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Psychology rules the stock market, according to Hersh Shefrin. In Beyond Greed and Fear, Shefrin shows how bias, perception, and other aspects of psychology often rattle investors and move stocks. From the individual who keeps losers too long to overconfident money managers who mistakenly think they can predict financial trends, human nature foils investment returns. "Behavioral finance is everywhere that people make financial decisions. Psychology is hard to escape; it touches every corner of the financial landscape, and it's important. Financial practitioners need to understand the impact that psychology has on them and those around them. Practitioners ignore psychology at their peril," writes Shefrin, a finance professor at Santa Clara University. An academic volume geared toward financial professionals, the book details an emerging field known as behavioral finance, in which psychology is believed to be at least as important as market fundamentals, such as earnings and balance sheets. Shefrin describes how investors are motivated by fear, hope, overconfidence, and the need for short-term gratification. The book gives plenty of examples of investment mistakes, and analyzes them from a behavioral-finance perspective. While Beyond Greed and Fear targets professionals, individual investors will benefit from this look at an important mover of markets. --Dan Ring
Book Description
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 judgement 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.
Customer Reviews:
Look to market experts for success.......2005-12-21
So long as market investors are human beings rather than machines, market participants will be governed by emotion. The efficient market theory, as Warren Buffett states, works most of the time. But when unusual or exceptional news comes into play, a stock (and/or markets) nearly always overreacts.
The best book I have found on investing is "The Intelligent Investor". There is a clear picture of what works and does not work in investing, and why. There is a fair amount of analysis of the behavior of market participants.
Warren Buffett asserts that he doesn't have much use for what is taught in a typical college business class. As he points out, if professors understand stocks and markets so well, why are so few of them wealthy? People like Ben Graham, Buffett and Peter Lynch are not 'lucky'. They read a great deal, they have keen insight into what makes a stock go up and they are unafraid to buy when prices are low if prospects look good. I would prefer to emulate those who are truly successful rather than those who postulate about what may work.
Selective Presentation of the Evidence.......2005-06-26
I am a behavioral economist with a deep belief in the notion that human decision-makers deviate in important ways from the scientific principles laid down in modern rational choice theory. There is no doubt but that very many investors hold erroneous notions of the dynamics of price movements, and having a correct understanding will, on average lead to better returns on one's portfolio. Sheffrin presents the evidence for this position in an interesting and accessible manner.
Shefrin's main advice for investors is absolutely correct, and would improve the asset positions of many poor souls with idiotic notions of stock dynamics. His advice is that if you are not a gifted and dedicated stock expert, you should invest in a low-maintenance cost array of mutual funds, and above all, do not churn your stocks. It doesn't help to be smart, lucky, a stud with the girls, or blessed by God. Moreover, if you think you have one of the "gifted analysts" for a broker, you are to be counted as among the suckers who are never given an even break.
Shefrin has another thesis which he presents with great verve, but which is on very shakey grounds. This is that "gifted stock analysts" can on average, significantly out-perform the market. He believes this MUST be the case if a significant fraction of investors are behaving irrationality. However, there is another possibility, which is that stock brokers as a group gain from the excessive churning that irrational investors permit or ask them to do, but that it is impossible to "beat the market" except by pure luck or by personally studying firm fundamentals and future prospects.
Shefrin's data in favor of the "gifted analyst" is episodic and anecdotal, and there is plenty of data on the other side. For instance, in Malkiel's classic "Random Walk Down Wall Street", he relates the evidence that chimps throwing darts do as well as major brokerage houses. Sheffrin presents contrary evidence for a more recent period in which "gifted experts" outperform the random darts. New evidence, collected by Money magazine, shows that a group of experts did far worse than the darts in 2003. All of this evidence is spotty and anecdotal. The plural of anecdote is not data.
I am not convinced by this book that the efficient markets hypothesis, applied to final returns to investors (after payments to stock brokers and other transactions costs), is not correct. I think the author makes a mistake taking so strong a position when the evidence is so weak on this account. I am certainly not convinced that Malkiel's analysis is in any way overturned by new evidence.
However, if Shefrin convinces a few investors to act more sanely, he will have fulfilled an important social function.
