Insider Trading
10 Biggest Insider Trading Cases in History
The 10 biggest insider trading cases in history, from Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken to Raj Rajaratnam and SAC Capital. Facts, fines, prison sentences, and what investors can learn.
Read article →10b5-1 Plans Explained: Pre-Programmed Insider Trading
SEC Rule 10b5-1 plans allow insiders to trade on a pre-set schedule. Learn how they work, the 2023 SEC amendments, academic criticism, and why 10b5-1 sales are less informative than discretionary purchases.
Read article →Alpha Suite vs Quiver Quantitative: Alt Data Platform or Signal Engine?
Quiver Quantitative is an alternative data warehouse covering Congressional trades, lobbying, and patents. Alpha Suite is a multi-strategy signal engine. A practical comparison.
Read article →Alpha Suite vs Unusual Whales: Options Flow Tracker or Multi-Strategy Engine?
Unusual Whales is an options-flow and politician-trading tracker. Alpha Suite is a multi-strategy signal engine that includes options flow as one of seventeen strategies. Compare data, workflow, and fit.
Read article →Alpha Suite vs WhaleWisdom: Which Smart-Money Tracker Is Right for You?
WhaleWisdom tracks institutional 13F filings; Alpha Suite tracks insider Form 4s plus 10 quant strategies. A practical comparison of data sources, latency, signal types, and ideal use cases.
Read article →CEO Stock Purchases: What They Tell You About a Company
Why CEO and C-suite stock purchases are the most informative insider trades. Academic research, dollar-size thresholds, and how to interpret open-market buys.
Read article →Cluster Buying: Why Multiple Insiders Buying Is the Strongest Signal
Cluster buying — when 3+ insiders purchase stock within 10 days — is the strongest insider trading signal. Academic research from Lakonishok, Lee, and Seyhun explains why.
Read article →How to Track Insider Trading for Free in 2026
Learn how to track insider trading for free using SEC EDGAR, OpenInsider, FinViz, and RSS feeds. Step-by-step guide to monitoring Form 4 filings and identifying cluster buying signals.
Read article →Insider Selling: When to Worry and When to Ignore It
Most insider selling is not bearish. Learn when insider sales are red flags and when they are routine diversification, tax planning, or 10b5-1 plan execution.
Read article →Insider Trading in Europe: AMF, FCA, and BaFin Regulations
European insider trading regulations explained: EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), PDMR transaction reporting, AMF in France, FCA in the UK, BaFin in Germany, and comparison with US Section 16 rules.
Read article →Insider Trading Penalties: Fines, Prison Time, and SEC Enforcement
Complete guide to insider trading penalties: civil fines up to 3x profits, criminal sentences up to 20 years, SEC enforcement process, and notable cases.
Read article →Insider Trading Seasonality: When Do Insiders Buy Most?
Insider trading follows seasonal patterns driven by blackout periods, earnings cycles, and tax planning. Learn when insider purchases are most common and most informative.
Read article →Insider Trading vs. Insider Information: What's the Difference?
Insider information (MNPI) is not illegal to possess — trading on it is. Learn the legal distinction, key court cases, Regulation FD, tipping rules, and how to stay compliant.
Read article →Martha Stewart Insider Trading Case: What Actually Happened
The full story of Martha Stewart's ImClone stock sale, the tip chain from Sam Waksal through Peter Bacanovic, the obstruction charges, and why she was never actually charged with insider trading.
Read article →Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act: A Plain-English Guide
Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 explained: Form 3, Form 4, Form 5 filing requirements, the short-swing profit rule, and why this 1934 law created the insider trading data industry.
Read article →Short-Swing Profit Rule (Section 16b): How It Works
Section 16(b) short-swing profit rule explained: strict liability disgorgement, lowest-in highest-out matching, 6-month window, exemptions, and real-world implications for insider trading.
