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This study examines the determinants of post-simulation regret in a stock market exercise involving 133 second-year undergraduate management students. Using data from a four-hour trading simulation, it relates post-simulation regret to anticipated regret, portfolio return, trading-style indicators and personality traits. Five regression models are estimated with a common specification, each including a different proxy for trading style. The results show that anticipated regret is positively associated with post-simulation regret, while portfolio return is negatively related to regret and is significant or marginally significant across models. Conscientiousness also emerges as a significant positive predictor. By contrast, none of the trading-style proxies reaches standard significance levels. The findings suggest that regret in simulated trading is explained more by prior regret disposition, portfolio performance, and personality than by trading style. 

This paper investigates whether personality traits, affects, and anticipated emotions measured before a stock market simulation explain participants’ trading style. The study relies on a sample of 133 undergraduate students from the University of Mons, Belgium, who participated in a four-hour CAC 40 trading simulation with a virtual portfolio of EUR 100,000. Regressions were estimated on several dimensions of trading style: number of transactions, minutes per order, average transaction size, average cash holdings, and portfolio volatility. The results show that psychological variables explain little of trading frequency or pacing but are informative about the structure of market exposure. Negative affect is associated with higher cash retention, whereas positive anticipated emotions are associated with lower cash holdings. Gender and openness also predict position size, while gender, age, and openness are significant predictors of portfolio volatility. Overall, the findings suggest that psychology explains less how much individuals trade than how they structure their market exposure.