Investor mind, your market mind, is personal and different for everyone. Each person learning superior investing skills begins by knowing their self and learning basic investing knowledge. Then they build their own investor mind while learning the basics of investor thinking, feeling and actions. Do that and you form the base of your investor life and success.
Know your stock market self for stock market success and an investor life. Learn superior investor thinking, feeling and actions to build your investor mind.
This article gives an in-depth guide through the mental and emotional parts of investing. Apply what you learn to lay the groundwork for stock market success and an investor life.
Being a stock market success requires that you commit to investor thinking, learning and doing. This article helps you do that. To begin, we first look at the investor mind. The thinking of a successful investor. From there we discuss the major mental blocks that stop or hurt investing success, the investing mind traps. Following that we present how to manage the feelings, thinking and actions that affect stock market success. Finally we bring together the thinking and positives of successful investors. You can use the journey to begin building your investor mind.
Links to article sections:
Introduction to the investor mind
Investor mind Part I: Thoughts & attitudes
Investor mind Part II: Mind trap control
- Knowledge – knowing how to invest or not
- Trust – lack confidence or trust in financial industry and players
- Cost – expense surprises and confusing, obscured or hidden costs
- Complexity – confused and intimidated by perplexing investment choices
Investor mind Part III : Managing thinking, feeling and acting
- Ego driven behavior
- Fear and greed management
- Regret teaches unforgettable lessons
- Realistic, Positives & Uncertainty
- Imagination & Details matter
Conclusion: Wrap up you + Parts I + II + III
Introduction to the investor mind
Stock markets build wealth. That’s great news! And better yet, you can make this wealth building tool work for you. To make that happen begin by knowing yourself well. Your financial future will thank you for taking the time and making the effort!
Stock market success begins when you know your stock market self
It is all about you! Your stock market success that is. You can decide if, or when, you want to be a stock market success and enjoy the benefits of an investor’s life.
Developing the investor mind and building stock market success takes time, some effort and consistency. That road has bumps and setbacks. It will challenge you. But the slope is up. You can make a real and measurable progress.
Like many things in life, stock market success begins in your head. Managing emotions and psychology play important roles in every investing success. Successful investors manage emotions and have a mature psychological makeup.
Should you manage your own investments?
While everyone can learn, not everyone can cope with the ups and downs of the stock market. People who do not cope well with market dynamics should not manage their own investments. There are many excellent alternatives to managing your own portfolio.
Some people are ready to manage their investments. Many others need professional help. At least to begin. Then, as they learn, investors can take more control of their account.
Others are content to put total investment management in professional hands. They are also happy to leave it there. Learning more about investing and how stock markets work delivers benefits to everyone. Knowledgeable people make better investors and those using professional help are better clients. Knowing more helps. Know your stock market self does not mean you must manage your own portfolio.
Informed clients get better performances from their financial advisors. By knowing more you make better financial and investment decisions.
Investors need to combine knowledge, informed thinking and a mature mind. That means to do well we must understand market ups and downs. With an advisor or managing your own account, knowledge lets you understand and cope with market action.
Investor mind and thinking stock market success
People that have stock market success have a positive relationship with money. Not obsessed with money but respectful and appreciative. They want it for what it can do for them as a part of their investor life. They want to put money to work for their own benefit.
The best stock market investors see the market and investing as a great social game. Like all investing, stock markets are parts of the social game of life. Markets are places that exchange, influence and sometimes even control perceptions. In fact markets are perception. Accepting and understanding that puts you well on the way to stock market success.
Stock market success produces money! Money builds financial freedom which provides options. It gives you more control of time. Well managed money contributes to peace of mind and comfort. The best news of all, with an investor mind you can choose to make well-managed money part of your future!
Summary points Investor mind introduction
- Know your stock market self
- Success begins by knowing who you are
- Self knowledge begins in your head
- Introduces the mental and emotional parts of investing
- Lays the groundwork for an investor life
- Investing needs commitment to think, learn and do
- Takes time, effort and consistency
- Managing investments is not for everyone
- Needs a positive relationship with money
- Investing, stock markets and life are social games
Investor mind Part I: Thoughts & attitudes
This section discusses the White Top Investor mind that drives stock market success and the investor life. White Top favors investing for everyone. The stock market already touches everyone in every economy. But not everyone benefits. Only those who manage investing well enjoy all the possible benefits of the investor life and stock market success. By investing well, anyone can build themselves a better financial future. It all begins in your mind and getting to know your stock market self.
Stock market success and the investor life requires some knowledge, thinking, time and effort. The successful investor mind begins by making the effort to know your stock market self.
To know your stock market self, review your thinking and investing attitudes. Know them, understand them and regulate them. Use this article as a tour of your mind, emotions and investing. That helps explore your thinking, psychology and investing attitudes. It relates them to stock markets and the investor mind. That helps you put together the best stock market self for you.
Knowing your stock market self helps you build wealth. As you grow in understanding you know when you are ready to manage your investments. That helps answer the question, should I manage my investments?
Build stock market success yourself or with help
You can manage investments yourself or with help. You can get a little help from a fee for service financial planner. Or you can get a lot of help from a financial advisor that does it all for you. And you can make investment management changes as you learn and grow.
Improving knowledge helps improve investing results. That applies to both do it yourself investors and clients of financial advisors. It takes time to learn but you can learn at your own pace. As you learn, you can take more control of your investments and financial future.
Taking direct control of your own portfolio can produce significant cost savings. Eliminating and controlling costs has a huge impact on your investing results. Saving costs can change financial futures.
Know your stock market self builds an investor life
To become a stock market success, develop your stock market self. Your stock market self is as unique as you. Like your personality, knowledge, thoughts, feelings and lifestyle, your stock market self is yours alone. That combination of attitudes, quirks and tendencies show who you are.
Your approach to what you eat, how you care for your health and where you live are unique. They are part of you. In the same way, your stock market self becomes part of the unique you. Investing well opens unlimited financial possibilities for you.
Your stock market self wraps your investor knowledge in your self-knowledge. As unique as you, you can make it your wealth building tool. Accept that your knowledge, personality and feelings impact your stock market performance. Then set about using them to your advantage.
Successful investors embrace who they are. They know, understand and manage their minds, feelings and choices. The best don’t bury or deny emotions, they manage them.
Train your mind and emotions to invest as parts of your stock market self
The best start to stock market success begins by knowing and training your mind and emotions. Then you can understand and follow the thinking and actions of experienced investors.
Use that foundation of awareness as the base that grows into your investor mind. As you grow you will feel more in control. You will be more in control. Your growing investor mind actually changes your investing results. They improve.
