The effects of planning and monitoring on day traders’ interday decisions

Abstract

This dissertation reports empirical evidence on the impact of planning and monitoring (feedback) on performance/deviation, failure to achieve the goal, and overconfidence. One hundred and eighty-six proprietary day traders participated in an experiment, where they were exposed to interventions before starting trading. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups: planning, feedback, a combination of both interventions, and a control group. The treatment phase lasted one week, constituting a mixed design. The main findings are: a) only the monitoring process can be used as a self-control mechanism oriented to goal achievement, But in situations where traders keep tracking their performances without associate it to a goal, they are sensitive to unfavorable outcomes; b) planning the gain target for the day was not a successful strategy neither toward goal achievement nor to performance; c) traders who use the past day return as a forecasting source became more overconfident in reaching the weekly income.