Preventing Emotional Investing: <i>An Added Value</i><i>of an Investment Advisor</i>

Abstract

1. Philip Z. Maymin 1. is an assistant professor of finance and risk engineering at NYU-Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, NY. (phil{at}maymin.com) 2. Gregg S. Fisher 1. is a president and CIO at Gerstein Fisher in New York City, NY. (gfisher{at}gersteinfisher.com) <!-- --> 1. To order reprints of this article, please contact Dewey Palmieri at dpalmieri{at}iijournals.com or 212-224-3675. The authors analyze a unique, comprehensive, multi-decade dataset of all communications with clients by a boutique investment advisory and investment management firm to explore the behavior of individuals involved in financial decision making. They propose and test a theory of self-regulation to explain both the appeal and the value of investment managers to individual investors, and they find that all of the predictions of the theory are borne out by the data. In short, this unique dataset suggests that an important service provided by investment advisors, and apparently desired by individual investors, is the barrier the advisor provides to prevent the individual from aggressively trading and thereby losing money. TOPICS: [Wealth management][1], [in wealth management][2] [1]: https://www.pm-research.com/topic/wealth-management [2]: https://www.pm-research.com/topic/wealth-management-0