7 Ways the Pandemic Affects Your Investing Decisions

As some readers may already know, my coworker, Kelly Griese and I run this blog together. We are both active members of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). Through our membership with NASAA we work with many counterparts throughout the continent. We enjoy connecting with other folks who share a similar passion to provide resources for financial and investor education. When other agencies create great information, we like to share it with our MoneyWise Matters readers. Here is a post created by the Ontario Securities Commission's Investor Office. I believe you will find it as interesting as I did.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant turbulence in global capital markets. As a result, many investors have experienced dramatic decreases in the value of their investment portfolios. How investors respond to such losses can be critical for keeping on track with their long-term investing goals. It is not always clear what the best course of action is at a time like this but there are several insights from behavioral science that can help investors think more clearly about the decisions that they are facing.

1. Loss Aversion

Individuals do not feel gains and losses equally. We psychologically experience losses twice as strongly as gains. Put simply, losing $100 hurts more than gaining $100 feels good. Even if our portfolios recover to their pre-crisis levels, the pain of the losses can make investors feel like they are worse off.

2. Risk Seeking

People are more willing to take risks to avoid losses than to make gains. After experiencing a drop in portfolio value, the desire to recoup losses can cause people to become more willing to take risks. This risk-seeking behavior may cause individuals to pursue investment opportunities that are not aligned with their long-term goals.

3. Myopia

Occurs when investors focus too much on the present and not enough on the bigger picture. This is especially common when investors are focusing on a specific investment instead of considering their entire portfolio. Receiving information about investment performance too frequently can cause myopia and lead investors to adopt strategies that are not aligned with their investment plans.

4. Availability

Information is one of the primary drivers of myopia, but not all information receives equal attention from investors. The more easily information comes to mind, the more available it is to be used in decision making. The 24-hour news cycle and social media can lead to investors overweighing certain information in their decisions. This can lead to herd behavior, market bubbles and other undesirable investing behaviors.

5. Sunk Cost Fallacy

This occurs when a person allows costs that cannot be recovered, such as time or money, to influence their decisions. When a stock price decreases, investors may purchase more of the stock at the lower price in hopes that an increase will enable them to recover money that they lost with their initial investment. This is an example of the sunk cost fallacy. The decision to invest at the lower price should not be influenced by a previous investment. If the price continues to decline, investors can end up multiplying their losses by “throwing good money after bad.”

6. Overconfidence

The overconfidence effect occurs when someone perceives their abilities to be greater than they actually are. This is a frequent problem for investors. Capital markets have historically rebounded from sudden decreases or crashes. As prices drop, many investors try to determine when the market will reach its lowest point so that they can buy more assets just before prices begin to recover. Even professional investment firms struggle to do this when faced with significant market turmoil and uncertainty. Overconfidence bias can lead many investors to believe that they can “time the market” even though only a small fraction will be lucky enough to do it.

7. Regret Aversion

When dealing with uncertain decisions, people often anticipate how much regret they will feel if they are wrong. This anticipated regret can have large effects on people’s decision making. One way that people tend to minimize regret is by doing what others are doing instead of using their own information to make the best decision for themselves.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all seven of these aspects of human behavior can become more pronounced in our decision making as investors. Knowing about them does not eliminate them. Investors will still experience the psychological and emotional effects of loss aversion, risk seeking, myopia, availability, the sunk cost fallacy, overconfidence, and regret aversion. Understanding these biases and how they impact decision making can help investors think more clearly about the decisions they have to make about their financial futures.

This post was provided by the Ontario Securities Commission's Investor Office. GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca is an initiative of the Ontario Securities Commission's Investor Office to help people make informed financial decisions. To learn more check out www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca.