One stock gained 10% yesterday...another lost 15%. One company has been splashed all over the TV lately. Another has had very high trading volume. We notice these things. In fact, we typically buy attension-grabbing stocks. Do stocks that glitter turn out to be gold?

Are risk and return the only investment characteristics that matter to you? Do you consider social values, patriotism, social status, or religious beliefs when investing?

Investors tend to trade in the secrities with which they are most familiar. There is comfort inhaving your money invested in a business that is visible to you. But this familiarity bias has a strong influence on what you buy and the investment risks you take.

People anchor to specific prices or amounts and make small adjustments from these anchors as their predictions. This anchor bias impacts everything from lawsuit awards to online auction bids to analsyst forecasts...and to how you feel about your own investments.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. The wisdom of diversification has been touted for decades. Why do investors concentrate their portfolios rather than diversify?

The behavior and emotions of investors during a price bubble can be extreme. Consider the cycle of investor emotions spurred by a bubble and shown in the figure. These emotions can cause investors to "buy high" during the thrilling and euphoric stages of a bubble, and "sell low" at the panic and capitulation stages. Warren Buffet recommends that you be "fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

What is the value of money over time? Although financial theory has specific time value of money relationships, people often think very differently from these relationships. One determinant may be whether you think intuitively or analytically.

What if companies could manipulate your feelings about them? One example is a name change. Does a change to a dotcom change your feelings about the firm?

One of the principles of Prospect Theory is that people do not have a constant risk aversion. In other words, people may avoid risk in some instances and seek risk in others. We buy lottery tickets (risk seeking) and car insurance (risk avoidance). How does an analytical or intuitive thinking mode impact situational risk aversion?

Before 2001, employees invested too much of their 401(k) plan money in their company's stock.  Then we heard all about the dilemma of Enron employees who lost their jobs and most of their retirement funds. Did the rest of us learn from their mistakes?