Using a unique dataset from China spanning 2005 to 2023, we investigate how superstitious beliefs influence mutual fund managers’ risk-taking behavior and how this influence evolves over their careers. We find a significant 6.82% reduction in risk-taking during managers’ zodiac years, traditionally considered unlucky in Chinese culture. This effect is particularly pronounced among less experienced managers, those without financial education backgrounds, and those with lower management skills. The impact also intensifies during periods of high market volatility. Our findings challenge the traditional dichotomy between retail and professional investors, showing that even professional fund managers can be influenced by irrational beliefs early in their careers. However, the diminishing effect of superstition with experience and expertise suggests a gradual transition towards more rational decision-making. Our results provide insights into the process by which financial professionals evolve from exhibiting behavior akin to retail investors to becoming the rational actors often assumed in financial theory.

Using unique data on Alipay users' investment accounts, we find that, in addition to generating better performance than investors’ self-directed portfolios, robo-advising has a positive spillover effect on its adopters in terms that it improves their investment behaviors. Investors have more diversified portfolios and exhibit fewer behavioral biases in portfolio management and fund choices in their self-directed accounts after adopting robo-advising. The spillover effect is more prominent for adopters who interact with the service more actively and who were less sophisticated before adopting the app. We also find that adopters learn from the robo-advisor by simply imitating its portfolios or strategies. Collectively, this study provides large-sample, non-laboratory evidence that robo-advising effectively plays a role in educating investors through repeated interactions with its adopters and setting investment models that are easy to follow.