The role of psychological barriers in lottery-related anomalies
Suk-Joon Byun,
Jihoon Goh and
Da-Hea Kim
Journal of Banking & Finance, 2020, vol. 114, issue C
Abstract:
It is well documented that stocks with lottery-like characteristics are overpriced. We find that the lottery-related anomaly exists primarily among stocks that are far from their 52-week high prices. When implemented among such stocks, the strategy of buying the least lottery-like stocks and selling the most delivers a significantly positive risk-adjusted return of 2.22% per month. In contrast, it yields an insignificant negative return of -0.31% per month for stocks near their 52-week high. The pattern holds after controlling for capital gains overhang and idiosyncratic volatility. We also find that investors’ optimistic earnings forecasts for lottery-like stocks are attenuated by their nearness to the 52-week high. Our findings suggest that investors consider the 52-week high as the upper price limit and that this psychological barrier affects their preferences for lottery-like stocks.
Keywords: Prospect theory; Lottery; Skewness; Psychological barrier; 52-week-high price; Anchoring bias (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G12 G14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:114:y:2020:i:c:s0378426620300546
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2020.105786
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