Read article →The Best Insider Trading Tools in 2026: A Practical Round-Up
An honest comparison of the best free and paid insider trading tools in 2026: SEC EDGAR, OpenInsider, FinViz, WhaleWisdom, Quiver Quantitative, Unusual Whales, and Alpha Suite.
Read article →The Raj Rajaratnam Case: Inside the Largest Insider Trading Bust
The complete story of Raj Rajaratnam and Galleon Group: the FBI wiretaps, the key informants, the trial, and the record-breaking sentence that changed Wall Street enforcement forever.
Read article →What Is Insider Trading? Legal vs. Illegal — A Complete Guide
Insider trading explained: learn the difference between legal and illegal insider trading, how SEC Form 4 works, and why tracking insider purchases can give investors an edge.
Read article →Smart Money Tracking
13D Campaigns: How to Spot Activist Stakes Early
How Schedule 13D filings work, what triggers them, the Brav-Jiang-Partnoy-Thomas (2008) academic evidence on activist abnormal returns, the major activist playbooks (Ackman, Icahn, Elliott, Trian, Starboard), and the 2024 SEC modernization that shortened the filing window.
Read article →Bridgewater 13F Analysis: What Dalio's Filings Reveal (and Don't)
Bridgewater's 13F captures only US-listed long equities — a tiny slice of a global macro fund whose real positioning lives in swaps, futures, and foreign sovereign debt. Here is how to read what the filing shows, and what it conceals.
Read article →Decoding Berkshire's 13F: How to Read Buffett's Quarterly Playbook
How to read Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing: position changes, the concentrated five, the 45-day delay, confidential treatment requests, and what Buffett's portfolio doesn't show. Includes the academic evidence on the post-13F drift.
Read article →Family Offices: The Hidden Whales of Equity Markets
Why family offices fall outside most 13F reporting, the Archegos Capital blowup as a case study in invisible leverage, the regulatory aftermath (Form PF, swap reporting), and what retail trackers can and cannot see in this segment of smart money.
Read article →Insider Clusters vs 13F Clusters: Which Smart-Money Signal Wins?
A head-to-head on the two flavors of smart-money signal: insider Form 4 clusters vs institutional 13F clusters. Latency, signal strength, capacity, and the academic evidence (Cohen-Malloy-Pomorski 2012, Lakonishok-Lee 2001, Sias 2004) on which works better and when.
Read article →Pension Fund Rebalancing: The Predictable Quarterly Flows
Why public pension funds create predictable quarterly equity flows, the academic evidence on month-end rebalancing pressure (Hartzmark & Solomon 2022), the 2008 and 2020 stress-rebalance episodes, and how the shift to LDI changes the picture.
Read article →Sovereign Wealth Funds and Their US Equity Tilts
How the major sovereign wealth funds disclose US equity holdings, why Norway's GPFG is the most transparent fund in the world, the very different regimes at GIC, ADIA, and Saudi PIF, and why SWF disclosures are a long-horizon signal that traders systematically misread.
Read article →The STOCK Act and Congressional Trade Tracking: A Practical Guide
How the STOCK Act of 2012 forced Congress to disclose stock trades within 45 days, what the disclosures cover, the academic evidence on Congressional alpha (Ziobrowski 2004 vs Eggers & Hainmueller 2013), and practical caveats every retail tracker should know.
Read article →Tracking Cathie Wood and Ark Invest: High-Conviction Tech Bets Decoded
How to track Cathie Wood and Ark Invest's daily trade disclosures, why daily transparency is unique among large active managers, the post-2021 performance debate, the “Ark effect” on retail buying, and the concentration risks of innovation-focused active ETFs.
Read article →Tracking Tiger Cubs: The Hedge Fund Network That Defines Growth Investing
How Julian Robertson's Tiger Management spawned the “Tiger Cubs” hedge fund network — Tiger Global, Coatue, Lone Pine, Maverick, Viking — the shared playbook, the academic evidence on crowding, and the 2021–2022 drawdown that hit them all at once.
