Standard finance has four foundation blocks: (1) investors are rational; (2) markets are efficient; (3) investors should design their portfolios according to the rules of mean-variance portfolio theory and, in reality, do so; and (4) expected returns are a function of risk and risk alone. Behavioral finance offers an alternative block for each of the foundation blocks of standard finance. According to behavioral finance, investors are “normal,” not rational. Markets are not efficient, even if they are difficult to beat. Investors design portfolios according to the rules of behavioral portfolio theory, not mean-variance portfolio theory. And expected returns follow behavioral asset pricing theory, in which risk is not measured by beta and expected returns are determined by more than risk. I describe each of these building blocks of behavioral finance.

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