We test for herding by Portuguese mutual funds over the period of 1998 to 2000. We employ the (herding) measure of trading suggested by Lakonishok et al. (1992). We find strong evidence of herding behavior for Portuguese mutual funds. Furthermore, our results suggest that the level of herding is 4 to 5 times stronger than the herding found for institutional investors in mature markets. The herding effect seems to affect, as likely, purchases and sales of stocks. There seems to be a stronger tendency to herd among medium-cap funds rather than very large or very small funds, and among funds with less stocks. Lastly, herding seems to decrease when the stock market is doing well or is more volatile.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the existence of psychological barriers in cryptocurrencies. Design/methodology/approach To detect psychological barriers, the authors perform a uniformity test, a barrier hump test, a barrier proximity test and conditional effects test to a sample comprised by the daily closing quotes of six of the most liquid cryptocurrencies. Findings The results evidence the existence of psychological barriers in four of the cryptocurrencies under scrutiny, namely, Bitcoin, Dash, NEM and Ripple. Practical implications The fact that the cryptocurrency market has a high share of unexperienced investors and presents several cases of psychological barriers is consistent with the hypothesis that that class of investors is particularly prone to the behavioral biases which cause psychological barriers. Originality/value This paper studies, for the first time, the existence of psychological barriers in the market of cryptocurrencies.

Purpose-People often face constraints such as a lack of time or information in taking decisions, which leads them to use heuristics. In these situations, fast and frugal rules may be useful for making adaptive decisions with fewer resources, even if it leads to suboptimal choices. When applied to financial markets, the recognition heuristic predicts that investors acquire the stocks that they are aware of, thereby inflating the price of the most recognized stocks. This paper aims to study the profitability against the market of the most recognized stocks in Europe. Design/methodology/approach-In this paper, the authors perform a survey and use Google Trends to study the profitability against the market of the most recognized stocks in Europe. Findings-The authors conclude that a recognition heuristic portfolio yields poorer returns than a market portfolio. In contrast, from the data collected on Google Trends, weak evidence was found that strong increases in companies monthly search volumes may lead to abnormal returns in the following month. Research limitations/implications-The applied investment strategy does not account for transaction costs, which may jeopardize its profitability given the fact that it is necessary to revise the portfolio on a monthly basis. Despite the results obtained, they are useful to understanding the performance of recognition heuristic strategies over a comprehensive time horizon, and it would be interesting to depict its viability during different market conditions. This analysis could provide additional information about a preferable scenario for employing our strategies and, ultimately, enhance the profitability of recognition heuristic strategies. Practical implications-Through the exhaustive analysis performed here on the recognition heuristic in the European stock market, it is possible to conclude that no evidence was found for the viability of exploring this type of strategy. In fact, the investors would always gain better returns when adopting a passive investment strategy. Therefore, it would be wise to assume that the European market presents at least a degree of efficiency where no investment would yield abnormal returns following the recognition heuristic.

Purpose -The purpose of the study is to examine the prices of some of the most widely traded stocks from Taiwan, Brazil and South Africa for indications of psychological barriers at round numbers.Design/methodology/approach -The sample under study includes a group of 24 stocks (8 for each one the emerging markets) during the period 2000-2014. We test for uniformity in the trailing digits of the stock prices and use regression and GARCH analysis to assess the differential impact of being above or below a possible barrier.Findings -We found no consistent psychological barriers in individual stock prices near round numbers. Moreover, we document that the relationship between risk and return tends to be weaker in the proximity of round numbers for about half of the stocks under study.Originality/value -This is the first study to examine the prices of single stocks from emerging markets for indications of psychological barriers at round numbers. Our results advocate special reflection regarding trading strategies linked to support and resistance levels in stock prices.

PurposeThis paper studies the dynamics and elasticities of house prices in Spain and Portugal (Iberia) at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level, addressing panel regression problems such as heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence between MSA.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a two steps study. First, five distinct estimation methodologies are applied to estimate the long-term house price equilibrium of the Iberian MSA house market: Mean Group (MG), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) MG (FMOLS-MG), FMOLS Augmented MG (FMOLS-AMG), Common Correlated Effects MG (CCEMG) and Dynamic CCEMG (DCCEMG). FMOLS-AMG is found to be the best estimator for the long-term model. Second, an additional five distinct estimation methodologies are applied to estimate the short-term house price dynamics using the long-term FMOLS-AMG estimated price in the error-correction term of the short-term dynamic house price model: OLS Fixed Effects (FE), OLS Random Effects (RE), MG, CCEMG and DCCEMG. DCCEMG is found to be the best estimator for the short-term model.FindingsThe results show that in the long run Iberian house prices are inelastic to aggregate income (0.227). This is a much lower elasticity than what was previously found in US MSA house price studies, suggesting that there are other factors explaining Iberian house prices. According to our study, coastal MSA presents an inelastic housing supply and a price to income elasticity close to one, whereas inland MSA are shown to have an elastic supply and a non-significant price to income elasticity. Spatial differences are important and cross-section dependence is prevalent, affecting estimates in conventional methodologies that do not account for these limitations, such as OLS-FE and OLS-RE. Momentum and mean reversion are the main determinants of short-term dynamics.Practical implicationsRecent econometric advances that account for slope heterogeneity and cross-section dependence produce more accurate estimates than conventional panel estimation methodologies. The results suggest that house markets should be analyzed at the metropolitan level, not at the national level and that there are significant differences between short-term and long-term house price determinants.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study applying recent econometric advances to the Iberian MSA house market.