"How could I have been such an idiot?” If you’ve
never asked that question of yourself, you’re not an investor. There
may be nothing in life that makes so many people feel as stupid as investing
does. Yet while many books describe the mistakes
investors make, only one draws on the latest scientific research to explain why smart
people can be so dumb about money – and how they can do better. In YOUR
MONEY AND YOUR BRAIN: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help
Make You Rich,
Jason Zweig reveals in clear
and accessible terms what actually goes on inside our brains when we
make decisions about money. More importantly, he highlights
practical steps that beginning and advanced investors alike can
easily follow to improve their financial performance.
Zweig writes: “I’ve been a financial journalist since
1987, and nothing I’ve ever learned about investing has excited
me more than the spectacular findings emerging from the study
of ‘neuroeconomics.’ Thanks to this newborn
field – a hybrid of neuroscience, economics, and psychology – we
can begin to understand what drives investing behavior not
only on the theoretical or practical
level, but as a basic biological function. These flashes
of fundamental insight will enable you to see as never before what makes
you tick as an investor.”
Money Magazine, Sept. 2007:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/14/pf/zweig.moneymag/index.htm
ssrn.com, Sept. 4, 2007:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1012738
Fortune Magazine, Dec. 24, 2007:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0712/gallery.investing_tricks.fortune/index.html
http://www.jasonzweig.com/uploads/Fortune%2012.24.07.pdf
"This short and entertaining book packs a vast amount of serious information about your brain, about your mind, and about your money. You will learn a lot when you read it for the first time, and you will probably want to read it again to learn some more."
-- Daniel Kahneman, professor of psychology, Princeton University; 2002 Nobel laureate in economics
"Jason Zweig is one of the world's experts on the investing process. He has written the best book yet on the emerging science of neuroeconomics. Buy it, read it, and become a more thoughtful, and a better, investor."
-- Bill Miller, chairman and chief investment officer, Legg Mason Capital Management
"As advertised, this book is about your brain, but yours is not the only brain in this book. Lucky for you, that other brain is Jason Zweig's, and what a brilliant, fascinating, illuminating, powerful, and unique device that is. Listen to Zweig carefully. I have read a zillion books on investing, and none of them comes close to what he has so generously bestowed upon us here."
-- Peter L. Bernstein, author, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
"Jason Zweig has written a pioneering work. His findings challenge many of our conventional beliefs about investor behavior. Zweig goes a step further by laying down a series of rules that, if followed, will prevent the reader from making any of the emotional decisions that have cost investors dearly over time. Your Money and Your Brain is a book that stands head and shoulders above the conventional pablum served up in most stock market books."
-- David Dreman, chairman, Dreman Capital Management, and author, Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation
"Jason Zweig knows your financial demons, where they live, why they're making you poor, and how you can beat them. You owe it to yourself, your future, and your heirs to read Your Money and Your Brain."
-- William Bernstein, Efficient Frontier Advisors, and author, The Four Pillars of Investing
Mike Clowes, Investment News, Aug.
20, 2007:
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/FREE/70817023/1008
"brilliant…. This is a book every
financial professional should read -- and reread at least annually.”
Kerry Hannon, USA Today, Sept.
9, 2007:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/2007-09-09-your-money-your-brain_n.htm
"…you may not get rich reading this
book. But you might slow down to the point where emotion and intellect
co-exist happily, the perfect money mood.”
Joe Nocera, The New York Times, Sept.
29, 2007:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/business/29nocera.html
What makes markets go to extremes? “Mr.
Zweig has tried to find an answer to that question. In his new book, Your
Money & Your Brain (Simon & Schuster), he’s as close
as anybody’s likely to come.”
Paul B. Farrell, marketwatch.com, Oct. 1,
2007:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/heres-how-fix-your-broken/story.aspx?
guid=%7B57BD8219-1E08-437D-8420-9412C5E323FF%7D&dist=morenews
"brilliant new book”
Dan Solin, The Huffington Post, Oct.
1, 2007:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-solin/do-you-have-prediction-a_b_66570.html
"fascinating new book…an excellent
read.”
Avner Mandelman, The Globe and Mail (Toronto),
Oct. 8, 2007:
https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20071008/RBUYSIDE08
"Every now and then a fresh investment book
comes along that says something new. The latest is by Jason Zweig,
called Your Money and Your Brain.”
