The psychophysiology of real-time financial risk processing

J Cogn Neurosci. 2002 Apr 1;14(3):323-39. doi: 10.1162/089892902317361877.

Abstract

A longstanding controversy in economics and finance is whether financial markets are governed by rational forces or by emotional responses. We study the importance of emotion in the decision-making process of professional securities traders by measuring their physiological characteristics (e.g., skin conductance, blood volume pulse, etc.) during live trading sessions while simultaneously capturing real-time prices from which market events can be detected. In a sample of 10 traders, we find statistically significant differences in mean electrodermal responses during transient market events relative to no-event control periods, and statistically significant mean changes in cardiovascular variables during periods of heightened market volatility relative to normal-volatility control periods. We also observe significant differences in these physiological responses across the 10 traders that may be systematically related to the traders' levels of experience.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Blood Pressure
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Commerce*
  • Electromyography
  • Emotions / physiology*
  • Female
  • Galvanic Skin Response
  • Heart Rate
  • Humans
  • Investments
  • Male
  • Models, Economic
  • Risk-Taking*