Quant Finance

Introduction to Behavioral Alpha

Background:

Behavioral Finance is widely discussed. Nobel prizes are awarded. But there is more talk, than walk. The knowing-doing gap persists. Bridging that gap is at the core of developing a comparative advantage. Innovation-based specialization requires critical and creative thinking along the value chain of a professional investment process. It gets unavoidably personal. Our mental immune system, combined with organisational persistence, lead to a slow adoption of behavioral insights of how to benefit from this alphasource. Participants will learn where to find and how to exploit behavioral alpha on themselves and their teams.

Workshop Objective

Innovation-based specialization requires critical and creative thinking along the value chain of a professional investment process. It gets unavoidably personal. Our mental immune system, combined with organizational persistence, lead to a slow adoption of behavioral insights of how to benefit from this alpha source.

# Gaining a comparative advantage as a professional investor by making most evidence-based investment decisions

Learning Outcomes

  • Understanding the relevance of Behavioral Alpha
  • Where to find it
  • How to exploit it

Content:

Morning Session I: Introduction to Behavioral Alpha

  • Mental Immune System
  • Organizational Persistence
  • Behavior Gap Penalty
  • Knowing-Doing Gap in Behavioral Finance
  • Behavioral Alpha & Comparative Advantage

Morning Session II: How to Source Behavioral Alpha

  • Neuroplasticity
  • Decisions Under Uncertainty
  • Ambiguity & Complexity Tolerance
  • Creative and Critical Thinking
  • Simple Rules
  • Best Practices of “Sourcing Behavioral Alpha”

Afternoon Session I: Case Study

Participants will study their own investment teams/committees and explore how to optimize it by applying previously introduced techniques and lessons learned.

Afternoon Session II: Review Your Findings

Moderated by the lecturer, participant share their findings and reflect together on eventual further improvements of their own or other findings.

Presenter:

Markus Schuller is the founder and managing partner of Panthera Solutions. As Investment Decision Architects ™, Panthera optimizes the choice architecture of professional investors through applied behavioral finance methods. Empowering the decision makers towards comparative advantages in capital markets remains the ultimate goal. As adjunct professor, Markus teaches courses like “Adaptive Risk Management”, “Investment Banking” and “Asset Allocation for Practitioners” at renowned Master in Finance programs of the EDHEC Business School and the International University of Monaco.Markus publishes in academic top journals (i.e. Journal of Portfolio Management, 2018), writes articles for professional journals (i.e. CFA Institute, OECD Insights, etc.) and holds keynotes at international investment conferences. As an investment banker, adjunct professor and author, Markus looks back at 18 rewarding years of trading, structuring, and managing standard and alternative investment products. Prior to founding Panthera Solutions, he worked in executive roles for a long/short equity hedge fund for which he developed the trading algorithm. Markus started his career working as equity trader, derivatives trader and macro analyst for different banks