Read article →SEC Filings
13F Filings Explained: How to Track What Hedge Funds Own
Complete guide to SEC 13F filings: what they contain, who must file, how to track hedge fund holdings, limitations of the data, and how to use 13F data in your investment process.
Read article →8-K Filings: Material Events Every Investor Should Monitor
Complete guide to SEC 8-K current reports: what triggers a filing, key item numbers, which events move stock prices most, and how to monitor 8-Ks on EDGAR for timely trading signals.
Read article →Form 3 vs. Form 4 vs. Form 5: SEC Insider Filing Types Explained
Complete guide to SEC Forms 3, 4, and 5 under Section 16(a). Filing deadlines, transaction codes, what each form contains, and which matters most for investors.
Read article →How to Read a 10-K Filing: A Complete Investor's Guide
Learn how to read an SEC 10-K annual filing step by step: key sections, financial statements, footnotes, red flags, and what experienced investors look for that most people miss.
Read article →How to Read SEC Form 4 Filings: A Complete Guide to Insider Trading Data on EDGAR
Learn how to read SEC Form 4 filings step by step. Understand transaction codes, insider ownership changes, and how to find insider trading filings on EDGAR.
Read article →Schedule 13D: What Happens When an Activist Takes a 5% Stake
Complete guide to SEC Schedule 13D filings: the 5% ownership threshold, 13D vs 13G, activist investor campaigns, stock price impact, and how to monitor new filings on EDGAR.
Read article →SEC EDGAR Tutorial: How to Search for Any Filing
Complete SEC EDGAR tutorial: learn how to search for any filing, find company CIKs, use the EDGAR API, access XBRL data, and set up real-time filing alerts.
Read article →Quantitative Strategies
Dual-Class Share Arbitrage: Trading the BRK.A/B and GOOG/GOOGL Spreads
Multiple share classes from the same company should trade at a stable ratio. When the spread drifts, mean reversion typically restores it within weeks. Mechanics and the academic literature on dual-class mispricing.
Read article →Factor Investing Explained: Size, Value, Momentum, Quality
Understand factor investing from CAPM to the Fama-French five-factor model. Learn how size, value, momentum, and quality factors are constructed and what the evidence says about factor decay.
Read article →Mean Reversion Trading: Theory, Evidence, and Strategies
A comprehensive guide to mean reversion trading: the theory behind price reversion, academic evidence from DeBondt & Thaler to modern pairs trading, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, and practical strategies.
Read article →Momentum Investing Strategy: The Complete Academic Guide
Deep dive into momentum investing — the Jegadeesh & Titman strategy, 12-2 month formation, momentum crashes, and global evidence. Backed by real academic research.
Read article →Overfitting in Backtests: Why Most Strategies Fail Live
How overfitting destroys trading strategies: signs of curve fitting, walk-forward analysis, the Deflated Sharpe Ratio, Monte Carlo permutation tests, and White's Reality Check for data snooping.
Read article →Pairs Trading Strategy: The Complete Guide to Statistical Arbitrage
Complete guide to pairs trading — from Morgan Stanley's 1980s quant group to modern statistical arbitrage. Academic evidence, cointegration methods, and practical implementation.
Read article →Post-Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD): The Anomaly That Refuses to Die
A deep dive into post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD), the SUE factor, and why earnings momentum remains one of the most persistent anomalies in finance.
Read article →SPAC Arbitrage Explained: Buying Trust-Backed Shells at a Discount
Pre-deSPAC SPACs trading below trust value offer near-riskless carry plus deal optionality. How the structure works, where the alpha comes from, and how academics evaluate it.
Read article →Statistical Arbitrage: How Quant Funds Find Alpha
How statistical arbitrage works: origins at Morgan Stanley, pairs trading, factor models, cointegration, market neutrality, the 2007 quant crisis, and the current competitive landscape.
