Herd Behavior in Financial Markets

Over the last twenty-five years, there has been a lot of interest in herd behavior in financial markets—that is, a trader’s decision to disregard her private information to follow the behavior of the crowd. A large theoretical literature has identified abstract mechanisms through which herding can arise, even in a world where people are fully rational. Until…

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The Power Of Not Knowing

To make money in the markets, you have to think independently and be humble. You have to be an independent thinker because you can’t make money agreeing with the consensus view, which is already embedded in the price. Yet whenever you’re betting against the consensus, there’s a significant probability you’re going to be wrong so…

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I Couldn’t Possibly Cheat At Home – That Would Be Dishonest.

The inability of those employed by banks and other financial institutions to behave morally and ethically has over recent times has become interesting research fodder for those who look at human behaviour. One of the most interesting recent forays into the field of behavioural finance has come from The University of Zurich. Economists Michel Maréchal, Alain Cohn…

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