eprintid: 14427 rev_number: 28 eprint_status: archive userid: 600 dir: disk0/00/01/44/27 datestamp: 2009-07-13 13:36:00 lastmod: 2015-07-23 09:36:16 status_changed: 2009-07-13 13:36:00 type: working_paper metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Cipriani, M. creators_name: Guarino, A. creators_id: creators_id: AGUAR93 title: Herd behavior in financial markets: a field experiment with financial market professionals ispublished: pub subjects: 12000 subjects: 13200 divisions: F24 abstract: We study herd behavior in a laboratory financial market with financial market professionals. We compare two treatments: one in which the price adjusts to the order flow in such a way that herding should never occur, and one in which the presence of event uncertainty makes herding possible. In the first treatment, traders seldom herd, in accordance with both the theory and previous experimental evidence on student subjects. A proportion of traders, however, engage in contrarianism, something not accounted for by the theory. In the second treatment, on the one hand, the proportion of herding decisions increases, but not as much as the theory would suggest; on the other hand, contrarianism disappears altogether. In both treatments, in contrast with what theory predicts, subjects sometimes prefer to abstain from trading, which affects negatively the process of price discovery. date: 2007-06 publisher: ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution official_url: http://else.econ.ucl.ac.uk/newweb/papers.php#2007 vfaculties: VSHS oa_status: green language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green lyricists_name: Guarino, A lyricists_id: AGUAR93 full_text_status: public series: ELSE Working Papers number: 272 place_of_pub: London, UK citation: Cipriani, M.; Guarino, A.; (2007) Herd behavior in financial markets: a field experiment with financial market professionals. (ELSE Working Papers 272). ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution: London, UK. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14427/1/14427.pdf