Behaviour
Automating your investing
Every decision removed is a decision that cannot be made badly, and the evidence on discretion is not encouraging.
Behaviour
The gap between fund returns and investor returns, and why.
Behaviour
Knowing when to do nothing
Action bias produces most of the damage in retail investing, and inaction is an active choice rather than an absence of one.
Behaviour
Making decisions with a partner
Two people with different risk tolerances need a shared plan, and one person holding all the knowledge is a vulnerability.
Behaviour
Regret, comparison and other people
Investment decisions are made in a social context, and comparison drives more behaviour than analysis does.
Behaviour
Writing an investment policy for yourself
One page written when calm prevents most of the decisions that damage portfolios during stress.
Behaviour
Financial media and how to read it
It is produced continuously for attention, which makes it a poor input into decisions with thirty-year horizons.
Behaviour
Herding, bubbles and manias
The pattern repeats with different assets, and recognising it in progress is considerably harder than recognising it afterwards.
Behaviour
Investment scams and how they work
The patterns are consistent, the losses are large, and a two-minute check prevents most of them.
Behaviour
Loss aversion and the pain of falling markets
Losses are felt roughly twice as intensely as equivalent gains, which explains a great deal of investor behaviour.
Behaviour
Chasing performance
Money flows towards recent winners and away from recent losers, and both directions cost investors money.
Behaviour
Overconfidence and the illusion of skill
Most people rate themselves above average, and in investing the consequence is measurable in returns.
Behaviour
Why forecasts do not help
The record of market and economic forecasting is poor, and acting on forecasts is worse than ignoring them.
Behaviour
The behaviour gap
Investors persistently earn less than the funds they hold, and the difference is entirely a matter of timing decisions.