A growing and informed investor mind makes you a more successful investor. That growth shows in real portfolio performance. Any investor benefits from improving portfolio performance. That has real impact on your financial future.
Thoughts to build an investor mind
As your investor mind is very personal, so is your investing portfolio. Like tailored clothing, the design of your investment portfolio must fit you.
Walking through any personal fitting process, feelings come into play. Feelings about yourself, investing and the market affect everything you do. Feelings affect what you do or do not do with your investments.
We cannot tell ourselves to set emotions aside and use only cold reason. We cannot use analytical facts without feeling. Humans don’t do that. Humans can’t do that. There can be no escape from our emotions. Successful investors know, understand and learn how to work with their emotions.
When we decide to know our stock market self we must include feelings, our emotions, in the process. It is a very personal and individual journey. The incentive is massive; the lifelong benefits of stock market success.
Emotions are parts of the investor life with no right or wrong
Learn about your emotions knowing there is no right or wrong answer. Success means acknowledging, considering and dealing with your emotions. Emotions are there, like air. To succeed we learn to deal with it and manage them.
Emotions are many and complex. We don’t deny them but know them, understand them and manage them. Doing that turns emotions into allies supporting our stock market success.
Investor mind comes before stock market success
“Until you manage your mind, do not expect to manage money.”
Warren Buffett
Successful investors manage their minds. Their behavior and thinking and varying degrees of support networks are all positive. Successful investors are yes people. As in yes we can!
Their thinking has a success orientation. Investor actions include planning, thinking and doing. They accept the need to research, they have the need to know and are curious. And they are practical. Very importantly they accept the need to act as well as understand the need to accept losses.
Their support networks range from formal to casual. Both online and in person, most successful investors communicate well. They choose to engage with positive people.
The successful investor mind embraces positive psychology. Psychology, our way of thinking, feeling and acting, flows from all parts of our mind. Our minds are brilliant and powerful. We can train, teach and use them! Investors enjoying stock market success do just that!
Be aware of your subconscious investor mind
Successful investors are aware of their subconscious. To be aware of your subconscious mind means knowing your psyche. Knowing your psyche means knowing it can help or hurt your investment performance.
If not controlled our subconscious or subliminal mind can lead us astray. That includes investing mistakes. We can see this happen in the portfolios of ego driven investors. Impulsive stock market decisions show ego and most often are mistakes. They can also show the result of a lazy mind. Hunches that work are luck. Thinking takes more effort but produces far better investing results.
Prime human notions; fight, flight or lust, begin in our subconscious. Lots of room for mistakes there! Be aware that subconscious driven investment actions can produce disasters. That awareness helps us avoid such mistakes. With awareness we can defend against ego-controlled or lazy mind investing. By knowing and thinking we avoid most errors.
Subconscious help for stock market success
Our subconscious minds are capable of amazing and very useful processing. Insights gained from processing facts and feelings involves subconscious mysteries of the mind. We do not know how it happens. But we do know subconscious processing can be very effective.
Our emotional processing also comes from our subconscious. The best of our subconscious feelings rise to awareness in our conscious mind. We have an astounding ability to process challenges by sleeping on them. Doing so often produces clear, reasonable and useful answers.
Our subconscious thoughts can be positive or negative, help us or hurt us. Once we become aware of the subconscious thought our conscious mind takes control. At least it should. We have to take charge and think it through. Only by thinking can we make the right decision for the best result. By having the discipline to think we train our mind and create a powerful investing tool.
Use conscious mind power in your investor life
Conscious action shows investor thinking. Investors use their conscious, attentive, aware, vigilant and watchful mind. That mind holds our powerful thought processor, decision maker and knowledge store.
When considering an investment, investors first, check the facts! If the facts and rational review do not give reasons to go ahead, stop. Say no!
That simple check on investments will keep thousands of dollars in your account.
Successful investors have positive thoughts about themselves. Like all people who learn and grow, they increase their emotional awareness. That increases understanding of themselves and the world. They combine understanding emotions and their mental outlook with the mechanics and knowledge of investing. All superior investors learn these basic skills.
Using this positive thinking process produces a continual increase in mind strength. That experience grows awareness which generates more opportunities and better investing results.
Best news of all, both our subconscious and conscious minds learn and grow with training. Knowing and understanding our silent mental processing partner, gives us an investing edge. To make that edge happen, we let both knowledge and experience train our brain.
Investor self-knowledge has no pass or fail
The process to know your stock market self continues through your investor life. Like self-knowledge it has a need to know but no pass or fail. To succeed, be both honest and realistic with yourself. Know yourself and be ready to use your strengths. Be ready to cope and deal with your weakness. And be able to manage your tendencies. Combining knowledge and awareness of self gives you a great advantage as an investor.
After developing the needed self-knowledge you can look outside of yourself. Look to successful investors for examples. Look at the best and ignore the rest.
The best investors do share traits. The best investors use facts, not feelings or hunches. As disciplined but flexible thinkers, they follow their plan. At the same time they stay open to new or different thoughts. Receptive to new or different information, they adapt while always being risk-averse. As a group they display excellent cost control.
Start where you are to build stock market success
As we must always, we start from where we are. No excuses allowed. Successful investors accept and begin where they are. They get on with it. From there they learn, grow and prosper. As you learn, more investing knowledge makes you change. It changes both your mind and your feelings.
With growth you see the wisdom and opportunity that comes with accepting risk. You can grow to understand how to manage risk. That growth shows as significant portfolio performance increases.
As you know and understand more about investing you can see more. You can see and accept that there are greater opportunities. You can take informed action. That grows portfolios and changes financial futures.
Investor life: attitude with action = stock market success
The investor life attitude can make a huge difference to your financial future. You learned to care for your health. You learned the skills for your profession. So too can you learn to care for your financial future.
To care for your financial future, apply an invest-for-life attitude. Invest-for-life applied to stock market investing keeps you in and growing. That gives you the best way to build financial strength.
When investing use strict cost controls. Invest in income producing stocks for the greatest returns. Use White Top lessons to learn. Then apply what you learn and grow in skill, stock market wisdom and financial success.
Attitudes, thoughts, feelings for stock market success
When you know your stock market self, discussing knowledge, thinking and attitudes continues to develop your investor mind. That becomes your stock market self and your investor mind. The successful investor mind gives you the start and a powerful investing advantage as you seek stock market success.
