Jim Mueller, CFA
Are you watching any of the World Cup matches? No? Well, then, you're missing out on some great...investing lessons.
Joe Wiggins of Behavioural Investment blog fame is obviously both a fan of England and a fan of investing, seeing investing lessons everywhere he looks. In his latest entry, he calls out eight different biases that fans of soccer and investing, both, should definitely keep in mind. For example, there's this one:
Momentum matters: Positive or negative progress can become self-perpetuating and an incredibly powerful force.
The wretched hydration breaks and their impact on World Cup games are a great example of how vital momentum is in many walks of life, and how significant interrupting it can be.
For investors, consider Warren Buffett's comment about compounding. "Never interrupt it unnecessarily." This comes back to "time in the market beating timing the market." Compounding only gets to work well if you give it time to work. Stopping and starting it (as happens when you buy and sell over and over again) is bad for your overall results, interrupting the years-long compounding average the broad market has of roughly 10% per year.