Where I’ve Been

Never fear—I haven’t forgotten you. Things have been busy at the Behavior Gap in unexpected and exciting ways. I’ve been invited to post on a regular basis at the New York Times Bucks blog. As you can see from the screen shot below, the post made the home page this morning. You can read the full article here or by clicking on the image. I’m also posting weekly at the Morningstar Advisor blog. In the coming weeks, I’ll post some new content at Behavior Gap and keep you in the loop on where else I’m posting.
NYT Times: 2.8.2010

By Carl on 02.08.10 > Link

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Slow & Steady: Winning the Investment Race

12.15.2009

I know that this is not a new idea; we have all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare since we were little. Slow and steady always wins the race, but it is so easy to forget when most of what we read in the financial press is written to sell magazines: slow [...]

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Finding A Financial Planner You Can Trust

11.16.2009

A while back, I needed minor surgery. I needed a surgeon, so I called a client who is a physician and asked him who I should see. He referred me to someone he thought would be just right for the job.
I went to see her, and everything was just as I expected. She told me [...]

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Investors Make Mistakes, Not Investments

11.12.2009

After spending a week answering questions on the New York Times Bucks blog, and all the side discussions that generated, I am more convinced than ever that all investment mistakes are really investor mistakes.
For the most part [fraud being a notable exception], investments don’t make mistakes, investors do.
This reminds me of the time that I was [...]

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When Should You Invest Your Million

11.04.2009

Let’s say you have recently received $1,000,000 unexpectedly that you have somehow determined should be invested in the stock market for the long-term.
When should you invest it? Should it all go in as soon as you get it [lump sum] or should you space it out over 6-12 months [dollar-cost averaging]?
This is a classic behavioral [...]

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Confusing Investment with Entertainment

10.30.2009

Originally published January 21, 2008.

Investors have a bad habit of treating the stock market like a Monopoly® game. These same investors then forget that they are playing with real money instead of play money until it’s too late. You’ll do yourself, and your investments, a favor if you go to the movies instead.
When you try [...]

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What is a Guarantee Worth?

10.27.2009

What is a guarantee worth?
For as long as I have been in the business, using the word guarantee meant one of two things:
[1] The investment police were going to come through the ceiling tiles, because no investment is guaranteed.
or
[2] You were selling expensive insurance.
Sure there are ways to guarantee or insure your investment portfolio. You [...]

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Losses HURT! [A Lot]

10.23.2009

Rule No. 1: Never Lose Money
Rule No. 2: Never Forget Rule #1
—Warren Buffet
If you have been around the investment industry much, you’ve probably heard that if you miss just a few of the best days it has a massive impact on your investment return. Back in January, Jason Zweig mentioned some updated research on this concept. [...]

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What if Markets Aren’t Free?

10.22.2009

I recently read a great quote [if anyone knows who said it, I would love to give credit]:
The market is free, like sharks are fish.
Much of the investment advice given is based on the idea of free and efficient markets. But what if the markets are not really free? Can they still be efficient?
In other words:
Do [...]

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Social Science vs Physical Science

10.21.2009

There is a long-standing debate over the difference between the social sciences and the physical sciences. It’s clear that economics is a social science. As such, many of the tools that we use in the physical sciences will simply not work. One of the tools is the bell-shaped curve or normal distribution.
Normal distribution is an [...]

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Don’t Bother Picking It Up

10.20.2009

I have been involved in a number of discussions about the best way to invest money. In most of these discussions, many of the arguments that people make seemed to be informed by a fundamental belief in the efficient market hypothesis or modern portfolio theory. The entire debate reminded me of a story that I [...]

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