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Incorporating Cognitive Biases into Reinforcement Learning for Financial Decision-Making

Machine Learning 2026-01-14 v1 Econometrics

Abstract

Financial markets are influenced by human behavior that deviates from rationality due to cognitive biases. Traditional reinforcement learning (RL) models for financial decision-making assume rational agents, potentially overlooking the impact of psychological factors. This study integrates cognitive biases into RL frameworks for financial trading, hypothesizing that such models can exhibit human-like trading behavior and achieve better risk-adjusted returns than standard RL agents. We introduce biases, such as overconfidence and loss aversion, into reward structures and decision-making processes and evaluate their performance in simulated and real-world trading environments. Despite its inconclusive or negative results, this study provides insights into the challenges of incorporating human-like biases into RL, offering valuable lessons for developing robust financial AI systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.08247,
  title  = {Incorporating Cognitive Biases into Reinforcement Learning for Financial Decision-Making},
  author = {Liu He},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.08247},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 9 figures