Examining Expectations – Hindsight Bias

Royal American Financial Advisors, LLC, based here in Menifee, brings another weekly video on investing your money...

There are many in the financial industry that try and convince investors that they know what is going to happen. These “gurus” make boat loads of money off of unsuspecting investors wanting to believe there is someone that can tell them what is going to happen. These so called gurus are human like everyone else. Even the experts are lousy at predicting the future.

Investors themselves also get caught into this trap. We sometimes hear from some investors (usually prospects because our clients know better)….”I knew this was going to happen.” We then say, “Did you bet all your money on this knowledge?” Of course, the answers is always no. If they truly knew, they would bet all their money on the short term direction of the markets. This is called hindsight bias. They really didn’t know…they just think they did. You must keep this emotion in check as an investor. Everything seems so clear in hindsight and it gives us a false sense of security.

Markets will humble investors into oversized losses and underperformance when trying to guess the short term direction. Watch this video to find out how to avoid this trap.

John Borger and Scott Buchanan of Royal American Financial Advisors, LLC provide investor education to help investors avoid costly and unnecessary mistakes, increase their potential returns, and take a more prudent approach to investing and growing their wealth.

You may contact them at (951) 679-2065, or check out their website at: http://www.myinvestmentcoach.com/