Saturday, May 10, 2008

Emotion and trading

Via Yves Smith some new research on investments and emotions, suggesting that people get too close to their investments.

Visiting Professor David Tuckett, UCL Psychoanalysis Unit, says: “Feelings and unconscious ‘phantasies’ are important; it is not simply a question of being rational when trading. The market is dominated by rational and intelligent professionals, but the most attractive investments involve guesses about an uncertain future and uncertainty creates feelings. When there are exciting new investments whose outcome is unsure, the most professional investors can get caught up in the ‘everybody else is doing it, so should I’ wave which leads first to underestimating, and then after panic and the burst of a bubble, to overestimating the risks of an investment.


It appears that bubbles are caused by people acting like they do when they are first in love. They concentate on the good things and completely ignore the bad things. When the bubble bursts, there is the opposite taking place

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