Metaphors We Invest By
PsyFi Search Monday, 4 August 2014 Metaphors We Invest By Lost for Words Metaphor is a powerful engine for driving thought. Or possibly it’s a useful compass for guiding it. Or perhaps it’s some other metaphor. The point is the we tend to think in metaphors, even about metaphor, and it seems that the metaphors […]
F is for Framing
PsyFi Search Thursday 19 June 2014 F is for Framing Framing is the idea that we make different decisions about the same thing when in a different mental state. The worrying thing about this being that other people – politicians, financial institutions and advertisers being prominent examples – can use this to influence our choices. Of […]
Dirty Money: There IS Accounting For Taste
PsyFi Search Tuesday 29 May 2012 Dirty Money: There IS Accounting For Taste Unfungible People The link between emotions and decision making, particularly financial decision making, has been recognized for years. This is a tricky area because the connection between emotions and rationality is difficult to unpick, which is why making investment decisions while in […]
Salience is Golden
PsyFi Search Tuesday 6 March 2012 Salience is Golden New Frames As so often in the past Warren Buffett has stirred up a swarm of annoyed investors, this time by explaining why he thinks gold as an asset class isn’t so much overvalued as irrelevant. He’s done this in a way typical of the man, […]
Profit From Self Knowledge
PsyFi Search Wednesday, 25 May 2011 Profit From Self Knowledge Gnôthi seauton! and is this the primeAnd heaven-sprung adage of the olden time!Say, canst thou make thyself? Learn first that trade;Haply thou mayst know what thyself had made. (Samuel Coleridge – Self Knowledge) Behavioral MoneymakingIt’s easy to talk about the fundamental errors people make in […]
Financial Memory Syndrome
PsyFi Search Wednesday, 26 January 2011 Financial Memory Syndrome False Memory SyndromeThere continues to be serious debate over the concept of false memory syndrome, where allegedly innocent people have been accused of serious crimes on the basis of memories which may have little basis in reality. Whatever really lies behind these cases it seems that […]
Behavioral Portfolios
PsyFi Search Saturday 27 February 2010 Behavioral Portfolios Beer Balancing BehavioralismPerusing the literature on behavioural finance you might be inclined to the thought that although this stuff is all very interesting and even occasionally amusing it’s not much use when you come to actually investing. It’s a bit like posture – it’s easy enough to […]
When a Dollar’s Not Just a Dollar
PsyFi Search Wednesday 6 January 2010 When a Dollar’s Not Just a Dollar Reciprocity RulesIf you have nothing and someone offers you a dollar you’d take it, right? But what if you’ve just seen your aunt give your cousin $100 and told to share it between the two of you? After all, a dollar is […]
Money Can’t Buy Happiness
PsyFi Search Sunday 3 January 2010 Money Can’t Buy Happiness Wish Carefully For You May Receive Often the quest for the illusory bird of happiness is equated with the accumulation of ever increasing amounts of money. If only we had more wonga, moula, spondoolies we’d be so much more cheerful. Only when we get the […]
Investors, You’ve Been Framed
PsyFi Search Monday 23 November 2009 Investors, You’ve Been Framed Lakoff’s Political FramesSuddenly politicians are all excited about a psychological trick that’s been known about for years. This is in no small part due to George Lakoff who’s popularised the idea of ‘framing’ in political circles. In the simple terms that politicians will understand, framing […]