borrowing)?
  • How can people protect themselves against unforeseen events in their lives, and risk in financial markets?
  • How can family assets be best transferred across generations (bequests and inheritance)?
  • How do taxes (tax subsidies or penalties) affect personal financial decisions?
  • How does credit affect an inidual's financial standing?
  • How can one plan for a secure financial future in an environment of economic instability?

Personal financial decisions may involve paying for education,financing durable goods such as real estate and cars, buying insurance, e.g. health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement.

Personal financial decisions may also involve paying for a loan.

Managerial or corporate finance is the task of providing the funds for a corporation's activities. For small business, this is referred to as SME finance. It generally involves balancing risk and profitability, while attempting to maximize an entity's wealth and the value of its stock.

Long term funds are provided by ownership equity and long-term credit, often in the form of bonds. The balance between these forms the company's capital structure. Short-term funding or working capital is mostly provided by banks extending a line of credit.

Another business decision concerning finance is investment, or fund management. An investment is an acquisition of an asset in the hope that it will maintain or increase its value. In investment management â€“ in choosing a portfolio â€“ one has to decide , and to invest. To do this, a company must:

  • Identify relevant objectives and constraints: institution or inidual goals, time horizon, risk aversion and tax considerations;
  • Identify the appropriate strategy: active . passive â€“ hedging strategy
  • Measure the portfolio performance

Financial management is duplicate with the financial function of the Accounting profession. However, financial accounting is more concerned with the reporting of historical financial information, while the financial decision is directed toward the future of the firm.

Capital, in the financial sense, is the money which gives the business the power to buy goods to be used in the production of other goods or the offering of a service.

This concerns fixed asset requirements for the next five years and how these will be financed.

Working capital requirements of a business should be monitored at all times to ensure that there are sufficient funds available to meet short-term expenses.

The cash budget is basically a detailed plan that shows all expected sources and uses of cash. The cash budget has the following six main sections:

1. Beginning Cash Balance - contains the last period's closing cash balance.

2. Cash collections - includes all expected cash receipts (all sources of cash for the period considered, mainly sales)

3. Cash disbursements - lists all planned cash outflows for the period, excluding interest payments on short-term loans, which appear in the financing section. All expenses that do not affect cash flow are excluded from this list (e.g. depreciation, amortisation, etc)

4. Cash excess or deficiency - a function of the cash needs and cash available. Cash needs are determined by the total cash disbursements plus the minimum cash balance required by company policy. If total cash available is less than cash needs, a deficiency exists.

5. Financing - discloses the planned borrowings and repayments, including interest.

6. Ending Cash balance - simply reveals the planned ending cash balance.

Credit gives the customer the opportunity to buy goods and services, and pay for them at a later date.

  • Usually results in more customers than cash trade.
  • Can charge more for goods to cover the risk of bad debt.
  • Gain goodwill and loyalty of customers.
  • People can buy goods and pay for them at a later date.
  • Farmers can buy seeds and implements, and pay for them only after the harvest.
  • Stimulates agricultural and industrial production and commerce.
  • Can be used as a promotional tool.
  • Increase the sales.
  • Risk of bad debt.
  • High administration expenses.
  • People can buy more than they can afford.
  • More working capital needed.
  • Risk of Bankruptcy.
  • Suppliers credit:
  • Credit on ordinary open account
  • Installment sales
  • Bills of exchange
  • Credit cards
  • Contractor's credit
  • Factoring of debtors
  • Nature of the business's activities
  • Financial position
  • Product durability
  • Length of production process
  • Competition and competitors' credit conditions
  • Country's economic position
  • Conditions at financial institutions
  • Discount for early payment
  • Debtor's type of business and financial position
  • Cards arranged alphabetically in card index system
  • Attach a notice of overdue account to statement.
  • Send a letter asking for settlement of debt.
  • Send a second or third letter if first is ineffectual.
  • Threaten legal action.
  • Increases sales
  • Reduces bad debts
  • Increases profits
  • Builds customer loyalty
  • Business references
  • Bank references
  • Credit agencies
  • Chambers of commerce
  • Employers
  • Credit application forms
  • Legal action
  • Taking necessary steps to ensure settlement of account
  • Knowing the credit policy and procedures for credit control
  • Setting credit limits
  • Ensuring that statements of account are sent out
  • Ensuring that thorough checks are carried out on credit customers
  • Keeping records of all amounts owing
  • Ensuring that debts are settled promptly
  • Timely reporting to the upper level of management for better management.
Purpose of stock control
  • Ensures that enough stock is on hand to satisfy demand.
  • Protects and monitors theft.
  • Safeguards against having to stockpile.
  • Allows for control over selling and cost price.
Stockpiling

This refers to the purchase of stock at the right time, at the right price and in the right quantities.

