Market Timing - What Some Financial Advisors Say

What Some Financial Advisors Say

Financial advisors often agree that investors have poor timing, becoming less risk averse when markets are high and more risk averse when markets are low. This is consistent with recency bias and seems contrary to the acrophobia explanation. "The only problem is that, unlike Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame, humans are not entirely rational beings."

Proponents of the efficient-market hypothesis claim that prices reflect all available information. EMH assumes that investors are highly intelligent and perfectly rational. However, others dispute this assumption. "Of course, we know stocks don't work that way." In particular, proponents of behavioral finance claim that investors are irrational but their biases are consistent and predictable.

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