I am convinced that my brain does a poor job of separating truth from fiction. This leads to many false beliefs. Therefore, I want to make at least a minimal effort to understand my brain better and be on guard…
… that there is no certainty (ok, I admit death is the only thing we can know with any certainty, but my intention is not to write about the end here, I have done that before and it didn’t end…
einhundert – 100 – one hundred The other day I have shared with you this gigantic Cognitive Bias Codex. It contains 189 different biases. So far I have written about 100 biases that make you do dumb things with your…
Or otherwise known as reliance on old-fashioned financial institutions and outdated economic structures. Partly, it is due to habit; partly, because of our concerns about liquidity; and partly, because we think that it is always risky to experiment with new things where we might lack…
Emotions are the main cause and driving force in the stock markets. Last week I shared some thoughts why understanding our mind as a tool that tries to live in an uncertain world is an important challenge. Because the brain…
Before you read on, take a minute and think about this question for a while. Look back at your recent transactions. How did you arrive at those decisions? Are you happy with your past decisions? Any regrets? C’mon. If you’ve…
Last week I wrote about expensive Mutual Funds / Unit Trusts and their cheaper (and better) alternatives called Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). You still don’t buy it. Ok, that might be my fault because I am simply not convincing enough…
In my previous post I shared a few thoughts on probabilities and statistics. I wrote about disregarding probabilities in decision making, ignoring small probabilities and not over-weighting small probabilities. A tough act to follow. I am totally guilty of failing…
We all have a preferential set of intuitions, feelings, and ideas. Less poetically characterized by the term “bias”. These little quirks in our thinking pose a challenge to our ability to weigh evidence accurately to arrive at truth. Bias is…
Being biased brings with it that we don’t think like we think we think. We make illogical decisions. Passive index fund investing via a Regular Savings Plan or Dollar-Cost-Averaging is logically right, right? But emotionally and in terms of common…