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Your March Madness bracket could wreck your stock portfolio

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Mark Hulbert Your March Madness bracket could wreck your stock portfolio — so ‘sit on your hands’ until April 6 College basketball and your money — the stock market often loses when your team does March Madness is here — so you might want to lighten up on stocks until the annual NCAA Division I men’s college basketball tournament ends on April 6. That’s because of a growing body of research docume...
This narrative taps into a well-documented behavioral finance pattern: the idea that investor psychology is influenced by external events, even those seemingly unrelated to markets. The strongest version of this argument is that emotional engagement with sports—whether excitement, distraction, or disappointment—may lead to suboptimal financial decisions or reduced market participation. The 2007 study provides a foundational reference, but it’s worth questioning whether the effect is statisticall...