E-Book Overview
Mean Markets and Lizard Brains explains why manias, panics, and crashes happen, why people keep making the same mistakes, and how you can not only avoid losing but turn the tide and profit, even if the markets continue to decline. Terry Burnham, a behavioral economist who has a proven keen ability to translate complex topics into every day language, looks not only at the stock market but at the economy, real estate, bonds, mortgages, and savings, and shows how continued irrationality will have a big impact on all of us and what we can do about it. By spotting the insanity today, you can avoid the pain tomorrow.
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Praise for
Mean Markets “Conventional finance axioms—no-frills rationality and maximizing happy campers—are found wanting. In his wonderful Mean Markets and Lizard Brains, Terry Burnham shows you why. Comingling biology and finance has never been so entertaining.” —Jamil Baz, Head of Global Rates Research, Deutsche Bank “A fascinating application of evolutionary theory that revolutionizes our understanding of how financial markets behave. I have already altered my own portfolio allocation after reading this book. If you read it, I am sure you will too.” —Nitin Nohria, Richard P. Chapman Professor, Harvard Business School and coauthor of Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices “Mean Markets and Lizard Brains should be required reading for every Wall Street professional whether in sales, trading, research, or corporate finance. It reveals that individuals often act irrationally for a very rational reason; they have inherited a thought process that goes way back to the days of hunter-gatherers so that brains are built to be out of sync with rational financial decision making. Understanding this profound message should allow investors to improve performance and make fewer mistakes. This is a fascinating book that is certain to become a must re