Download This PaperA Century of Investors
Santa Clara Department of Finance Working Paper No. 02-01
27 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2002
There are 2 versions of this paper
A Century of Investors
Date Written: May 2002
Abstract
Today's investors are more rapidly informed than their predecessors a century ago, but they are neither better informed nor better behaved.
We draw a picture of investors during 1906-1918 from investor questions to The World's Work magazine and compare it to the picture of today's investors as reflected in today's media. The investors of a century ago, like today's investors, wanted to be secure while they aspired to be rich, wanted to save while they were tempted to spend, wanted to avoid the pain of regret and escape taxes. As The World's Work wrote, "Human nature is human nature."
Keywords: Behavioral finance, forecasting, tactical asset allocation, investor sentiment, market efficiency
JEL Classification: G10, G14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation