The disposition effect in securities trading: An experimental analysis

Martin Weber and Colin F. Camerer

No 276, Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel from Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre

Abstract: The "disposition effect" is the tendency to sell assets that have gained value ("winners") and keep assets that have lost value ("losers"). Disposition effects can be explained by two elements of prospect theory: The idea that people value gains and losses relative to the initial purchase price (a reference point), and the tendency to seek risks when faced with losses and avoid risks when faced with gains. In our experiments, subjects buy and sell shares in six risky assets. Asset prices fluctuate each period. As the disposition effect predicts, subjects sell winners and keep losers. When shares are automatically sold at the end of each period, the disposition effect is greatly reduced.

Date: 1991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/161406/1/manuskript_276.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The disposition effect in securities trading: an experimental analysis (1998)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:cauman:276

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel from Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().