We tend to associate more importance to recent events than we do to less recent ones. The more vivid our memory of something which occurred in the past is, the more “available” that event will be in our mind and the more…
I am not a very up-to-date kind of guy. Sometimes I stumble across some very old facts that I did not know about before (and that have nothing to do with investing). Like this one: The condor uses the least…
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…
This post is for you. Yes, you, who sent me that e-mail yesterday asking me whether it would be a good timing to start investing in the stock market right now. I understood from your mail that you have not…
Or otherwise known as reliance on old-fashioned financial institutions and outdated economic structures.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…
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…
At the end of part 1 of this blog post we parted with the open question: How were most of these investment legends able to be wrong more often than they were right and still make incredible profits? To analyze…
Oops, did you click this post by accident? Or did you conscientiously click it because you do consider yourself a “serious investor” – I mean – serious investor (no irony intended)? I do apologize if my header created any sense…