Summary points Part I investor thoughts and attitudes
- You can choose to be a stock market success
- Stock market success begins in your mind
- You build your unique investor mind
- Your investor mind manages your thoughts, feeling and choices
- Your investor mind builds your investor life
- Investor life requires knowledge, thinking and effort
- Successful investors are active oriented positive thinkers
- Learn the power and how to use your subconscious mind
- Train you conscious mind to manage your investment life
Investor mind Part II: mind trap control
Next we discuss the mind traps or mental blocks that stop many from becoming successful investors. This section covers common mind traps or mental
blocks to investing. The investor mind lets you deal with and overcome investing mind traps. Knowing how to overcome common investing blocks helps you grow. It also helps you know yourself better. You then better understand your reactions, tendencies and choices. Knowing that helps you set up a stronger base for your investor mind. That gives you another mental building block of your stock market success.
Listed here are four big mind traps I hear about most often. When these mind traps stop people from investing they do serious harm to their financial future.
Most talked about investing mind traps or blocks
- Knowledge – not knowing how to invest
- Trust – lack of confidence or trust in financial industry and players
- Cost – expense surprises and confusing, obscured or hidden costs
- Complicated – confused and intimidated by complex investment choices
Mental blocks can make investing impossible. That’s the bad news. Anyone scared to invest, will not. Now the good news, with knowledge you can overcome each mental block. Use White Top thinking and lessons to know how to clear each block. Clearing the mental blocks opens your path to stock market success.
Investing mind trap 1: Knowledge
Many people who do not invest say, “I don’t know how to invest!”
For most, lack of investing knowledge ranks first on the mental block list. Not knowing how to invest raises fear, anxiety and wariness. Not knowing can stop you. That’s understandable, especially as your money is in the mix! For investors without knowledge or experience, investing can be both confusing and intimidating.
You can fix that by becoming an informed investor. Knowing and being comfortable with basic stock market information helps clear confusion. As a bonus, learning investing basics opens your way to a better financial future.
Learn before seeking stock market success
To begin investing, don’t start by putting your money in. First learn. Work at understanding how investing works. Once you build a basic understanding of investing you are ready. Building your basic investing knowledge removes this first mental block to investing success.
The sooner you begin the better for you. But, have no worry about missing out. The stock market will be there when you are ready. Anyone inclined to procrastinate needs to think, then is now. The future is here. No matter what your age, retirement will soon be here. And what we do today touches our future and our retirement comfort. So start now. We need to make the effort to build a better financial future.
White Top lessons help guide you through the investing basics. By learning the basics you are getting ready to put money to work for you.
Investing mind trap 2: Trust
The very big issue of trust ranks second on the mind trap list of mental blocks to investing. Trust is a very big deal in life, in finances and in investing. Many people hold some level of distrust for the financial industry. That sad fact has several causes:
- Volatility – stock market gyrations and turbulence alarms investors
- Communication Veil – aloof, outdated, tone-deaf messaging
- Standards – client safety, suitability or fiduciary conflict
Anxiety makes many wary of financial players. To build confidence first learn the investor mind. Come to know your stock market self and use White Top lessons to learn the basics.
Knowing always makes the difference. White Top has no interest criticizing financial service providers. But you have to know some darker truths. Some financial service strategies and policies are not in the public interest. To invest well, be aware of these issues. Financial service companies give fitting good, proper, useful service to most clients. But not to all.
Let’s discuss these distrust causes one at a time.
Market volatility and managing the investor mind
Stock market volatility often produces jitters and discomfort for people new to investing. Market volatility contributes to the feelings of distrust held by some. The market action makes anxious people feel exposed and vulnerable to financial predators.
As with dealing with the lack of knowledge, learning what is going on provides answers. We have to start with a bit of background to understand the source of market volatility. Once you know the causes we can discuss how to deal with them.
Some basic investing background
There are investors, traders and speculators all active in the stock market. Each are different. White Top defines stock market investors as buyers of investment grade stocks. An investment stock defined as one that pays dividends now and keeps paying forever.
That dividend focused approach sits at the heart of White Top Investor lessons. Investors expect to hold investments for a long time. As long as the dividend paying basics stay in place, they stay with the stock. They don’t trade often.
Traders do not think or act like investors.
Traders are different. They are not concerned with dividends. Traders buy intending to sell later at a higher price for a profit. Or selling short and buying back at a lower price to profit. They want price movement up or down, the sooner the better. They hold purchases for between nanoseconds or months. Some, but few hold longer. As continuous traders they generate most buy and sell orders.
Speculators are also different. They buy seeking to make a killing by selling at higher prices. They accept high risk of loss looking for spectacular price gains. Gains on their winners cover losers on their misses. At times their holding period can be days but most often they hold for months. They trade less often than traders but much more than investors.
Now some basic market background
All that buying and selling takes place in the same stock market. Market movement reflects the total of all forces in the market. The total buy and sell orders affect market action, pricing and volume.
Order totals from traders and speculators far exceed those of investors. That trading action is the volatility key. Orders from traders and trading computers produces most of the volume. Traders include the orders from computers programmed to run many thousands of trades at incredible speeds. The machines trade many times in nanoseconds. That pushes the trades to astronomical levels. Market activity reflects the multitudes of orders.
Hold for earnings or trade for profit
When investors get it right, they buy and hold for a good long time. Traders are in for a good time, not a long time. As always, the market instantly responds to every order. and every possible market factor. That includes the orders of other traders and trading computers which together magnify the action and volatility. In response the market dances like a ballerina quick stepping across a constantly tilting, shaking and turning stage.
Noise makes a mind trap
We learn how to deal with market noise. Both the market and media pump out much racket. With a little help you learn what to tune out and what matters.
Huge trading volumes combine with breathless media reports and market and price movement to send the message something important happened. Or perhaps we should be fearful! But very little of it matters. We can relax!
Does market action matter to the investor mind?
Lots of action, but does it matter to the investor? In a word, no! That is the point here. As investors we buy and collect our dividends. We let the market do what it does with little concern. We do pay attention. Learn the details in White Top Investor lessons.
Consider that there are many drivers that move the economy. The stock market is one. It is not the economy. It is not even the most important economic engine driving the economy. But it is public, open and loud. It is the engine without any muffler. So we hear all the stock market noise and action.
Stock market noise gets amplified by the media as business reporting. It is far from the full business scene. But like shouting, we notice noise.
To deal with it we learn to manage our response to stock market volatility. When you hear reports of stock market volatility, remember little of it matters much. Spend no time concerned about volatility.
