The Effect of Sentiment on Institutional Investors: A Gender Analysis

48 Pages Posted: 30 Jun 2022 Last revised: 28 Mar 2023

See all articles by Monika Gehde-Trapp

Monika Gehde-Trapp

University of Tuebingen

Linda Klingler

University of Hohenheim

Abstract

In this paper, we explore whether male and female fund managers react differently to sentiment. Our main idea is that sentiment indicates mispricing of stocks relative to their fundamental values, and that rational fund managers should profit from this mispricing. As trading against the mispricing is risky, we hypothesize that female fund managers take on less aggressive positions as compared to male fund managers. Indeed, our empirical results show that male fund managers hold portfolios with significantly higher total fund risk and unsystematic risk when sentiment is bad. For female fund managers, we find significantly lower levels in unsystematic risk when sentiment is bad. This difference in risk-taking behavior between male and female fund managers does not affect fund returns or risk-adjusted performance.

Keywords: Mutual funds, Gender, Investor Sentiment, Investment Behavior

JEL Classification: G11,G23,G40

Suggested Citation

Gehde-Trapp, Monika and Klingler, Linda, The Effect of Sentiment on Institutional Investors: A Gender Analysis. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4150453

Monika Gehde-Trapp (Contact Author)

University of Tuebingen

Wilhelmstr. 19
72074 Tuebingen, Baden Wuerttemberg 72074
Germany

Linda Klingler

University of Hohenheim ( email )

Fruwirthstr. 48
Stuttgart, 70599
Germany

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