Packed with Knowledge ! .......2005-02-23
If only you could bring yourself to ditch those losers from your portfolio, and hang onto your winners. If you can, you are unusual. Unprofitable habits afflict nearly all investors, beginners and pros alike, writes Hersh Shefrin in this intriguing study of the role of emotions in investing. Shefrin balances the jargon with plenty of real-world examples and wisely cautions you not to delude yourself into thinking that his tips will make you rich. Viewing investing through the prism of behavior finance, he analyzes emotionally-laden decisions made by private investors, money managers, bankers and other professionals handling stocks and various other forms of investments including options, foreign currency and futures. Shefrin offers juicy case histories, so his tour of behavioral finance is mostly enjoyable and useful. At times, though, the book bogs down in the author's attempts to legitimize behavior finance, a relatively new school of thought. For instance, he charges failed investors with committing "heuristic bias" or falling prey to "representativeness." That quibble aside, we recommend this intriguing tome to investment decision makers on any level. Whether you are running billions or managing a retirement account (which, as Shefrin notes, most people do badly), maybe this book will buffer you against emotional investing and pocketbook pain.
Comprehensive, Entertaining Overview of Fascinating Field .......2004-12-25
Wondering what Brealy & Myers or Sharpe left out? Don't expect your broker (or fund manager, excepting Richard Thaler) to fill you in. This book is a must read for any active (or passive) participant in the markets, or any other citizen who is affected by said markets. Meaning all of us.
Shefrin provides a masterful exposition of the application of cutting-edge cognitive psychology to the behavior of retail and institutional investors, analysts, mutual fund managers, CEO's and even heavily-advised university investment committees. The result is the theoretical demolition of the efficient markets hypothesis in even its weakest form, and the related CAPM(s), catching up to their long-noted empirical failings. As it turns out the market does have a memory, and that's not just an anomaly any more. Not every trade is zero-NPV: trust the market price at your own peril. Think dividends are irrelevant? Think again.
What we're left with is a fascinating account of how market participants actually behave: holding on to losers too long, trading too much and trading on "noise," and most alarmingly, undersaving for retirement. What is significant is that these phenomena are so prevalent that they can no longer be dismissed as irrational with the hope that "more sophisticated" money will magically correct the market. To the contrary, what Shefrin describes is proved to be the psychological norm; if you believe you're different, you're either very lucky or overconfident about your lack of overconfidence.
One quibble, in an area that I have looked at before, is in Shefrin's discussion of takeovers. First, I found a bit of confusion between the question of whether the takeover premium should be tested by reference to the post-announcement combined value of both firms, or just the buyer. Since the buyer's CEO is initially fiduciary for just his shareholders, I see only the latter as relevant.
More significantly, Shefrin does not provide any means to rigorously discriminate among his hubris hypothesis and other, more rationalistic theories, such as agency costs and private benefits. And his brief treatment omits many puzzling follow-up questions: if CEO psychology has the potential to systematically destroy shareholder wealth, what should we then conclude about the investors and analysts who allow them to get away with it? Just a governance problem, or is there yet another psychological story to be told?
But the desire to delve further into the subject is just indicative of Shefrin's compelling and readable narrative. For bottom line types, I'm afraid the answer to your question is no, he doesn't explain how to get rich. But you'll surely do alot better with a single yellowing copy of Graham & Dodd than all the reams of abstruse, dogmatic journal articles ever spewed by the Chicago School.
A very good book, but quite academic.......2003-04-29
I had mixed feeling about this book. Content wise, it's incredible. It's full of real life stories, data, analyses, propositions of many so called market anomalies. However, I really find some of the chapters too long, especially those after chapter 5. The author had copied his style of thesis writing and actually many of his own theses (he's a renowed professor after all) into a book which has a big audience group of investors or traders who want quick fix or certain level of entertainment and personal improvement. In these respects, the "Psychology of Finance by Lars Tvede" and the "Devil take the hindmost by Edward Chancellor" are "easier" but not definitely better alternatives.