Some White Top lessons on stock market trading
Investing, trading and speculating differ
Trading in the middle again investor thinking
Trading: an aggressive market play that chases profit
Momentum Investing – a trading play
White Top Investor lessons on high frequency trading
Financial service communication veil – know your stock market self and informed sources
Many financial service communication strategies are long past their best before date. The terrible aloof, outdated, tone-deaf but too common messaging keeps clients in a fog. This bad strategy ranks as the top cause of undermined client trust.
Websites of many financial service companies display this aloft manipulative communication strategy. They seem addicted to jargon and determined to avoid plain, clear disclosure. Most sites do a poor communication job. Few deliver practical meaningful information well. A high-handed industry wide culture seems bent on long-winded self-aggrandizing pronouncements. As Grandpa may have said, “they use fancy talk” to confuse regular people. It can trap unwary people.
Beware the money trap built with words
Be careful! The aloft communication strategy is a clever money trap. When we don’t understand their message, the implication being we can’t understand how to invest. That is at the heart of the strategy. The goal being to make you think only they have the skill to manage your money. Certainly not you!
Don’t fall for it! Do not feel not knowing is your fault or that you are not able to understand their message. Doing that puts you at a huge disadvantage. And at their mercy. You have to be on alert and defend yourself. And your money!
When you do not understand what you read or what they say, speak up! Say what you do not understand. And get answers that you understand. They are available.
If your advisor makes you feel embarrassed or they cannot explain it, you have the wrong advisor. Feeling embarrassed about money, finance or investing costs you money. It takes from your financial future. Knowledge is the answer. White Top Investor lessons can give you the needed information.
What to do? Hold your money and ask questions until you understand.
Investor safety pass-fail – suitability vs fiduciary test – who protects who?
In my view, the communication veil exists because the client safety bar is too low. Many investors think financial advice comes with user protection. Less than you may think in most cases. Investors that conflict with an advisor quickly feel alone. Even in egregious cases of abuse few investors recover loses. Best to avoid those problems by avoiding bad advisors. The best way to do that is to educate yourself to make informed judgements about the advice you get.
There are two regulatory standards, suitability and fiduciary. The financial industry pushes the suitability standard. In fact they fight hard for it and against any possibility of a higher standard. That lessor standard leaves the door open to investor use and abuse.
A lower service standard can hurt your pocket
The suitability standard sets a lower bar. Or at least sets a lower standard than a fiduciary duty does. Suitability means making recommendations consistent with the client’s best interests. The client does not rank first. The representative only needs a reasonable belief of suitability. Suitable for the financial needs, objectives and circumstances of the client. Not always the best choice. In general, the representative owes their duty to serve their employer, not the client. Client interests do not top that list.
Higher service standard better for investors
The fiduciary standard sets the bar higher. It means only recommendations or actions in the best interest of the client are acceptable. It puts the client first. That applies even in situations that places any other parties at a disadvantage. That includes even putting the advisor’s at a disadvantage. From the advisor point of view the client interest must rank above their own. All advice must meet a thorough and as correct as possible standard.
The words defining those standards open a legal minefield for investors. Herds of lawyers keep busy with this stuff.
For self-protection every investor needs to know investing basics. Investor education provides the best possible investor protection. This standard issue, suitability or fiduciary, is all about making money. That is making money for the players and industry. Not the client.
Learning who and how to trust when investing becomes part of the investor life
To build trust in your mind, take your time learning. Knowledge changes thinking. It changes attitudes. That changes feelings. Changed minds lower barriers and build confidence. Take small comfortable steps and you will get there at your pace.
For best results, the more time the better. That works for both education and investing. As with learning, the earlier you start investing the greater your returns. Lifetime investors learn more and earn more. Start as early as you can to build your investment portfolio and retirement comfort. Keep moving forward by making regular contributions. That puts you at the best advantage.
If you find yourself unable or not comfortable enough to trust, nothing will happen. To succeed you must address that. So begin by working through any trust issues. Learn what is behind any trust issues. Once you have knowledge you will build confidence. That will be your start.
For each person developing trust is a very personal and individual journey. Your financial future will thank you for taking the time and making the effort.
Investing mind trap 3: Cost
Hidden or obscured costs rank third on the investor mental barrier list. Hiding costs from clients has a long history in financial services. No surprise, that puts off many people. It also contributes to the above trust issue. This issue further hits financial service industry credibility.
Recent regulation changes force better cost disclosure. Yet, obscured and layers of costs still remain. Progress moves at a glacial pace. Just as the industry wants. The finance industry fights to stick with this backward, bad and anti-client strategy.
Here is how bad it can get. Some financial advisors put client money into ETF owning mutual funds. The costs can be atrocious. The client pays layers of fees. Financial advisor fees, plus mutual fund management fees, plus ETF management fees. And it can get worse yet!
When sold, many funds pickpockets yet again. Trailer fees, yet another commission, raises your cost as you sell. With a fourth layer of cost is there any wonder the fee total exceeds client returns? They are making your money work…but for them more than for you!
High costs work against stock market success
Outdated embedded commissions lack transparency. The industry argues that eliminating those fees stops small investors from getting advice. Such justification for double, triple and quadruple dipping is nonsense. Don’t accept recommendations to pay layers of commissions. Advocates of such so-called advice want you to give them your money and go away while they feast on it.
You can deal with obscure fees and costs. Don’t experience the confusion or frustration with the costs from this practice. Instead, avoid it. Do not buy investments with complex, hazy or impenetrable fee structures. The same for layered costs or trailer fees. Say no.
Demand full, plain and clear cost disclosure for the greatest stock market success
As for advisor costs, you need full, plain and clear cost disclosure. Leave any advisor that charges layers of fees. Layers of fees are not in the best interest of any investor. It is obscene that layered fees passes the smell test as suitable for an investor. Regulators have been in a coma on this issue forever.
Get costs in writing from your advisor. You need written statements of any costs. Begin by knowing all costs to open any account. Then get a clear understanding and full disclosure of any ongoing fees. Any advisor that resists or stalls is the wrong advisor for you. Move to another.
Superior investors control costs. Cost control is an absolute essential for stock market success. Consider that eliminating a 2% cost can improve your investment performance by 20% – 100%! Compounding such a change in return has a huge impact on your retirement comfort. It’s your money, keep it. Or better, keep it working for you in your account.
Investing mind trap 4: Complicated
The markets and many financial products make a complicated mix. Investors often need help to find their way through the maze. In fact, investors rank complications or complexity fourth on the investor mental block list. The complicated mind trap hides or at least obscures simple, effective investing. Complications confuse and intimidate beginners. Combined with market noise, complicated financial products and markets confuse many investors.
