IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oaefxx/v5y2017i1p1295618.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Buy, sell, or hold? A sense-making account of factors influencing trading decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Daphne Sobolev
  • Bryan Chan
  • Nigel Harvey

Abstract

We investigated the effects of news valence, the direction of trends in graphically presented price series, and the culture and personality of traders in a financial trading task. Participants were given 12 virtual shares of financial assets and asked to use price graphs and news items to maximize their returns by buying, selling, or holding each one. In making their decisions, they were influenced by properties of both news items and price series but they relied more on the former. Western participants had lower trading latencies and lower return dispersions than Eastern participants. Those with greater openness to experience had lower trading latencies. Participants bought more shares when they forecast that prices would rise but failed to sell more when they forecast that they would fall. These findings are all consistent with the view that people trading assets try to make sense of information by incorporating it within a coherent narrative.

Suggested Citation

  • Daphne Sobolev & Bryan Chan & Nigel Harvey, 2017. "Buy, sell, or hold? A sense-making account of factors influencing trading decisions," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 1295618-129, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oaefxx:v:5:y:2017:i:1:p:1295618
    DOI: 10.1080/23322039.2017.1295618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/23322039.2017.1295618
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/23322039.2017.1295618?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zaleskiewicz, Tomasz, 2011. "Financial forecasts during the crisis: Were experts more accurate than laypeople?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 384-390, June.
    2. Tuckett, David, 2012. "Financial markets are markets in stories: Some possible advantages of using interviews to supplement existing economic data sources," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1077-1087.
    3. Oberlechner, Thomas & Hocking, Sam, 2004. "Information sources, news, and rumors in financial markets: Insights into the foreign exchange market," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 407-424, June.
    4. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1775-1798 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Hayo, Bernd & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2012. "Bank of Canada communication, media coverage, and financial market reactions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 369-372.
    6. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Paul De Grauwe, 2010. "Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Macroeconomics," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 56(4), pages 465-497, December.
    8. Harras, Georges & Sornette, Didier, 2011. "How to grow a bubble: A model of myopic adapting agents," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 137-152.
    9. Ackert, Lucy F. & Church, Bryan K. & Zhang, Ping, 2002. "Market behavior in the presence of divergent and imperfect private information: experimental evidence from Canada, China, and the United States," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 435-450, April.
    10. Lawrence, Michael & Goodwin, Paul & O'Connor, Marcus & Onkal, Dilek, 2006. "Judgmental forecasting: A review of progress over the last 25 years," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 493-518.
    11. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    12. Joseph E. Engelberg & Christopher A. Parsons, 2011. "The Causal Impact of Media in Financial Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 67-97, February.
    13. Anufriev, Mikhail & Panchenko, Valentyn, 2009. "Asset prices, traders' behavior and market design," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1073-1090, May.
    14. Nigel Nicholson & Emma Soane & Mark Fenton-O'Creevy & Paul Willman, 2005. "Personality and domain-specific risk taking," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 157-176, March.
    15. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, June.
    16. Reeves, Rachel & Sawicki, Michael, 2007. "Do financial markets react to Bank of England communication?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 207-227, March.
    17. M. C. Findlay & E. E. Williams, 2000. "A Fresh Look at the Efficient Market Hypothesis: How the Intellectual History of Finance Encouraged a Real “Fraud-on-The-Market”," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 181-199, December.
    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. Ding, Rong & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Yue (Lucy) & Zhang, John Ziyang, 2018. "Media censorship and stock price: Evidence from the foreign share discount in China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 112-133.
    2. Wenwen Liu & Jinyu Yang & Jingrui Chen & Lei Xu, 2023. "How Social-Network Attention and Sentiment of Investors Affect Commodity Futures Market Returns: New Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, January.
    3. Marmora, Paul, 2021. "Individual investor ownership and the news coverage premium," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 494-507.
    4. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer & Abhay K. Singh, 2019. "Daily market news sentiment and stock prices," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(30), pages 3212-3235, June.
    5. Ahmed, Yousry & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2016. "The effect of bidder conservatism on M&A decisions: Text-based evidence from US 10-K filings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 176-190.
    6. Goldman, Eitan & Martel, Jordan & Schneemeier, Jan, 2022. "A theory of financial media," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 239-258.
    7. Ferdinand Graf, 2011. "Mechanically Extracted Company Signals and their Impact on Stock and Credit Markets," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2011-18, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    8. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9553 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Di Giuli, Alberta & Laux, Paul A., 2022. "The effect of media-linked directors on financing and external governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 103-131.
    10. Ahmad, Khurshid & Han, JingGuang & Hutson, Elaine & Kearney, Colm & Liu, Sha, 2016. "Media-expressed negative tone and firm-level stock returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 152-172.
    11. Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & López-Cabarcos, M.Ángeles & Ribeiro-Soriano, Domingo, 2020. "Does investor attention influence water companies’ stock returns?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. Kaniel, Ron & Parham, Robert, 2017. "WSJ Category Kings – The impact of media attention on consumer and mutual fund investment decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 337-356.
    13. Qian Chen & Xiang Gao & Jianming Mo & Zhouling Xu, 2022. "Market Reaction to Local Attention around Earnings Announcements in China: Evidence from Internet Search Activity," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, October.
    14. Cai, Wenwu & Lu, Jing, 2019. "Investors’ financial attention frequency and trading activity," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    15. Jūra Liaukonytė & Alminas Žaldokas, 2022. "Background Noise? TV Advertising Affects Real-Time Investor Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 2465-2484, April.
    16. Di, Li & Shaiban, Mohammed Sharaf & Hasanov, Akram Shavkatovich, 2021. "The power of investor sentiment in explaining bank stock performance: Listed conventional vs. Islamic banks," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    17. Thang Ngoc Doan & Dong Phu Do & Dat Van Luong, 2023. "Monetary stance and favorableness of the monetary policy in the media: the case of Vietnam," Journal of Asian Business and Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(2), pages 111-123, August.
    18. Chen, Xing & Diao, Xundi & Wu, Chongfeng, 2022. "Heterogeneous investor attention and post earnings announcement drift: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    19. Massa, Massimo & chuprinin, oleg & Gaspar, Sérgio, 2016. "Adjusting to The Information Environment: News Tangibility and Mutual Fund Performance," CEPR Discussion Papers 11473, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Laura Xiaolei Liu & Ann E. Sherman & Yong Zhang, 2014. "The Long-Run Role of the Media: Evidence from Initial Public Offerings," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1945-1964, August.
    21. Truong, Quang-Thai & Tran, Quynh-Nhu & Bakry, Walid & Nguyen, Duc Nguyen & Al-Mohamad, Somar, 2021. "Football sentiment and stock market returns: Evidence from a frontier market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).

    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:taf:oaefxx:v:5:y:2017:i:1:p:1295618. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/OAEF20 .

    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.