For many years, traditional approaches that dominated the field of finance assumed that investors acted completely rationally in their decision-making processes. However, over time, it has been understood that individuals do not make investment decisions solely based on information, analysis, and logic; they are also significantly influenced by emotions, intuition, and psychological tendencies. This situation paved the way for the emergence of the behavioral finance approach and for investor behavior to be examined from a psychological perspective.
Emotions, which lie at the core of human behavior, play a decisive role not only in individuals’ daily lives but also in their economic decisions. Especially in investment processes involving uncertainty and risk, emotions such as fear, anxiety, overconfidence, regret, and excitement can influence investors’ decisions. In this context, the concept of emotional intelligence has become an important factor in enabling investors to recognize, control, and effectively manage their emotions.
In this study, the relationship between the investment decisions of individual investors trading on Borsa Istanbul and their levels of emotional intelligence was examined, and an attempt was made to determine the extent to which emotional intelligence affects investment preferences. The main purpose of the study is to demonstrate that investment decisions are shaped not only by economic and cognitive factors but also by psychological and emotional factors. Thus, it is aimed to contribute to the behavioral finance literature and to evaluate investor behavior from a more holistic perspective.
During the research process, the theoretical background of emotional intelligence was examined, psychological biases affecting investment decisions were discussed, and the data obtained from individual investors operating in different provinces were analyzed using empirical methods. It is believed that the findings obtained from this study will contribute to a better understanding of investor behavior and provide guidance for future studies.
I would like to express my gratitude to all academicians who contributed their knowledge and experience during the preparation of this study, to my family for their unwavering support, and to all investors who participated in the research. It is hoped that this study will be beneficial primarily to the field of behavioral finance, as well as to the finance literature, researchers, and all readers interested in the subject.