The Mind and the Market: Common Investor Biases
Six mental habits that shape investment decisions, from loss aversion to herd behavior, and how written rules and a second opinion can help keep them in check.
Read More 5 min read
What Is a Fiduciary, and Why Does It Matter?
A fiduciary must put your interests ahead of their own; how that differs from other standards, how advisers are paid, and what public disclosures reveal.
Read More 5 min read
Digital Money Tools: What to Check Before Connecting Your Accounts
Evaluate financial apps by their permissions, assumptions, costs, and recovery options. Understand what a dashboard can organize and which decisions still need review.
Read More 3 min read
Protecting Family Finances Online
Recognize how public information can support impersonation, agree on a way to verify urgent requests, and organize account security and recovery responsibilities.
Read More 3 min read
Key Terms
Words You Will Meet
Short definitions from the glossary for this topic.
Open the full glossary- Fiduciary
- A person or firm legally required to act in a client's best interest, ahead of its own. The standard is stricter than a requirement that advice merely be suitable.
- Loss aversion
- The tendency to feel losses more strongly than gains of the same size. It helps explain why investors often sell after declines and hesitate to reinvest, even when their plan calls for the opposite.
- Recency bias
- The tendency to assume that what has happened lately will continue, giving recent events more weight than the longer record justifies. It is a common reason investors extrapolate both booms and busts.
- Risk tolerance
- The degree of variability in returns an investor is willing and able to accept in pursuit of a goal. It has an emotional component and a financial one, and the two do not always agree.
Articles are general financial education, not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Read our important disclosures.