There are several advantages to the stockpiling, the following are some of the examples:

  • Losses due to price fluctuations and stock loss kept to a minimum
  • Ensures that goods reach customers timeously; better service
  • Saves space and storage cost
  • Investment of working capital kept to minimum
  • No loss in production due to delays

There are several disadvantages to the stockpiling, the following are some of the examples:

  • Obsolescence
  • Danger of fire and theft
  • Initial working capital investment is very large
  • Losses due to price fluctuation
Rate of stock turnover

This refers to the number of times per year that the average level of stock is sold. It may be worked out by iding the cost price of goods sold by the cost price of the average stock level.

Determining optimum stock levels
  • Maximum stock level refers to the maximum stock level that may be maintained to ensure cost effectiveness.
  • Minimum stock level refers to the point below which the stock level may not go.
  • Standard order refers to the amount of stock generally ordered.
  • Order level refers to the stock level which calls for an order to be made.
  • Because cash is the king in finance, as it is the most liquid asset.
  • The transaction motive refers to the money kept available to pay expenses.
  • The precautionary motive refers to the money kept aside for unforeseen expenses.
  • The speculative motive refers to the money kept aside to take advantage of suddenly arising opportunities.
  • Current liabilities may be catered for.
  • Cash discounts are given for cash payments.
  • Production is kept moving.
  • Surplus cash may be invested on a short-term basis.
  • The business is able to pay its accounts timeously, allowing for easily-obtained credit.
  • Liquidity

Depreciation is the decrease in the value of an asset due to wear and tear or obsolescence. It is calculated yearly to ensure realistic book values for assets.

Insurance is the undertaking of one party to indemnify another, in exchange for a premium, against a certain eventuality.

Uninsurable risks
  • Bad debt
  • Changes in fashion
  • Time lapses between ordering and delivery
  • New machinery or technology
  • Different prices at different places
Requirements of an insurance contract
  • Insurable interest
    • The insured must derive a real financial gain from that which he is insuring, or stand to lose if it is destroyed or lost.
    • The item must belong to the insured.
    • One person may take out insurance on the life of another if the second party owes the first money.
    • Must be some person or item which can, legally, be insured.
    • The insured must have a legal claim to that which he is insuring.
  • Good faith
    • refers to absolute honesty and must characterise the dealings of both the insurer and the insured.

There is currently a move towards converging and consolidating Finance provisions into shared services within an organization. Rather than an organization having a number of separate Finance departments performing the same tasks from different locations a more centralized version can be created.

Country, state, county, city or municipality finance is called public finance. It is concerned with

  • Identification of required expenditure of a public sector entity
  • Source(s) of that entity's revenue
  • The budgeting process
  • Debt issuance (municipal bonds) for public works projects

Financial economics is the branch of economics studying the interrelation of financial variables, such as prices, interest rates and shares, as opposed to those concerning the real economy. Financial economics concentrates on influences of real economic variables on financial ones, in contrast to pure finance.

It studies:

  • Valuation - Determination of the fair value of an asset
    • How risky is the asset? (identification of the asset appropriate discount rate)
    • What cash flows will it produce? (discounting of relevant cash flows)
    • How does the market price compare to similar assets? (relative valuation)
    • Are the cash flows dependent on some other asset or event? (derivatives, contingent claim valuation)
  • Financial markets and instruments
    • Commodities - topics
    • Stocks - topics
    • Bonds - topics
    • Money market instruments- topics
    • Derivatives - topics
  • Financial institutions and regulation

Financial Econometrics is the branch of Financial Economics that uses econometric techniques to parameterise the relationships.

Financial mathematics is a main branch of applied mathematics concerned with the financial markets. Financial mathematics is the study of financial data with the tools of mathematics, mainly statistics. Such data can be movements of securities—stocks and bonds etc.—and their relations. Another large subfield is insurance mathematics.

