The Effect of Investor Bias and Gender on Portfolio Performance and Risk

We survey 84 finance and accounting majors to determine the behavioral factors that males and females exhibit when making investment decisions. The survey results are linked to student performance in the Stock-Trak Global Portfolio Trading Simulation. We find that males and females exhibit different behavioral biases and these behavioral biases can ultimately affect investment performance. We also find evidence to support previous research showing that males are more risk tolerant than females. However, our findings indicate that this behavior may be due to a difference in the perception of the actual risk being taken rather than an inherent desire to engage in more risky behavior.