Higher order risk attitudes of financial experts

The risk attitudes of market participants have an important influence on market behavior. We measure risk aversion, prudence and temperance in a sample of 173 financial experts. These experts are traders, analysts, or work in support or commercial functions in the financial industry, which routinely deals with risk. To assess their risk attitudes relative to the broader population, we compare their decisions with those of a demographically representative sample and of university students that are reported in the study of Noussair et al. (2014). The experts were more risk-seeking and intemperate than individuals in the other two groups. They were also more imprudent than students, though similarly prudent to the general population.