Personality and Investment Performance: A Financial Risk Attitude, Stress Tolerance and Complex Problem-Solving Perspective

The article presents empirical results of forty fund managers‘ implicit andexplicit motives in relation to five year risk adjusted investment performance.The first step of the study was to create composite variables fromthree personality tests: Zulliger, Wartegg and Personality Research Form (PRF).Three composite variables were created of theimplicit and explicit personality variables: financial risk attitude, stresstolerance and complex problem solving. The finding of the present work was thatfinanc ial risk attitude, stress tolerance and complex problem solvingexplained 53.8% of the investors‘five year performance. All three composite variables correlated significantlyto a five year period consisting of arising and descending market. The conclusi on ofthe study was that fund managing is suitable for certain personalitycharacters, implicit motives have been neglected in behavioral finance, fundcompanies should review their assessment procedures and individual thinking anddistress management should be fostered to enhance performance.