Read article →Survivorship Bias: The Silent Killer of Backtests
How survivorship bias inflates backtest returns, Sharpe ratios, and win rates. Covers Brown et al. (1992), Hou et al. (2020) anomaly replication failures, CRSP delisting returns, and point-in-time data.
Read article →The Efficient Frontier: Markowitz Portfolio Theory in Practice
From Markowitz's 1952 paper to modern portfolio construction. The efficient frontier, tangency portfolio, estimation error, Black-Litterman, and why 1/N often wins.
Read article →The Fama-French Five-Factor Model Explained
A complete guide to the Fama-French five-factor model: from CAPM to the 3-factor and 5-factor models, factor construction methodology, and practical use in performance attribution.
Read article →The Low-Volatility Anomaly: Why Boring Stocks Beat the Market
Decades of evidence show that low-volatility, low-beta stocks deliver higher risk-adjusted returns than the high-vol names theory predicts should win. The Frazzini-Pedersen Betting Against Beta factor and how to systematize it.
Read article →Transaction Costs in Trading: What Most Backtests Ignore
A deep dive into the real costs of trading: commissions, bid-ask spreads, market impact, slippage, and opportunity cost. How to model them in backtests using Almgren-Chriss and Gatheral frameworks.
Read article →Walk-Forward Optimization: Avoiding Backtest Bias
Complete guide to walk-forward optimization: how to avoid overfitting in backtesting, anchored vs rolling windows, walk-forward efficiency ratio, parameter selection, and Lopez de Prado's combinatorial purged cross-validation.
Read article →What Is Alpha? Separating Skill from Market Returns
Alpha is excess return above what systematic risk factors explain. From Jensen's 1968 CAPM alpha to Fama-French five-factor alpha, learn where true alpha exists and why it decays.
Read article →What Is Quantitative Trading? A Beginner's Guide
Learn what quantitative trading is, how it works, and how to get started. From Edward Thorp to Renaissance Technologies, we cover the history, methods, and common pitfalls.
Read article →Options & Derivatives
Gamma Squeeze vs. Short Squeeze: What's the Difference?
The mechanics of short squeezes and gamma squeezes, how they differ, how they can overlap, and how to identify potential squeeze setups using short interest, options open interest, and gamma exposure.
Read article →How to Read an Options Chain
Learn how to read an options chain: understanding bid-ask spreads, volume, open interest, implied volatility, and the Greeks. A practical guide for options traders.
Read article →Implied Volatility Explained: Options Pricing and Trading
What implied volatility is, how it's derived from option prices using the Black-Scholes model, how to interpret IV rank, IV percentile, volatility skew, and IV crush.
Read article →Options Greeks Explained: Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega
A clear explanation of the options Greeks: Delta, Gamma, Theta, and Vega. Learn how each Greek measures option price sensitivity and how traders use them to manage risk.
Read article →Options Open Interest vs. Volume: What Each Tells You
Understand the difference between options open interest and volume -- how OI accumulates, what volume spikes mean, max pain theory, and how to read options flow using both metrics together.
Read article →Put/Call Ratio Explained: A Contrarian Sentiment Indicator
Learn how the put/call ratio works as a contrarian sentiment indicator -- what high and low readings mean, equity vs total P/C, historical extremes, and how to use the 10-day moving average.
Read article →Short Interest: How to Find and Interpret Short Selling Data
How to find short interest data, interpret short interest ratio, days to cover, cost to borrow, and understand the limitations of short selling data including FINRA reporting delays.
Read article →Short Squeeze Explained: Mechanics, Examples, and Warning Signs
How short squeezes work: the mechanics of short selling, margin calls, and forced covering. Historical examples including Volkswagen (2008), GameStop (2021), and Tesla (2020). Warning signs to watch.
Read article →Unusual Options Activity: How to Spot Institutional Bets
Learn how to identify unusual options activity -- what counts as unusual, how to read sweeps vs blocks, interpret put/call ratios, and what dark pool prints reveal about institutional positioning.
