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…
This trip is for the stock traders among you. What kind of annual return are you aiming for? 30% or 20% or 10%? What’s your number? Humans, and especially those of the male persuasion, have a bias called The Lake…
Enoughism* You have to find, define and fix your personal level of ENOUGH. Where you possess everything you need, and buying more would actually make you worse off. In my most recent post I have brought up the crucial question:…
Recently I spotted this ad in a German newspaper (I took the liberty to translate the few German words): It reminded me of my Water-ETF which I bought about one year ago. So I checked it out: 13.4% up. Ok,…
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…
Fees and Expenses. Investors in mutual funds incur two primary kinds of expenses and fees: Fund expenses and loads. Whereas fund expenses are paid indirectly from fund assets throughout the year, sales loads are one-time fees that investors pay either at the time…
“Oh, money, I’m actually not interested in money.” So many people say that. Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours or more (that they don’t even like) just to be able to buy stuff to impress their neighbours, the Tans and Lees (who they don’t really like…
Yaaawwnn. The stock markets in the last few weeks have been rather boring and uneventful. The US-market (measured by the S&P 500) has even entered an unusually long period of volatility contraction. The daily market moves up a bit and…
The desire to feel like we’re in control seems to be a very basic human need. Are you in control? Do you like to control your environment? Well? Were you successful in that endeavour? C’mon, be honest. Because—Control—is an illusion! Let me give you an example…