Lying – it’s something that all humans do. Most of the lies we tell are small and harmless. But deceptive behaviour in the investment industry lowers trust and increases costs and complexity. We are deceptive for many reasons and one of them is that we can get away with it. This is because, despite what we might believe, most of us are pretty terri…

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿? 1. Hire a manager after a period of strong performance. 2. Watch in horror as you don’t experience that outcome, maybe the opposite. 3. Spend a huge amount of time and emotional labour deciding on whether your initial thesis was wrong, something has changed at the manager, or with mar…

Thinking and talking about failure can be tough, especially when it’s us who’s failing. But it’s important for us as individuals and investment teams to find a way to do this in an effective manner that allows us to both learn and evolve. In this episode of Decisions Nerds… - Joe pits his inner Brian Blessed against an AI auto-editor - We examine J…

We downed some eggnog and decided to record an impromptu Christmas special. We have a chat about how insights from behavioural science might help the festive holidays proceed more smoothly: 😂 Why Joe's team might think (in his own words) that he’s an ‘egotistical a*&hole’. 😧 A simple way to feel better about Christmas (but you might not like it). 😠…

Following the publication of a new book, 'The Fund', Ray Dalio and Bridgewater have been getting attention for all the wrong reasons. The book alleges a toxic culture where the reality of day-to-day life doesn’t match that described in Dalio’s book, ‘Principles’. In this episode of Decision Nerds, we dive into the sludge and extract some key points…

In this episode we discuss how we can make better forecasts with Professor Paul Goodwin. We tackle everything from the techniques available, to human problems around understanding, bias and incentives. See the chapter headings for full details. Notes Philip Tetlock's book is Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction A paper that describes…

Does fear of getting things wrong stop you from making decisions? If so, you’re not alone. Regret can have a profound impact on our choices. In this short episode, we unpack the challenges, discuss some solutions and use the timely case of thematic investment funds as a case in point. We tackle: The psychological nature of regret – why it can be us…

A bitesize episode with some thoughts from this year's Glastonbury festival. We tackle: Lana Del Rey - the need to understand who's got the power (literally in this case) Van Halen reconsidered - from divas to behavioural gurus via brown M&Ms Elton John - the peak-end rule and what set lists can teach us about being remembered.…

It is incredibly easy to be cynical when we hear businesses talk about culture. At one point or another, most of us have shuffled into a room with colleagues to experience a PowerPoint presentation on our firm's culture. They can often be (a) generic, anodyne and marketing-led, or (b) aspirational, unrealistic and not reflective of leadership and/o…

Our guest today, Tom Gosling, is a committed and thoughtful supporter of D&I. He's a practitioner turned academic who helps build bridges between researchers, policymakers and those at the coal face. He has an interesting take on some important strategic and practical D&I issues that often get no, or very little, air time. If you have any interest …

F&^% ups – how they happen, how they’re judged and how we can sort them At some point in life, all of us will make some kind of toe-curling mistake. In our work lives, we’re going to make smaller ones, or have to manage or deal with colleagues' errors on an ongoing basis. Understanding how errors happen and how they can be managed is important. But…

All investment decision-makers need feedback to improve. The key question is how can we give feedback in a way that allows people to meaningfully engage with it and ultimately change unproductive behaviour. In this episode, we chat with Clare Flynn Levy, CEO of Essentia Analytics. The core of Essentia's business is using tech to help investors unde…