Premium
Do Professional Traders Exhibit Myopic Loss Aversion? An Experimental Analysis
Author(s) -
HAIGH MICHAEL S.,
LIST JOHN A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2005.00737.x
Subject(s) - loss aversion , realm , behavioral economics , equity premium puzzle , prospect theory , equity (law) , economics , anomaly (physics) , psychology , mental accounting , econometrics , microeconomics , capital asset pricing model , physics , political science , law , condensed matter physics
Two behavioral concepts, loss aversion and mental accounting, have been combined to provide a theoretical explanation of the equity premium puzzle. Recent experimental evidence supports the theory, as students' behavior has been found to be consistent with myopic loss aversion (MLA). Yet, much like certain anomalies in the realm of riskless decision‐making, these behavioral tendencies may be attenuated among professionals. Using traders recruited from the CBOT, we do indeed find behavioral differences between professionals and students, but rather than discovering that the anomaly is muted, we find that traders exhibit behavior consistent with MLA to a greater extent than students.