Regrets, I’ve had a few

Perhaps, like Frank, you’ve had too few regrets to mention. But unfortunately, when it comes to investing, I’ve had plenty. About what I invested in, and what I didn’t. About when I bought, and when I sold. Unfortunately, it seems those regrets, and my fear of future regrets, can play havoc with my investment decisions. According to Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow: Investors are prone to regret, and the anticipation of regret shapes much of their behavior. And from Hersh Shefrin in Beyond Greed and Fear: Regret aversion – the tendency to avoid decisions that could lead to regret – often leads investors to make poor choices. How then am I to take reasonable decisions with my investments? Am I just a rabbit frozen in the headlights of my future regrets? Or are there some practical steps that will help me sleep at night? Minimise regret It’s comforting to know that Harry Markowitz, the Nobel-prize-winning economist who developed Modern Portfolio Theory, suffers from the same…