Experimental Studies on Trading Decision

Abstract

Technological advances in recording the brain activity in normal during the last two decades of the 20th century, paved the way for the studies about the cerebral dynamics of human cognition and decision making. These investigations are necessarily multidisciplinary in essence, involving both neuroscientists and researchers of all other areas of human knowledge. In particular, the frontiers between Neurosciences, Economy and Finances begun to be explored and many studies begun to appear under the names of Neuroeconomic, Neurofinances, etc. These activities demand a close collaboration between experts in many fields of sciences, therefore require as two way traffic of knowledge and information.

There are two main types of activity in these interdisciplinary studies: theoretical and experimental ones. In the theoretical field, neurosciences knowledge provides the guide lines to build formal models of interest for the other disciplines, or questions about established theories in Economics, Finances, etc. raise interesting points for Neurosciences debates. These theoretical discussions highlight themes for experimental investigation of both the cerebral or market dynamics.

Neurosciences knowledge about the brain organization for financial decision in used to develop to a theoretical model about Financial Decision Making. This model was used both to study price evolution in many distinct Stock Markets and to investigate the cerebral activity associated to a stock market simulating game playing. The results of this experimental study are discussed at extent in chapter 10, and show that the proposed theoretical model provides a nice fit to the experimental data.

The general conclusion from data and discussions provided by the book is that a neuroscientific approach of financial decision is feasible and may contribute for a better understanding the economic and financial human activities.