Behavioral Economics
BEYOND GREED AND FEAR
Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing
Hersh Shefrin
Harvard Business School Press, 2000
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to:
• Explore the body of current knowledge on behavioral finance
• Apply that knowledge to understanding market changes
• Recognize the imperfections in heuristics
• Recognize that the form or frame of a decision problem influences decisions beyond the lens of risk and return
• Assess how these biases and framing effects cause market prices to deviate from fundamental values
• Demonstrate how these effects cause markets to be inefficient
Hersh Shefrin holds the Mario L. Belotti Chair in Finance at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California.
Even the best Wall Street investors make mistakes. No matter how savvy or experienced, all financial practitioners eventually let bias, overconfidence, and emotion cloud their judgment and misguide their actions. Yet most financial decision-making models fail to factor in these fundamentals of human nature. In Beyond Greed and Fear, the most authoritative guide to what really influences the decision-making process, Hersh Shefrin uses the latest psychological research to help us understand the human behavior that guides stock selection, financial services, and corporate financial strategy. Shefrin argues that financial practitioners must acknowledge and understand behavioral finance--the application of psychology to financial behavior--in order to avoid many of the investment pitfalls caused by human error. Through colorful, often humorous real-world examples, Shefrin points out the common but costly mistakes that money managers, security analysts, financial planners, investment bankers, and corporate leaders make, so that readers gain valuable insights into their own financial decisions and those of their employees, asset managers, and advisors. According to Shefrin, the financial community ignores the psychology of investing at its own peril. Beyond Greed and Fear illuminates behavioral finance for today's investor. It will help practitioners to recognize--and avoid--bias and errors in their decisions, and to modify and improve their overall investment strategies.
Editorial Reviews
Behavioral finance is defined by Shefrin (finance, Santa Clara Univ.) as "a rapidly growing area that deals with the influence of psychology on the behavior of financial practitioners." This comprehensive study is aimed primarily at practitionersAportfolio managers, analysts, and financial advisersAwho, according to Shefrin, "need to know that because of human nature, they make particular types of mistakes." Shefrin provides a historical background of finance theory, studies of behavioral analysis, and a review of major contributions to the literature. The book is divided into six parts: behavioral finance, the stock market, individual investors, money managers, corporate executives, and options, futures, and foreign exchange. In addition to numerous case studies, Shefrin utilizes statistical charts and tables to illustrate his central theories and concepts. Important and thought-provoking, this study is recommended for academic faculty and students as well as finance practitioners. --Library Journal