IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/irvfin/v23y2023i2p301-316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Buy and buy again: The impact of unique reference points on (re)purchase decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Gizelle D. Willows
  • Daniel W. Richards

Abstract

Behavioral finance has uncovered that investor engage emotionally when trading. We investigate how three psychological factors influence purchase and repurchase decisions: representativeness, the influence of prior gains, and reference points. Using trading data of 7200 UK investors we find that purchase decisions are influenced by representative heuristic and repurchase decisions are influenced by both representative heuristic and prior profitability. Further survival analysis showed that investors use the prior selling price as a unique reference point. Investors are more likely to repurchase a stock when trading above its reference point, but more likely to initiate the repurchase when trading below. Investors are influenced by previous experience and engage learning behavior when they seek to reinforce past success. As reference points are inferred but infrequently researched, this research adds to the literature and provides important and robust results for those engaging with financial planning clients.

Suggested Citation

  • Gizelle D. Willows & Daniel W. Richards, 2023. "Buy and buy again: The impact of unique reference points on (re)purchase decisions," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 301-316, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:irvfin:v:23:y:2023:i:2:p:301-316
    DOI: 10.1111/irfi.12399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/irfi.12399
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/irfi.12399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richards, Daniel W. & Willows, Gizelle D., 2018. "Who trades profusely? The characteristics of individual investors who trade frequently," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-11.
    2. Amir, Eli & Ganzach, Yoav, 1998. "Overreaction and underreaction in analysts' forecasts," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 333-347, November.
    3. Alwathainani, Abdulaziz M., 2012. "Consistent winners and losers," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 210-220.
    4. Wing-Keung Wong & Sheung-Chi Chow & Tai-Yuen Hon & Kai-Yin Woo, 2018. "Empirical study on conservative and representative heuristics of Hong Kong small investors adopting momentum and contrarian trading strategies," International Journal of Revenue Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(2), pages 146-167.
    5. Clapp, John M. & Tirtiroglu, Dogan, 1994. "Positive feedback trading and diffusion of asset price changes: Evidence from housing transactions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 337-355, August.
    6. Kaustia, Markku, 2010. "Prospect Theory and the Disposition Effect," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 791-812, June.
    7. Chang, Charles & Jiang, Jing & Kim, Kenneth A., 2009. "A test of the representativeness bias effect on stock prices: A study of Super Bowl commercial likeability," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 49-51, April.
    8. Buchanan, Joy A., 2020. "My reference point, not yours," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 297-311.
    9. Baker, Malcolm & Pan, Xin & Wurgler, Jeffrey, 2012. "The effect of reference point prices on mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 49-71.
    10. Wu, Chen-Hui & Wu, Chin-Shun & Liu, Victor W., 2009. "The conservatism bias in an emerging stock market: Evidence from Taiwan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 494-505, September.
    11. Tekçe, Bülent & Yılmaz, Neslihan & Bildik, Recep, 2016. "What factors affect behavioral biases? Evidence from Turkish individual stock investors," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 515-526.
    12. Itzhak Ben-David & David Hirshleifer, 2012. "Are Investors Really Reluctant to Realize Their Losses? Trading Responses to Past Returns and the Disposition Effect," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(8), pages 2485-2532.
    13. Habib Hussain Khan & Iram Naz & Fiza Qureshi & Abdul Ghafoor, 2017. "Heuristics and stock buying decision: Evidence from Malaysian and Pakistani stock markets," Borsa Istanbul Review, Research and Business Development Department, Borsa Istanbul, vol. 17(2), pages 97-110, June.
    14. Nofsinger, John R. & Varma, Abhishek, 2013. "Availability, recency, and sophistication in the repurchasing behavior of retail investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2572-2585.
    15. Cary Frydman & Samuel M. Hartzmark & David H. Solomon, 2018. "Rolling Mental Accounts," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 362-397.
    16. Haiqi Li & Yu Guo & Sung Y. Park, 2017. "Asymmetric Relationship between Investors' Sentiment and Stock Returns: Evidence from a Quantile Non†causality Test," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 617-626, December.
    17. Kevin Brady & Arjan Premti, 2019. "How Do Investors Determine Stock Prices after Large Price Shocks?," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 354-368, July.
