{"id":8158,"date":"2025-12-25T17:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T09:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/?p=8158"},"modified":"2025-12-25T17:06:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T09:06:24","slug":"%e4%b8%ba%e4%bb%80%e4%b9%88%e4%bd%a0%e6%80%bb%e5%9c%a8%e5%b9%b4%e6%9c%ab%e6%95%88%e5%ba%94%e4%b8%ad%e5%81%9a%e5%87%ba%e9%9d%9e%e7%90%86%e6%80%a7%e5%86%b3%e7%ad%96%ef%bc%9f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/archives\/8158","title":{"rendered":"Why do you always make irrational decisions during the \"year-end effect\"?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every December, a strange phenomenon often occurs in the financial market: investors suddenly become extremely active - eager to close losing positions, pursue popular sectors, and adjust annual income performance. This behavior seems rational, but in fact it is deeply driven by the year-end mental accounting reset (Year-End Mental Accounting Reset). Wmax behavioral finance series points out: the real risk lies not in market fluctuations, but in our excessive meaning given to \"time nodes\".<\/p>\n<p>Annual Cut of Mental Accounting<\/p>\n<p>The \"mental accounting\" theory proposed by Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler points out that people divide funds into different \"accounts\" based on source, use or time, and assign different risk preferences. The end of the year is the time when mental accounts are forced to \"close\".<\/p>\n<p>Many traders will unconsciously separate \"this year's losses\" from \"next year's opportunities\". For example: \"This loss cannot be carried over to next year, otherwise it will affect the New Year's mentality\"; or \"The principal must be earned before the end of the year to be considered complete.\" This slicing ignores the homogeneity of funds\u2014no matter when you lose money, the impact of a $1 loss on your overall wealth is the same. However, the brain has a false sense of restart due to the \"calendar page turning\", which leads to hasty closing of positions or risky additions to positions.<\/p>\n<p>The amplification of the disposal effect at the end of the year<\/p>\n<p>The \"Disposition Effect\" refers to the tendency of investors to sell profitable positions too early but hold on to losing positions for a long period of time. This deviation was significantly amplified at the end of the year and evolved into forced disposal behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Research shows (Odean, 1998) that investors are 23% more likely to close losing positions in December than in other months. On the surface it is \"stop loss discipline\", but in fact it is to \"clear bad records\". What is even more dangerous is that some people will operate in the opposite direction - chasing hot assets higher in the last few trading days in an attempt to \"beautify the annual statement.\" This behavior is not based on new information but on obedience to the psychosocial ritual of \u201cannual review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Social comparison pressure: Who is showing off their \u201cannual earnings\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the year, social media was flooded with content such as \u201cMy 2025 Profit Curve\u201d and \u201cXX Strategy Annualized at 50%\u201d, triggering strong social comparison. When you see others showing profits, the brain's reward circuitry is activated, and anxiety is produced in the anterior cingulate gyrus - even if you had no original intention to compare.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1266\" height=\"844\" class=\"wp-image-8160\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85.jpeg\" alt=\"\u5546\u4eba\u5728\u7b7e\u5408\u540c\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85.jpeg 1266w, https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85-18x12.jpeg 18w, https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85-900x600.jpeg 900w, https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/unnamed-file-85-600x400.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1266px) 100vw, 1266px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This pressure can distort risk perception:<\/p>\n<p>Profiters may stop profits prematurely because they are \"fearful of taking losses\"; losers may increase leverage because they are \"unwilling to lag behind\"; bystanders may blindly follow the trend due to FOMO (fear of missing out). Behavioral experiments show that in a simulated year-end environment, the probability of subjects taking high-risk positions is 37% higher than usual, and the regret rate afterward increases significantly. The \u201cyear-end show\u201d in the digital age is becoming a new breeding ground for irrational decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>How to resist the psychological trap at the end of the year?<\/p>\n<p>The first way to do this is to break out of the \u201cannual\u201d narrative frame. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n<p>\"If today was June 30, would I still make this decision?\"<\/p>\n<p>If the answer is no, it means that the decision-making is interfered by time nodes rather than driven by real logic.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, establish a multi-year position evaluation mechanism. Classify positions according to \"whether the opening logic is still valid\" rather than \"whether it is profitable\". For example: the survival of a semiconductor position purchased due to the demand for AI computing power should depend on whether the industry trend continues, rather than whether the capital can be recovered before December 31.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, proactively block \u201cannual summary\u201d content. At the end of the year, reduce browsing revenue lists, rankings, annual reviews and other information sources to avoid emotions being swayed by group narratives. True investment discipline is sticking to the rules when no one is looking.<\/p>\n<p>Conclusion: Time is just a scale, not a referee<\/p>\n<p>Turning the page on the calendar does not change market patterns, nor does it reset your risk tolerance. Those hasty decisions made due to the \"New Year's Eve\" often become the first lessons of the new year. Wmax behavioral finance series reminds: Don\u2019t let the ritual sense of time obscure the essence of decision-making. True professionalism is to still be able to hear your own voice of reason in the noisy year-end atmosphere.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In-depth analysis of the phenomenon of psychological account reset at the end of the financial market and the trading risks it brings. Explore how calendar page turning triggers a false sense of reset, amplifying disposition effects and social comparison pressures. Wmax behavioral finance series helps you identify irrational decision-making triggers during the New Year window period, provides methods to break the annual narrative framework and establish a New Year evaluation mechanism, helping you maintain professional and rational investment discipline in the year-end hustle and bustle.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[393,392,374],"class_list":["post-8158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorial","tag-393","tag-392","tag-374"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8161,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158\/revisions\/8161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kpai1.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}