Guide · September 2026
The human factor.
The mistakes that cost more than fees: why the head goes wrong when money is at stake, where it goes wrong (the herd, the anchor, winners sold and losers kept, the wrong moment) and how to defend yourself with rules decided with a cool head: the written plan, the automatisms, rebalancing, a levee. An independent guide for those who want to invest without hurting themselves.
In the decade to 2025 American funds returned 9.9% a year; those who owned them earned 8.7%. One point two a year, worth a fifth of the final capital over twenty years, and explained by no fee: lost in the dates on which people got in and out. In Italy only 10% of investors have a multi-year plan, 83% think it useful to check their portfolio at least once a month and 69% will not tolerate even a minimal loss; in March 2020 Italian managed savings recorded 8.7 billion euros of redemptions, and in the quarter of the rebound the funds alone took in almost 15.
This guide brings order with the series’ framework: the head (the measured cost of behaviour, the two speeds of thinking, the fear of losing, overconfidence), the traps (the herd and the news, the anchor and the mental accounts, winners sold and losers kept, the wrong moment) and the defences (the written plan, the automatisms, a family with 300,000 euro on two roads, the levee and the salesman, the words). Every number is dated and every study is cited with authors and year; the sources are verified as at September 2026.
It is an independent guide: it sells neither products nor forecasts, and its thesis is simple: the investor's enemy is not the market, it is the person in the mirror; and it is governed in one way only, by deciding on the calm day what will be done on the day of fear. The sister guides accompany the rest of the journey.
Inside
Why we err: the measured cost of behaviour, the two speeds of thinking, the fear of losing, overconfidence.
Where it is paid: the herd and the news, the anchor and the mental accounts, winners sold and losers kept, the wrong moment.
How the gap is closed: the written plan, the automatisms, one family on two roads, the levee and the salesman, the words.
PDF · 68 pages · 13 chapters
Contents
Part One · The head
- 01 The cost of behaviour: the invisible gap 6
- 02 The two speeds of thinking 11
- 03 The fear of losing 15
- 04 Overconfidence 19
Part Two · The traps
- 05 The herd and the news 24
- 06 The anchor and the mental accounts 28
- 07 Selling the winners, keeping the losers 33
- 08 The wrong moment: market timing 37
Part Three · The defences
- 09 The written plan: the ropes of Ulysses 44
- 10 Autopilot: automatisms and rebalancing 49
- 11 The complete case: one family, two roads 53
- 12 The pivot: the levee and the salesman 58
- 13 Essential glossary 63
- Disclaimers 67
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