Abstract: Most people exhibit aversion to sure losses: they have great difficulty coming to terms with losses. Consequently, they are predisposed to holding their losers too long, and correspondingly sell their winners too early. Several examples of the phenomenon are described in this chapter. Some pertain to individual investors. Some pertain to money managers. Others pertain to decisions by corporate executives, particularly the reluctance to terminate losing projects. Instead of terminating, they throw good money after bad.

Keywords: aversion to sure loss, disposition effect, get-even-itis, mental accounting,