INVITATION The WU Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance and Spängler IQAM Invest are pleased to invite you to a SPÄNGLER IQAM INVEST ROUND TABLE (apologies for duplicated mails!) DATE: January 17, 2013 - 04:30 pm SPEAKER: Prof. Dr. Terrance ODEAN, University of California, Berkeley TOPIC: "DO BEHAVIORAL BIASES LEAD TO UNRECOGNIZED RISK-TAKING?" ABSTRACT: Professor Odean will discuss how behavioral biases can lead to unrecognized risk taking by financial institutions. Financial models often exacerbate risk taking due to unrecognized substitution, aggregation, and feedback risks. Success may lead money managers and traders to become overconfident and to overuse leverage. The use leverage by some institutions can increase risks to others. Limited attention and decision biases such as the availability bias distort our perceptions of probability. Emotions change our attitudes toward risk. And confirmation bias leads us to underestimate the likelihood that things will go wrong. ABOUT TERRANCE ODEAN: Terrance Odean is the Rudd Family Foundation Professor and Chair of the Finance Group at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the Journal of Investment Consulting editorial advisory board, of the Russell Sage Behavioral Economics Roundtable, of the Russell Investments Academic Advisory Board, and of the WU Gutmann Center Academic Advisory Board at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He has been an editor and an associate editor of the Review of Financial Studies, an associate editor of the Journal of Finance, a co-editor of a special issue of Management Science, an associate editor at the Journal of Behavioral Finance, a director of UC Berkeley's Experimental Social Science Laboratory, a visiting professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and the Willis H. Booth Professor of Finance and Banking. As an undergraduate at Berkeley, Odean studied Judgment and Decision Making with the 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Daniel Kahneman. This led to his current research focus on how psychologically motivated decisions affect investor welfare and securities prices. His research has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, Businessweek, and several other publications. Further information about Terrance Odean: www.odean.org **REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED at vsam(a)wu.ac.at** LOCATION: WU Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance Heiligenstädter Str. 46-48, 1190 Wien - Seminar Room 1 (Ground Floor) Contact and further information: WU Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance att. Martina Schlichting Heiligenstädter Str. 46-48 1190 Vienna Phone: +43-1-31336 6315 Mail: vsam(a)wu.ac.at Web: http://www.wu.ac.at/finance/coop/vsam