Anway, this is one of the very few "serious" books about behavioural finance that is relatively practical. If you are abound of time, go for it. Otherwise, you may try the two books I mentioned above.
p.s. I like the following the most: In April 1997 Financial Times ran a contest suggested by economist Richard Thaler. Readers were told to choose a whole number between 0 and 100. The winning entry would be the one closest to two thirds of the average entry. The winning choice is 13. The real point of this game is that playing sensibly requires you to have a sense of the magnitude of the other players' errors. Hope you got it right.
Book Description
Behavioral Corporate Finance identifies the key psychological obstacles to value maximizing behavior, along with steps that managers can take to mitigate the effects of these obstacles. The main goal of the book is to help students learn how to put the traditional tools of corporate finance to their best use, and mitigate the effects of psychological obstacles that reduce value.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2006-04-20
This book is very informative and easy to read. It is written in a way that won't bore you at all. I have tried to read several books about behavioral finance but I found out they're either too long or boring which made me lose interest in the first chapter. Though, with this book, it didn't happen as it is well-written and very interesting. The examples, given to illustrate the points were quite interesting and simple to understand. I very much enjoyed reading about behavioral finance and the biases that managers, investors and financial analysts have when making their decisions. The book is divided into 11 chapters. I highly recommend this books for people who want to know more about behavioral finance.
1. Behavioral Foundations
2. Valuation
3. Capital Budgeting
4. Perceptions about Risk & Return.
5. Inefficient Markets and Corporate Decisions
6. Capital Structure
7. Dividend Policy
8. Agency Conflicts and Corporate Governance
9. Group Process
10. Mergers & Acquisitions
11. Applications of Real-option techniques to Capital Budgeting and Capital Structure(only available at the book's site)
Book Description
This book will take your understanding of finance to the next level. The Story of Behavioral Finance is about "finance in the real world"-it's finance theory with real people and real institutions.
What happens when your portfolio manager sets out not to maximize your return but rather to maximize his own compensation and minimize his own career risk? Why didn't rational investors short high-flying Internet companies back in 1999? Why was it that so many of the firms that went public in 1999 and 2000 for hundreds of millions of dollars subsequently went bankrupt? These are the types of questions that will be answered in this book.
The Story of Behavioral Finance will cover a lot of ground. We will cover the two main strands of behavioral finance, investor psychology and limits to arbitrage, and we'll apply these concepts to a wide array of financial market phenomena. We will explore, for example, why it is that almost no one seems to "beat the market" despite that fact that there are often easily spotted price inefficiencies.
Customer Reviews:
A credible effort - but a student work.......2007-01-10
As a whole, I found this pamphlet (it's too short to be considered a book) to be fairly informative, albeit academic in nature. This work briefly details the efficient market hypothesis and CAPM model, then lunges into the ins and outs of behavioral finance.
This work provides a good primer on behavioral financing, and I found the discussion on concensus estimates and overview of how constraints on short selling can distort these to be quite informative. Certainly, in the book "Expectations Investing," Mauboussin touches on this point in a couple chapters, but this discussion was more informative. It also does a nice job differentiating between irrational investors and "value investors" (although I'd argue that the more apt distinction would be between irrational investors and fundamental investors). Lastly, the work does detail some of the behavioral financing theories that lead to irrational markets.
My criticisms of this work are that (i) it's really not detailed enough, and many of the topics deserved greater investigation, and (ii) it tends toward the theorectical. This last point is understandable, however, insofar as this is clearly a work that was developed in an academic setting.
IMHO, for the individual investor, David Dremen's book "Contrarian Investing: the Next Generation" and Belsky and Gilovich's "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them" cover behavioral finance as applied to individual investors a bit better. However, these works are also considerably longer, and neither one of them really delves into the effect of short selling constraints. I would have also liked an examination of the argument (briefly touched on, and certainly discussed by Ken Fisher in his new book) that once an effective strategy to arbitrage market inefficiencies becomes known, the market tends to correct the inefficiency.
I suspect that if the authors don't end up ensconsed at a hedge fund somewhere, they will publish more comprehensive works in the future. I'd consider buying them.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent introduction to behavioral study.......2006-01-30
This text provides a very clear introduction to ABC analysis as well as the use of PIC/NIC in the study of organizational behavior. In addition, it offers several examples that never leave you wondering how these techniques should be applied. The inclusion of feedback and coaching advice for leaders is terrific. If you are a manager or student of human behavior this text is a great introduction.
