I had my initial reservations about Professor Burton, but the class topic seemed interesting so I decided to plow through anyways. The content turned out to be pretty interesting - a nice mix of psych and econ, and Burton's teaching style is pretty straight-forward once you get used to it. However, studying for exams can be rather tedious - lots of readings, had to read 2 400ish pages books for the 2nd midterms on top of papers, so if you're bad with readings/memorization (like I am), maybe you'll want to reconsider your options, especially if you're aiming for that A. I had to spend a week studying for the 2nd midterm to get a pretty decent grade. All in all, a fun class, definitely worth taking if you're more particular to learning and not grades.

I recommend taking Theory to Financial Markets before this course. There is hardly any overlap in the material, but the course is significantly easier if you are familiar with Burton's style of teaching and grading. So if you are a first year thinking about this class, pump the brakes. Take Theory to Financial Markets in the Fall and this course in the Spring–given you haven't been Burton'd out. The class is graded on a curve, and therefore, you will do a lot better if you know how to take Burton exams. The material is really interesting, and everyone seems to really enjoy the readings. However, Burton presents the material in a way that is eerily reminiscent of Mr. Miyagi on the night of his wife's anniversary. In summary, the class is very interesting and thought provoking, but your GPA would appreciate it if you took this after Theory of Financial Market.

I took this class as an economics major interested in behavioral economics but without a special interest in finance. For my interests, I could have gotten the same thing out of just reading the books Thinking, Fast and Slow and Misbehaving on my own. I didn't find the rest of the class's finance topics very interesting, and Burton's lectures aren't the most engaging. However, for a 4000 level Econ elective, this class had nearly no weekly homework--just a handful of readings that could be done while studying for the midterms, so that was a plus. The tests are graded a bit strangely, as others have said, but the class final grade distribution ends up just fine, so it's not too much of a concern.

This was my second class with Burton as an Econ minor and solidified my thoughts on him and his classes. He is just awful. His lectures could not be more boring. More than half of the time his brooding involves nothing but vain self-praise and name dropping of all the nobel prize winning people he has lunch with and all the boards of finance companies he sits on. I think this topic could be really interesting but he makes it unbearable. The test grading is really the worst part. No less than 5 times have a put nearly word for word the same response as another classmate on an exam and been rewarded no points while the other person got full credit and he won't change the grades. If you can avoid taking his classes, please do. There are much more competent professors in the Econ department. It is super nice he takes students out to lunch though. Great dude...terrible class.

Pretty good class. Burton's lectures don't make much sense, but the readings are interesting. The course is very relevant as far as behavioral finance goes, but the grading sucks. The TAs suck and don't give you the points you deserve.

This was a really useful class on finance theory and behavior in market.

I'd recommend taking it, but don't write it off either. You'll learn a lot of useful, real world value information and Burton is a cool guy. Some risk though...on an exam (almost entirely short answer), you could spend the same amount of time studying as somebody else and end up with a grade 10-20 points higher or lower because of how it's graded. The TA's look for one key phrase or word...even if you get the question right, if you don't have that phrase/word you don't get any credit (not even partial most of the time). Can be very frustrating or rewarding, depending on how the coin flips. Even so, if you study enough and do the readings it'll be pretty tough not to end up with at least a B. Other than the exams, it's an interesting class. It's more psychology oriented than finance. Go to lunch with Burton at least once, he keeps track and is a very fascinating guy.

Burton's lectures can be off topic but do the readings and you should get an A.

Burton loves the topic and aims to make it interesting for everyone. Very open and available, and basically just wants you to summarize his lectures on the tests. They are writing intensive so bring extra pencils. But just go to class and pay attention to the key points he makes and you'll be fine.

Take it. Nearly identical tests every year so just get old copies