In her hit sang, Complicated, Avril Lavigne asked, “Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?” A boy, not financial services were on her mind but could have been, “‘Cause life’s like this”. No surprise, like people and relationships, markets and financial products can be complicated.
Money! Lots of money gets made selling new financial products. Many new and imaginative financial products do add complications to the market. And by extension to the decision-making for investors. Those new products are not going anywhere because they generate huge profits for financial services.
Investor plan deals with financial complications
Just as Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in the movie, It’s Complicated, showed us life, families and relationships can be complex. Dealing with the complications in the market needs a plan.
While investing can be simple, the market itself is complex. And that complexity grows with the continual addition of new listings and products. The unending lists of new complicated financial products pile on without end. Together with unending new offerings there is much to cause confusion. Even specialists struggle to keep up and master all the new items.
Stepping back to see the way to stock market success
Step back and avoid that flood. The deluge of new products produce huge returns for the financial industry. Sales of these products produce fantastic
profits, cash flows and commissions. It all goes to the house and players.
None of the river of money generated by new products comes to you. So why play? Very few new listings meet the White Top test of investment grade. The right answer is no! Do not buy.
Trading and speculating action generates much noise and news. In contrast real investing activity produces little noise. Investors who learn that distinction, tune out most of the trading and media racket.
Best results take the best and ignore the rest
Want to be an investor with a better performing portfolio? Pass on all IPOs or new listings. Investors buy only proven performers.
rs. Let others take the new rides. Do not fear you will miss out. Most new rides stumble even when they do not fail. Why join in to lose money?
Keep it simple. But to keep it simple you need help. You need knowledge. And you need someone to show you around. Until you know your way around, the investment scene remains complex and confusing.
The basic lesson? Keeping it simple avoids complexity. That avoid the confusing complexity that can worry. Successful investors learn how to keep it simple. Simple works. You do not need to tangle your money in complex products.
Simple and straightforward describes the White Top approach to investing. You have no need for involved, complicated or convoluted trading action. You can build wealth, enjoy growth and diversification with a simple plan that delivers long-term security and comfort.
Take your investing knowledge growth step by step. Persist in doing that and you will become a stock market success. Do it at your pace and learn from sources you trust.
White Top Investor mind game lessons
White Top Investor lessons include a series on the mental parts of investing. The 6 part Mind Game series, discusses emotional and psychological aspects of investing. The effects also show in market behavior. Investors understanding emotional parts of investing have an advantage. Using that knowledge opens the door to superior investment performance. Investors ignoring market psychology miss opportunities. They miss market turns and show lower returns. Knowing the feelings investors experience gives an advantage. Managing emotions well shows in better investing results.
Lessons on investor mind games
3 Wealth assassins lurk
Irrational behavior in normal markets
10 paralyzing mental blocks of investors
Attached stubborn and helpless investor
Optimism and unrealistic minds of investors
Muddled minds harm investors
Summary points Part II mind trap control
- Use your investor mind to control mind traps
- Learn before investing
- Learning overcomes the knowledge mind trap
- Know the cause and learn to manage trust mind traps
- Control the cost mind trap by managing all expenses and fees
- Learn to focus to know how to clear the complicated mind trap
- Investors, traders and speculators are different
- Market noise from trading and media can mislead
- See through the financial communication veil
- Watch for money traps built with words
- Know the suitability vs fiduciary service standards
- Build investing around a plan
- Low costs work best and deliver bottom line
Investor mind Part III: managing thinking, feeling and acting
“If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.”
Warren Buffett
You can control your thoughts, feelings and behavior. You can manage them to your advantage. Training yourself to do that pays huge dividends in life. They are important parts of the investor mind and life. Knowing gives you an edge. Make it part of your effort of getting to know your stock market self.
The best investors have that psychological edge in their investor mind. That edge is more important than any financial advantage. They know, not to suppress emotions. They understand the importance of managing emotions. Emotions are not right or wrong, accept that they are. Successful people learn to use them well. Successful investors make them part of their investor mind and use them as an advantage.
Manage thoughts, feelings and behavior
Psychology related issues present the single biggest risk to your stock market success. This warning comes with some very good news. You can learn to understand and control those risks as you come to know your stock market self. By learning to manage them you turn possible weaknesses into strengths that give to your stock market success.
Investor mind tour has five stops:
- Ego behavior
- Fear and greed management
- Regret and regrettable unforgettable lessons
- Realistic, positives & uncertainty
- Imagination and details open possibility
When walking, riding or driving, a wide field of vision helps us see the best way forward. That helps us avoid collisions. In a similar way, a broad understanding of behavior helps investors. Investors that understand behavior are better at managing psychological risks. That understanding lets them see ways forward and opportunities that others miss. Their portfolio performance enjoys the positive results.
This part of the article has more questions than answers. The questions and comments are to help you think. By thinking we better understand and consider psychological issues, investing and how they touch you.
Your answers build your investor mind
When considering each question the answers are up to you. The answers are the important part. All very personal and only for you to know. They become part of your stock market self. For each person, answers can differ.
To benefit most, consider each issue as one part of your investor mind. Does the issue touch you? Explore your response and how your thoughts and feelings make you act. Building understanding and responses to stock market action prepares you. Your reactions build an understanding of your stock market self and how you expect to behave in response to stock market action.
In time, with more knowledge and experience managing emotions, you learn and grow your unique investor mind. As you do, your answers change. You evolve. That makes your responses to stock market action part of your investor mind. Managing reactions to stock market changes are important contributors to your stock market success.
That process becomes your own feedback loop. It changes as you grow. The growth of your investor mind continues forever as you add to your stock market success. The best news, it shows up as positive measurable results in your portfolio. The effort pays you very well.
1. Ego behavior – the biggest challenge
Ego driven mistakes can destroy portfolios. That danger makes me list ego driven behavior as the top psychological risk. The ego affliction affects more men than women. Still it effects both. Even someone without ego control issues needs this awareness. This powerful force effects investors and markets. Knowing that gives you an advantage.
The essential investor why question
When checking on the power of ego in investing, ask the essential question, why? Why do you want to invest? The obvious answer; to make money! Is that your answer? Or, are you showing off? Displaying your skill? Do you need an audience? Do you need approval?
This is between you and your mirror. And a key part of the need to know your stock market self. Be sure to get the truth out there. It is about you, money and why you want to learn about stock market investing.
Are you in the stock market to make money with no need for outside applause? Are you building your financial future with no need for someone’s approval?
Ego driven pride or humble performance?
