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When it comes to the crunch: Retail investor decision-making during periods of market volatility

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  • Brooks, Chris
  • Williams, Louis

Abstract

Attitude to risk questionnaires are widely used by financial advisors to recommend investments of appropriate risk levels to their clients. Yet the usefulness of this instrument to gauge how investors will react when faced with extreme volatility in the values of their assets remains untested. Using realistic scenarios and based on a large-scale survey in the UK, in this study we examine how the investing public reacts to actual portfolio losses. We find that conventional risk tolerance measures are inadequate for determining whether investors would ‘sell out’ or hold their portfolios in such circumstances. On the other hand, we find that past experience, emotions and personality characteristics, including measures of financial self-efficacy and extraversion, are significant predictors of investor reactions to market crashes.

Suggested Citation

  • Brooks, Chris & Williams, Louis, 2022. "When it comes to the crunch: Retail investor decision-making during periods of market volatility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:80:y:2022:i:c:s1057521922000175
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102038
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retail investors; Risk tolerance; Personality characteristics; Emotions; Financial decisions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities

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