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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Behavioral Finance by Duke University

4.4
stars
3,861 ratings

About the Course

We make thousands of decisions every day. Do I cross the road now, or wait for the oncoming truck to pass? Should I eat fries or a salad for lunch? How much should I tip the cab driver? We usually make these decisions with almost no thought, using what psychologists call “heuristics” – rules of thumb that enable us to navigate our lives. Without these mental shortcuts, we would be paralyzed by the multitude of daily choices. But in certain circumstances, these shortcuts lead to predictable errors – predictable, that is, if we know what to watch out for. Did you know, for example, that we are naturally biased towards selling investments that are doing well for us, but holding on to those that are doing poorly? Or that we often select sub-optimal insurance payment plans, and routinely purchase insurance that we don’t even need? And why do so many of us fail to enroll in our employer’s corporate retirement plans, even when the employer offers to match our contributions? Behavioral finance is the study of these and dozens of other financial decision-making errors that can be avoided, if we are familiar with the biases that cause them. In this course, we examine these predictable errors, and discover where we are most susceptible to them. This course is intended to guide participants towards better financial choices. Learn how to improve your spending, saving, and investing decisions for the future....

Top reviews

SK

Feb 25, 2020

Good course! There is just one thing I would improve here - an explanation of the mistakes after the tests are done. This improvement should increase the student`s understanding of specific topics.

M

May 2, 2018

This course was a very good sum up of Daniel Kahneman's thinking fast and slow. Definitely recommend to everyone who would like to know more about our flaws or would like to refresh your knowledge.

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601 - 625 of 986 Reviews for Behavioral Finance

By Chanel

Oct 21, 2018

I loved the course! I felt it help me with understanding finance, financial bubbles, why markets crash and why we make the decisions we do faced in different scenarios and situations. I did feel there were a lot of things in the quizzes that were not covered in the reading material and videos. I found myself getting a lot of my answers from outside sources. overall I enjoyed the course and feel more confident in my investing!

By khanani

Jan 8, 2021

I genuinely enjoyed the course. Most of the concepts are similar and quite confusing but this will only push me to revisit the course material from time to time. I however, think this is the reason why investors tend to violate most of the biases. It is hard to fully recall or keep most of them in mind but I hope that it will make me question most of my decisions and those of others going forward.

By Oriol G i R

Aug 16, 2016

It's a great course, clear explanations and simple videos.

The missing star was lost on the way that misleading or undefined bias are presented, especially during the different decision phases.

I would like to propose to discuss a case of a stock share in a timeline, to see whether this "panic" or "overconfidence" applies, and also in global macroeconomics (e-g. the PIGS bubble, the debt bubble)

By Deepak S

Jul 19, 2017

Its quite challenging to pass the quizes, especially if you are a beginner. And because its challenging to pass (or at least it seemed so), if you pass you gain a sense of achievement and learning.

Overall it was a great course, i have two areas of improvement to suggest:

1. Topics and course material can be more structured

2. Length of the course seemed short

By Kelby H

Jul 6, 2023

Great course for understanding how biases impact our decision-making in subtle ways. Provides a foundation for making more informed choices in certain situations, and touches on key economic principles that are both practical and theoretical. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to make smarter financial decisions and have greater situational awareness.

By Kristoffer A P

Dec 27, 2016

Interesting course. I just wished there was more interaction and discussion and that there is further clarification regarding the length of the course.

Right at the start Ms. Rasiel mentioned a 14-week course. I feel there's more to the course but I wasn't able to take advantage of it. There were also some videos that seem to start mid-way already.

By Arthur

Oct 17, 2023

Excellent course on introducing and identifying the concepts on what affects us in our decision making. However, there can be more examples and more thorough explanation of the concepts. Also, the answer key to explaining quizzes 2 and 3 are not there so it's difficult to understand why certain answers are correct and others incorrect.

By Carolyn P

Jan 8, 2022

Excellent material for younger students. The jargon feels rather unnecessary. I dislike labels (memorizable), i prefer a demonstration of full comprehansion.

External links did NOT work on my computer (elderly MAC) = rather hampering my revision of past bubbles. Had to find alternate sources with no way to tell if they are adequate.

By Oliver N

Jun 12, 2017

Contains a lot of excellent information. A very interesting course, and very useful for understanding our own biases and how people make sub-optimal choices. Unlike most courses on Coursera, you need to read the written pdf files as well as watch the videos - the videos alone don't cover all the information you need to pass the final.