    18. Seung‐Chan Park, 2010. "The Moving Average Ratio and Momentum," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 415-447, May.
    19. Haipeng (Allan) Chen & Akshay R. Rao, 2002. "Close Encounters of Two Kinds: False Alarms and Dashed Hopes," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 178-196, August.
    20. Meir Statman, 2019. "A Second Generation Behavioral Finance," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Behavioral Finance The Coming of Age, chapter 1, pages 3-21, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    21. Christopher Riley & Barbara Summers & Darren Duxbury, 2020. "Capital Gains Overhang with a Dynamic Reference Point," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4726-4745, October.
    22. Chueh-Yung Tsao & Chun I Lee & Yih-Wen Shyu, 2017. "Crossing of Psychological Price Levels: The Price Dynamics and Interaction between S&P500 Index and Index Futures," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 427-447, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jakusch, Sven Thorsten & Meyer, Steffen & Hackethal, Andreas, 2019. "Taming models of prospect theory in the wild? Estimation of Vlcek and Hens (2011)," SAFE Working Paper Series 146, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2019.
    2. Mei‐Chen Lin, 2018. "The effect of 52 week highs and lows on analyst stock recommendations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(S1), pages 375-422, November.
    3. Li An & Huijun Wang & Jian Wang & Jianfeng Yu, 2020. "Lottery-Related Anomalies: The Role of Reference-Dependent Preferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 473-501, January.
    4. Min Dai & Yipeng Jiang & Hong Liu & Jing Xu, 2023. "A Rational Theory for Disposition Effects," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 47, pages 131-157, January.
    5. Li, Jianbiao & Niu, Xiaofei & Li, Dahui & Cao, Qian, 2018. "Using Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation to Test the Role of Self-Control in Investor Behavior," EconStor Preprints 177890, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Christopher Riley & Barbara Summers & Darren Duxbury, 2020. "Capital Gains Overhang with a Dynamic Reference Point," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4726-4745, October.
    7. Bachmann, Kremena, 2024. "Do you have a choice?: Implications for belief updating and the disposition effect," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Brettschneider, Julia & Burro, Giovanni & Henderson, Vicky, 2021. "Wide framing disposition effect: An empirical study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 330-347.
    9. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, January.
    10. Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & David Hume & John Gathergood & George Loewenstein & Neil Stewart, 2023. "At the Top of the Mind: Peak Prices and the Disposition Effect," Discussion Papers 2023-09, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    11. Jonathan E. Ingersoll Jr. & Lawrence J. Jin, 2014. "Realization Utility with Reference-Dependent Preferences," Papers 1408.2859, arXiv.org.
    12. Li, Jennifer (Jie) & Massa, Massimo & Zhang, Hong & Zhang, Jian, 2021. "Air pollution, behavioral bias, and the disposition effect in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 641-673.
    13. Choi, Darwin, 2019. "Disposition sales and stock market liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 19-36.
    14. Kahya, Evrim Hilal & Ekinci, Cumhur, 2022. "Disposition bias among Borsa Istanbul investors: What do we know about type, size and trading frequency?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    15. Dittmar, Amy & Duchin, Ran & Zhang, Shuran, 2020. "The timing and consequences of seasoned equity offerings: A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 254-276.
    16. Hamdani, Assaf & Lauterbach, Beni & Mugerman, Yevgeny, 2020. "Reservation prices in shareholders’ response to freeze-out tender offers," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Urs Fischbacher & Gerson Hoffmann & Simeon Schudy, 2017. "The Causal Effect of Stop-Loss and Take-Gain Orders on the Disposition Effect," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(6), pages 2110-2129.
    18. Bouteska, Ahmed & Kabir Hassan, M. & Gider, Zeynullah & Bataineh, Hassan, 2024. "The role of investor sentiment and market belief in forecasting V-shaped disposition effect: Evidence from a Bayesian learning process with DSSW model," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Park, Keun Woo & Jeong, Seong Hoon & Oh, Ji Yeol Jimmy, 2019. "Foreigners at the gate? Foreign investor trading and the disposition effect of domestic individual investors," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 165-180.
    20. Cafferata, Alessia & Tramontana, Fabio, 2022. "Disposition Effect and its outcome on endogenous price fluctuations," MPRA Paper 113904, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:irvfin:v:23:y:2023:i:2:p:301-316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1369-412X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.