Category: Emotion Analytics

Today is one of those market days when the price goes basically one way. For some, these days can be their best money makers – they know how to push the pedal to the metal when the time is right. For others, they tend to be their worst days – the think they have missed [...]

In the past few days, as the markets have swung wildly from the proverbial trees, I have had the occasion to be interviewed by a number of journalists. The questions underscore how much the general public has yet to learn about what the experts know about the brain. For example. 1) Your brain will NOT [...]

Like Madoff, who one could argue wanted to be liked and to feel part of the in-crowd more than anything, if you ask yourself what would Raj’s unconscious motivation be, the ironic answer probably revolves around wanting to feel like an insider! Without talking directly to him, one can only speculate but when you ask [...]

Feelings and emotions are information. Feeling tired tells you you need rest, hungry – need food. Angry – something is wrong. Afraid – something to consider. Every time we recast our feelings and emotions as this kind of data is one more time that we move further forward faster. Ironically, this feeling thing also clears the cognitive “thinking” part of your brain so that it can do its more linear work.

In many ways, many traders end up shrugging their shoulders to the tune of “oh well I will do better next time”. The question becomes /what exactly/ will make them perceive, decide and act “better” the next time? I mean it isn’t like there aren’t tons of methods and tools to help a trader with [...]

By putting yourself into your potential future emotional contexts, you can make better “risk” judgments in the here and now.

Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about: The two areas in trading that separate the men from the boys (so to speak) are: 1.) The ability to divide environmental perceptions in half and process them separately. First I ask myself what I am feeling and in doing so I acknowledge and honor [...]

I am about to give a talk on what I call “emotion analytics”…. because to me, I really don’t see any reason that we can’t get as systematic and effective about analyzing our feelings and emotions as we are about analyzing markets or anything else. But what is simple to me… doesn’t necessarily come easily [...]

A few weeks ago I trekked to Cambridge for Harvard’s annual Investment Decisions and Behavioral Finance conference. Excited to hear a speaker list that included renowned economist Richard Zeckhauser, MIT’s Andrew Lo and Michael Mauboussin who recently authored THINK TWICE, The Power of Counter-Intuition, I admittedly however didn’t know quite what to expect. Reflecting now [...]

Somewhere down the road, you just might find you agree with more than you expected. Or worse, learned a thing or two about making better decisions in the face of UOUP (rhymes with soup) – uncertain outcomes uncertain probabilities.