Beyond Greed and Fear

Abstract Behavioral finance is the study of how psychology impacts finance. This book represents the first general, comprehensive treatment of the subject. The book explains how psychological phenomena impact the entire field of finance. Readers will learn to recognize the influence of psychology on themselves, on others, and on the financial environment at large. Psychology is the basis for human desires, goals, and motivations. Psychology is also the basis for a wide variety of human errors that stem from perceptual illusions, overconfidence, over‐reliance on rules of thumb, and emotions. Errors and bias cut across the entire financial landscape, affecting individual investors, institutional investors, analysts, strategists, brokers, portfolio managers, options traders, currency traders, futures traders, plan sponsors, financial executives, and financial commentators in the media.