Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Market Psych"MarketPysch is an important step in taking the field of behavioral finance from the quaint and theoretical to the powerful and practical. Backed by the new research in neuroscience and loaded with techniques tailored to your individual investor personality type, this book is a must-read for the active investor."
—Stephen M. Horan , PhD, CFA, Head, Professional Education Content and Private Wealth, CFA Institute
"As someone whose work in the 1970s and 1980s first highlighted the importance of the prefrontal cortex and limbic system to financial decision making, I can say that this book not only takes that idea and runs with it, but does so in an insightful, practical, and entertaining way."
—Hersh Shefrin , author of Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing
"Peterson and Murtha have channeled the science of behavioral finance to help average investors master their emotions and, in doing so, grant them control over their financial futures. This is a holistic, powerful, and extremely practical book—it’s head and shoulders above the pack."
—Robert Frick , Senior Editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
"Cartoonist and animator Walt Kelly's comic strip character Pogo’s now-famous quote, 'We have met the enemy and he is us,' is a befitting rendition of what most investors realize but have difficulty controlling—themselves. MarketPsych provides well-researched solutions for investors to heed. Knowing your own propensity to the temptations and emotional foibles of the financial markets is the critical step to making sound choices."
—Arnold Wood , President and Chief Executive Officer, Martingale Asset Management
"The average investor is bombarded with over the top media reports and struggling with their own basic human behaviors. The odds are stacked against the average investor. Richard and Frank's book on dealing with fear and building your investor identity is designed to tilt the odds and is a must-read for all investors."
—Oliver Murray, President and Chief Executive Officer, Brandes Investment Partners & Co.
Review
"The market is flooded with books on investor psychology, but most only outline the various ways we screw up with our investments. This is the first book that identifies the root causes and gives a variety of practical, imaginative ways to heal thyself." (Kiplinger's Personal Finance, December 2010)
Synopsis
A financial professional's guide to the psychological side of investing
The 2008 financial crisis has changed the nature of the financial advisory business. Today, many advisors fail to acquire or retain business because they are unable to meet the emotional needs of their clients. This book trains them to understand and connect with the emotional psychology of their clients, which is the key to building healthy and lasting business relationships.
Authors Richard Peterson and Frank Murtha understand this situation, and have designed a guide that will help financial advisors learn about this important, yet mostly ignored, aspect of their work. Throughout the book, they make the theoretical practical by translating concepts into concrete tools and techniques designed specifically for financial advisors. Contains informative worksheets and planning tools that affect all aspects of the financial advisor's practice Examines how an advisor's role has evolved from a primarily transactional one to one that must provide support and guidance Details the emotional aspects of running an advisory business, which is crucial for all financial advisors
Financial advisors as well as investors need to fine-tune their psychological skills in order to achieve success in today's markets. This book will show you how.
Synopsis
An investor's guide to understanding the most elusive (yet most important) aspect of successful investing - yourself.
Why is it that the investing performance of so many smart people reliably and predictably falls short? The answer is not that they know too little about the markets. In fact, they know too little about themselves.
Combining the latest findings from the academic fields of behavioral finance and experimental psychology with the down-and-dirty real-world wisdom of successful investors, Drs. Richard Peterson and Frank Murtha guide both new and experienced investors through the psychological learning process necessary to achieve their financial goals.
In an easy and entertaining style that masks the book’s scientific rigor, the authors make complex scientific insights readily understandable and actionable, shattering a number of investing myths along the way. You will gain understanding of your true investing motivations, learn to avoid the unseen forces that subvert your performance, and build your investor identity - the foundation for long-lasting investing success.
Replete with humorous games, insightful self-assessments, entertaining exercises, and concrete planning tools, this book goes beyond mere education. MarketPsych: How to Manage Fear and Build Your Investor Identity functions as a psychological outfitter for your unique investing journey, providing the tools, training and equipment to help you navigate the right paths, stay on them, and see your journey through to success.
Synopsis
Investing well is not about the marketsit's about you. The markets will do what they do, which is fluctuate. The question is, as the markets fluctuate, what do you do?
While you may not think that your investment performance is affected by who you are, think again. Recent research has uncovered startling information regarding the relationship between who you are, how you invest, and what that ultimately means for your wallet.
For the past two decades the psychological mistakes of investors have been rigorously defined by experts in the fields of behavioral finance and experimental psychology. The problem with this is that investors haven't been told what they can do to overcome these innate errors of judgment. It's time to find an appropriate road to recovery, and that road starts by understanding who you are as an investor: your Investor Identity. That's why authors Richard Peterson and Frank Murtha of MarketPsych LLCan innovative organization that offers psychology-training services for the financial industryhave created this timely guide.
Written with every investor in mindfrom mutual fund dilettantes to penthouse portfolio managersMarketPsych will put you in a better position to improve your investing by helping you honestly answer questions such as: Fundamentally, why am I investing? Who am I trying to be when I buy or sell stocks? What are my deeper "emotional" objectives? How am I deceiving myself in the markets?
And while the book does not recommend a specific method of investing, it does assist you in understanding your financial personality style, emotional triggers, values, and assumptions, and it reveals how to invest comfortably within your newfound investor identity.
Investing appears to be about the markets, but it's not, it's really about you. By addressing the major psychological underpinnings of strong and weak investment performancefrom personality traits and emotion management to values and beliefs, thought traps, and stress managementand showing you how to institute lasting behavioral change and maintain motivation in pursuit of your goals, MarketPsych will improve your investing mindset and help you excel even in the toughest markets.
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.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Chapter 1: What Is Your Investor Identity?
Chapter 2: Investor Identity Fundamentals.
Chapter 3: Is Character Destiny?
Chapter 4: Managing Investing Emotions.
Chapter 5: What Do You Really Value?
Chapter 6: Identifying (and Avoiding) Investor Traps.
Chapter 7: Managing Investment Stress.
Chapter 8: Being Your Best.
Appendix A: Summary of Meditation Techniques.
Appendix B: Gratitude List.
About the Authors.
Index.