Experimental finance aims to establish different market settings and environments to observe experimentally and provide a lens through which science can analyze agents' behavior and the resulting characteristics of trading flows, information diffusion and aggregation, price setting mechanisms, and returns processes. Researchers in experimental finance can study to what extent existing financial economics theory makes valid predictions, and attempt to discover new principles on which such theory can be extended. Research may proceed by conducting trading simulations or by establishing and studying the behaviour of people in artificial competitive market-like settings.

Quantitative Behavioral Finance is a new discipline that uses mathematical and statistical methodology to understand behavioral biases in conjunction with valuation. Some of this endeavor has been lead by Gunduz Caginalp (Professor of Mathematics and Editor of Journal of Behavioral Finance during 2001-2004) and collaborators including Vernon Smith (2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics), David Porter, Don Balenovich, Vladimira Ilieva, Ahmet Duran, Huseyin Merdan). Studies by Jeff Madura, Ray Sturm and others have demonstrated significant behavioral effects in stocks and exchange traded funds.

The research can be grouped into the following areas:1. Empirical studies that demonstrate significant deviations from classical theories.2. Modeling using the concepts of behavioral effects together with the non-classical assumption of the finiteness of assets.3. Forecasting based on these methods.4. Studies of experimental asset markets and use of models to forecast experiments.

Intangible asset finance is the area of finance that deals with intangible assets such as patents, trademarks, goodwill, reputation, etc.

There are several related professional qualifications in finance, that can lead to the field:

  • Qualified accountant qualifications: Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA, UK certification), Chartered Accountant (CA, certification in Commonwealth countries), Certified Public Accountant (CPA, US certification)
  • Non-statutory accountancy qualifications: Chartered Cost Accountant CCA Designation from AAFM
  • Business qualifications: Master of Business Administration (MBA),Bachelor of Business Management (BBM), Master of Financial Administration (MFA), Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
  • Finance qualifications: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA),Certified International Investment Analyst(CIIA), Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT), Masters degree in Finance, Certified Market Analyst (CMA/FAD) Dual Designation, Master Financial Manager (MFM), Corporate Finance Qualification (CF) Register Financial Planner (RFP), Certified Financial Consultants (CFC)
  • Quantitative Finance qualifications: Master of Science in Financial Engineering (MSFE) ,Master of Quantitative Finance (MQF), Master of Computational Finance (MCF), Master of Financial Mathematics (MFM)
  • Wharton Finance Knowledge Project - aimed to offer free access to finance knowledge for students, teachers, and self-learners.
  • Professor Aswath Damodaran (New York University Stern School of Business) - provides resources covering three areas in finance: corporate finance, valuation and investment management.
  • Heuristics and artificial intelligence in finance and investment – The use of heuristics in finance and investment.



Behavioral economics and behavioral finance are closely related fields which apply scientific research on human and social cognitive and emotional biases to better understand economic decisions and how they affect market prices, returns and the allocation of resources. The fields are primarily concerned with the rationality, or lack thereof, of economic agents. Behavioral models typically integrate insights from psychology with neo-classical economic theory.

Academics are ided between considering Behavioral Finance as supporting some tools of technical analysis by explaining market trends, and considering some aspects of technical analysis as behavioral biases (representativeness heuristic, self fulfilling prophecy).[1]

Behavioral analysts are mostly concerned with the effects of market decisions, but also those of public choice, another source of economic decisions with some similar biases.

During the classical period, economics had a close link with psychology. For example, Adam Smith wrote , an important text describing psychological principles of inidual behavior; and Jeremy Bentham wrote extensively on the psychological underpinnings of utility. Economists began to distance themselves from psychology during the development of neo-classical economics as they sought to reshape the discipline as a natural science, with explanations of economic behavior deduced from assumptions about the nature of economic agents. The concept of homo economicus was developed, and the psychology of this entity was fundamentally rational. Nevertheless, psychological explanations continued to inform the analysis of many important figures in the development of neo-classical economics such as Francis Edgeworth, Vilfredo Pareto, Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes.

