Tag: Paul Nixon

The renowned behavioural finance research duo, Barber and Odean, published a paper in 2001 entitled Boys will be boys that ruffled a few feathers. The duo studied and reported on the performance difference males versus females generated on their investments. Not only did they find a statistically significant difference in favour of women, but they also found that men had better investment performance in the mere presence of women.

Although past performance is not a good indication of future returns, it seems to remain one of the main determinants of investment switching behaviour and consequently the dreaded ‘behaviour tax’. This behaviour tax is calculated as the performance sacrificed after switching between one unit trust and another.

In the wake of the widespread adoption of revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, the realm of AI has rapidly advanced and filtered through to various industries. From healthcare to marketing, AI’s impact is undeniable.

Rising costs of living and high levels of unemployment in an unpredictable economic landscape have turned traditional financial aspirations on their head as people desperately scramble to overcome short-term challenges at the cost of long-term investments.

The COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world and left many scrounging for hand sanitiser and toilet paper as shopping aisles stood empty. Similar havoc was wreaked on financial markets as investors abandoned their long-term goals for the immediate emotional comfort on offer by moving either out of financial markets completely or into comparatively ‘safer’ assets.

Where did all the toilet paper go? Snapshots of empty store shelves, low levels of storable staples like rice and noodles and city-states raising emergency levels has served to escalate panic buying and even shop-raiding in some parts of the world.