Being Responsible
In our democracy, we rarely expect our politicians to be truthful. Whatever the societal challenge of the day, we vote for the politician and the…
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Being consistent and reliable
My first business was at university, where a friend and I sold clothing merchandise at sporting events. This business started simply. Win the contract, draft…
The Paradox of Certainty
Having been a trader and investor for much of my professional life, living with uncertainty has been part of the territory. Managing risk requires acceptance…
When to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em.
We have all heard tales of success where the entrepreneur overcomes all odds and refuses to give in, despite people and circumstances shouting at them…
Getting stuff done in the age of distraction
Distraction has become an epidemic. Once upon a time, if kids were bored, they’d be sent outside to play with a stick and a rock.…
Creating a New Career Identity
I used to be a hedge fund manager. In some circles, this carries kudos, in others, derision. To me, it was a prop to my…
Performing Under Pressure
I used to be a choker. As a young sports person, I was great while training. On game day, often I’d turn to custard. In…
Being okay with change and uncertainty
The old adage that change is a constant is a truism. There are however, at different times in human history, shifts in gears in the…
Managing self-sabotage
Self-sabotage is a frustrating pattern of behaviour where we engage in actions or thoughts that ultimately undermine our goals, relationships, or well-being. It can manifest…
Taming your Inner Demon
We all have an inner critic. Its impact varies for each of us, depending on its volume and assertiveness. Having awareness of negative thought patterns…
Hidden Benefits of Feedback
In my self-CARE program, one of the exercises embedded in the self-awareness module relates to feedback. Feedback provides a mechanism to gauge how we perceive…
Self-doubt and the Goldilocks Principle
Recently I sat with a client during one of his live trading sessions and invited him to think out loud while he traded. Verbalising his…
Experiencing Grace on Demand
I have a noisy internal critic. When I make a mistake, it blurts all sorts of expletives at me. When I look to try something…
Reducing Indecision with Sword Training
Some years ago while running my hedge fund, I went through a period of indecision. I would line up my decision rules for my entry…
Losing my Macro Identity
Looking out the window toward the almost silent port of Hong Kong, I was waiting for my appointment to pitch to a multi-family office. My…
Shhh to your Inner-critic
As a trader, fund manager and investor over the past 25 years, I’ve made more mistakes than I could care to count. I’ve bought at…
Escaping the Noise
Mood is contagious. Measuring collective mood is difficult. As an old trader, my proxy for collective mood has been the stock market. Simplistically, when the…
Blind Spots and their Impact on Performance
Many of us have self-critical voices in our heads that keep us focused on what we perceive is wrong with us. What am I doing…
Mid-life crisis of Meaning or Competence?
I’ve had my share of mid-life crises. As far as I can tell, the only real benefit of having multiple mid-life’s is theoretical. Each new…
How or Why? On the Path to Self-Awareness
I’ve been practicing various forms of meditation since 1994. Having started my career as a graduate on the Foreign Exchange desk at BT, I’d observed…
I won, I’m right. I lost, I’m unlucky.
Understanding our cognitive and behavioral biases is an important ingredient in maintaining consistent investment performance. The self-serving bias (Miller and Ross, 1975; Sedikides and Strube,…
I’m in a hole. Why can’t my mind stop digging?
When something goes awry in life, whether professionally or socially, we have an ability to replay events in our minds to work out what…
I’m stressed, so everything is a Mole that needs a whack!
As investment professionals, we’ve all heard managers referred to as “stopped clocks”, being right only twice a day. I was one such manager, being bearish…