Although psychology had nearly disappeared from economic discussions by the mid 20th century, it, somehow, managed to stage a resurgence, and certain factors were responsible for this resurgence in the continued development of behavioral economics. Expected utility and discounted utility models began to gain wide acceptance, generating testable hypotheses about decision making under uncertainty and intertemporal consumption respectively. Soon a number of observed and repeatable anomalies challenged those hypotheses. Furthermore, during the 1960s cognitive psychology had begun to shed more light on the brain as an information processing device (in contrast to behaviorist models). Psychologists in this field such as Ward Edwards,[2] Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman began to compare their cognitive models of decision making under risk and uncertainty to economic models of rational behavior. In Mathematical psychology, there is a longstanding interest in the transitivity of preference and what kind of measurement scale utility constitutes (Luce, 2000).[3]

An important paper in the development of the behavioral finance and economics fields was written by Kahneman and Tversky in 1979. This paper, 'Prospect theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk', used cognitive psychological techniques to explain a number of documented ergences of economic decision making from neo-classical theory. Over time many other psychological effects have been incorporated into behavioral finance, such as overconfidence and the effects of limited attention. Further milestones in the development of the field include a well attended and erse conference at the University of Chicago,[4] a special 1997 edition of the Quarterly Journal of Economics ('In Memory of Amos Tversky') devoted to the topic of behavioral economics and the award of the Nobel prize to Daniel Kahneman in 2002 "for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty".[5]

Prospect theory is an example of generalized expected utility theory. Although not commonly included in discussions of the field of behavioral economics, generalized expected utility theory is similarly motivated by concerns about the descriptive inaccuracy of expected utility theory.

Behavioral economics has also been applied to problems of intertemporal choice. The most prominent idea is that of hyperbolic discounting, proposed by George Ainslie (1975), in which a high rate of discount is used between the present and the near future, and a lower rate between the near future and the far future. This pattern of discounting is dynamically inconsistent (or time-inconsistent), and therefore inconsistent with some models of rational choice, since the rate of discount between time and will be low at time , when is the near future, but high at time when is the present and time the near future. As part of the discussion of hypberbolic discounting, has been animal and human work on Melioration theory and Matching Law of Richard Herrnstein. They suggest that behavior is not based on expected utility rather it is based on previous reinforcement experience.

At the outset behavioral economics and finance theories had been developed almost exclusively from experimental observations and survey responses, although in more recent times real world data have taken a more prominent position. Functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI has complemented this effort through its use in determining which areas of the brain are active during various steps of economic decision making. Experiments simulating market situations such as stock market trading and auctions are seen as particularly useful as they can be used to isolate the effect of a particular bias upon behavior; observed market behavior can typically be explained in a number of ways, carefully designed experiments can help narrow the range of plausible explanations. Experiments are designed to be incentive-compatible, with binding transactions involving real money being the "norm".

There are three main themes in behavioral finance and economics:[6]

  • Heuristics: People often make decisions based on approximate rules of thumb, not strictly rational analysis. cognitive biases and bounded rationality.
  • Framing: The way a problem or decision is presented to the decision maker will affect his action.
  • Market inefficiencies: There are explanations for observed market outcomes that are contrary to rational expectations and market efficiency. These include mis-pricings, non-rational decision making, and return anomalies. Richard Thaler, in particular, has described specific market anomalies from a behavioral perspective.

Recently, Barberis, Shleifer, and Vishny (1998),[7] as well as Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Subrahmanyam (1998) have built models based on extrapolation (seeing patterns in random sequences) and overconfidence to explain security market over- and underreactions, though such models have not been used in the money management industry. These models assume that errors or biases are correlated across agents so that they do not cancel out in aggregate. This would be the case if a large fraction of agents look at the same signal (such as the advice of an analyst) or have a common bias.

More generally, cognitive biases may also have strong anomalous effects in the aggregate if there is a social contamination with a strong emotional content (collective greed or fear), leading to more widespread phenomena such as herding and groupthink. Behavioral finance and economics rests as much on social psychology within large groups as on inidual psychology. However, some behavioral models explicitly demonstrate that a small but significant anomalous group can also have market-wide effects (eg. Fehr and Schmidt, 1999).

Some central issues in behavioral finance include "Why investors and managers (lenders and borrowers as well) make systematic errors". It shows how those errors affect prices and returns (creating market inefficiencies). It also shows what managers of firms, other institutions and financial players might do to take advantage of market inefficiencies (arbitrage behavior).