Insightful.......2005-11-30
Generating a breakthrough in an organization often requires the implementation and deployment of innovative methods and tools. Those same methods and tools are often accompanied by new processes and strong evangelization by a committed champion and his/her disciples. While those elements are necessary, they are insufficient as they often fail to address the fundamental behavioral changes needed to achieve and sustain the desired outcomes. This is an area where most managers and change agents feel uncomfortable today because, whether they are called the 'soft side' or 'people issues', changes at that level are the hardest of all. Trying to better understand this psychological aspect of change management, I decided to follow Larry Leach's advice and purchased 'Unlock Behavior, Unleash Profits' by Leslie Wilk Braksick (ISBN 0-07-135878-1).
Over the next few bullets I will try to summarize what I have retained from this interesting book:
- The ability to apply behavioral science consistently is a key distinguishing feature of great leaders. Behaviors are the key to good execution and lasting results, and they are a response to the environment or corporate culture.
- The goal is not only to change everyone else's behavior but also our own as our behaviors as leaders directly affect everyone within our organization as well as our organization's profitability
- The failure of change management programs is attributed in 31% of the cases to project management issues and in 31% of the cases to people issues The critical link between behavioral science and business results is pinpointing a few key behaviors. Those behaviors have to be defined according to the NORMS of objectivity (Not an interpretation - Observable - Reliable - Measurable - Specific) so that they can be communicated, recognized, tracked, and measured. Those behaviors need to be aligned in the different departments. To implement a change you need to know the antecedents, behavior, and consequences (ABC). Consequences have 4 times more impact (80%) on behaviors than antecedents (20%). Antecedents backed up by consequences will produce the greatest challenges. The most powerful consequences are either PIC (positive-immediate-certain) or NIC (negative-immediate-certain). Discretionary effort is often a result of PIC consequences. NIC consequences often lead to mere compliance. Absence of PIC/NIC often lead to behavior extinction. Ways of providing consequences are feedback (positive or constructive - deliver them in a 4:1 ratio - this is also the most powerful motivator of performance and a key to coaching), tangible items (here remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder) activities, or work processes. Effects of consequences: Positive reinforcement (key to discretionary effort), negative reinforcement, punishment, or extinction.
- Managers must invest time in providing frequent, timely (key to maximizing its impact), and pinpointed feedback to their direct reports Coaching is how one delivers feedback, based on observing, analyzing performance, and delivering feedback (constructive and positive) Shaping is about perfecting a chain of behavioral steps through the systematic application of positive reinforcement. Each step should be challenging but realistic. Behaviors closer to the goal need to be more positiviely reinforced.
Finally! Tools for Change Management!.......2005-08-27
At last someone has provided a resource for the change agents of the world to learn and apply! Dr. Braksick's book provides a wealth of understanding around behavior---and more importantly tools that finally allow practioners the ability to understand and change those behaviors. If you are a Six Sigma practioner trying to change behavior, this book is a must! This book was part of the core material used at JP Morgan Chase during its Six Sigma deployment (2001-2004).
CEO Technology Firm.......2002-10-22
Amazingly insightful book, understanding behavior is the secret to becoming a successful leader. Leslie's ability to help the reader understand how to apply the concepts of behaviorism is world class. This book is extremely well written. The examples bring the concepts to life and you walk away with a meaningful understanding of how to apply behavioral principles in business. This book was clearly written by someone who applies the concepts in taking on real business challenges.
Supplies Missing Link.......2002-04-14
This is an outstanding book that supplies the missing link to implementing strategy. People make all organizations function effectively and efficiently, and it is an element many managers overlook when implementing strategy. Managers need to identify the behaviors necessary to fulfill strategy, and then align the reward system with these behaviors. Another important point was the impact managers have on the people in their organizations. Managers possess tremendous power as a result of their position/rank on the organization chart, and they need to be more cognizant of how their actions impact people ranked lower in the firm.
Book Description
Reveals how examining climate and culture together can advance understanding of the behavior of individuals within organizations, as well as overall organizational performance in such diverse areas as financial planning, marketing, and human resource development.
