Bakgrund: Sedan den första kryptotillgången lanserades 2008 har marknaden uppvisat en påfallande tillväxt och under 2017 hade priset på Bitcoin haft en genomsnittlig årlig tillväxt på 1 300%. I takt med att intresset för kryptotillgångar ökat har även allmänintresset tilltagit och många experter har lyft en viss oro huruvida investerare är medvetna om de risker som härrör kring handeln med kryptotillgångar. Kombinationen av den höga risken som kryptoinvestering medför, de beteendefinansiella faktorernas existens samt relevansen av finansiell bildning vid investering gör denna kombination väsentlig att studera för att bättre förstå marknadens kontext. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka svenska kryptoinvesterares kännedom om kognitiva bias, deras finansiella bildning, perspektiv på risk och motivationer till sitt innehav för att bidra med helhetsbild av kryptoinvesterarens tankegångar. Metod: Studiens syfte besvaras med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts för att samla in data. Slutsats: Tre investeringsprofiler har identifierats som motiverar sina innehav i kryptotillgångar baserat på tre olika faktorer. Respondenternas förhållande till risk, kännedom och fallenhet för kognitiva bias samt nivå av finansiell bildning ligger delvis i linje tidigare forskning, samtidigt tyder vissa resonemang på motsättningar.

Background: The year 2022 was eventful and marked by a significant stock market decline. Private investors faced increased pressure to remain calm and not fall into the trap of psychological biases that are particularly destructive during periods like this one. This has contributed to why individuals choose to seek guidance from professional advisers. But the question is whether professional advisers could avoid these psychological biases during this period? A professional adviser should, based on their education, have the ability to minimize the risk of psychological biases that investments can lead to. Their work includes mandatory knowledge updates from the license issuer, Swedsec. The knowledge update 2021 included knowledge of behavioral finance, but the question is whether this knowledge has changed the work of a professional adviser? Because if even professional advisers cannot avoid psychological pitfalls, what is the point of taking guidance? Purpose: The purpose of the study is to map professional advisers' knowledge of behavioral finance and how overconfidence, herd behavior and the disposition effect can be observed in their advisory process during the 2022 stock market decline. Furthermore, the study aims to analyze and create an understanding of how the work of professional advisers has changed since the knowledge update 2021. Method: To fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative method has been used and nine semi-structured interviews with Swedsec-licensed professional advisers have been held. Furthermore, an abductive approach has been adopted to have the opportunity to test the interaction between previous theories and the reality but also to be able to find new theories and patterns based on real observations. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the knowledge of behavioral finance among professional advisers is inadequate but not necessarily wrong. The psychological biases have, more or less, been observed in the advisory process during 2022 where the most prominent bias was the disposition effect. Despite the lack of knowledge, professional advisers have developed unconscious strategies that can mitigate, but not eliminate, the risk of falling into the trap of psychological biases. Finally, none of the advisers have changed their work after Swedsec's 2021 knowledge update to prevent irrational behavior. / Bakgrund: Börsåret 2022 var ett händelserikt år som präglades av en betydande börsnedgång. Icke- professionella investerare stod således inför ökad press att behålla lugnet och inte falla offer för psykologiska bias som är särskilt destruktiva i perioder som denna. Detta har bidragit till varför individer väljer att söka vägledning från professionella rådgivare. Frågan är dock om professionella rådgivare själva kunde motstå att falla offer för psykologiska bias under den här perioden? En professionell rådgivare bör, utifrån deras utbildning, ha förmågan att minimera risken att falla för psykologiska bias i investeringssammanhang. Deras arbete innefattar även obligatoriska kunskapsuppdateringar från licensutgivaren Swedsec. Kunskapsuppdateringen 2021 innehöll att rådgivaren ska ha kännedom kring ekonomisk psykologi, men frågan är om den kunskapen har nått ut och förändrat de professionella rådgivarnas arbete? För om inte ens professionella rådgivare lyckas motstå psykologiska fallgropar, kommer deras vägledning således mer stjälpa än hjälpa kunden? