IntroductionEmotions are widely recognized as influencing financial decision-making under uncertainty, yet it remains unclear whether pre-trading emotional predispositions are associated primarily with investment performance or with the way investors engage with the market. This study examines whether positive and negative pre-trading emotional predispositions are more closely associated with portfolio return or with trading style in a controlled stock market simulation.MethodsData were collected during a four-hour stock market simulation involving 133 second-year undergraduate students enrolled in a Bachelor's program in Management Sciences. Participants traded CAC 40 stocks under realistic market conditions, including transaction costs, without constraints on the number of trades or position size. The simulation incorporated a bonus-based incentive system, and participants received continuous feedback on their ranking throughout the session. Several composite scores were constructed to capture positive and negative pre-trading emotional tone, simulation-specific emotional expectations, and broader positive and negative emotional predispositions. Exploratory mediation-style analyses were conducted with portfolio return as the dependent variable and four behavioral indicators as potential descriptive channels: total number of transactions, average transaction volume, portfolio standard deviation, and average cash holdings relative to initial capital.ResultsNone of the composite emotional indices was significantly associated with portfolio return, and the mediation-style analyses did not reveal significant estimated indirect paths through the behavioral indicators. However, consistent differences emerged in trading style. Positive pre-trading emotional predispositions were associated with larger transaction sizes, greater portfolio variability, and lower cash holdings, whereas negative pre-trading emotional predispositions were associated with smaller positions, lower portfolio variability, and higher cash holdings.DiscussionThese findings suggest that pre-trading emotional predispositions are more closely associated with trading style than with final investment performance. They indicate that emotional predispositions are reflected more clearly in patterns of market engagement than in portfolio returns, highlighting the importance of considering behavioral processes when examining how emotions influence financial decision-making.