NeuroInvesting: Build a New Investing Brain

CHAPTER 7

Reacquaint Yourself with Fear

BEEN BURNT, DONE THAT

Fear is here to stay. For each of us, it will be in different dosages and in various forms. Some need more of it, some less, and others need the right kind.

The appropriate fear therapy or fear boost comes to us when we have a deeper understanding of its source. We learn to draw on its benefits and work at its negatives; reconditioning, rewriting, rewiring or desensitizing.

The Pandora's box of fear will be opened in this chapter, inviting you to discover the appropriate strategy for you.

The Pandora's Box of Fear

Fear incapacitates, holds us back, causes us to be irrational, and makes us behave impulsively. Fear or anxiety allowed to lurk, especially unconsciously, is the root of many of investors' problems. Most tolerate some level of fear in everyday living and accept it as being a part of one's personality. But when it comes to investing, we can't afford to give in to fear. Fear detracts from better returns. It's not total elimination of fear we are after, but it's the ability to maintain it at a healthy dose, that keeps us at tension.

Fear is one emotion that all investors need to be attuned to, not to control. Control comes naturally once one is aware of its existence and is conscious of its workings. This understanding originates from knowing where fear comes from within us. Once the engine room of fear is opened up, it's no longer a black box. Before we can open up this Pandora box of fear, though, first be ...