Retail Investors and IPOs: Decoding Market Behavior and Trends

Retail Investor Behavior in the IPO market, especially in Kerala, involves understanding the complex interplay of decisions shaped by financial literacy, behavioral biases, personality traits, and risk tolerance. As India's financial landscape evolves, retail investors face challenges in evaluating IPOs, influenced by their knowledge and inherent biases. This study explores these dynamics using primary data and various analytical tools, including Cronbach's alpha, ANOVA, Discriminant Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings highlight that higher financial literacy leads to more informed investment decisions, while personality traits like openness or neuroticism significantly affect IPO participation. Behavioral biases often lead investors away from optimal choices, and risk tolerance emerges as a crucial factor, with those having a higher risk appetite showing greater enthusiasm for IPOs. This research underscores the importance of understanding retail investment behavior to guide investor education, regulatory strategies, and future research, ultimately enhancing the retail investor community's resilience in Kerala's IPO market.