Ownership of Market Investments: Behavioural Finance Through a Benthamite Lens

Abstract

People will attribute greater value to things when they have established ownership of them and this applies to stock market investments. The objective of this research is to critically examine behavioral finance. The nature of behavioral finance is the subject of the research question. Argument seeks to sustain the proposition that behavioral finance can be critically explained through the lens of Bentham's theory of utilitarianism. The research's argument is constructed from library research, drawing new and extended syntheses from the available scholarship, using the lens of Bentham's pleasure pain conceptions. Abalance of pleasure and pain determines future actions, with market efficiency not conforming to human desires. Companies tend to determine their future expectations based entirely on past data, representing pleasure in positive forecasts, and risk aversion being the opposing pole of Bentham's utilitarian thesis. Impersonating others' way of behaving is normal during seasons of market inconsistencies, recommending that joy in group conduct will out-weigh scientific choices.