Behavioral finance highlights certain inefficiencies and among these inefficiencies are underreactions or overreactions to information, as causes of market trends and in extreme cases of bubbles and crashes). Such misreactions have been attributed to limited investor attention, overconfidence / overoptimism, and mimicry (herding instinct) and noise trading.

Other key observations made in behavioral finance literature include the lack of symmetry (disymmetry) between decisions to acquire or keep resources, called colloquially the "bird in the bush" paradox, and the strong loss aversion or regret attached to any decision where some emotionally valued resources (e.g. a home) might be totally lost. Loss aversion appears to manifest itself in investor behavior as an unwillingness to sell shares or other equity, if doing so would force the trader to realise a nominal loss (Genesove & Mayer, 2001). It may also help explain why housing market prices do not adjust downwards to market clearing levels during periods of low demand.

Benartzi and Thaler (1995), applying a version of [(prospect theory)], claim to have solved the equity premium puzzle, something conventional finance models have been unable to do so far.

Some current researchers in experimental finance use the experimental method, e.g. creating an artificial market by some kind of simulation software to study people's decision-making process and behavior in financial markets.

Some financial models used in money management and asset valuation use behavioral finance parameters, for example:

  • Thaler's model of price reactions to information, with three phases, underreaction-adjustment-overreaction, creating a price trend
One characteristic of overreaction is that the average return of asset prices following a series of announcements of good news is lower than the average return following a series of bad announcements. In other words, overreaction occurs if the market reacts too strongly or for too long (persistent trend) to news that it subsequently needs to be compensated in the opposite direction. As a result, assets that were winners in the past should not be seen as an indication to invest in as their risk adjusted returns in the future are relatively low compared to stocks that were defined as losers in the past.
  • The stock image coefficient

Critics of behavioral finance, such as Eugene Fama, typically support the efficient market theory (though Fama may have reversed his position in recent years). They contend that behavioral finance is more a collection of anomalies than a true branch of finance and that these anomalies will eventually be priced out of the market or explained by appealing to market microstructure arguments. However, a distinction should be noted between inidual biases and social biases; the former can be averaged out by the market, while the other can create feedback loops that drive the market further and further from the equilibrium of the "fair price".

A specific example of this criticism is found in some attempted explanations of the equity premium puzzle. It is argued that the puzzle simply arises due to entry barriers (both practical and psychological) which have traditionally impeded entry by iniduals into the stock market, and that returns between stocks and bonds should stabilize as electronic resources open up the stock market to a greater number of traders (See Freeman, 2004 for a review). In reply, others contend that most personal investment funds are managed through superannuation funds, so the effect of these putative barriers to entry would be minimal. In addition, professional investors and fund managers seem to hold more bonds than one would expect given return differentials.

Quantitative behavioral finance is a new discipline that uses mathematical and statistical methodology to understand behavioral biases in conjunction with valuation. Some of this endeavor has been lead by Gunduz Caginalp (Professor of Mathematics and Editor of Journal of Behavioral Finance during 2001-2004) and collaborators including Vernon Smith (2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics), David Porter, Don Balenovich,[8] Vladimira Ilieva, Ahmet Duran,[9] Huseyin Merdan). Studies by Jeff Madura,[10] Ray Sturm[11] and others have demonstrated significant behavioral effects in stocks and exchange traded funds.

The research can be grouped into the following areas:

  • Empirical studies that demonstrate significant deviations from classical theories
  • Modeling using the concepts of behavioral effects together with the non-classical assumption of the finiteness of assets
  • Forecasting based on these methods
  • Studies of experimental asset markets and use of models to forecast experiments
  • Models in behavioral economics are typically addressed to a particular observed market anomaly and modify standard neo-classical models by describing decision makers as using heuristics and being affected by framing effects. In general, economics sits within the neoclassical framework, though the standard assumption of rational behaviour is often challenged.