Read article →Technical Analysis
ATR (Average True Range): Measuring Volatility for Position Sizing
Complete guide to ATR: Wilder's True Range formula, ATR calculation, position sizing with ATR, Chandelier exits, stop-loss placement, Keltner Channels, and why ATR is preferred over standard deviation for traders.
Read article →Bollinger Bands: How to Use Them (And When Not To)
Bollinger Bands use a 20-period SMA and 2 standard deviations to measure volatility. The Squeeze, %B, walking the band, and why tags are not automatic signals.
Read article →Candlestick Patterns: Which Ones Actually Have Statistical Edge?
Evidence-based review of candlestick patterns: origins in 18th century Japan, academic studies by Marshall, Young & Rose (2006), Caginalp & Laurent (1998), and which patterns actually work after transaction costs.
Read article →Moving Averages Explained: SMA, EMA, and Trading Signals
Complete guide to moving averages: SMA and EMA formulas, golden cross and death cross signals, institutional usage of the 200-day MA, and what academic research from Brock, Lakonishok & LeBaron (1992) actually found.
Read article →Relative Strength: How to Find Stocks Outperforming the Market
Complete guide to relative strength (RS): calculation methods, academic foundations from Levy (1967) and Jegadeesh & Titman (1993), O'Neil's CANSLIM RS Rating, Minervini's VCP criteria, and practical implementation.
Read article →RSI (Relative Strength Index) Explained: Formula, Uses, and Limits
Complete guide to the RSI indicator: Wilder's original formula, step-by-step calculation, overbought/oversold interpretation, divergences, failure swings, and academic evidence on predictive power.
Read article →Support and Resistance: Do They Actually Work?
Do support and resistance levels actually predict price reversals? Brock, Lakonishok & LeBaron (1992), Osler (2000), and the academic evidence on S/R in financial markets.
Read article →Volume Analysis: What Trading Volume Actually Tells You
Complete guide to volume analysis: OBV (On-Balance Volume), VWAP, volume-price relationships, climactic volume, volume dry-ups before breakouts, and Karpoff's (1987) academic research on volume and price changes.
Read article →VWAP Explained: Volume-Weighted Average Price for Traders
VWAP is the institutional benchmark for trade execution quality. Learn the formula, how to use VWAP for intraday trading, anchored VWAP, VWAP bands, and practical limitations.
Read article →Earnings & Fundamentals
Analyst Coverage and Stock Returns: The Neglected Firm Effect
The neglected firm effect: stocks with low analyst coverage earn higher returns. Learn why less-covered stocks are less efficiently priced and how insider trading signals are more informative for neglected firms.
Read article →Earnings Quality: Detecting Accruals and Accounting Red Flags
How to assess earnings quality using accruals analysis, the Sloan accrual anomaly, Beneish M-Score for detecting earnings manipulation, and accounting red flags every investor should watch for.
Read article →Earnings Surprise: Why Stocks Keep Moving After Earnings
What earnings surprises are, how they're measured, and why stock prices continue drifting after beats and misses. From Ball & Brown (1968) to modern SUE metrics.
Read article →How to Calculate Standardized Unexpected Earnings (SUE)
Standardized Unexpected Earnings (SUE) explained: formula, step-by-step calculation, the academic research behind PEAD, and how to implement SUE in Python for post-earnings announcement drift trading.
Read article →How to Trade Earnings Announcements: Strategies That Work
Evidence-backed strategies for trading earnings: pre-earnings drift, PEAD, gap-and-go setups, options pitfalls, and risk management for earnings season.
Read article →Risk Management
Backtesting Trading Strategies: A Complete Guide
How to backtest trading strategies properly -- essential metrics, critical biases (survivorship, lookahead, overfitting), walk-forward validation, transaction costs, and why backtests fail in live trading.
