New Traders
A Lazy Person’s Guide to Happiness
Happiness is an active process, not something you get by sitting back and waiting. It’s something to be grabbed by the horns or more vulnerable areas and then conquered. At least, this is the gist of the message from Tony Robbins and gurus of his ilk. Many also say happiness is not something we can…
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It Does Not Mean What You Think It Means
The interview in the post below with Daniel Kahneman got me going back over some old links that looked at the application of his and Amos Tversky’s ideas to trading and the chestnut I keep coming up against is the following question. You have been given a choice between either – a. $100 guaranteed, or b.…
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Two For One on Stupid Things People Do And Believe
Why Do We Believe Stupid Things – David Harding Why Do Smart People Do Foolish Things – Scientific American
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What I Learned from Losing $200 Million
I’d lost almost $200 million in October. November wasn’t looking any better. It was 2008, after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Markets were in turmoil. Banks were failing left and right. I worked at a major investment bank, and while I didn’t think the disastrous deal I’d done would cause its collapse, my losses were quickly…
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The Ignorance of the Crowd
In 1907, Francis Galton asked participants at a county fair to estimate the weight of an ox. While most individuals guessed rather poorly, the median guess was within 1 percent of the ox’s true weight. It’s not a mysterious finding, as some people guess high and others guess low. When the group gets large, these cancel out and…
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Following The Stock Market Is Bad For Your Returns
This is a good piece – one those ones I wish I had written. Summary: The irony of equity investing is this: if you knew nothing about the stock market and did not follow any financial news, you have probably made a very handsome return on your investment, but if you tried to be a…
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