Explaining investor behavior using an adjective check list

Using data for more than 500 investors, this study shows that propensity to seek novelty and avoid ill-defined and risky situations differs between investors who currently either own or do not own each of a wide variety of types of assets. These results give additional support to the findings of McInish (1982), Shefrin and Statman (1984) and Harlow and Brown (1990) that psychological approaches can be useful in explaining investor behavior. © 1991