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att kartlägga professionella rådgivares kännedom kring beteendefinans samt hur överkonfidens, flockbeteende och dispositionseffekten kan tydas i deras rådgivning under 2022 års börsnedgång. Vidare syftar studien till att analysera och skapa förståelse för hur arbetet förändrats hos de professionella rådgivarna sedan kunskapsuppdateringen 2021. Metod: För att uppfylla studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts och nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med Swedsec-licenserade professionella rådgivare genomförts. Vidare har en abduktiv ansats antagits för att ha möjlighet att testa samspelet mellan tidigare teorier och verkligheten men även kunna hitta nya teorier och mönster utifrån verkliga observationer. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visade att det fanns bristande kännedom kring beteendefinans bland de professionella rådgivarna. Det betyder dock inte att den befintliga kunskapen är felaktig. Under börsåret 2022 kunde de utvalda börspsykologiska faktorerna antydas i rådgivningen, men i varierande grad, där den mest framträdande biasen var dispositionseffekten. Trots den bristfälliga kännedomen har de professionella rådgivarna utvecklat omedvetna strategier för att mildra, men inte eliminera, risken att falla för psykologiska bias. Slutligen har ingen av rådgivarna förändrat sitt arbetssätt efter Swedsecs kunskapsuppdatering från 2021 för att förhindra irrationellt beteende.

This thesis presents an attempt to find evidence of the ostrich effect and the disposition effect, as well as individual differences in self-assessed financial knowledge and its effect on these biases. The ostrich effect refers to the tendency to deliberately avoid information that might be negative, by "sticking your head in the sand". The disposition effect refers to people who hold on to losing assets too long while selling winning ones too early. The two effects were examined through a natural experiment which emerged from the stock market crash that occurred February 5th, 2018. The data was collected during an internship at Länsförsäkringar AB and originates from the usage of Länsförsäkringar's application Sparnavigatorn, where customers can manage their savings. The customers login activity and number of placed sales orders were observed. The data material is unique, and the study enabled a unique presentation of real life behaviour within a financial context and an analysis of whether individual differences affect behaviour. To our knowledge, neither the ostrich effect nor the disposition effect have earlier been examined through a large scale natural experiment. The results show no significant indication of the ostrich effect, but rather a relatively constant login activity not affected by the stock market crash. Furthermore, they show a contradictory reaction to what the disposition effect suggests, meaning the respondents place more sales orders during the stock market fall than at the time before and after. The results imply that further research needs to be done to either reject or confirm the existence of the ostrich effect and the disposition effect.

Background: The 12th of March 2020 the Stockholm stock market fell close to eleven percent, the biggest decline on the market in modern time, as a result of the Covid-19 virus. Earlier studies have found that many individual investors make ill-considered decisions during sharp price falls which don't benefit their economic interest and that every new financial crisis offers new possibilities to expand the understanding about what underlying factors that are behind the crisis. Studies about psychological shortcomings have earlier been conducted, but not in connection with a stock market crash as a result of a pandemic, which means that there is not much research within the area. Therefore, there is an incentive to investigate which psychological biases individual investors were affected by during the corona crisis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study how a number of Swedish individual investors acted on the stock market during the corona crisis and if it varies depending on how much capital they manage. Which of the psychological biases herd behaviour, the disposition effect, loss aversion and extrapolation bias the individual investors that were interviewed was affected by and how they reasoned during the sharp stock market decline in March 2020. Method: The thesis has been conducted by a qualitative method to fulfil its purpose. The data collection consists of 10 semi-structured interviews with Swedish individual investors and statistics from the stockbroker Avanza. An abductive approach has been adopted to be able to analyse the studied subject and reach a conclusion. Conclusion: The thesis finds that the actions of the investigated individual investors can be divided into three categories. The ones that sold all their stocks when the stock market declined rapidly, the ones that didn’t do anything and the ones that bought more stocks successively. There is no clear connection between managing more money and getting less affected by psychological biases. Furthermore, the respondents were partly affected by how much earlier experience they had, whereas the ones with less experience were to a greater extent affected by psychological biases.

