Intuition and mood of investors in financial markets : An experiment focusing on zero-moment transactions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate investor behaviour related to the timing of selling financial assets based on an intuitive evaluation of the current market trend and growth expectation. Design/methodology/approach The experiment involved 1,052 volunteer participants who made decisions about stock sales in an environment that simulated a home broker platform to negotiate stocks. Zero-inflated regression models were used. Findings The results show that investors’ attitudes, or beliefs, determine whether they will buy or keep risky assets in their investment portfolios; they may decide to sell such assets, even though market shows an upward trend. Such results make a new contribution to behavioural finance within the context of prospect theory and the disposition effect. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in the use of new and innovative techniques (zero-inflated Poisson and negative binomial regression models) applied to real data obtained experimentally.