Investor Psychology

Behavior determines investment success or failure -- not knowledge or skill or luck.

Investors lagged the average mutual fund by an average of 2.5 percentage points per year over the past ten years. How can you do better?

What we learned from the market’s astonishing rise—and preceding free fall.

Data from investors' brain activity, prices, trading volume and social-media chatter help detect an overpriced stock market.

You won't find tobacco, alcohol or gambling companies in the Eventide Gilead Fund. That's because Christian principles guides the fund's stock selection.

Nobel laureate Robert Shiller showed that fluctuations in the stock market were consistent with fads and euphoria.

Our practical investor has good rhyme and reason for blocking out investing noise.

Expert advice for investors to protect and grow their portfolios.

Set realistic, attainable goals, declare them publicly and develop a detailed action plan.

Historically, the stock market delivers stellar returns from November through April.

Trying to beat the market based on the latest media reports is a losing proposition for individual investors.

If you succumb to an unhealthy fear of stocks, you've committed one of our seven deadly sins of investing.

Follow these rules for good returns with reasonable risk.

Good investors have a talent for focusing on the facts that matter most. Bad investors do not.

You’ve probably heard of the seven deadly sins. In traditional moral teachings, these transgressions -- wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony ...

Some ideas are so far outside my comfort zone that acting on them would surely give me a stomachache.

Research shows that women prefer a personalized approach that focuses more on goals than on results.

Saving is important, but you shouldn't hoard all of your cash; you ought to put it to good use, too.

There is scant evidence that companies are in a cash bind that could interrupt tomorrow's dividends.

Without the Fed's actions, Americans would be facing the same kind of deflation we suffered in the Great Depression.

When top dogs fall to being underdogs, watch out that you're not along for the ride.

Faith-based investing is about finding companies that are currently faltering but that have a high likelihood of doing better.

Once you get past the hoopla, you can learn a lot from Warren Buffett by attending his company’s yearly gathering for shareholders.

Playing games makes people feel good. Can that translate into saving and spending more wisely?

Educated investors are often too confident in their own capacity to evaluate a deal.

For any period of less than five years, says Oakmark's Bill Nygren, "you are evaluating serendipity rather than skill."'

The more you trade, the less you earn because you pay commissions and taxes on your gains.

Columnist Kathy Kristof is putting her real money into the market so she can help you be a better investor.

Confused by Mitt Romney’s 47% remarks? Here are 9 ways to cut through all the statistical mumbo-jumbo and make informed judgments.

You can glean some useful investing tips from Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane's strategies for baseball.

A financial therapist can help you overcome deep-rooted money hang-ups.

Emotional baggage can sabotage your financial goals -- here's how to recognize it.

There's no such thing as predictable risk in market trading. So embrace uncertainty, for better and for worse.

Just the thought of money can make us focus more on ourselves than on others.

Be an Anglophile and adopt this British investing approach to ease young investors into stocks.

It's not that the rules changed. It's more that strategies for long-term growth have always been riskier than we like to think.

Be a DIY investor with stocks, bonds, funds and ETFs.

We tend to pay off the card with the smallest balance first, regardless of the interest rate.

This book on how our minds’ intuitive and logical parts work together can help us recognize investing mistakes.

I now find myself tempted to check my returns against my benchmark several times a day.

Giving up a lump sum in favor of a series of payments may wreak havoc with our mental accounts.

The forthcoming exchange-traded fund is getting lots of buzz, but will it be able to stand up to the hype?

Both of these extreme spending personalities suffer pain and guilt when faced with opening up their wallets. Here's how you can strike a better balance.

The relationship between happiness and income can be summed up in a simple equation, but really, it's complicated.

Congratulations! You just landed your first full-time job. Think you're ready for it? Take our ten-question quiz to see if you're really ready for the ...

Believing in the illusion of control, or the ability to forecast the future, can cause overconfidence in investors and harm to your portfolio.

Focus on your income prospects first. That will inform your investment strategy best.

Financial advice that sounds simple is often difficult to execute because of our mental baggage.

The key to successful investing is in how you divvy your assets between U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, cash and other types of investments.