Carolyn Sayre, Time Magazine, Oct.
11, 2007:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1670488,00.html
"…with self-awareness and a basic
understanding of the brain's mechanics, we can dupe the greatest financial
foe of all -- ourselves.”
Ellen Roseman, The Toronto Star, Oct.
17, 2007:
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/267603
"insightful”
Tom Stevenson, The Daily Telegraph (London),
Oct. 30, 2007:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/30/ccinv130.xml
"compelling…go and get a copy of Your
Money and Your Brain. It is likely to be one of your better
investments.”
Jane Bryant Quinn, Bloomberg.com, Nov. 7,
2007:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a_9PNcYzg1As&refer=home
"We're hard-wired to kid ourselves. If
you doubt it, take a look at Your Money and Your Brain, a new
book by Money magazine writer Jason Zweig.”
Whitney Tilson, Financial Times,
Nov. 9, 2007:
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto110920071700002741
"excellent new book”
Bill Barnhart, The Chicago Tribune,
Nov. 9, 2007:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri_barnhart_1109nov09,0,1894976.column
"Zweig's book puts you, the buyer of investment
advice and products, on a more equal footing with the sellers. It belongs
on every investor's bookshelf.”
David Yeske, bankrate.com, Nov. 27, 2007:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/20071127_money_books_a2.asp
http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/071127/23823.html?.v=1
"a great explanation of why we're hardwired
to make bad financial decisions”
Bob Frick, Kiplinger’s Personal
Finance, Dec. 2007:
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2007/12/investingbooks.html
one of the five “best investing reads of
2007” (but “a few dozen pages too long”)
Steve Butler, The Contra Costa Times, Dec.
3, 2007:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_7622833?IADID=
Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com&nclick_check=1
(requires
free registration)
"new, soon-to-be-a-classic book”
Austin Spencer, The Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, Dec.
4, 2007:
http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771203076&source=rss
"a frustrating experience”
Tim Hanson, The Motley Fool, Jan.
2, 2008:
http://www.fool.com/investing/small-cap/2008/01/02/stop-being-
greedy-and-youll-make-more-money.aspx
"Zweig has finally explained the brain science” of
investing
Martin S. Fridson, CFA Institute Online Book Reviews, vol. 3, no. 1:
http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/abs/10.2469/br.v3.n1.4
"Zweig’s enthusiasm and zest for detail sparkle throughout this fascinating account....
a book destined to be a landmark in the popular finance literature."
PBS, Nightly Business Report, Aug.
14, 2007:
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/blog/2007/08/of_mutual_interest_your_money.html
Newsweek, Aug. 31, 2007:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/39709
US News & World Report, Aug.
31, 2007:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/your-money/2007/08/31/
emotion-can-make-you-a-bad-investor.html
PBS, Consuelo Mack WealthTrack, Sept.
7, 2007:
http://www.wealthtrack.com/watch_and_listen.php
CNBC, Power Lunch, Sept. 11, 2007:
http://video.msn.com/dw.aspx?mkt=en-us&from=truveo&vid=00ab2700-8e7c-4531-af31-db0f5f07bf3c
National Public Radio, The Leonard Lopate
Show, Sept. 12, 2007:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2007/09/12/segments/85388
The Jean Chatzky Show, Oprah & Friends,
Sirius Radio, Sept. 14, 2007:
http://www2.oprah.com/xm/jchatzky/200709/jchatzky_20070914.jhtml
National Public Radio, Marketplace,
Sept. 21, 2007:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/09/20/your_money_and_your_brain/
The Toronto Globe and Mail, Sept.
28, 2007:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20070928.
wheinzl0928/BNStory/International/
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oct.
7, 2007:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/columnists/
sfl-flzhlpharriet1007nboct07,0,5000699.column
DNA India (Mumbai), Oct. 16-17, 2007
(two parts):
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1127857
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1128138
Yahoo! Finance, Oct. 18, 2007:
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/49681
http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/49681;_
ylt=AoYK9IrDbkszZbyozxv0dKVO7sMF
The Motley Fool, Oct. 18-19, 2007
(two parts):
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/10/18/
is-your-brain-costing-you-money.aspx
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/10/19/
is-your-brain-costing-you-money-part-2.aspx
Research Magazine, Nov. 2007:
http://www.researchmag.com/cms/research/monthly%20issues/
Issues/2007/11/Index/Features/11_f_mindmoney
indexuniverse.com, Nov. 9, 2007:
http://www.indexuniverse.com/index.php?option=com
_content&view=article&id=3375&Itemid=29
Bay Street Bull (Toronto), Nov. 15,
2007:
http://dojc.newsvine.com/_news/2007/11/15/1099490-your-money-and-your-brain-
PBS, Consuelo Mack WealthTrack, Nov.