Read article →Correlation in Markets: Why Diversification Fails When You Need It
How asset correlations spike during crises, breaking diversification exactly when it matters most. From Markowitz to tail dependence, with practical portfolio implications.
Read article →CVaR (Expected Shortfall): A Better Risk Measure Than VaR
CVaR (Conditional Value at Risk) measures the average loss in the worst tail scenarios. Learn why it is a coherent risk measure, how to calculate it, and why Basel III adopted it over VaR.
Read article →Drawdown Recovery: Why a 50% Loss Needs a 100% Gain
The mathematics of drawdown recovery explained. Why losses are asymmetric, how position sizing protects capital, historical S&P 500 recovery times, and why avoiding large drawdowns matters more than maximizing returns.
Read article →Information Ratio: Measuring Active Manager Skill
The Information Ratio explained: formula, interpretation, relationship to the Sharpe Ratio, Grinold's Fundamental Law of Active Management, and practical guidance for evaluating fund managers.
Read article →Kelly Criterion for Position Sizing: The Math Behind Optimal Bets
The Kelly Criterion explained from Bell Labs origins to modern portfolio sizing. Formula derivation, fractional Kelly, practical examples, and why Alpha Suite uses quarter-Kelly.
Read article →Maximum Drawdown: The Risk Metric Every Trader Should Know
Complete guide to maximum drawdown: formula, recovery math, famous drawdowns (2007-2009 GFC, dot-com, COVID), Calmar ratio, leverage effects, and practical risk management.
Read article →Portfolio Diversification: How Many Stocks Is Enough?
How many stocks you need for adequate diversification, the research from Evans & Archer to Campbell et al., the math of risk reduction, and why correlations spike during crises.
Read article →Position Sizing: How to Determine How Much to Risk Per Trade
A complete guide to position sizing methods -- fixed fractional, ATR-based, Kelly criterion, and portfolio-level risk management. Learn why sizing matters more than entry signals.
Read article →Risk Parity Explained: How Bridgewater's All Weather Works
Risk parity allocates portfolios by equalizing risk contribution rather than capital. Learn how Bridgewater's All Weather strategy works, its performance, and its limitations.
Read article →Risk-Reward Ratio: How to Calculate and Use It
Complete guide to risk-reward ratio: calculation, breakeven win rates, expected value, the tradeoff between R:R and win rate, and how to improve your risk-reward profile.
Read article →Sharpe Ratio Explained: Measuring Risk-Adjusted Returns
Complete guide to the Sharpe ratio: William Sharpe's 1966 formula, annualization, interpretation benchmarks, limitations, and alternatives like Sortino and Calmar ratios.
Read article →Stop Loss Orders: Types, Placement, and Common Mistakes
Complete guide to stop loss orders: market stops, stop-limit orders, trailing stops, ATR-based placement, gap risk, round-number traps, and the mental stop debate.
Read article →Tail Risk: Black Swans and How to Protect Your Portfolio
Tail risk is the danger of extreme, rare market events. Mandelbrot (1963), Taleb's Black Swan, fat tails, historical crashes, and protection strategies including hedging, trend following, and Kelly sizing.
Read article →Value at Risk (VaR) Explained: Strengths and Weaknesses
What Value at Risk (VaR) is, the three calculation methods, why VaR became the industry standard, its critical weaknesses, and why Expected Shortfall (CVaR) is preferred.
Read article →Market Structure & Macro
Credit Spreads as a Market Indicator: HYG, LQD, and TLT
How credit spreads predict equity markets: HYG vs TLT, OAS levels, why credit markets lead equities by 2-4 weeks, and how to read the bond market's risk signals.
Read article →Dark Pools Explained: Off-Exchange Trading and Price Discovery
What dark pools are, how they work, why they exist, their market share, regulation under Reg ATS, controversies, and the academic debate on their impact on price discovery.
