Understanding Individual Investment Decisions Through Behavioral Biases: Evidence from Morocco (African Scientific Journal)

Summary

• Of the 300 questionnaires distributed to retail investors, 112 were fully completed and retained for analysis.p.2
• The response rate was approximately 37% and the questionnaire had 37 items.p.12
• Exploratory factor analysis gave a KMO value of 0.728 and a total explained variance of 68.32%.p.14
• Market variables exert a strong influence, with mean scores of 4.45, 4.56 and 4.39 for share price fluctuations, financial market data and prior price patterns.p.19
• Investors rate their performance relatively low, with means of 2.55 for initial expectations, 2.72 for market performance and 2.88 for satisfaction.p.21

Key insights

1. The gambler's fallacy has a limited influence on investment choices, with an average score of 2.84.p.18
2. Investors show a strong inclination to evaluate each component of their assets individually (X13, average = 4.02).p.19
3. Stock price fluctuations have a mean of 4.45 and a standard deviation of 1.15, indicating variation in how strongly investors perceive their influence.p.20
4. Respondents' satisfaction with their investment decisions over the previous year is relatively low (Y3 mean = 2.88).p.21
5. The findings do not support the hypothesis that all behavioral finance factors have a high influence on investment decisions.p.20