Are You a Right Brain or Left Brain Investor?

Understanding weather you are left or right brain can help you become a better investor.  The key take away from this Forbes article is to understand how you function.  By understanding your bias' you can gain an edge and help yourself preserve capital when needed or take advantage of opportunities when they appear.  It's much more than saying I am left or right brain, it is knowing what type of person or specifically investor you are.


See Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's  book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, for more information on this topic.  Full article here from Forbes

• Right brain investing requires little knowledge and no heavy thinking, which is why most people invest poorly. They hear a story from a financial person, or read about an ETF on Yahoo news, and then they invest thousands of dollars without doing any research. Ironically, these same people will agonize for weeks over which cell phone to buy.
• Left brain investors examine all the facts that are available before making a reasonable choice between risk and return. They look at the past figures and future probabilities. They’ll consider overall portfolio construction, fund expenses, turnover, taxes, etc. This analytical work uncovers many issues with investments that right brain people miss.