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Your Investor Blind Spots

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ISBN: 978-1-118-00636-8

September 2011

38 pages

Description
Most investors who fail to reach their goals do so because they fall into identifiable and often predictable mental pitfalls along the way. They already exist in our psyches, and they do their damage before we are aware of their presence. Every investor has weaknesses and vulnerabilities. These make up the darker side of our investor identity. And though some are more at risk than others, these investor traps are universal human tendencies to which every investor is susceptible. Forging a more effective investor identity involves not only recognizing these traps, but also realizing your personal susceptibilities to them and developing the ability to sidestep them along the way to your goals.

This chapter describes the most common and insidious investor traps. You will learn to identify and minimize the impact of these common mental mistakes.

About the Author
RICHARD L. PETERSON works at the intersection of the mind and markets. He is co-founder of MarketPsych LLC, where he trains financial advisers, portfolio managers, traders, and executives in emotion management and intuitive decision skills. Peterson is also Managing Director at MarketPsy Capital LLC, a psychology-based asset-management firm. Additionally, he operates MarketPsychAdvisor.com which offers investors real-time market psychological intelligence on individual stocks, ETFs, and markets. Peterson is the author of the Wiley title Inside the Investor's Brain, which was praised as "exceptionally well-written" and "outstanding" by Barron's. His financial psychology research has been published in leading academic journals and textbooks, and he is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Behavioral Finance. Peterson has degrees in electrical engineering, arts, and medicine from the University of Texas. He is a Board-certified psychiatrist and performed post-doctoral studies in neuroeconomics at Stanford University. Peterson lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

FRANK F. MURTHA received his PhD in counseling psychology from the University at Buffalo in 2001. He went on to join the consulting firm, RHR International LLP where he developed senior executives in leadership and pioneered a specialty in the new field of behavioral finance. In 2003 Murtha cofounded MarketPsych LLC, where he has led hundreds of workshops and trainings on applied investing psychology. Murtha's clients have included investment banks, financial services companies, and day trading firms, where he has coached financial advisors, analysts, and portfolio managers in reaching peak performance. Murtha has taught at numerous universities and is adjunct faculty at New York University. He is a recognized gambling and behavioral finance content expert and frequent contributor on the subject of investing psychology for print and electronic news media. Murtha lives in New York City with his wife and son.