Although the Efficient Market Hypothesis dismisses the idea that markets have a memory, technical chartists continue to believe that markets can react in similar ways to similar past events. One of the methods of technical analysis commonly used is candlestick charting. The objective of this thesis is to investigate whether or not candlestick charting can be used to predict stock market price movements. This research is in both a quantitative and qualitative form and seeks to establish whether the signals released by candlestick charting could have helped investors to earn abnormal returns over the 25 year period from 1984 to 2008. The FTSE 1 00 index has been chosen to represent the UK stock market as a whole. The month of May has been chosen because in this month the stock market exhibits a high volatility. The quantitative analysis is based on the use of a statistical correlation analysis which is applied both to particular candlesticks and to candlestick patterns. Interviews have also been conducted with financial professionals to gain a qualitative insight into their attitudes towards candlestick charting. A literature review is included to provide a comprehensive overview of the relevant literature in order to develop an understanding of previous work in the field of stock market performance prediction theories. The research suggests that candlesticks and candlestick patterns are not correlated with the movements of share prices, and therefore cannot be used to earn abnormal returns. Candlestick charting can only show stock market reversals and can provide early turning signals. Candlesticks appear to be popular as a result of their "magical" properties in helping investors overcome their fears of the market. This research adds significantly to the understanding of the limitations of technical market analysis and also lends support to the Efficient Market Hypothesis.

This thesis investigates empirically and explains theoretically the voluntary disclosure practices of public companies listed on an emerging European capital market at a time of rapid change. An investigation of the voluntary disclosure definition clarifies research approaches and definitions in prior empirical studies. The thesis also investigates association between selected corporate characteristics and voluntary disclosure. A voluntary disclosure index is developed to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure published in annual reports issued by 87 companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. Segmentation of the voluntary disclosure index into categories of corporate environment, social responsibility and financial information provides scope for further investigation and richer interpretation by testing corporate characteristics against each category of voluntary disclosure. Theoretical considerations and particular institutional and regulatory characteristics are applied to formulate testable hypotheses relating to size, gearing, profitability, liquidity, share marketability, industry, share volatility, share yield, type of report, and listing status. Using univariate and linear regression analysis, significant independent variables that explain variation in overall voluntary disclosure are found to be size, type of report, listing status, industry and share yield. It is also found that the observed association meets expectations in the separate categories of disclosure based on previous empirical work. Interview research is employed to explore further issues related to voluntary disclosure operation aiming at a better assessment of voluntary disclosure. Perceptions of influential market participants (directors, financial analysts, auditors, regulators and bankers) cast light on issues related to cost and benefits related issues, use and credibility of voluntary disclosures. The nature of voluntary disclosure and private voluntary disclosure are assessed through interview analysis. Overall research findings support systematic associations between corporate characteristics and voluntary disclosure. Interpretation is provided for significant and non-significant associations. Conclusions are drawn regarding the relative usefulness of theoretical frameworks in explaining voluntary disclosure in the case of Greece. Proposals for further research and policy implications are discussed.

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Research in economics is increasingly open to empirical results. The advances in behavioural approaches are expanded here by applying cognitive methods to financial questions. The field of "cognitive finance" is approached by the exploration of decision strategies in the financial settings of spending, saving, and investing. Individual strategies in these different domains are searched for and elaborated to derive explanations for observed irregularities in financial decision making. Strong context-dependency and adaptive learning form the basis for this cognition-based approach to finance. Experiments, ratings, and real world data analysis are carried out in specific financial settings, combining different research methods to improve the understanding of natural financial behaviour. People use various strategies in the domains of spending, saving, and investing. Specific spending profiles can be elaborated for a better understanding of individual spending differences. It was found that people differ along four dimensions of spending, which can be labelled: General Leisure, Regular Maintenance, Risk Orientation, and Future Orientation. Saving behaviour is strongly dependent on how people mentally structure their finance and on their self-control attitude towards decision space restrictions, environmental cues, and contingency structures. Investment strategies depend on how companies, in which investments are placed, are evaluated on factors such as Honesty, Prestige, Innovation, and Power. Further on, different information integration strategies can be learned in decision situations with direct feedback. The mapping of cognitive processes in financial decision making is discussed and adaptive learning mechanisms are proposed for the observed behavioural differences. The construal of a "financial personality" is proposed in accordance with other dimensions of personality measures, to better acknowledge and predict variations in financial behaviour. This perspective enriches economic theories and provides a useful ground for improving individual financial services.

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