Financial risk tolerance: An analysis of unexplored factors

Using data from a survey alliance between Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, PBS's Nightly Business Report, and FinaMetrica, this study explores various demographical and attitudinal factors related to financial risk tolerance. Investigating risk tolerance scores of more than 2,000 individuals immediately after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, we find a positive relationship between risk tolerance and income, investment knowledge and positive stock market expectations. Risk tolerance is found to be lower for females, older individuals, those that currently use a financial advisor and individuals that perceive the stock market to be riskier than two years before

Turnover, account value and diversification of real traders: evidence of collective portfolio optimizing behavior

Despite the availability of very detailed data on financial market, agent-based modeling is hindered by the lack of information about real trader behavior. This makes it impossible to validate agent-based models, which are thus reverse-engineering attempts. This work is a contribution to the building of a set of stylized facts about the traders themselves. Using the client database of Swissquote Bank SA, the largest on-line Swiss broker, we find empirical relationships between turnover, account values and the number of assets in which a trader is invested. A theory based on simple mean-variance portfolio optimization that crucially includes variable transaction costs is able to reproduce faithfully the observed behaviors. We finally argue that our results bring into light the collective ability of a population to construct a mean-variance portfolio that takes into account the structure of transaction costsComment: 26 pages, 9 figures, Fig. 8 fixe

An Insight into Overconfidence in the Forecasting Abilities of Financial Advisors

Financial market participants exercise judgment in decision making and psychological studies have shown that individuals are overconfident about their ability to evaluate financial securities. Range estimation calibration studies indicate that individuals tend to estimate narrow intervals in their estimation of unknown future quantities, suggesting overconfidence. Financial planners have an inherent duty of care and this may lead these individuals to behave differently in their estimation methodology and behaviour. From a survey of Australian financial planners, we find extensive overconfidence in respondents’ ability to make judgements under uncertainty as shown by a narrow range of forecasts and a substantial number of inaccurate predictions. The overconfidence is present both when comparing estimates to the ex-post outcome of a predicted quantity and to an interval based on historical return volatility. © 2008, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved

Subjectivity in Judgements: Further Evidence from the Financial Planning Industry

Asset allocation is a critical component of portfolio performance and is a significant component of the advice provided by financial plan-ners. The fiduciary obligation of financial planners is to provide investment advice that is appropriate to a client's personal circumstances. Academic research has found evidence of inconsistencies in advice provided by financial advisors. Using a survey of 352 Australian financial planners, the article also finds inconsistencies in a hypothetical asset allocation decision. These inconsistencies may be attributed to the presence of subjective judgment in the decision-making process due to the presence of various psychological factors such as expectations, traits, and biases, the lack of any standardized method for collecting information from clients, and different assumptions, perceptions, and interpretations based on the financial planner's own knowledge, experience, intuitions, and skill sets. The choice of financial planners influences the asset allocation and ultimately the investment returns and outcome

A longitudinal study of financial risk tolerance

Academics are divided as to whether financial risk tolerance is an enduring psychological trait and as a consequence is less likely to change over the life of an individual, or a variable psychological state which varies readily in response to internal and external influences. In this study we report the findings of a longitudinal study that investigates the annual change in financial risk tolerance scores of individuals over a 5. year period and the factors that influence such change. Our results indicate a relatively small annual change in individuals' financial risk tolerance. Although our regression model is ineffective in providing a clarification for a change in the financial risk tolerance scores of individual respondents, we find a slight decrease in financial risk tolerance associated with a decrease in household size and an increase in financial risk tolerance after terminating the services of a financial planner. From our results we propose that financial risk tolerance is a stable personality trait and is unlikely to change substantially over the life of an individual. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

The Effectiveness of Ethics Training on the Development of Moral Judgement in Finance Students

This paper reports on the effects of a freestanding ethics course in a university finance curriculum on the moral development of students. While a number of studies have examined the effects of such educational initiatives on business and accounting students, very few studies have focused on the finance discipline. A Modified Defining Issues Test (MDIT) was thus developed and used in a test-retest methodology to examine whether students in the Ethics in Finance course at the UTS Business School possessed enhanced moral development after taking the course. We find evidence of a statistically significant improvement in moral reasoning understood from a Kohlbergian perspective. This effect was, however, more pronounced in males than females with females beginning from a higher base of moral development and improving only slightly. While a number of suggestions are made for future research that might improve on the work reported in this paper, our results justify