    Prospect theory - Loss aversion - Status quo bias - Gambler's fallacy - Self-serving bias - money illusion

    Cognitive framing - Mental accounting - Anchoring

    Disposition effect - endowment effect - inequity aversion - reciprocity - intertemporal consumption - present-biased preferences - momentum investing - Greed and fear - Herd instinct - Sunk cost fallacy

    equity premium puzzle - Efficiency wage hypothesis - price stickiness - limits to arbitrage - idend puzzle - fat tails - calendar effect

    Critics of behavioral economics typically stress the rationality of economic agents (see Myagkov and Plott (1997) amongst others). They contend that experimentally observed behavior is inapplicable to market situations, as learning opportunities and competition will ensure at least a close approximation of rational behavior.

    Others note that cognitive theories, such as prospect theory, are models of decision making, not generalized economic behavior, and are only applicable to the sort of once-off decision problems presented to experiment participants or survey respondents.

    Traditional economists are also skeptical of the experimental and survey based techniques which are used extensively in behavioral economics. Economists typically stress revealed preferences over stated preferences (from surveys) in the determination of economic value. Experiments and surveys must be designed carefully to avoid systemic biases, strategic behavior and lack of incentive compatibility, and many economists are distrustful of results obtained in this manner due to the difficulty of eliminating these problems.

    Rabin (1998)[12] dismisses these criticisms, claiming that results are typically reproduced in various situations and countries and can lead to good theoretical insight. Behavioral economists have also incorporated these criticisms by focusing on field studies rather than lab experiments. Some economists look at this split as a fundamental schism between experimental economics and behavioral economics, but prominent behavioral and experimental economists tend to overlap techniques and approaches in answering common questions. For example, many prominent behavioral economists are actively investigating neuroeconomics, which is entirely experimental and cannot be verified in the field.

    Other proponents of behavioral economics note that neoclassical models often fail to predict outcomes in real world contexts. Behavioral insights can be used to update neoclassical equations, and behavioral economists note that these revised models not only reach the same correct predictions as the traditional models, but also correctly predict some outcomes where the traditional models failed.

    • Adaptive market hypothesis
    • Behavioral Operations Research
    • Cognitive bias
    • Cognitive psychology
    • Confirmation bias
    • Culture change
    • Culture speculation
    • Economic sociology
    • Experimental economics
    • Experimental finance
    • Hindsight bias
    • Important publications in behavioral finance(economics)
    • Important publications in behavioral finance(sociology)
    • Journal of Behavioral Finance
    • List of cognitive biases
    • Neuroeconomics
    • Socionomics
    • Ainslie, G. (1975) 'Specious Reward: A Behavioral /Theory of Impulsiveness and Impulse Control.' 82, 463-496.
    • Barberis, N.; A. Shleifer; R. Vishny (1998) ``A Model of Investor Sentiment
    • Camerer, C. F.; Loewenstein, G. & Rabin, R. (eds.) (2003)
    • Lawrence A. Cunningham, Behavioral Finance and Investor Governance, 59 Washington & Lee Law Review (2002)
    • Daniel, K.; D. Hirshleifer; A. Subrahmanyam, (1998) ``Investor Psychology and Security Market Over- and Underreactions
    • Hogarth, R. M., & Reder, M. W. (Eds.) (1987). Rational choice: The contrast between economics and psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    • Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. 'Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk,' , XVLII (1979), 263–291
    • Kirkpatrick, Charles D.; Dahlquist, Julie R. (2007)
    • Luce, R Duncan (2000). . Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, Mahwah, New Jersey.
    • Rabin, Matthew; 'Psychology and Economics,' , American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 11-46, March 1998.
    • Shefrin, Hersh (2002) Oxford University Press
    • Shleifer, Andrei (1999) , Oxford University Press
    • Shlomo Benartzi; Richard H. Thaler 'Myopic Loss Aversion and the Equity Premium Puzzle' (1995) , Vol. 110, No. 1.
    • Behavioral finance papers
    • new economics foundation - Behavioural economics: seven principles for policy makers
    • Behavioral Finance Initiative of the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management
    • Behavioral-Finance Group FAQ / Glossary
    • History of Behavioral finance
    • Richard Thaler's 'anomalies' papers
    • Behavioral Forecasting (Macro & Micro)
    • Behavioural Finance at MoneyScience
    • Born Suckers - The greatest Wall Street danger of all: you. By ... - Dec. 14, 2004
    • "On the Robustness of Behavioral Economics" - an academic analysis in the Yale Economic Review
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