Investors fit into one of two groups. Proud investor or humble investor. For many, pride plays a role in investment and stock market decisions.
When pride motivates, behavior changes. Proud investors concerned with image, appearance or what others think, are a loud crowd. They are, “look at me loud”! They focus on appearance successful.
If that describes you, be sure to acknowledge that to yourself. Pride can be dangerous. It can cause immense portfolio damage. The good news, with awareness, you can control it.
Humble investors, investors without ego issues, fare far better. They focus on producing returns. The most successful and consistent investors go about collecting gains. While enjoying the profits, humble investors remain unconcerned about what others think or know about them. While not silent, most are quieter.
Balance ego and humility for performance
Neither ego alone or complete humility drive most people. Most of us balance drives seeking both ego satisfaction and performance. That works well. For stock market success and an investor life, keep on balance with ego in check.
If your reason for investing is anything other than making money, reconsider. Use the stock market to build a better financial future or find something else to do. Put your money with a financial advisor you can trust. Your money and your financial future will thank you.
Investor ego checkup
Markets and investors do not follow cold logic. For some, that can be a hard stock market fact to accept. At times market behavior does not make sense. That senseless action opens the door to investing dangers. And, yes opportunity.
The market does display the collective behavior of humans. We humans can do some bizarre things. Do you accept what the market gives? Or, are you smarter than the market? Smart enough to get ahead of the market? Do you think you always pick the best stocks? Do you always know what will happen next? Careful, blind determination that you are right can make you broke. Pay attention when the market disagrees.
Ego can show as a need to control. Must you be in charge? Are you the center of attention? The life of the party should not manage their own investments. Do you let such tendencies affect your investing management? If so, you need the help of a financial professional.
How out of the norm are you? Can you listen well? Do you think before acting? Do you ponder? Are you overconfident, immune to risk and regret? Better check that ego!
High risk ego trades do not work long-term
More than investors, traders suffer the curse of ego driven decisions. To check, look at your trading record. When you see any pattern of frequent trading, consider that as an early warning. If you experience a series of poor trades, STOP! Step back from the market. Reassess your investing process. Check for surplus ego!
When errors or losses happen successful investors react by analyzing. They find the error and they find the lesson. They know that most ego driven and personality based investment decisions fail. Real investors make decisions by assessing opportunities and risks. When thought through, most investment decisions work well. Thinkers get well paid. Thinking investors collect high returns.
When considering ego and investing there is one last question. Can you keep ego driven tendencies under control? Can you manage the emotion? Now you know. Your awareness lets you guard against ego driven mistakes. That puts control in your hands.
2. Fear, greed and investor mind management
Thoughts of danger, pain or threat triggers fear. Fear, the most powerful driver ranks at the top of the emotional power list. Fear changes how our bodies work and set off strong changes in behavior. We flee, hide, freeze or with knowledge and training, learn to manage fear. This valuable emotion keeps us alive and uninjured. But can also devastate a portfolio.
Out of control, fear, greed and other emotions can be destructive. Emotions can be evil financial spirits that destroy finances. To prevent that we take control and manage our emotions.
Successful investors that manage emotions, turn them into allies. When known, understood and managed, emotions give great advantages to informed investors. Those investors get better results. Use that knowledge. Through every market cycle, that knowledge delivers dependable returns.
Fearsome power, emotions and character
Fear can freeze thinking, limit success, stop or prompt wrong actions. It prevents us from doing our best. To manage this powerful force we must understand and keep fear under control. Learning what drives our fear response gives us a deeper understanding of ourselves.
Understand and manage fear when investing
Consider the positive side of managing fear. Mature investors know, understand and control fear. It becomes a discipline that spurs them on. For some, the stock market or investing related fears are major issues. If these are issues for you, take time to find what you fear in the stock market. Identify why.
Fear has a trigger. Pay attention to understanding what that is for your stock market investing. Selling out and running away in panic is the most damaging fear response to market action. Doing that can wipe out retirement comfort. Learn what to do before you invest. When you know, you will do what you should do. You will avoid the panic.
Work through understanding how you are going to deal with fears. Get any help you need. We need fear as a positive discipline force. We use it to keep honest with ourselves. Fear can be a great alert or early warning. Not something to fear.
Managing fear comes home
It wraps back to you. Fear and other emotions always come home.To be a stock market success and build your investor mind, you need to actively manage your investor mind. By focusing on investor thinking and management of the investor mind you set that base for your stock market success. On that base you build knowledge of how the stock markets work. And you need to know how to apply effective investing strategies. With that combination, you will know what to do when fear sends an alert.
Use the White Top lessons to learn about the stock market. Many lessons cover various fear scenarios in the stock market. By leaving the scenarios and how to, the specifics can help you.
Managing greed helps stock market success
“Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered!”
Old Wall Street Maxim
The best investors heed warnings. They avoid greed, impatience or emotional responses to stock market action. That avoids the greedy pig trap. For stock market success, the best investors learn to manage what the market gives. Not what they want to take.
Experienced investors know that the market has no feelings. And no concern for the thoughts or feelings of anyone. The market does what it does. There will be no stock market response to any of our thoughts, logic, hopes or desires.
Use White Top Investor lessons to learn how to invest and manage a portfolio. There you learn practical proven methods. Commit to following what works. As for managing your investor mind. Know your stock market self includes staying grounded and in the moment. The market gives lots, we take what the market gives, when we can.
Finance industry sells fear while we seek to safety – know your allies for stock market success
Often, financial industry products and service marketers use fear to sell. An endless list of products exploits our wish to avoid fear. That includes the fear that we will miss out. When sellers use fear to push their product, stop to think. Check that you are making decisions in your best interest.
Fear affects women more than men. That makes it a powerful tool to use against women. Many sellers pick pickets using fear. As a result, fear of risk harms women more than men.
There are both financial and emotional risks when dealing with fear. Be a thinking consumer. Know and understand your ability to deal with financial and emotional risks. By becoming a knowledgeable investor, we protect ourselves against the worst effects of fear.
We know fear warns us. Use it to do that. Being aware and thinking through investment decisions keeps this powerful force working for and not against us.
3. Regret and regrettable unforgettable lessons – some sorting needed
Our mental program has wired us to remember bad experiences. When we have a bad experience or suffer loss, regret visits. Regret, one of the best teachers we can ever know sears the memory into our mind!
Usually considered a fair but tough instructor, we call regret the master teacher. Lessons taught by regret are both powerful and remembered. But it does not sort the good from the bad. It teaches both!
