The emotional business of finance Prof. Mark Fenton-OCreevy.

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Slide 2 The emotional business of finance Prof. Mark Fenton-OCreevy Slide 3 Phineas Gage (1823- 1860) Slide 4 Amygdala Hippocampus Advances in neuroscience research Slide 5 Facts Options for decision Representation of future outcome Situation Reasoning strategies Decision Activation of biases related to previous emotional experience of comparable situations Bechara, A., Damasio, A., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. 1997. Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy, Science, Vol. 275. A dual process view of cognition Slide 6 Trader Manager Trader Slide 7 Different categories of emotion in traders decision-making Interaction between mood and trading Intuition: it feels like the right answer Empathy: a sense for what other market players are feeling Slide 8 Emotional self-regulation (Low performers) Im bit of a cold fish; I dont think emotions greatly affect my decision making. If you are making money, you are achieving your objective. [But later] When you lose money, it can be horrendous, violent mood swings. You dont know what to do when you lose money Managers on the desk are an added pressure, and my colleagues, so this emotion can encourage you to make decisions more quickly. It is important to have a recovery period from losses to be more emotionally stable before you go back in [to trading]. I think there is, [a strong emotional element to trading] I think that anyone whos doing it properly and has got their head screwed on is doing everything they can consciously to overrule that, and if I feel that Im trading emotionally I will walk off the desk, have a glass of water, walk up and down the street and then come back and make decisions when Im hopefully not emotional. Slide 9 Emotional self-regulation (High performers) Emotion and rationality are not at opposite ends, they co-exist the entire time. You buy in at 50, they go to 48, you refuse to believe it. Your rational side says youve got it wrong. Your emotional side says the market is wrong so you buy some more. They go to 46; youre really pissed off now, youre not going to sell them, youre not going to take this. They go to 42 your rational side kicks in and says I got this wrong and I am out and it doesnt necessarily - I am not suggesting it happens in that sequence every time but the two always co-exist. The two always co-exist. Big losses and big gains can swap around fairly quickly and once you understand that then you stop concentrating on the loss and you start concentrating more on how to make money back. One big trade is not going to make anyone and one big loss doesnt destroy you. Slide 10 Bringing the data together Slide 11 Key findings Emotions play a role both beneficial and adverse in the financial decision making of finance professionals Effective management of emotions is associated with improved performance Improved self-regulation of emotions can be trained This all turns out to be true for private investors but more so. Slide 12 But what about consumers? Slide 13 Slide 14 Impulsive buying: a consumer's tendency to buy spontaneously, unreflectively and, immediately, (Rook & Fisher, 1995) I often buy things spontaneously. I often buy things spontaneously. "Just do it" describes the way I buy things I often buy things without thinking "I see it, I buy it" describes me "Buy now, think about it later" describes me. Slide 15 Key findings We can understand impulsive buying as a form of maladaptive emotion regulation to promote good feelings and repair bad feelings Impulsive shopping has significant adverse financial consequences. Retailers invest significant resources in engaging with our emotions to promote impulsive buying (Because you are worth it) perhaps we need an investment in education which promotes emotional literacy about money Slide 16 Attitudes to money Money as power Money as love Money as freedom Money as security Strong relationship to financial outcomes Slide 17 A final observation Policy makers often seek to influence behaviour by providing information Firms, through advertisements often seek to influence behaviour through engaging with emotions Guess who is more pessimistic about affecting consumer behaviour?