The anxious investor Mastering the mental game of investing

Scott Nations

Book - 2022

A revelatory new guide to building wealth amidst stock market crashes and uncertain economic conditions, drawing upon financial modeling, behavioral psychology, and market history to offer practical advice to everyday investors. Investing is scary. Never is that more true than during market pullbacks and recessions, whether the Great Recession of 2008; the brief, vertiginous COVID crash in 2020; or any number of recent smaller, yet still wrenching, periods of economic turbulence. We see those flashing red numbers and all semblance of "planning" or "risk tolerance" suddenly goes out the window. We wonder: Will I ever be able to retire? Should I be buying GameStop stock? What, uh, is this stock market thing, anyway? Scott... Nations has spent his career studying market volatility. His firm, NationsShares, is the world's leading independent developer of volatility and option-enhanced indexes. In The Anxious Investor, he teaches listeners how to understand the markets, master their own fear, and make the most of their money. In the first half of the book, Nations offers a quick, compelling rundown of the worst financial crashes in American history, focusing on their causes, the recovery, and the lessons each holds for today's investors. Interwoven with these stories are fascinating cutting-edge insights into investor psychology: What makes investing so scary? What can behavioral science teach us about overcoming our "lizard brain," which is notorious for making poor financial decisions? What can help us stay the course when the waters get choppy? In the book's second section, Nations offers a roadmap that any investor can follow, with practical, easy-to-understand advice to help guide readers through the three different types of market conditions (normal, crash/bear market, recovery). Whether you're just starting out on your journey to financial literacy or are looking for an investing book to take you to the next level, The Anxious Investor is an invaluable resource.

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Subjects
Published
New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Scott Nations (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xiv, 274 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780063067608
  • Preface: The Anxious Investor
  • Chapter 1. Fear
  • Chapter 2. Irrationality
  • Chapter 3. Complexity
  • Chapter 4. A Checklist for Better Investing
  • Acknowledgments
  • Source Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Investors can make bad decisions "because of the behavioral biases we're all subject to," advises Nations (A History of the United States in Five Crashes), president of the financial engineering firm NationsShares, in this useful guide to avoiding common financial mistakes. The key theme is that "the social aspect of investing... hinders success." To tackle the fear and irrationality that often accompany investing, he warns against a wealth of biases: there's the status quo bias, or "the irrational tendency to prefer choices that maintain the status quo even when other choices would leave us better off," which readers can counter by ensuring their portfolio is diversified; hindsight bias, which entails "fooling ourselves into thinking that we it coming because it is all so obvious now," though investors should remember they can never truly know what's coming; and overconfidence, which "may be the most dangerous." Along the way, he encourages tamping down harmful tendencies by using long-term analysis, reminding readers that "just because it happened recently doesn't mean it is normal." Nations's advice is grounded and practical, and the wealth of research backing it will leave readers feeling like they're in good hands. New and seasoned investors alike will find this worth a look. Agent: David Fugate, LaunchBooks Literary. (Apr.)

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