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History matters: How short-term price charts hurt investment performance

Author

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  • Borsboom, Charlotte
  • Janssen, Dirk-Jan
  • Strucks, Markus
  • Zeisberger, Stefan

Abstract

When making investment decisions, people rely heavily on price charts displaying the past performance of an asset. Price charts can come with any time frame, which the provider might strategically choose. We analyze the impact of the time frame on retail investors’ behavior, particularly trading activity and risk-taking, in a controlled experiment with 1041 retail investors. We find that shorter time frames are associated with more trading activity, resulting in higher transaction fees and investor welfare losses. However, the time frame does not affect average risk-taking.

Suggested Citation

  • Borsboom, Charlotte & Janssen, Dirk-Jan & Strucks, Markus & Zeisberger, Stefan, 2022. "History matters: How short-term price charts hurt investment performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:134:y:2022:i:c:s0378426621003022
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2021.106351
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral finance; Experimental finance; Investor behavior; Price charts; Time frames; Risk-taking; Myopic loss aversion; Overtrading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

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