By Akshat A

May 3, 2020

I found this course really interesting and very beautifully instructed. Week 2's course content is the most crucial aspect of this course. 10/10 recommendation to finance and economics backgrounds students. Won't take much time to understand the concepts because they have been very practically explained using day-to-day examples.

By Deepanshu M

Jul 4, 2022

The content was pretty amazing. Would have been better if the content was a little bit more video based and less of reading based ( 8-9 pdfs of 25 pages each on average). But as I can save them for future uses is one plus point of more reading material. Overall a goog to go course for anyone interested in Psychology + Finance.

By Judy S

Oct 22, 2017

I had a tougher time with this course than I thought I would. The supplemental materials were inadequate and I had a difficult time grasping the biases. Thankfully, the Internet was helpful. In all, I got a greater appreciation of behavioral economics. It is beyond money. It is in everything including the life choices we make.

By A S

Apr 9, 2023

The course is a good primer to learning behavioral finance. It covers all the biases and is snapshot of a difficult subject.Need to refer back to slides again and again.

The only issue I faced is that the course should have included

- Reference publications

- Detailed explanations

The questions in Quiz 3 are tough. Be aware :P

By Salim s

May 16, 2020

A Great course indeed. This course will add more value to your existing knowledge and will make sure you learn something more. Prof Emma is really very knowledgeable ,The quiz in the course is challenging. I would highly recommend this course for those who want to enhance their knowledge pertaining to behavioral finance.

By Xiao M

Aug 13, 2017

I hope the lecture is more connected to the reading, but with more different examples to fully explain those concepts. Also, it would be great if professors can help us differentiate those similar concepts in the lecture. Lastly, please add feedback of correct answers and explanation after quize questions! Thank you!

By Yiannis K

Jun 22, 2017

Very interesting course, I learned new terminology and it will be able to analyse certain behavior that I am noticing daily at work. The only minus that why is not 5 * is the presentations. They need a bit of work to be more attractive. PDF format is ok but not really helpfull to scroll down and read. Thank you!

By seongjae k

Oct 20, 2022

This course was very thought-provoking. I highly recommend it to not only people interested in social science but also anyone who wants to make better decisions in daily life.

I hope there were more lectures about reading overall and improvements in sound. Then this course will definitely be 5 stars for sure.

By ZHAO Y

Sep 6, 2018

Needs a lot of extra reading for students with little finance/econ background, but still quite fruitful study experience, especially if you take the quiz also as part of the learning and as a way to supplement with and consolidate the class materials. Appreciate the professors' vivid lecture talks. Thanks!

By yogesh k

Jun 16, 2020

The course was helpful in understanding the different behavioural biases in the field of finance. The slides are presented with good examples. However, the examples need to be more clearer and a simple explanation should also be included for the students who have never read about the investment area.

By Dhrumil D

Feb 21, 2022

The course is absolutely amazing. I like reading, so I was satisfied with the reading material provided to understand the concepts. For people who don't like reading: Not all the material is explained in the videos. Students must go through the reading materials to understand some of the concepts.

By Sowmya

Feb 23, 2020

I would like to thank Duke University for introducing this new course. I would like to express my gratitute and thanks to the tutors for helping me to understand the concepts. Thank you Coursera. I would like to read further on this topic. Please suggest me reading relating to Behavioral Finance.

By Scot M

Apr 9, 2020

Good course. I wish there was more commentary on personal finance and investing in real world situations. It gets most into that in the last section. I would like to have an entire section on the bubble curve and the various human biases experienced throughout market roller coasters like that.

By Harry D

Mar 20, 2021

Overall, very good and much appreciated. I agree with others that have said that they would have preferred more material in the videos rather than simply the printed material. As well, all the material on the bubbles was not available or accessible due to a computer problem of some kind.

By BUSRA G

Feb 3, 2022

Videos were not detailed. A lot of questions were not resolved in the videos and we were expected to know a lot of things beforehand. As someone who is very interested in behavioral economics, and is knowledgeable about the subject, I did have some challenges during the course.

By Bipanchee G

Jun 19, 2020

The course is beneficial. But the concepts are not explained elaborately. As such at certain point it becomes difficult to understand the concepts of the entire programme. This need to be taken care of by the course reachers and the administration.

Bipanchee Goswami. India.