Category: Behavioral

Setting New Year Financial Expectations

January 2, 2020 / in Behavioral, Investing / by Dennis Morton

We are at the start of a new decade. This means lists and reviews of the past year and ten years. Along with these retrospectives, we are treated to a healthy dose of predictions for what is to come (too often by financial gurus, unfortunately). This is click bait. An invitation to bog ourselves down in […]

The Things We Teach Ourselves

September 12, 2019 / in Behavioral, Planning / by Dennis Morton

We all have hobbies that are self-taught. Maybe for you it is cooking, or gardening, or carpentry. They are the skills we picked up by following our passions, maybe with some mentorship, but rarely with formal education. For me, guitar and golf are my self-taught hobbies, learned the hard way since my teenage years. Most […]

Action Bias and Investing (Women’s World Cup Edition)

July 3, 2019 / in Behavioral / by Dennis Morton

Yesterday, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team advanced to the finals of the World Cup. The heroics of Goalie Alyssa Naeher in saving a penalty kick late in the match against England sealed their fate. Imagine being inside the head of a goalkeeper facing a penalty kick. Your job is to be the last one, […]

A Measure of Risk

June 10, 2019 / in Behavioral / by Dennis Morton

There are two ways to measure investment performance: In percentages or in dollars. Which of the following feels worse? “I am down 5%” Or “I am down $50,000” For a $1,000,000 portfolio those are one and the same. However, much more frequently I hear down investment moves described in dollar terms. Why? Because it feels like […]

Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke

August 17, 2018 / in Behavioral / by Dennis Morton

Sometimes the stock market has been referred to as a “casino”. As investors, then, who better to learn from than a champion poker player like Ms. Duke? Book Review: Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Truthfully, Annie Duke has written a very well-researched book on the role of skill and chance in determining any outcome. […]

Hedge Funds vs The Patience to Get Rich Slowly

June 26, 2018 / in Behavioral / by Dennis Morton

Bloomberg featured a research report on why hedge funds continue to attract investors despite lackluster performance. Because of their complexity and secrecy, hedge funds have an attraction that appeals to our illusion of control. We don’t want to believe that investing is as simple as having low-cost, broad exposure to a lot of different assets. […]