Sign Effect, Speedup – Delay Asymmetry and Gender Effect In the Tehran Stock Exchange

The present study first investigates the asymmetry of speedup - delay (gain and loss) and Sign Effect in Tehran Stock Exchange, then examine the effect of gender on the discount rate and explain it with the loss aversion. The sample is 403 investors in Tehran Stock Exchange, and the nonparametric Tests are used to test the research hypotheses. The research results show that there is an asymmetry of speedup - delay in the Tehran Stock Exchange, which means; for gains, investors delay premium (a discount rate) is larger than the speed-up cost (a discount rate) and for losses; the discount rates of speed-up are larger than discount rates of delay. Also, the findings of this study indicate that there is a Sign effect in the Tehran Stock Exchange; in other words, the discount rate of gains is greater than the discount rate of losses. This study also finds that gender is correlated with discount rates, which that means; women have a higher discount rate for the delay in gains and lower discount rate for the delay in losses, which is due to their higher loss aversion than men. These anomalies are incompatible with the traditional discount model predictions, which is widely used in financial matters and assumes a constant discount rate.