Basics Beginner: Psychology and Investing

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1.
If you find yourself habitually buying shares of a company that has treated you well in the past, even when the data suggest it would be unwise, you could be operating under confirmation bias.
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True. Though its not always a bad thing, investing against the reality of the company can sometimes be detrimental.
2.
Mental accounting is a psychological practice that refers to keeping our investments in good condition.
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False. Mental accounting really means putting our money in different buckets for different purposes. Its not always harmful, but sometimes it can inadvertently lead to wasteful spending.
3.
In the psychology of investing, the "framing effect" refers to _______.
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Using a reference point to make investment decisions. Because this reference point can be subjective, it can lead to some rash decisions.
4.
What does investing with the crowd often lead to?
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Choosing investments that are inappropriate for your goals. Following investment fashion can lead to fading performance or inappropriate investments for your particular goals.
5.
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.
6.
An example of sunk costs is _______.
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Holding on to a stock for too long because you have put a lot of money into it. When we have "sunk" money into something, we may be reluctant to let go of it when it turns into a loser.
7.
Which of the following examples illustrates selective memory?
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Remembering only the successes. Selective memory, as a rule, selects those memories that we want to preserve.
8.
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.
9.
What does regret often lead to?
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Making a bad sell decision because youve confused a bad outcome with a bad decision. You may feel regret after a bad outcome, such as a stretch of weak performance from a given stock, even if you chose the investment for all the right reasons and the underlying business remains strong. Regret can lead you to make a bad sell decision.
10.
Self-handicapping bias occurs when we try to explain any possible future poor performance with a reason that may or may not be true.
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True. In other words, its like making excuses beforehand.