Investors' behaviour in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the various methods and techniques used by Greek investors (both professional and individuals) when evaluating potential additions to their investment portfolios.

The paper uses both a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews to examine the practice of investment management in terms of stock market forecasting and stock valuation. The respondents consist of six different groups of investors, drawn from across Greece, namely: official members of the Athens Stock Exchange, mutual fund management companies, portfolio investment companies, listed companies, brokers and individual investors (ININ).

The results indicate that ININ rely more on newspapers/media and noise in the market when making their investment decisions, while professional investors rely more on fundamental and technical analysis and less on portfolio analysis. The investment horizon seems to have a direct association with the relative importance of the techniques that professionals use for stock analysis. Also, the use of specific techniques seems to have a different impact on the performance of professionals.

The results highlight the practical methods and techniques used by various Greek investors when making their stock investment decisions as well as analysing the consequences of these methods on their performance.

This paper is the first study of the methods used by different classes of investor in the relatively underdeveloped capital market of Greece.