A kinetic description of the impact of agent competence and psychological factors on investment decision-making

The kinetic theory is employed to analyze influence of agent competence and psychological factors on investment decision-making.We assume that the wealth held by agents in the financial market is non-negative,and agents set their own investment strategies.The herding behavior is considered when analyzing the impact of an agent's psychological factors on investment decision-making.A nonlinear Boltzmann model containing herding behavior,agent competence and irrational behavior is employed to investigate investment decision-making.To characterize the agent's irrational behavior,we utilize a value function which includes current and ideal-investment decisions to describe the agent's irrational behavior.Employing the asymptotic procedure,we obtain the Fokker-Planck equation from the Boltzmann equation.Numerical results and the stationary solution of the obtained Fokker-Planck equation illustrate how herding behavior,agent competence,psychological factors,and irrational behavior affect investment decision-making,i.e.,herding behavior has both advantages and disadvantages for investment decision-making,and the agent's competence to invest helps the agent to increase income and to reduce loss.