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The second European Retail Investment Conference – known as ERIC for short – was held at Boerse Stuttgart from 24 to 26 April 2013. The conference was organised by researchers from the University of Hohenheim, the University of Ontario and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The objective of ERIC is the academic exchange of information on topics and questions concerning retail investors. Boerse Stuttgart, as the leading stock exchange for retail investors, supports the conference as its main sponsor.
In his opening speech Dr Christoph Boschan, Member of the Management Board of Boerse Stuttgart AG, stressed the importance of the conference for the trading place: "As a trading place for retail investors it's extremely important for us that the behaviour of retail investors, products for retail investors, regulation and investor protection become the subject of properly scholarly research. With this conference we wish to initiate a thorough discussion of this subject."
In addition to talks by international researchers, one of the highlights of the three-day conference was a panel discussion with representatives from the sector and experts from academia, politics and the regulatory field. Among the subjects addressed was the growing flood of information on increasingly differentiated channels. This is making it more and more difficult for retail investors to take a balanced investment decision. "In view of this, transparency and stability are crucial competitive factors. It's here that highly regulated stock markets clearly distinguish themselves from the over-the-counter competition," emphasised Dr Christoph Boschan.
The conference was fortunate to welcome Alok Kumar, Professor of Finance at the University of Miami, USA, to hold the keynote talk. Professor Kumar is one of the three leading figures in the field of retail investor research. In his talk entitled ‘Social Biases and Investor Behavior’ held on the final day of the conference, he discussed the influence that socio-economic factors have on investor behaviour.
Further information about ERIC can be found at: https://www.retailinvestmentconference.org/
