Am I Hooked?
Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:53 am
From Jason Zweig...excellent advice, accurate observation.
Many other investors have been blind to the evidence right under their noses. Fans of gold insist the yellow metal is a powerful hedge against inflation when it isn’t. Bond investors have been vainly predicting a surge in interest rates for more than a decade. Skeptics of Amazon. AMZN -0.62% com Inc., perennially calling it an absurdly overpriced stock, have missed out on gargantuan gains.
That’s what happens when what you own—or scorn—becomes part of who you are. You don’t just invest in gold; you become a gold bug. You don’t merely think interest rates will rise; you turn into a bond bear. You aren’t only skeptical about Amazon; you belong to the value-investing community, which regards itself as rational in a financial world gone mad.
Before you know it, you’ve become a true believer: clinging to your investment idea as passionately, rigidly and unquestioningly as a religion or ideology.
The longer you’ve owned an asset and the more you talk about it, the more likely it is to feel like part of who you are; changing your mind would seem like losing a piece of your self.
The single best thing I ever did to improve my investing performance was to pick a benchmark and compare everything I did to it. For several years it wasn't a very pleasant experience.
Many other investors have been blind to the evidence right under their noses. Fans of gold insist the yellow metal is a powerful hedge against inflation when it isn’t. Bond investors have been vainly predicting a surge in interest rates for more than a decade. Skeptics of Amazon. AMZN -0.62% com Inc., perennially calling it an absurdly overpriced stock, have missed out on gargantuan gains.
That’s what happens when what you own—or scorn—becomes part of who you are. You don’t just invest in gold; you become a gold bug. You don’t merely think interest rates will rise; you turn into a bond bear. You aren’t only skeptical about Amazon; you belong to the value-investing community, which regards itself as rational in a financial world gone mad.
Before you know it, you’ve become a true believer: clinging to your investment idea as passionately, rigidly and unquestioningly as a religion or ideology.
The longer you’ve owned an asset and the more you talk about it, the more likely it is to feel like part of who you are; changing your mind would seem like losing a piece of your self.
The single best thing I ever did to improve my investing performance was to pick a benchmark and compare everything I did to it. For several years it wasn't a very pleasant experience.