Produce a memo summarizing a recent research paper in behavioral finance, and explaining the implications for investors or managers.
Intended audience: Imagine that you are an analyst working for an institutional investor that manages a large stock portfolio. Your boss has asked you to prepare an “executive summary to inform him or her about a research paper that was just published, and how it might affect the firms that are held in the portfolio, in advance of an important board meeting.
Goal: Include as much relevant information as you can in one page, while maintaining a writing style that is clear and concise, about one of the recent research papers in behavioral finance posted on the Blackboard site under “Behavioral Finance Papers for WAl”.
You should include as much relevant information as possible, including (where appropriate) but not limited to:
-Research Question: What question was the author analyzing? What was the hypothesis (or hypotheses) that they tested? Why is that question interesting or useful to financial practitioners?
-Data and Study Design: What data did the authors collect, if any? What time period was covered by the data sample? What methods did they use to analyze the data? (Summarize these methods as clearly and concisely as possible.)
-Findings: What did the authors conclude from their study? What was the “headline” takeaway for financial practitioners generally and for me (your boss) specifically? Does anything that the authors found relate to our firm, our investment portfolio, our portfolio firms’ managers or directors, or our clients? If so, what should I know?
-Any other information relevant to the study: did it contradict or reaffirm an existing theory? Is it going to change the way we do business? Are there opportunities for investors, portfolio managers, CEOs, etc., to earn profits (or avoid losses) that could result from the findings of this paper? Grading criteria:
-Did your memo cover the most important aspects of the research paper? Did your memo leave out any major details? Would someone reading your memo who knew nothing at all about the topic going in be able to put it down and explain the key aspects of the story clearly to someone else who also knew nothing about it? (15 points)
-Was the memo well-organized, so that the information evolved in a coherent way? Was the writing style accurate, concise, and clear? Was the quality of the writing (vocabulary, style) consistent with the standards of a professional work product? Did it meet all of the criteria for the assignment, including citing sources?
