Popular behavioural finance workshop/conference topics
Turning down the decibels
How to deal with 'noise' and information overloadMost popular topic among corporate investors and M&A teams
We are increasingly bombarded with news & information, analyses and commentaries, data and reports. For individuals, managing inbox overload has become a priority in the 21st century. Stress and poor decisions can result. How can decision-making research help investment professionals to cut through the noise and allow them to better base their decisions on what really matters?
Wise crowd or mad herd?
How to identify expertise, avoid group think, and leverage diverse thinking
In different situations teams have been shown to perform better than any of their individual members, while in other cases ‘group-think’ and herding can lead teams to making errors than none of their individual members would make alone. Teams (boards, investment committees, leadership teams, etc) sit at the apex of many decision-making processes, making effective group decision-making critical. How can these teams capture the good and avoid the bad aspects of group decision-making?
The Psychology of Negotiations
Use psychological insights to reach better agreementsParticularly relevant for private equity, venture capital and corproate M&A teams
Negotiating can be one of the most challenging and frustrating parts of a transaction. However, investors can learn to apply insights from psychological research to increase the chances that their valuations and proposed terms are accepted. They can also learn to spot and defend against psychological techniques used by other parties.
Value stock or value trap?
Identify when investors are likely to over- or under-react Particularly relevant for value investors and private equity teams
Investing in value stocks can mean trying to find companies for which the market has over-reacted to apparently bad news. When the fundamentals turn out to be less adverse than expected, value investors can benefit. However, the challenge is distinguishing value stocks from ‘value traps’ in which markets have actually under-reacted. In these cases, more bad news and declining fundamentals can lead to losses. How can the psychological evidence be used to help identify the circumstances in which investors are likely to have over- or under-reacted?
Influencing decisions with financial data, tools & technology
Better communicate financial information & recommendations
Psychological evidence shows that there are three broad challenges when trying to influence people’s decisions with financial data, tools & technology. One is ‘algorithm aversion’, the preference people have in some circumstances to ignore or over-ride data or analyses with their own (as research demonstrates, often inferior) subjective judgments. Another is ‘automation bias’, whereby people can over-rely on automated processes, becoming complacent and failing to exercise critical judgment. A third is that a range of decision-making biases can lead people to simply draw the wrong conclusions from the data or analyses they receive. These issues sit at the increasingly important interface of human behaviour and digital technologies.
