Behaviour of Investors in the Stock Market: Does Age Matter?

Most financial theories are based on the concept that individuals act rationally and consider all available information in the decision-making process. Behavioural finance is the study of the methodical errors made by market participants due to psychological biases. The primary objective of the study was to look at the behaviour of investors among different age groups. This paper investigated how investors in the young, middle, and old age groups differed in their investment behaviour. A survey of 100 investors from Pondicherry was conducted through personal interviews with the help of a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis H Test and F test. The study proves that there is a significant difference between the age group of the investors with respect to their saving objectives, experience, and proportion of investment. The study concludes that there existed significant differences between the investors belonging to different age groups, and particularly, investors in the young and old age groups differed while making investments in the stock market.