In an intriguing if not dense paper, students Grace Gong and Danika Wright probed the competing theories that share investors are more, or less, risk averse after experiencing share gains. Based on data from 40,000 retail trades provided by a retail broker, the duo conclude that investors are more likely to splurge on “lottery stocks” when they’ve been on a winning streak. Put simply, even conservative investors go sick if they’ve notched up a few wins. Lottery stocks are similar to penny dreadfuls, in that they tend to have a low share price. But according to Gong, they can also fit the category by being highly volatile or “risk skewed”. This means that apart from some nice blips, the shares are more likely to be falling. Gong says about 10 per cent of stocks can be classed as “lottery stocks”, but the catch is that these constituents don’t stay the same. The duo concludes that “consistent with past findings, lottery stocks are shown to offer inferior returns and represent risk-seeking behaviour”.