Analysis of irrational preferences of individual investors according to demographic variables within the framework of behavioral finance factors

One of the most important issues revealed by the behavioral finance approach, which replaces traditional finance theories that are insufficient to explain investor behavior, is the fact that investors do not always behave rationally. So that; In addition to the mental and emotional infrastructure of investors, the social environment they live in can have impact on the investment decisions that can be made, especially by individual investors, and from the time, these effects can cause investors to make investment decisions that are far from rationalism. The main purpose of this study is the examination of the factors that lead individual investors to make irrational investment decisions, determining the levels of these factors and examining whether they differ significantly in the terms of the demographic characteristic of individual investors. The data of these study was obtained by using the survey method and when the findings obtained because of subjecting the data to statistical analysis were examined; it was determined that factors which are led individual investors to make irrational investment decisions showed significant differences in terms of the gender, age, marital status and education level of the individual investors, who are participating in the survey. Keywords: Finance, Individual Investors, Investment Decisions, Behavioral Finance Theory, Asset Bubbles, Ponzi Schemes