The objectives of this thesis are: first, to investigate the impact of investor sentiment in UK financial markets in different investment intervals through the construction of separate sentiment measures for UK investors and UK institutional investors; second, to examine institutional herding behaviour by studying UK mutual fund data; third, to explore the causal relation between institutional herding and investor sentiment. The study uses US, German and UK financial market data and investor sentiment survey data from 1st January 1996 to 30th June 2011. The impact of investor sentiment on UK equity returns is studied both in general, and more specifically by distinguishing between tranquil and financial crisis periods. It is found that UK equity returns are significantly influenced by US individual and institutional sentiment and hardly at all by local UK investor sentiment. The sentiment contagion across borders is more pronounced in the shorter investment interval. The investigation of institutional herding behaviour is conducted by examining return dispersions and the Beta dispersions of UK mutual funds. Little evidence of herding in return is found, however strong evidence of Beta herding is presented. The study also suggests that beta herding is not caused by market fundamental and macroeconomic factors, instead, it perhaps arises from investor sentiment. This is consistent between closed-end and open-ended funds. The relation between institutional herding and investor sentiment is investigated by examining the measures of herding against the measures of investor sentiment in the UK and US. It suggests that UK institutional herding is influenced by investor sentiment, and UK institutional sentiment has a greater impact as compared to UK market sentiment. Open-end fund managers are more likely to be affected by individual investor sentiment, whereas closed-end fund managers herd on institutional sentiment.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Since the discovery of herding behaviour in financial markets in the 1990s, it has become an area of interest for many investors, practitioners and scholars. Herding behaviour occurs when investors and market participants trade in the same direction during the same time period, as a result of the influence of other investors. Studies on herding behaviour have been undertaken in both the developed and developing economies and majority of these studies have confirmed the existence of herding behaviour in the stock markets. Despite its tremendous growth, the South African financial markets are not immune to such market anomaly. Herding behaviour on the JSE was first investigated in 2002 focusing in the unit trust industry on the South African stock market. Motivated by this, this study assessed the presence of herding behaviour using the Johannesburg Securities Exchange tradable sector indices. Four indices were employed, namely Financials, Industrials and Resources and were benchmarked against the JSE All Share Index for the period from January 2007 to December 2017. The industrials index ((FINI15) constitutes of 25 largest industrial stocks by market capitalization, the financials index (FINI15) comprises of 15 largest financial stocks by market capitalization, the resources index (RESI10) which represents 10 largest resources stocks by market capitalization and lastly the FTSE/JSE All Share Index defined as a market capitalization-weighted index which is made up of 150 JSE listed companies and is the largest index in terms of size and overall value JSE. The FTSE/JSE All Share Index was used as a benchmark for investors to check how volatile an investment is. The South African economy experienced the effects of the 2008 global financial crisis from 01 July 2007 to 31 August 2009. This study split the examination period into three categories namely before the global financial crises which was the period starting from 1 January 2007 to 30 June 2007, then the period during the global financial crisis which was from 1 July 2007 to 31 August 2009 and lastly the period after the global financial crises which was from 1 September 2009 to 31 December 2017. Apart from the diversity of the indices, the length of the examination period also had a significant influence towards the magnitude of herding behaviour on the JSE.

Bakgrund: Efter många år av högkonjunktur är den svenska ekonomin prognostiserad att föras in i en lågkonjunktur under 2023. Hög inflation hanteras med stigande räntor vilket påverkar investerare på flera sätt, men det finns också en rad börspsykologiska faktorer som kan ha en inverkan på investerare och deras beslut. En åldersgrupp som aldrig investerat under en lågkonjunktur är generation Z. Det är därför intressant att undersöka hur börspsykologiska faktorer påverkar generation Z:s investeringsbeslut under ingången av en lågkonjunktur. Syfte: Syftet med arbetet är därför att undersöka och åskådliggöra vilka börspsykologiska faktorer som har en påverkan på generation Z:s beslutsfattande i ingången av en lågkonjunktur.  Metod: Studien har antagit en kvantitativ insamlingsmetod med en deduktiv ansats, detta genom en genomgripande litteraturstudie följt av en enkätundersökning. Analysen har antagit ett deskriptivt förhållningssätt men har också bestått av enkel linjär regression. Slutsats: Resultatet av undersökningen visar att det finns tendenser av samtliga börspsykologiska biaser i generation Z. Av regressionsanalysen att döma går det dock endast att utläsa signifikanta samband mellan biaserna overconfidence, herding behaviour och anchoring bias mot generation Z:s investeringsbeslut under ingången av en lågkonjunktur.

The purpose of this study is to examine the investment behaviour of women during the current recession and how demographic factors impact psychological biases related to investment behaviour. This research aims to examine the impact of age, marital status, education, income, cultural background and financial literacy on various biases such as overconfidence, confirmation bias, herding behaviour, representativeness bias, anchoring bias, risk- and loss aversion.  A questionnaire was conducted to collect data, resulting in a dataset of 558 observations. Using a deductive approach, based on theories of thirty-six hypotheses was tested using ordered logistic regression analysis. The primary findings revealed multiple connections between the demographic profiles of female investors and their investment behaviours, concerning psychological biases. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the relationship between investment behaviour and economic recession and provides stakeholders with valuable insights to tailor their communications and strategies to engage female investors. By analysing existing behavioural finance theories and empirical data, the study aims to improve understanding of women's investment preferences and attitudes across different demographic groups. Finally, the study aims to increase women's interest in managing their wealth and improving their financial decisions.