The investment industry is on the cusp of a major shift, from Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to Behavioral Finance, with Behavioral Portfolio Management (BPM) the next step in this transition. BPM focuses on how to harness the price distortions that are driven by emotional crowds and use this to create superior portfolios. Once markets and investing are viewed through the lens of behavior, and portfolios are constructed on this basis, investable opportunities become readily apparent.
Mastering your emotions is critical to the process and the insights provided by Tom Howard put investors on the path to achieving this. Forty years of Behavioral Science research presents a clear picture of how individuals make decisions; there are few signs of rationality. Indeed, emotional investors sabotage their own efforts in building long-horizon wealth. When this is combined with the misconception that active management is unable to generate superior returns, the typical emotional investor leaves hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on the table during their investment lifetimes.
Howard moves on to show how industry practice, with its use of the style grid, standard deviation, correlation, maximum drawdown and the Sharpe ratio, has entrenched emotion within investing. The result is that investors construct underperforming, bubble-wrapped portfolios.
About the author
Preface
Acknowledgements
Executive summary
1. Behavioral Portfolio Management
Section 1: The Cult of Emotion
2. Emotional Brakes
3. Randomness
4. Cult Enforcers
5. How the Cult of Emotion Invests
6. Forty Years in the Desert: The Disappointing Tale of MPT
Section 2: Leaving the Cult of Emotion
7. Releasing Emotional Brakes: a 12-Step Program
8. Mitigating Emotional Costs
9. Style Grid Performance Drag
10. Diversification: Applying Bubble Wrap
11. The Volatility Trap
12. Will True Risk Please Stand up!
Section 3: Becoming a Behavioral Data Investor
13. Investment Strategy
14. Best (and Worst) Ideas of Equity Managers
15. Building an Equity Strategy
16. The Power of Dividends
17. Behavioral Market Timing
18. What Future May Come
Appendix: The Bucket Model: a Case Study
Bibliography
Supplemental bibliography
Index