Although regret teaches well we want to pass by the wrong lessons. That is important when investing. For best results in stock market investing, you cannot let experience alone teach you. Pay attention to the lessons regret teaches. But do your homework to pick only the best lessons.
At times good solid plans based on fine thinking do not work. Even a good plan and strategy can miss. We have to be sure the lessons of regret do not bring us to poor future decisions. Bad luck and unpleasant surprises happen. We deal with it and carry on.
Managing regret adds to stock market success
We need the ability to put errors and misfortune behind us. As regret teaches both good and bad lessons we have to manage regret. Do lessons taught by regret stop you from making good decisions? Has regret made you miss an opportunity?
Sometimes life and the stock market surprises us. At times we or other people make mistakes. When bad surprises or mistakes touch us, we deal with it. Can you deal with it? Can you shake it off and get over it? Do you dwell on mistakes? Can you live with mistakes? Do you feel bad about making mistakes? How do you react when you learn there was a better choice?
People unable to leave regret behind and move on should not manage investments. They need to get a trusted financial advisor and give them responsibility. By thinking through and managing our response to regret and the lessons taught, we make it a useful ally.
4. Realistic, positives & uncertainty can all deliver returns
Being realistic and positive in an uncertain world and market are facts in the investor life. Accept them as your reality. Investors see and accept the real world. Being realistic relates to the previous point on regret. Our mix of feelings, all go together. We accept that feelings are all parts of us. To be effective investors, we need to be aware, but not make feelings our focal point.
To manage our thoughts, feelings and actions we need to accept the world and stock market as it is. That means accepting it all including what we do not like or want to change.
Deny denial to know your stock market self
Accepting reality challenges some people. Denial holds such people. Denial can be an expensive luxury for an investor. Avoid it. A person held by denial can do three things. Get an honest and trusted critic, change their point of view and think. If that does not bring acceptance of reality, get professional help and do not manage your own investments.
Bad things happen – we accept it and move to the next stock market success
We all know that bad things happen! That’s life! There are bad choices, bad luck and at times right choices that produce the bad results. Can you deal with it?
The teaching emotion, regret, sometimes teaches a bad lesson. Review and think through choices made. Learn from those errors knowing there are more to come. But don’t repeat bad choices. But be sure you only limit the bad choices. Accept that some good choices do not work out. Good choices with bad results may fit another time. That is part of investing. When it does not work out for you, shake it off!
Managing positives, getting along or going along are parts of the investor mind
Are you agreeable and easy to get along with? Or are you a more difficult and challenging person? Are you generous and trusting, or not? Do you take time for others, or not so much? This is not suggesting that successful investors have the outlook of Pollyanna. Rather it suggests that positive attitudes work well and are much easier to carry around.
When it comes to cooperation, a simple fact of life, more women are cooperative than men. More men challenge or present difficulties to those around them. So, if you are a cooperative person, consider being more like a man when you invest. That means taking more risk. Do not make a huge change. Rather take more risk but take careful and considered risks.
The other side of that change is to take the higher risk position but trade like a woman. That means trade less. Ride the investment, do not be a trader. Time in the market pays far better than timing the market.
Consider the other hand of this approach. If you are a more difficult or challenging person, invest as you do but hold off on the trading. As noted above, ride the investment. Trading costs more than it adds to most portfolios.
As a side note, when reviewing or recalling, check your numbers. Believe the numbers. But don’t make them up! Don’t trust your memory. Our memories
can and do play tricks and games with us. So check the records that your recall and the facts are in sync.
Uncertainty happens – good, bad and disappointments happen
Managing uncertainty goes against the flow. Perhaps unrealistic we still want certainty. When life does not deliver expectations, some react with fear. Some express it as anger. To defend against letting that happen, think. Consider that we can be dealing with our natural mental bias. A bit of our ugly self. By realizing that, we can bring it under control and manage our behavior.
What to do? Practice making intelligent decisions when faced with uncertainty. Stay positive, keep to the facts that matter.
Managing uncertainty adds to stock market success
Stock markets can produce anxious and uncertain moments. Accept it. People who cannot deal with some uncertainty, should not manage their investments. That applies to people who feel worry, irritation and concern every day.
Investors need a good awareness of both market and world matters. Such matters cause some people concern. People who do not want big picture awareness, should not manage their own investments. If you know that the big picture and details get past you, do not manage your own investments.
5. Imagination and details open possibility
Imagination can seem like an obscure psychological force for investors. But it can be a very powerful ally for investors. Imagination can drive thoughts and convert them into plans for action. It is a great problem solver.
To problem solve with imagination give yourself some mental space. Examine the challenge without considering failure. How would a 5-year-old solve it? How about a superhero? What technology could make it work? By looking for ways to succeed you can consider a range of possibilities. It also allows you to challenge assumptions. This works best while you are alone and open to inspiration.
Sleeping on it can deliver ideas from your subconscious. It taps into your mental replay system. That playback processing and recall are parts of our mind power.
To move forward, keep the positives, toss the negatives. Do it with awareness. Being aware as you do so builds your mental strength and programs you for positive results. That helps you develop new positive habits. To go from thoughts to making changes in behavior needs you to change attitudes. Know your stock market self and investor mind requires making changes to thinking and behavior. It is a case of mind affecting reality. Make it yours.
Managing imagination for stock market success
Are you curious, imaginative and an original thinker? Do you have an open-mind? Do you control your thoughts or let your imagination free? The risk for open-minded people is a tendency to go along with an idea. At times that can be a bad idea. The downside being that most such people do not pay enough attention to details. Details matter.
Investing well requires attention. It does not have to be anything close to a full-time job. It can take minutes a day or an hour a week to cover. But it does need consistent and regular attention.
When it comes to the stock markets, don’t let things happen to you. For yourself and your portfolio, consider investing as a challenge. Manage that challenge to enjoy stock market success.
Being imaginative can make you open to opportunity. But as noted before, all investing does need some attention. If you cannot pay attention, get professional help managing your investments.
Details matter
Managing details gives more bottom line for greater stock market success
Are you conscientious? Do details matter? Know your answer to that question. That is the point. There is no right or wrong. Just your answer matters. Conscientious people mind details.
Usually well-organized and through, the conscientious make plans. They follow their plans. But there can be a downside. Such people can miss opportunity. They can be too conservative and avoid even reasonable risk. That can be to their loss. The conscientious can pair such a miss with our teaching emotion, regret. That can hurt both their personal and portfolio growth.
Are you patient or nervous? Do you have risk issues? Can you handle stress, can you take a chance? Are you a conservative or aggressive investor? Are you something between? If your portfolio drops 10% this month, what would you do?
