Financial ignorance and its reflection on the investment decision via behavioral biases

An exploratory study of a sample of investors in the Iraq Stock Exchange

A Thesis Submitted to The Board of The College of Management and Economics, As a Part of the Requirements For Obtaining a Master’s Degree in Finance and Banking Sciences

Presented By

Ali Faisal kazim Al-Da’amy

Supervised By

Asst. Prof. Dr. Noor S. Al-Dahan

Abstract

Financial ignorance is one of the topics that has received wide and great attention at the individual and societal levels because of its scientific and theoretical significance for an important economic dimension and a major contributor to the issue of financial management, and then knowing its implications in behavioral biases as a new approach in behavioral finance. The aim of this study is to test knowledge Finance for individuals investing in the Iraq Stock Exchange, as well as determining the extent of the impact of behavioral biases on the investment decision. The data was collected through a questionnaire consisting of (59) questions asked to (101) investors inside the Iraq Stock Exchange, depending on the descriptive method of the study sample and hypotheses The study used two statistical tools represented by the correlation matrix (Pearson correlation coefficients) for the purpose of verifying the strength of the correlation relationships that exist between the dimensions of the study variables and simple regression analysis to test the effect relationships between the dimensions of the main study variables. The most important findings of the study is that the independent variable has a direct effect and an indirect effect through the mediating variable on the dependent variable. The study came out with a number of recommendations, the most important of which is the need to pay wide attention to Barra Eliminate financial ignorance and introduce many curricula to educate individuals who invest financially, as well as prepare a national strategy for financial education with the participation of both banks and the public and private sectors for the purpose of enhancing awareness and financial knowledge among individuals who own small and medium enterprises, as well as understanding community behavior and the reasons for the emergence of biases that cause abnormalities. In making investment decisions for the purpose of knowing and determining if stock fluctuations are the result of misjudgment or collective thinking.

  Keywords: financial ignorance – investment decision – behavioral biases