STA Monthly Meeting – June 2015
Since the 1960s cognitive psychology has demonstrated many apparently unrelated ‘heuristics’ that lead to cognitive errors. Behavioural Finance, which is the study of how these errors affect financial decisions, has developed rapidly since its start in the early 1990s, but it remains an unstructured area of research and the effects of some of the heuristics seem to contradict each other.
Dr Anderson surveys the most important heuristics with some surprising examples and relates them to how investors think. He will also cover in detail why we might expect these heuristics to weigh particularly heavily on the decisions of financial analysts and fund managers.
- We don’t think how we think we think – examples
- Information processing problems: Forecasting errors, Overconfidence, Conservatism, Sample size neglect, Representativeness, Availability
- Biased decision making: Framing, Mental Accounting, Regret Avoidance, Prospect Theory
- Experts’ decisions: Historical examples, Configural processing, Economic forecasts
- Analysts’ forecasts: Over-optimism, Herding, Career concerns
- Fund managers: Groupthink, Short-termism, Benchmarks, Career concerns
Dr Keith Anderson worked in systems development for some years, latterly at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, before becoming interested in finance as a private investor. He is currently a Lecturer in Finance at the York Management School, University of York.
Next STA Meeting
STA Monthly Meeting – May 2025
Behavioural Finance and Trading Psychology
Why do traders make irrational decisions — even when they know better?
In this eye-opening online Masterclass, Kim Cramer Larsson, a seasoned Technical Analyst with over 25 years of experience, explores the powerful psychological forces that influence financial decision-making. Drawing on his deep expertise in both market behaviour and trading psychology, Kim offers a compelling look at why traders and investors often fall into the same traps — and how to avoid them.
The talk begins with a look at the trader sentiment roadmap, illustrating how collective emotion shapes market direction. From there, Kim delves into the fundamentals of trading psychology, exploring how emotions, the illusion of control, and our natural aversion to loss impact trading performance. He’ll also examine the subtle but critical role that positioning plays in shaping both perception and risk.
One of the central themes is “Pain & Gain – and an Inconvenient Truth,” where Kim explains why discipline in trading is so difficult to master, even for experienced professionals. The session wraps up with a thought-provoking look at the psychology behind market bubbles — from euphoria to collapse — and what these cycles reveal about investor behaviour
Why do traders make irrational decisions — even when they know better?
In this eye-opening online Masterclass, Kim Cramer Larsson, a seasoned Technical Analyst with over 25 years of experience, explores the powerful psychological forces that influence financial decision-making. Drawing on his deep expertise in both market behaviour and trading psychology, Kim offers a compelling look at why traders and investors often fall into the same traps — and how to avoid them.
The talk begins with a look at the trader sentiment roadmap, illustrating how collective emotion shapes market direction. From there, Kim delves into the fundamentals of trading psychology, exploring how emotions, the illusion of control, and our natural aversion to loss impact trading performance. He’ll also examine the subtle but critical role that positioning plays in shaping both perception and risk.
One of the central themes is “Pain & Gain – and an Inconvenient Truth,” where Kim explains why discipline in trading is so difficult to master, even for experienced professionals. The session wraps up with a thought-provoking look at the psychology behind market bubbles — from euphoria to collapse — and what these cycles reveal about investor behaviour
Future STA Meetings
STA Monthly Meeting – June 2025
Joint Panel Debate with the ACI UK, The Broker Club and The Commodity Trading Club
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