Average customer rating:
- How unethical acts occur in organizations.
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Codes of Conduct: Behavioral Research into Business Ethics
Manufacturer: Russell Sage Foundation Publications
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Binding: Hardcover
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Harvard Business Review on Corporate Ethics (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)
ASIN: 0871545942 |
Customer Reviews:
How unethical acts occur in organizations........1998-09-03
The twenty-eight contributors to the volume explore the effects of social influence and group persuasion, organizational authority and communication, fragmented responsibility, and the process of rationalization on individual and organizational behavior. Unethical acts, several authors propose, may be unintentionally "assembled" within organizations.
Treatises presented in this volume fall into four broad themes from psychology and behavioral economics: 1) power, influence, and authority; 2) prejudice, discrimination, bigotry and stereotyping; 3) ethical consequences of failing to accomplish ideal models of decision-making; and 4) the management of risk and risky situations by individuals and organizations.
The book is organized into two general sections, one dealing with organizational and social psychological issues and the other dealing with risk, reasoning, and decision-making. Within these sections, the chapters vary in the extent to which the phenomena they highlight are individual or organizational. For example, John Darley outlines ways in which organizational processes may induce people to violate their personal ethical values and George Loewenstein examines the ways in which cognitive biases also may permit people to behave unethically. The organization can be the source of trouble, or mischief can be caused by rather simple individual cognitive processes. Behavior in business, as anywhere, is the product of the interaction between the external factors of organizational environment and individual cognitive processes.
Average customer rating:
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Corporate Capital Investment: A Behavioral Approach
Philip Bromiley
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Economic History
| Economics
| Business & Investing
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Theory
| Economics
| Business & Investing
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Corporate Finance
| Finance
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Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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| Business Ethics
| Consolidation & Merger
| Decision-Making & Problem Solving
| Distribution & Warehouse Management
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| Leadership
| Management
| Management Science
| Motivational
| Negotiating
| Operations Research
| Planning & Forecasting
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| Production & Operations
| Project Management
| Quality Control
| Risk Assessment
| Statistics
| Strategy & Competition
| Systems & Planning
| Systems Analysis
| Teams
| Total Quality Management
| Training
ASIN: 0521301270 |
Book Description
This book studies the impact of corporate planning and implementation procedures on the level of corporate capital investment. It stands among the few studies within the behavioral economics tradition that employ direct examination of corporate decision processes to address variables of central concern in conventional economics. In addition, by using a combination of qualitative data from interviews and corporate documents along with econometric analysis of corporate plans and actual outcomes, the study makes a substantial methodological advance. Along with the methodological advance comes a new and different conception of the determinants of corporate capital investment. The findings of this study have implications for research and practice in economics, corporate strategy, and public policy. As such, Corporate Capital Investment will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of all disciplines who are seriously concerned with corporate capital investment.
Book Description
Contemporary research in strategic management, with an emphasis on conceptual tools and skills created by scholars and practitioners in the field are evident throughout this 12-chapter book. The book is completed with multiple Business Week and traditional strategic management cases. Pearce and Robinson’s Strategic Management presents a unique pedagogical model created by the authors. Instructors who desire quantitative analysis will like the financial data available here. The new, strong coverage of Business Week material provides a currency and uniqueness to the text.
Customer Reviews:
Well-conceived strategic planning presentation.......1999-09-18
Strategic planning as a process is nicely presented in this well written textbook. As an instructor of strategic planning at the master's level, I find the students like the book and cases and are able to create competent strategic plans using the process described. Very good resource book; one I have kept on my reference shelf.
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The Tacit Organization (Contemporary Studies in Applied Behavioral Science)
Virginia Hill Ingersoll , and
Guy B. Adams
Manufacturer: JAI Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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Negotiating
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ASIN: 155938297X |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Behavioral Healthcare, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1518 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Audit survival: a look at seven characteristics of organizations well-prepared for audits.(FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT)(Cover story)
Author: Jonathan M. Cherry
Publication:
Behavioral Healthcare (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 27
Issue: 7
Page: 22(4)
Article Type: Cover story
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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