Mind Over Money
By Barry Ritholtz - April 28th, 2010, 7:00PM
>
Looks fascinating: Can markets be rational when Humans are not?
Wednesday, April 28 — 09:00pm
Mind Over Money
Why the brain can misfire when money is involved, from Wall Street experts not predicting the economic collapse of 2008 to the irrational money-related decisions everyday people can make.
duration: 60 min
The Disposition Effect
Trust your gut when trading stocks? Do no such thing, argues David Adler, producer of “Mind Over Money.”
The Deciding Factor
A new study at Harvard is exploring how emotions affect our decisions, whether we like it or not. Using analysis and experiment, this film explores why economists failed to predict the 2008 crash and why we so often make irrational financial decisions.
Tweet
Facebook
Reddit
Digg this!
April 28th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I saw this last night! Excellent documentary, I highly recommend it.
April 28th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Reminds me of some of the themes in Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational, great book.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I DVR’ed it, looking forward to seeing the episode. Along similar lines I ran across an interesting article on a science blog http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/04/enculturation_and_wall_street.php
Expert from the blog…
“The success of financial reform won’t ultimately depend on the precise details of derivative regulation, or the specific powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Instead, it will depend on whether or not reform has created a structure – either in the private sector or in government – where people are able to notice the red ten of spades before it’s too late. Every mind has blind spots; that’s an inevitable side-effect of knowledge. The key is to make sure not everyone is blind to the same thing.”
I haven’t gotten through the whole thing, but it’s an interesting read so far.
April 28th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
laid…. back
with my mind over money and my money over mind……………………………………
April 29th, 2010 at 2:06 am
I don’t think “Wall Street experts not predicting the economic collapse of 2008″ is a matter of mind over money. It is a matter of money over mind. I forget the exact quote but it is something along the lines of “it is impossible to get someone to understand something when their job depends on their not understanding it”.
April 29th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Saw it. Nothing too new. It’s always been known that at the most visceral level markets are driven by fear & greed. Thought perhaps a better selection of a sample population, for example would WWII / depression era folks who are now seniors, middle class parents, working poor or new immigrants, rather than mostly college kids & grad students perhaps result in somewhat different data.
April 29th, 2010 at 3:33 am
Seems like Monday morning quarterbacking…’oh we’ve figured it for real this time, trust us please’.
April 29th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
You can watch “Mind Over Money” online here:
http://www.pbs.me/
Click the NOVA icon.
April 29th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Not all economists missed the bubble. Some are getting tarred and feathered for taking too much of an advantage of it right now.
Some economists assisted in creating the bubble and knew it would crash but not when. “Irrational Exuberance” was a catchphrase from the Prime Mover.