IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v39y2021ics1544612319312607.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk-Relevant Early Life Experiences and Individual Trading Activity

Author

Listed:
  • Cheong, Chee Seng
  • Tan, Gary
  • Zurbruegg, Ralf

Abstract

We examine the impact that risk-relevant childhood experiences have on individuals’ risk preferences when trading. By studying the trading behavior of participants in a simulated asset market, we find that a trader's experience of a major family financial loss during childhood, where their parents derived their salary from, how strict the trader's upbringing was, and birth order all have an impact on the willingness to trade. Overall, our findings contribute to the growing literature which shows that early-life experiences have an impact on adult financial risk preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheong, Chee Seng & Tan, Gary & Zurbruegg, Ralf, 2021. "Risk-Relevant Early Life Experiences and Individual Trading Activity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:39:y:2021:i:c:s1544612319312607
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612319312607
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2020.101569?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lei Feng & Mark Seasholes, 2005. "Do Investor Sophistication and Trading Experience Eliminate Behavioral Biases in Financial Markets?," Review of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 305-351, September.
    2. John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey & Hai Huang, 2009. "Investor Competence, Trading Frequency, and Home Bias," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(7), pages 1094-1106, July.
    3. Charles Noussair & Stefan Trautmann & Gijs Kuilen & Nathanael Vellekoop, 2013. "Risk aversion and religion," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 165-183, October.
    4. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2001. "Boys will be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 261-292.
    5. Terrance Odean, 1998. "Are Investors Reluctant to Realize Their Losses?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(5), pages 1775-1798, October.
    6. Lei Feng & Mark S. Seasholes, 2005. "Do Investor Sophistication and Trading Experience Eliminate Behavioral Biases in Financial Markets?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 9(3), pages 305-351.
    7. Samuli Knüpfer & Elias Rantapuska & Matti Sarvimäki, 2017. "Formative Experiences and Portfolio Choice: Evidence from the Finnish Great Depression," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 133-166, February.
    8. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_030 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 1985. "The Disposition to Sell Winners Too Early and Ride Losers Too Long: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 777-790, July.
    10. Gennaro Bernile & Vineet Bhagwat & P. Raghavendra Rau, 2017. "What Doesn't Kill You Will Only Make You More Risk-Loving: Early-Life Disasters and CEO Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 167-206, February.
    11. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate & Jon Yan, 2011. "Overconfidence and Early‐Life Experiences: The Effect of Managerial Traits on Corporate Financial Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1687-1733, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tan, Gary & Cheong, Chee Seng & Zurbruegg, Ralf, 2019. "National culture and individual trading behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 357-370.
    2. Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & David Hume & John Gathergood & George Loewenstein & Neil Stewart, 2023. "At the Top of the Mind: Peak Prices and the Disposition Effect," Discussion Papers 2023-09, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    3. Weber, Martin & Mueller-Dethard, Jan, 2020. "The Portfolio Composition Effect," CEPR Discussion Papers 15012, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. James Bashall & Gizelle D. Willows & Darron West, 2018. "The Extent to Which Professional Advice Can Reduce the Disposition Effect: An Emerging Market Study," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 17(2), pages 229-249, August.
    5. Jaya M. Prosad & Sujata Kapoor & Jhumur Sengupta & Saurav Roychoudhary, 2017. "Overconfidence and Disposition Effect in Indian Equity Market: An Empirical Evidence," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(5), pages 1303-1321, October.
    6. Richards, Daniel W. & Fenton-O'Creevy, Mark & Rutterford, Janette & Kodwani, Devendra G., 2018. "Is the disposition effect related to investors’ reliance on System 1 and System 2 processes or their strategy of emotion regulation?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 79-92.
    7. Lukas Menkhoff & Maik Schmeling & Ulrich Schmidt, 2010. "Are All Professional Investors Sophisticated?," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(4), pages 418-440, November.
    8. Zhang, Xiaotao & Wang, Ziqiao & Hao, Jing & Liu, Jiubiao, 2022. "Stock market entry timing and retail investors' disposition effect," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    9. Menkhoff, Lukas & Nikiforow, Marina, 2009. "Professionals' endorsement of behavioral finance: Does it impact their perception of markets and themselves?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 318-329, August.
    10. Tõnn Talpsepp, 2010. "Does Gender and Age Affect Investor Performance and the Disposition Effect?," Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, vol. 2(1).
    11. Nikiforow, Marina, 2009. "Does training on behavioral finance influence fund managers' perception and behavior?," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-419, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    12. Cristiana Cerqueira Leal & Gilberto Loureiro & Manuel J. Rocha Armada, 2018. "Selling winners, buying losers: Mental decision rules of individual investors on their holdings," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(3), pages 362-386, June.
    13. Barber, Brad M. & Odean, Terrance, 2013. "The Behavior of Individual Investors," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1533-1570, Elsevier.
    14. Wang, Wenzhao & Su, Chen & Duxbury, Darren, 2021. "Investor sentiment and stock returns: Global evidence," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 365-391.
    15. Duxbury, Darren & Hudson, Robert & Keasey, Kevin & Yang, Zhishu & Yao, Songyao, 2015. "Do the disposition and house money effects coexist? A reconciliation of two behavioral biases using individual investor-level data," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 55-68.
    16. Gregor Dorfleitner & Lars Hornuf & Martina Weber, 2023. "Paralyzed by shock: the portfolio formation behavior of peer-to-business lending investors," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 1037-1073, April.
    17. Bansal, Avijit & Jacob, Joshy, 2022. "Impact of Price Path on Disposition Bias," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    18. Dierick, Nicolas & Heyman, Dries & Inghelbrecht, Koen & Stieperaere, Hannes, 2019. "Financial attention and the disposition effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 190-217.
    19. John Y. Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai & Benjamin Ranish, 2014. "Getting Better or Feeling Better? How Equity Investors Respond to Investment Experience," NBER Working Papers 20000, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Talpsepp, Tõnn & Vaarmets, Tarvo, 2019. "The disposition effect, performance, stop loss orders and education," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral and experimental finance; Early-life experiences; Risk preferences; Trading activity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:39:y:2021:i:c:s1544612319312607. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.