Bakgrund: År 2022 kantades av Rysslands invasion av Ukraina, börsnedgång, stigande inflation och styrräntor. Det bidrog till att allt fler sökte hjälp av finansiella rådgivare för att utifrån livssituationen få hjälp med att nå sina sparmål och maximera sin avkastning. I tidigare forskning råder det delade meningar kring om den finansiella rådgivaren faktiskt bidrar till positiva ekonomiska utfall hos kunden. Å andra sidan får den finansiella rådgivaren, åtminstone privat, kunskap till sig via sitt arbete som torde leda till en hög finansiell bildning. Huruvida det faktiskt bidrar till positiva ekonomiska utfall i den finansiella rådgivarens egna investeringsbeslut och sparande under 2022 leder således till frågan, om de kan hjälpa andra, kan de även hjälpa sig själva? Syfte: Studien syftar till att skapa en förståelse för hur finansiella rådgivares privata sparande och investeringsbeslut samvarierar med olika faktorer såsom livssituation, psykologiska bias och erfarenheter under 2022. Vidare ämnar studien utforska hur finansiella rådgivare ställer sig till ytterligare utbildning inom beteendeekonomi och huruvida de tror att det kan bidra till bättre finansiellt beslutsfattande. Metod: En kvalitativ metod har använts för att uppfylla studiens syfte. Tio finansiella rådgivare intervjuades genom semistrukturerade djupintervjuer. Slutsats: Studien finner att placering i livscykeln, psykologiska bias samt erfarenhet samvarierar med den finansiella rådgivarens privata investeringsbeslut och sparande under 2022. Placeringen i livscykeln samvarierar främst med riskaversionen, därutöver har de finansiella rådgivarna inte kunnat motstå fall av samtliga undersökta bias i studien. Erfarenheten samvarierar med en minskad benägenhet att falla offer för vissa psykologiska bias, förutom överkonfidens, där effekten snarare är den motsatta. Vidare anser de finansiella rådgivarna att ytterligare utbildning inom beteendeekonomi inte skulle vara värdeskapande för deras privata investeringsbeslut, samtidigt som de anser sig ha behov av det i sitt arbete. / Background: The year 2022 was characterized by the invasion of Ukraine, the downturn of the stock market, rising inflation and increases in the benchmark interest rate. This led to the increasing search for financial advisors who, using life circumstances, could assist the individual in reaching personal saving goals and maximizing returns on investments. In prior research, there are divided opinions about whether financial advisors contribute to positive financial outcomes for the client. The financial advisors, at least privately, gain knowledge through their work which should lead to a high level of financial literacy. Whether it contributes to positive financial outcomes in the financial advisor's own investment decisions and savings in 2022 thus leads to the question, if they can help others, can they also help themselves? Aim: The study aims to create an understanding of how financial advisers' private investments decisions and savings in 2022 have been affected by various factors such as life situation, psychological bias, and experiences. Furthermore, the study intends to explore financial advisers' perception of how further education in behavioral economics could have contributed to better financial decision-making. Method: A qualitative method has been used to fulfill the purpose of the study. Ten financial advisors were interviewed through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Conclusion: The study finds that placement in the life cycle, psychological bias, and experience had an impact on financial advisors’ private investment decisions and savings during 2022. The placement in the lifecycle primarily influences the risk aversion, while the financial advisors have not been able to withstand cases of all investigated biases in the study. Experience has contributed to mitigating the impact of psychological biases to some extent while also creating overconfidence. The financial advisors believe that additional education in behavioral economics would not add value to their private investment decisions, while they consider themselves to need it in their work.