'Is Zero Return A Natural Benchmark for Investors?' a talk by Dr. Sankar De at Conference Room - I, Main Building, India International Centre (IIC), Lodhi Estate > 6:15pm on 7th March 2014

Time : 6:15 pm 

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Note : Call 011-24619431 (IIC) to re-confirm any last minute change or cancellation of the event.

Place : Conference Room - I, Main Building, India International Centre (IIC), 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-110003
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Stations - 'Khan Market(Vilolet Line)' & 'Jor Bagh(Yellow Line)'
Area : Lodhi Road Area Events

Event Description : The Lecture “Is Zero Return A Natural Benchmark for Investors?” by Sankar is part of the SHSS Inaugural Lecture Series organized by The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS), Shiv Nadar University. These are weekly public lectures delivered by the faculty members of SHSS covering their current work and research.

This Talk draws on his research findings presented in a couple of research papers. The findings indicate that individual investors view zero returns as a natural benchmark for their stock trading performance. They increase both buy and sell trading volume if their past investment outcomes are positive, and decrease them if the outcomes are negative, but appear to care much less for the size of the same outcomes(gains as well as losses). This trading behavior is non-rational; it results in economically significant declines in profits from current trades even without taking into account transactions costs. While the findings support the age old knowledge that human thought processes are heavily influenced by the distinction between positive and negative numbers, Professor Sankar De’s research strategy is motivated by recent research in experimental psychology which documents that individual subjects are more sensitive to the presence or absence of a stimulus (such as profits) than to its magnitude. The findings provide new and empirically testable explanations for a number of extensively documented phenomena in finance and accounting, including excessive and sometimes ruinous trading, by overconfident investors. The findings are based on analysis of a very large database of actual trades by all investors in India over a fifteen month period.

Language : English 

About the Speaker : Dr. Sankar De did his Ph. D from University of California – Berkeley. He is Professor of Economic and Director of Centre for Emerging Societies, Shiv Nadar University.Sankar De’s external national and international commitments include President of the Asian Finance; Director Centre for Analytical Finance (CAFIN), University of California at Santa Cruz, member of the Reserve Bank of India’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Money, Foreign Exchange and Government Securities. 

He has served on the faculty at national and international institutions including University of California-
Berkeley, University of Texas-Austen, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta and Indian School of Business. His current research interests are access to finance for underserved sectors and trading and investment decisions of small investors in emerging economies. He received his Ph. D in Financial Economics from University of California-Berkeley and Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Organization : Shiv Nadar University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences. 
Shiv Nadar University is an international, multi-disciplinary research-led university. Located on a 286-acre campus in India's National Capital Region, the University offers undergraduate, post-graduate, and doctoral programs in a range of disciplines in engineering, humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, communication, business, and education. SNU is a private philanthropic institution established by the Shiv Nadar Foundation in 2011 through an act of the State of Uttar Pradesh.

Related Events : Trade | Talks