Emotional State and Market Behavior

Adriana Breaban (agbreaban@gmail.com) and Charles Noussair

No 2013/08, Working Papers from Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain)

Abstract: We consider the relationship between the emotional state of asset traders and market prices. We create experimental asset markets with the structure first studied by Smith, Suchanek and Williams (1988), which is known to generate price bubbles and crashes. We analyze participants' facial expressions with facereading software before and while the market is operating. We find that greater positive emotion in facial expressions before the market opens predicts higher prices and larger bubbles. Greater fear predicts lower prices and smaller bubbles. Those traders who remain the most neutral during periods of market volatility achieve the highest earnings. Loss aversion in decision making is correlated with fear, but not with other emotions.

Keywords: Bubble; Emotions; Facereading; Face; Crash (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 G02 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Emotional State and Market Behavior (2018)
Working Paper: Emotional state and Market Behavior (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jau:wpaper:2013/08

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