Cognitive biases are a very common occurrence in many areas of life. The main ones include Belief Perseverance Bias, Overconfidence Bias, Information-processing Bias, and Recency Bias. However, these biases are not the only thing that can lead us to be irrational.

Recency bias

Recency bias is a term used to describe an individual’s tendency to place more weight on recent events. This bias can be difficult to ignore, but is important to understand as it can affect your financial decisions.

To put it simply, the best way to beat recency bias is to have a positive outlook and keep a long-term investment strategy in mind. It can be easy to fall into the trap of buying and selling at the wrong times, which can negatively impact your portfolio.

To better understand the effect, you can look at a few examples. For instance, a high price bubble may burst when a company goes bust. Or, you may be surprised by a rally that doesn’t continue. In either case, you need to be aware of the facts before making a decision.

A better way to make this decision is to consult a qualified professional. Your advisor will help you overcome the bias and ensure you make the right choices.

Another way to tackle this issue is to review data at regular intervals. This will give you the opportunity to make changes and revisit past performances. The more reviews you do, the more likely you are to capture the most important information.

It’s also a good idea to keep track of the performance of different asset classes. You might find that a particular class is performing well in the short term, but reverts to its mean over the long term. If you haven’t invested in a particular asset type before, you might not be fully aware of how to invest.

When you do invest, remember to look at the fundamental valuation of an asset, including its price-performance data. Having an investment plan in place can be helpful when investing in a volatile market.

Overconfidence bias

Overconfidence bias is one of the most common behavioral finance biases that investors are subject to. It is defined as an unwarranted faith in one’s ability to predict the market. This can lead to poor investment decisions and high costs of buying and selling assets.

Behavioral finance literature tries to explain the economic decisions of people from a cognitive and behavioral perspective. Behavioral finance is a rapidly growing area of research, adding insights into how people make investments.

A recent study identifies overconfidence as a prominent behavioral finance bias and examines the effect of this bias on investments. The study proposes that risk propensity is a mediator of the relationship between overconfidence and investment performance.

Risk propensity is defined as an investor’s readiness to take risks. This can be influenced by cognitive biases. Some investors have a tendency to take on too much risk and end up losing money. Another major reason for bad investment decisions is the presence of the confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is a natural human tendency that emphasizes information that confirms one’s existing conclusions. When an individual makes a decision, it’s important to consider all the possible consequences. Similarly, when making a financial decision, a person should keep an open mind. If they can’t think of a solution, they should seek feedback.

Other cognitive biases that are associated with overconfidence include optimism, self-attribution, and the illusion of control. These three facets have significant influence on the investment performance of individuals.

Investors are sometimes overconfident because they believe they have special knowledge. They might believe that they have the ability to pick the best stocks and earn the highest return. However, these investors fail to time market rallies and tend to trade excessively.

Belief perseverance bias

Belief perseverance is a tendency to hold onto beliefs, regardless of contradicting evidence. It can affect our beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world.

People are naturally inclined to hold on to their beliefs. However, there are ways to decrease the likelihood of belief perseverance.

One way is to recognize when it is occurring. You can learn to counter it with a counterexplanation. In a counterexplanation, an individual will explain their opposing belief as true.

Another way to overcome the tendency to maintain beliefs is to understand what causes it. Many people feel uncomfortable when new information conflicts with their beliefs. They seek out confirmatory information to make sure they are right.

Some of the most common types of beliefs include beliefs about intelligence, social skills, and the self. These are often formed by negative experiences. For example, when a teen employee is rude to you, you might develop the belief that all teenagers are rude.

Belief perseverance is one of many behavioral finance biases that are common among investors. The behavior can negatively impact investment results.

When faced with new data, investors tend to focus on the positive and ignore the negative. They may not update their forecasts or invest in new opportunities. This can lead to an increase in credit spreads and a decrease in stock prices.

A study by Ohio State University and George Washington University found that individuals were reluctant to embrace facts that undermined their ideology. Moreover, they were more likely to maintain beliefs about climate change.

Investors are also vulnerable to information-processing biases, which include availability and framing. These biases cause investors to sort information illogically.

Identifying these cognitive and behavioral biases can improve economic outcomes. Investment professionals can learn how to mitigate them.

Information-processing bias

Information-processing biases are errors in our ability to process and interpret information. They can be categorized into two main types: cognitive and emotional. The emotional biases are based on impulses, while the cognitive errors are derived from psychological predispositions.

One of the most common information-processing biases is availability bias. Availability bias refers to our tendency to sort and evaluate information in a haphazard manner.

Another information-processing bias is representativeness. We tend to classify new phenomena in relation to our experiences with similar phenomena. This can lead to errors, such as overestimating the value of a phenomenon.

Investors are prone to a number of emotional biases, such as loss aversion. Loss aversion means investors will hold on to losing investments longer and sell profitable ones more quickly. Similarly, investors are prone to self-attribution bias. It occurs when people attribute their own successes to internal factors, such as good fortune.

Investors can also be prone to an information-processing bias called outcome bias. Specifically, they will overemphasize the results of the situation in front of them and ignore the preceding events.

For example, if a stock rises in price, investors tend to believe that this is evidence of an increase in the company’s performance. However, this may not be the case. In fact, investors may be slow to update their forecasts as new information comes in.

There are several ways to mitigate these biases. First, investors should understand their cognitive and emotional biases and how they can affect their behavior. Second, they should develop a strategy for choosing and investing in assets. Finally, they should seek professional guidance. These strategies can help them make better decisions.

The key to investing is to identify relevant information and discard any irrelevant information. If you find it difficult to understand information, it is a good idea to seek expert guidance. Investing is a complex process, and it is important to have a well-developed strategy to maximize your investment gains.

Narrative bias

Narrative bias is a cognitive bias that investors tend to exhibit. It is an inherent tendency to favor investments with good stories, and ignore those that do not have a compelling story.

Investors can get into trouble if they prioritize narrative over data. Stories can be a good way to evaluate an investment, but they can lead to bad decisions if the underlying assumptions are not questioned.

For example, people tend to remember incomplete tasks better than completed ones. In the same way, they are more likely to make a decision based on a large amount of information than a small amount.

Similarly, investors can fall victim to an outcome bias. This bias causes them to mistake luck for skill. They will make predictions about the future based on events that have happened in the past.

Another cognitive bias that can affect investors is the availability heuristic. People may use information that is readily available to them, such as media hype, as a means of evaluating an opportunity.

Investors can also get into trouble with a herd mentality. A herd mentality is the tendency to follow others in making a decision.

The herd mentality can be very destructive, as it can cause price bubbles and investor burnout. However, in some cases, it can be useful. Investing in an emerging company with a great story can be beneficial.

Fortunately, there are ways to combat these biases. By sticking to a long-term financial plan and carefully considering all available information, investors can avoid making irrational decisions.

Investors should also be aware of recency bias, which is the tendency to pay more attention to the past than the present. During volatile times, the likelihood of holding a position is minimal.