Read article →How the Federal Reserve Impacts Stock Markets
How Federal Reserve policy affects stock prices: the federal funds rate, quantitative easing, the discount rate effect on valuations, FOMC meetings, and the dot plot explained.
Read article →Liquidity Risk: The Hidden Cost of Illiquid Positions
Market liquidity risk, funding liquidity risk, the illiquidity premium, bid-ask spreads, market impact models, and practical position sizing for illiquid securities.
Read article →Market Breadth Indicators: Advance-Decline, New Highs/Lows
Complete guide to market breadth: the Advance-Decline line, New Highs minus New Lows, percent of stocks above 200-day MA, McClellan Oscillator, Arms Index (TRIN), and sector breadth.
Read article →Market Microstructure: How Orders Actually Get Executed
Market microstructure explains how orders are processed, prices formed, and trades executed. Order books, matching engines, Reg NMS, PFOF, Kyle (1985), Glosten & Milgrom (1985).
Read article →Merger Arbitrage Strategy: How Cash Deals Become Bond-Like Returns
Buying takeover targets after announcement and capturing the spread to deal close has produced 6%/yr risk-adjusted since 1963. Mechanics, risks, and how to scan for setups systematically.
Read article →Sector Rotation: How Money Flows Through the Business Cycle
Complete guide to sector rotation strategy: how sectors perform through the business cycle, the 11 GICS sectors and their ETFs, momentum measurement, and practical implementation.
Read article →Spinoff Arbitrage: Why Forced Selling Creates Mispricing
When a parent company distributes a spinoff, index funds and institutional holders are forced to sell. The supply overhang creates 30-90 day mispricings that revert as the float settles.
Read article →The VIX Index: How to Read the Market's Fear Gauge
What the VIX measures, how it's calculated from SPX options, how to interpret VIX levels and term structure, and why VIX ETPs are dangerous for buy-and-hold investors.
Read article →Yield Curve Inversion: What It Means for Stocks
What the yield curve is, why it inverts, its track record predicting recessions since 1955, and what equity traders should do when the curve inverts.
Read article →Behavioral Finance
Anchoring Bias in Investing: How It Distorts Valuations
Anchoring bias causes investors to fixate on irrelevant reference points like purchase price or 52-week highs. Tversky & Kahneman (1974), George & Hwang (2004), and how to overcome it.
Read article →Behavioral Finance: Why Investors Make Irrational Decisions
The science of investor irrationality: Kahneman & Tversky's Prospect Theory, loss aversion, disposition effect, overconfidence bias, herding, anchoring, and how quant strategies exploit these biases.
Read article →FOMO in Trading: Fear of Missing Out and How to Beat It
FOMO causes traders to chase stocks, buy at tops, and size too large. Learn the psychology behind it — Festinger (1954), Barber et al. (2022) — and systematic methods to overcome it.
Read article →Herding Behavior in Financial Markets
Herding in financial markets: Scharfstein & Stein (1990) rational herding, Banerjee (1992) informational cascades, empirical evidence, bubbles, and contrarian opportunities.
Read article →Loss Aversion: Why Losses Hurt Twice as Much as Gains
Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory explains why losing $100 feels as bad as gaining $200-250 feels good. Loss aversion, reference dependence, myopic loss aversion, and how to overcome it.
Read article →Overconfidence Bias: The #1 Reason Traders Lose Money
Barber & Odean (2000) showed the most active traders underperformed by 6.5% per year. Overconfidence, excessive trading, illusion of control, and how to combat them.
Read article →Recency Bias: Why Last Quarter's Returns Fool You
Recency bias causes investors to overweight recent events, chase performance, and buy high / sell low. Greenwood & Shleifer (2014), Frazzini & Lamont (2008), and how to overcome it.
Read article →The Disposition Effect: Why Investors Sell Winners Too Early
The disposition effect causes investors to sell winning stocks 1.5x more often than losing ones. Shefrin & Statman (1985), Odean (1998), and how to overcome this costly bias.
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