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Investing Basics Beginner: Psychology and Investing

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1.
Mental accounting refers to _______.
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Keeping our money in different buckets for different purposes. While this practice is often beneficial, it can sometimes lead to wasteful spending depending on how we view those buckets.
2.
Self-handicapping bias occurs when we _______.
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Think of excuses before we do something to justify failure just in case it happens. These excuses can sabotage our performance.
3.
What does anchoring often lead to?
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An unwillingness to part with laggard investments. Investors often cling to investments in order to wait for a point at which they will break even, even if the underlying business has fundamentally changed for the worse.
4.
Confirmation bias is the practice of _______.
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Giving preference to information that supports what we already believe. This practice can sometimes limit our success with investing by shutting out other opportunities.
5.
Investors who exhibit "herding" behavior tend to think that other investors have more information than they do.
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True. Herding refers to investing along with the crowd. This usually entails believing that others have information that you dont.
6.
If you are holding two beliefs that are seemingly at odds with each other and you are uncomfortable doing so, then you are suffering from _______.
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Cognitive dissonance. Because of the discomfort, you will need a way to resolve the dissonance.
7.
In investing, sunk costs refer to costs that have already been incurred.
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True. If the costs of an investment are high, we might become reluctant to dump it due to how much we have put into it.
8.
What is a good way as an investor to avoid falling prey to the framing effect?
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Consider the total return of your investments. Seeing your choice in terms of the total return can help you avoid framing it in relative terms, which can be costly.
9.
An example of the psychological concept of loss aversion is _______.
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Holding onto a poorly performing stock. The fear of loss is so great in some people that they will hold on to stocks that are tanking badly, even when they see no real reason for it.
10.
In investing, overconfidence means thinking that we are more capable than we really are.
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True. Overconfidence is an unhealthy extension of confidence.