30, 2007:
http://www.wealthtrack.com/watch_and_listen.php
National Public Radio, On Point (WBUR), Dec. 19, 2007: http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/12/20071219_b_main.asp
The worst thing about publishing a book is discovering that, despite
all your best efforts, it still has mistakes in it. (Actually, there would be one thing worse: Making mistakes and never discovering them.) The only good thing about making those errors is the smart people you meet and the gracious way they inform you that you are wrong. Here are the mistakes that I know about so far; they were not committed by that universal culprit, "editing error," but by me. The paperback edition, due out in the fall of 2008, should incorporate most of the following corrections. But
that does not diminish my debt to the people who pointed the errors out
to me; a good book can make some readers smarter, but good readers can
make any author smarter.
p. 20:
Original:
"They were told they could verify the expert’s claim by choosing to observe any or all of the following evidence:”
Correction:
"They were told they could verify the expert's claim by observing outcomes from one or more of the following categories of evidence:”
Note:
Many readers interpreted the original to mean that you are free to observe any or all of the outcomes from any or all of the four choices. The corrected wording should make it clearer that you can sample outcomes from as many of the four choices as you care to -- not that you can observe every single outcome.
Thanks to:
Whitney Tilson, Dave Chilton, David Schwinger, Joseph LeBaron, Andrew Hood, Greg Bearth, Brad Close, Alex Doman, Geoff Townsend, and to Robin Hogarth for confirming the final wording
p. 94:
Original:
Next Zajonc displayed Chinese ideographs to people who had no familiarity with the Asian alphabet...."
Correction:
Chinese ideographs, of course, do not constitute an alphabet!
Thanks to:
Martin S. Fridson, CFA
p. 101:
Original:
"Most of these people were well aware that each bet has identical, 50/50 odds of winning.”
Correction:
"Most of these people knew that a stock chosen at random cannot be much more likely to go up tomorrow than it was to rise yesterday.”
Thanks to:
Christopher DeMuth
p. 160:
Original:
"And the amygdala helps infuse your bloodstream with corticosterone, a stress hormone that assists the body in responding to an emergency.”
Correction:
"And the amygdala helps infuse your bloodstream with cortisol, a stress hormone that assists the body in responding to an emergency.”
Thanks to:
Donald Gordon, M.D., and to Antoine Bechara, Ph.D. for confirming the final wording
p. 269 (Appendix 2):
Original:
"Remember that this stock must go up more than 14 percent just for you to break even after paying at least 2 percent in brokerage costs and 10 percent in capital gains taxes. On short-term trades, you need more than a 50 percent gain before costs to break even after costs."
Correction:
"Remember that this stock must go up more than 3 percent just for you to break even after paying at least 2 percent in brokerage costs and 10 percent in capital gains taxes. On short-term trades, you need a 4 percent gain before costs to break even after costs."
Thanks to:
John Yow
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Jason Zweig is a senior writer for Money magazine
and has been a guest columnist for Time magazine and cnn.com. He
is also the editor of the revised edition of Benjamin Graham’s The
Intelligent Investor, the classic text that Warren Buffett
has described as “by far the best book about investing every written.” Before
joining Money, Zweig was the mutual funds editor at Forbes. In
2001, he was named “best financial columnist for a national publication” by
Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. In
2006, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Mutual Fund Education
Alliance. He has also been a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution
at Stanford University and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism
at the University of Maryland. Zweig is a trustee of the Museum
of American Finance, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. He
also serves on the editorial boards of Financial History magazine
and The Journal of Behavioral Finance. A
graduate of Columbia University, he lives in New York City. LEARN
MORE ABOUT JASON
For more information about "YOUR MONEY AND YOUR BRAIN: How
The New Science Of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich"
or Jason Zweig write to
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