Investors are inextricably linked to financial institutions, money managers, and the products they market. Mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), hedge funds, and pension funds manage or hold roughly $55 trillion in combined wealth. This chapter examines these topics with a behavioral...

Asset allocation models have evolved in complexity with the development of modern portfolio theory, but they continue to operate under the assumption of investor rationality and other assumptions that do not hold in the real world. For this reason, academics and industry professionals make...

Around the globe, the gradual move from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution pensions has increased the need for individual retirement planning. Examples of this include U.S. savings rates at historic lows, poor retirement prospects for citizens in developed countries, and the...

In the oversight of most funds, the portfolio manager holds the key decision-making power. Often regarded as foundational to the investment process, a few select managers can attract billions of dollars from investors, giving the managers increased prominence, credibility, and compensation....

This paper applies Magni's (2011) Aggregate Return On Investment (AROI)to investment performance measurement. We show that the ratio of undiscountednet cash flow to undiscounted invested capital is not a naive metric (itseemingly does not take the time value of money into account). It is a...

This chapter focuses on the attitude of investors toward financial gains and losses and their decisions on wealth allocation, and how these changes are subject to behavioral factors. The focal point is the integration of behavioral elements into the classic portfolio optimization. Individual...

Asset allocation and portfolio diversification decisions have important welfare and policy implications. This chapter reviews studies that examine three key aspects of financial investing: participation in stock markets, portfolio diversification, and trading behavior. Standard finance theory...

The chapter describes investment and trading strategies rooted in behavioral finance that historically have generated superior profits. The failure of traditional finance models, such as those based on purely rational behavior, to explain how markets work has enabled behavioral finance to move...

Using a sample that post-dates important regulatory changes in Europe, we show that a buy recommendation from an analyst on a “consensus sell” stock is, on average, sufficient to cause the stock to start to rise in value. Similarly, a sell recommendation on a “consensus buy” stock can...

This paper provides a framework for defining, formulating and evaluating value investment strategies. We define the relative value of an investment in terms of the prospective yield implied by the investment's current price and expected future cash flows. We develop an intuitive and parsimonious...