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Purpose In an era marked by heightened market volatility and growing investor responsibility, understanding the psychological determinants of sound investment behaviour has become increasingly important. This study examines how emotional intelligence (EI) shapes investment performance (IP), with overconfidence bias (OB) and self-regulation (SR) acting as mediators and financial literacy (FL) serving as a moderator. Design A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed. A structured questionnaire was administered to 448 active investors in India, predominantly working professionals aged 30–60 years who actively managed their own investment portfolios. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. The proposed conceptual model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) in AMOS 26. Common method bias was assessed using Harman's single-factor test (which showed that a single factor accounted for 45.86% of the variance), and convergent and discriminant validity were established (CR 0.87; AVE 0.57). Findings The structural model demonstrated a satisfactory fit (CFI = 0.970; RMSEA = 0.055). EI exerted a significant positive association with IP ( β = 0.465, p 0.001) and a strong negative association with OB ( β = −0.871, p 0.001), while OB negatively influenced IP ( β = −0.194, p 0.01). Both OB and SR significantly mediated the the relationship between EI and IP, and FL significantly moderated this relationship ( β = 0.128, p 0.001), strengthening it under conditions of high financial literacy. Practical implications The findings suggest that integrating EI training into financial literacy programmes can enhance investor decision-making, improve advisory effectiveness, and improve long-term portfolio outcomes. Originality The study contributes a unified, theory-driven model that simultaneously tests dual mediation and moderation pathways within the behavioural finance literature.
Raut et al. (Wed,) studied this question.