No right answer. Except your answer. That is the point. For your benefit and stock market success you must know your stock market self.
Buy, sell or do nothing in a tumultuous market!?
A tumultuous market will happen. When it does, what are you going to do? Buy, sell or do nothing? There is no right answer for everyone. But there is a right answer for you. As part of your plan, have this issue locked and loaded.
To answer you need to know what type of investor you are. Know your stock market self. What are your personal limitations, strengths, weaknesses and tendencies?
Successful investor mind and stock market success
Anyone can learn how to build greater financial security. The most successful investors think, feel and behave in positive and profitable ways. They know their thinking and behavior are keys. It comes from knowing both themselves and markets well. Apply that thinking to your approach to become a stock market success.
Feelings, tendencies, attitudes and investing
Claims of managing investments with cold emotionless logic are bogus. The dated macho advice, park your emotions at the door, comes from ages past. Past social norms supported suppressing and denying feelings. To our benefit, both society and psychology made progress.
Still that outdated advice lingers. It is a mind trap. Clearing mind traps and learning how stock markets work delivers great opportunity. That delivers great returns to anyone interested in working at it. For investors, ignoring feelings risks losses and missed opportunity.
To know your stock market self means knowing and managing feelings
Only the foolish or naive deny emotions have importance. Still, many feelings, tendencies and attitudes can derail the progress of an investor. To keep investments on track, managing feelings becomes the challenge. That part of putting money to work, can be a difficult test for some investors.
A small change in thinking may help. Investors are comfortable considering data. For example, that data includes how large is the portfolio? What do we own? What does it pay? All details. All facts to consider, manage, crunch or rank. We use it to make decisions.
Think of feelings and investing psychology as details. Those details are more data. Psychologists think that way. They tell us the background, situation or conditions around the emotions matter as well. Psychologists call that the emotional context.
Emotional context plays an essential role in human thinking, feeling and decision-making. That connects and affects how we manage investments. Investors that learn and apply that, prosper. They have an edge.
Your brain hooked on emotions
A fundamental psychological fact of life supports the advantage of investors using emotions. Brains need emotions to act as good decision makers. Emotions including confidence affect effective decision-making. Effective decision-making effects investing success.
As an investor when you know your stock market self you gather and manage facts. The facts we consider includes emotions. That helps us make the best investing decisions. It becomes part of our process to pick the best investment. Use White Top lessons to learn the details of using investing and market psychology.
Final points to understanding the investor mind
Take the time to be a stock market success. You can manage investments with least time but never with no time. Learn to manage stock market details for the best returns.
Two traits stand out among most successful investors. First, their interests and reading cover many topics. They enjoy continuous learning. Second, they persist when pursuing their endeavors and goals. They make things happen.
Combining knowledge and effective action helps make them superior investors. Learning and doing makes them investment money makers. Anyone willing know your stock market self can do likewise and open the door to your stock market success.
Personal maturity
Successful investors have mental and emotional maturity. They make a plan. They work their plan, persist and stay the course. Besides knowledge, successful investors have the presence of mind, discipline and think for themselves.
Better investors choose beneficial change
You can change how you view mistakes and failures when you know your stock market self. If needed, rewrite your feelings and how you react. You can manage your response. You can refuse to accept discouragement. Instead, choose change and manage that change.
Investors learn, think, do, review and repeat
The keys that open the doorway to stock market success are learn, think, do, review and repeat. That simple outline can build your stock market success.
The needed steps start with you. Begin by knowing yourself. Then know your stock market self. Have expert level self-knowledge. Understand what makes you tick. Make it deep, realistic and honest self-knowledge.
Self-knowledge will always be at the center of managing investments well. Your stock market success depends on it. Self-awareness must include knowing and understanding strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. Finally, it requires you to manage them.
Summary points Part III thinking, feeling and acting
- Control thoughts, feelings and behavior
- Train yourself to manage your mind
- That creates your psychological edge
- Psychology issues are the greatest investor risk
- Psychology risks can be learned and controlled
- Ego presents the biggest challenge needing control
- Successful investors concentrate on improving performance
- Investors must manage the relatives, fear and greed
- Successful investors learn to use fear and greed as allies
- Recognize when fear gets used against you
- Regret teaches well but we must sort the lessons
- Realistic, positives & uncertainty are in the mix
- Imagination helps mature investors see more
- Details matter and need management
- Change is normal, forever and here
- Learn, think, do, review and repeat opens the door
Conclusion: Wrap up you + Parts I + II + III
Now put it together. Wrap and layer your unique self with what you have learned. Combine the lessons of Parts I, II and III together with your unique mind, experience and point of view to make the base of your investor mind. All the mental parts of investing from that base help you grow and know your stock market self.
The article began with an overview and looked at the White Top Investor mind. That Part I discussed the thinking and attitudes of the successful investor mind. Apply that thinking to how you approach stock market investing. Blend it into your investor mind.
Next, in Part II, we layered on ways to cope with mind traps, the mental blocks to investing success. To overcome mind traps we learned knowledge was the key to dealing with these or any other investing mental block. Learning and applying knowledge were the important points to take away.
Then in Part III we explored the thinking, feeling and actions of successful investors. The psychology of investing. Accepting and using the approach of successful investors gives us the way to manage investing psychology.
Adopt those attitudes and that thinking to know how superior investors think, feel and act. Do the same. That knowledge sets you up for stock market success and the investor life.
Investors with positive psychological profiles enjoy more stock market success
Beside being positive thinkers, successful investors have personal maturity. They know, understand and manage emotions well. Knowledge is the base of their approach to investing and the stock market.
Learning makes that possible. They base their positive psychological profile on knowledge. Continuing to learn about the stock market and investing gives them needed on going sources of understanding and insight. Experience combined with awareness lets them accept and understand stock market movements.
You too can be a stock market success. Decide to begin. It takes time and effort to know your stock market self. That effort delivers a very big lifetime return.
Stock market success comes back to you
Stock market success and building your investor life begins with you. Learn to know your stock market self and build your investor mind. Train your mind and emotions for investing success. Understand traits of successful investors. Learn how investors deal with mental blocks that undermine success.
That knowledge forms your stock market self. It helps answer the question, should I manage my investments?
I hope the article helped you explore the relationship of you, your head and investing. Touring your mind and emotions helps your thinking, psychology and attitudes. You become aware of your reactions. That builds your investor mind and gives you the insight needed for stock market success.
More useful links:
White Top Investor home page
White Top lessons in reverse chronological order
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White Top Investor table of contents and site layout
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