Stop Emotions From Wrecking Returns

Feeling rattled?

Stock investors have been through the wringer over the past five months, sweating through nasty market declines and savoring the recoveries that followed.

But just because you're unnerved doesn't mean you're a lousy investor. Here's how emotions affect investing, plus four strategies that should help you sidestep the pitfalls.

• Taking the heat. Make no mistake: Emotions can hurt your investment results. For instance, a study published in Psychological Science in June 2005 found that people with impaired emotional responses made more-sensible financial decisions.

These folks, who had lesions on their brains that limited their emotional reactions, were more willing to take gambles where the potential payoff easily outweighed the potential loss. 'When people with normal emotional reactions lost, they got discouraged and stopped gambling,' notes one of the study's authors, George Loewenstein, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Similarly, investors with a strong emotional reaction to market swings often buy and sell at the wrong time and may trade more, thus racking up hefty investment costs. Sound grim? Not all the news is bad.

Emotions can also help, supplying the motivation to focus on our finances, plan for retirement, save diligently and avoid excessive risk.

'Without emotion, we wouldn't be able to make the sort of trade-offs essential to our financial survival,' argues Andrew Lo, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Financial Engineering. 'The best traders aren't those without any emotional response. If you aren't risk-averse enough, you could end up blowing yourself up and losing all your money.'

As you might gather, handling our emotions is a juggling act. Intense emotions can be helpful, making us more engaged in what we are doing. But to be successful, we also need to figure out what's going on with our feelings and then limit the impact, suggests a study in August's Academy of Management Journal.

'People who can pinpoint their emotions are less likely to be affected by them,' explains Myeong-Gu Seo, co-author of the study and a management professor at the University of Maryland. This self-knowledge is part of a broader notion sometimes dubbed 'emotional intelligence.'

'Women have greater emotional intelligence than men,' notes John Ameriks, an investment analyst at Vanguard Group. 'Perhaps that has something to do with the finding that women trade less.' For instance, in a market decline, women may be less likely to act rashly, because they have a better handle on why they're suddenly uncomfortable with their investments.

• Getting a grip. Not sure your emotional intelligence is that high? Try these strategies:

If the market plunges and you have an overwhelming" title="a.压倒的；势不可挡的">overwhelming urge to act, do something sensible. You might send off a $100 check to your favorite mutual fund or rebalance your portfolio back to your target mix of U.S. stocks, foreign shares and bonds.

If you are tempted to make big portfolio changes, get a second opinion. 'Talking to somebody can help you avoid destructive trades,' Mr. Ameriks says. That somebody might be a friend or a financial adviser.

Automate your investing, so you keep buying stocks during rough markets, by signing up for payroll deduction into your company's 401(k). Also set up automatic investment plans, in which money is plucked from your bank account every month and invested directly in stock funds.

Try the 'restart' strategy suggested by Prof. Loewenstein: Take your existing savings and set them aside in a diversified portfolio, such as a target-date retirement fund. Thereafter, focus your energies on building a new portfolio.

Your monthly savings will have a huge impact on this new account's growth, so you will have a strong incentive to save. Your savings will likely also overwhelm any hit from a market decline. What if you make some foolish trades? Because you're dealing with only a small portion of your wealth, you won't do too much damage.

在过去的五个月中，股票投资者们经历了令人痛苦不安的市场动荡，在股市下挫时胆战心惊，又在随后的股市反弹中欣喜若狂。

不过身心交瘁并不一定意味着你就是个糟糕的投资者。下面谈谈情绪会如何影响投资决策，并介绍四种可帮你绕过各种"投资陷阱"的策略。

冷静下来。不要犯错误：感情用事会损害你的投资结果。例如，2005年6月《心理科学》(Psychological Science)杂志上公布的一项研究显示，情绪反应受损的人在金融决策上更加理智。

这些人的情绪反应因大脑损伤而受限，他们更愿意在潜在回报明显大于潜在损失的情况下下注。卡耐基梅隆大学(Carnegie Mellon University)的经济学教授乔治•洛温斯坦(George Loewenstein)是这篇研究论文的作者之一。他指出，当具有正常情绪反应的人赌输的时候，他们就会因气馁并不再下注了。

同样，对市场波动做出强烈情绪反应的投资者常常在错误的时机买卖，交易量也可能过大，因而导致投资成本巨大。这是否听起来很恐怖？不过情绪反应也有其积极的一面。

情绪也能助投资一臂之力，它刺激投资者进行理财、制定退休计划、勤俭节约并规避过高风险。

麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)金融工程实验室(Laboratory for Financial Engineering)的主任Andrew Lo表示，假如没有情感的话，我们将无法做出对我们的财务状况至关重要的各种折衷选择。最好的交易员并不是那些没有丝毫情绪反应的人。如果你对风险没有足够的防范意识，你最后可能会跌得粉身碎骨，变得不名一文。

正如你可能猜想的一样，控制情绪需要技巧。感情强烈可以是有益的，它使我们更加专注于自己手头上的事情。但是8月份《管理学会杂志》(Academy of Management Journal)上发布的一项研究显示，为了取得成功，我们还需要把握自己的情绪，然后控制其影响。

马里兰大学(University of Maryland)的管理学教授Myeong-Gu Seo是该研究论文的作者之一。他解释说，对自己情绪了如指掌的人比较不容易受情绪的影响。这种对自身的了解是所谓"情商"的一部分。

Vanguard Group的投资分析师约翰•阿默里克斯(John Ameriks)指出，女性的情商高于男性。这可能与女性的投资交易较少这一现象有关。比如，在市场下挫时，女性可能比男性更少鲁莽行事，因为她们能更好地处理自己对投资的突然不适。

获得主动权。不能肯定自己是否有如此高的情商？那么试试下面这些战略吧：

如果市场大幅下挫而你又跃跃欲试，那么就做些理智的事情。你可以投资100美元到你最看好的共同基金中，或是将你的投资组合重新调整到你的目标结构，使其包含比例适中的美国国内股票、国外股票和债券。

如果你想对投资组合进行重大调整，那么去征求一下其他人的看法。阿默里克斯说，和其他人谈谈，这可以帮助你避免进行损失巨大的交易。这个"其他人"可以是你的朋友或是理财顾问。

将你的投资自动化，申请将工资扣减项自动转帐到401k退休金计划中这样的服务，以便在市场行情不好时仍然持续买进股票。同时还要制定自动投资计划，这样你银行帐户中的钱每月会自动直接投到股票基金中。

试试洛温斯坦建议的"重启"战略：把现有存款放入一个多样化投资组合，比如一只退休基金。然后便将这笔钱忘到脑后，将精力集中到建立一个新的投资组合上。

你每月的存款将对这个新帐户的增长产生巨大影响，因此你将会有更大的动力进行储蓄。你的存款还可能将远远超过市场下跌带来的损失。如果你进行了一些愚蠢的交易该怎么办？因为你只是用财富的一小部分进行投资，所以不会有太大的损失。
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