Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The influence of social - New views from the 2014 IBM Global Telecommunications Consumer Survey

The key findings from our most recent global telecommunications consumer survey can be summed up in two words: Social disruption. The study clearly validates the population of social networking, instant messaging, microblogs, Internet video and other over-the-top (OTT) communication applications. In addition, it underscores the challenges new conversation channels create for communication service providers (CSPs).

However, it also reveals important information about consumers’ spending priorities, how they make provider-related decisions, their loyalty triggers and more. CSPs can use this information to drive brand passion and develop new strategies for top-notch customer service – including more self-service options. In addition, CSPs can take advantage of consumers’ willingness to collaborate on product and service improvements – and use the rising popularity of social media to do so.

Dowload Survey

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Are Household Investors Noise Traders: Evidence from Belief Dispersion and Stock Trading Volume

A new paper from researchers at the Federal Reserve shows that retail investors—in America, at any rate—are a lot smarter than the professionals imagine. In fact, they have a bigger effect on the markets than the highly paid investment strategists of Wall Street.

Much of the economic literature assumes that ordinary investors are “noise” traders who deal at random. They trade too often, it is thought, and are susceptible to behavioural biases such as over-optimism and loss-aversion.

Strikingly, the researchers find that the views of retail investors show a sharp rise in dispersion just before recessions, whereas the views of professional forecasters do not diverge until the tail end of recessions. In other words, the amateurs are better at forecasting downturns than the experts.
This may be because the consumer surveys interview people with a wide range of backgrounds and from many different locations, whereas investment strategists are a tightly knit group, and may accordingly suffer from a herd mentality.

Read the full report

Sharenet JSE Stock Exchange News Headlines

ITINews - Insurance Times and Investments Online Top Stories

Bloomberg News

Talk Radio 702 Eyewitness News

Marketviews

FT- World