Analysis of Behavioral Biases Affecting Investment Decisions of Individual Investors using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Individual investors exhibiting irrational behaviors may encounter a difficult situation in financial markets. Investor trends, also known as behavioral trends, have been introduced under different headlines in different studies. Overconfidence, representation, anchoring, regret aversion, and herding were included in the research study. In this study, it was aimed to determine the order of importance of investor biases of individual investors trading in Borsa Istanbul. For this purpose, a survey questionnaire was applied to individual investors trading in BIST. Analytical Hierarchy Process was utilized in testing the research model. A total of 411 participants contributed to the study. As a result of the study, regret aversion bias and overconfidence bias were the leading biases to which individual investors attached importance. However, the criterion (C41) “I feel sorrow for the long-losing stocks I hold.” was found to rank highest among all sub-criteria. This sub-criterion is part of regret aversion bias. Regret aversion bias was also the main criterion ranking highest among all criteria. Upon considering the other sub-criteria of regret aversion bias; C42, C43, and C44 sub-criteria were found to rank second, fourth, and eleventh, respectively. C12 criterion, which ranked third, was seen to belong to overconfidence bias, and this bias ranked second among the main criteria. This research would contribute to a better comprehension of the behavioral biases that affect the decision-making of individual investors trading in BIST. The obtained results of the study are thought to contribute to the behavioral finance literature.