This paper investigates market-level and private investor trading patterns and performance around earnings announcements. We document clear evidence for abnormal trading around earnings announcements for both the entire market and households in Germany and observe that private investor...

Why do retail investors trade? To analyze the impact of professional advice on trading, we combine administrative and survey data from a large German bank. Investors who report that they always rely on their advisor's recommendations have a 25-percent-higher trading volume. Also, for investors...

Working with one of the largest brokerages in Germany, we record what happens when unbiased investment advice is offered to a random set of roughly 8,000 of the brokerage's several hundred thousand active retail customers. We find that investors who most need the financial advice are least...

Working with one of the largest brokerages in Germany, we record what happens when unbiased investment advice is offered to a random set of roughly 8,000 of the brokerage's several hundred thousand active retail customers. We find that investors who most need the financial advice are least...

The 2020 CARES Act directed large cash payments to households. We analyze house-holds' spending responses using high-frequency transaction data from a Fintech non-profit, exploring heterogeneity by income levels, recent income declines, and liquidity as well as linked survey responses about...

The 2020 CARES Act directed large cash payments to households. We analyze house-holds' spending responses using high-frequency transaction data from a Fintech non-profit, exploring heterogeneity by income levels, recent income declines, and liquidity as well as linked survey responses about...

We study the effects of an exogenous change in the displayed purchase prices of all mutual funds in individuals' portfolios using data on all security trades, holdings, spending, and income from an online retail bank. We find that individuals are more likely to sell what we call fictitious...