Why investors become bearish when the weather gets gloomy
Portrait of a brown bear cub at Katmai National park, AlaskaItalian photographer in love wit/Getty Images
Have you ever found yourself gazing pensively out the window, pondering the steadily darkening fall days or the unappealing prospect of hauling the dog out for a walk in a cold November rain, and then suddenly felt the need to switch some of your tech stocks to something less volatile—bank shares, maybe, or some rock-steady bond?
This exact scenario may seem like a stretch, but there’s solid quantitative evidence, culled by numerous finance scholars over the past three decades, that weather influences investing choices—somehow. When it’s sunny, we tend to be less risk averse. On the days that are…
