A Study on Retail Investors’ Behavior

The financial world has been changed greatly since last 20 years. Individual investors have started to participate actively in the investment activities. It has become very crucial to understand the investors' behavior for their investment decision. This study examines the investors' behavior with the help of different behavioral finance theories viz. overconfidence, disposition effect, conservatism, cognitive dissonance, rationality and regret theory. A sample survey of 130 investors from the Anand, Petlad and Khambhat (Cities of Gujarat, Anand District) was conducted during February to April 2012 with the help of structured questionnaire. The study found that investors are irrational with different investment options, investors were found overconfident. The findings also support the disposition effect theory and regret theory