The Psychology That Makes Or Breaks Investing - With Lee Freeman-Shor
The Art of Investing
Conviction vs stubbornness: How to test your belief
Lee advises using the blank-paper test and observing whether managers put their own money behind ideas to distinguish conviction from hubris.
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Welcome to Episode 19 of The Art of Investing - brought to you by IG, the global investing platform.
This week, the team hand over the mic to Lee Freeman-Shor, fund manager turned author of The Art of Execution - the book that proves great investors aren’t defined by their ideas, but by what they do when those ideas go right…or wrong.
Rich McDonald, Mark “Spice” Holden and Chris Fellingham dive into the psychology behind winning (and losing) in the markets. Expect honesty, humour and a full audit of everyone’s personal investing “tribe” - Rabbit, Assassin, Hunter, Raider or Connoisseur.
This Week’s Highlights:
- 💥 Markets: US narrowly avoids a shutdown, the dollar softens 1%, and commodity strength pushes the FTSE 100 to another all-time high.
- 📉 Crypto Cool-off: Bitcoin recovers slightly but remains 5% below last week’s lows.
- 🤖 Tech Watch: Nvidia earnings ahead - and SoftBank trims its stake ahead of the event.
- 🏦 UK Macro: GDP flat at 0.1% as unemployment rises to 5%, fuelling December rate-cut speculation.
- ⛏️ Commodity Rally: Gold +4.9%, copper +2.5% as a weaker dollar lifts real assets.
Special Guest - Lee Freeman-Shor:
Key Behavioural Traits That Could Kill a Portfolio:
- Holding onto Losers
- Selling Winners Too Early
- Lack of Conviction/Action
Lee breaks down the five “investor tribes” from his research:
- 🐇 Rabbits - freeze when underwater
- 🗡️ Assassins - cut losers fast
- 🎯 Hunters - double down intelligently
- ⚔️ Raiders - take profits too soon
- 🏆 Connoisseurs - hold winners properly
Plus: why even elite fund managers only get 3/10 stock picks right, and what the top performers actually do differently.
Portfolio Snapshot:
Weekly performance: +0.4%
Total return since inception: +9.8%
Top Performers:
- 🥇 BlackRock World Mining Trust — +5.54%
- 🥈 iShares Physical Gold ETC - +4.66%
- 🥉 WisdomTree Copper ETF - +2.56%
Underperformers:
- 🪙 VanEck Crypto & Blockchain Innovators ETF - -16.80%
- 📉 Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF - -1.23%
- 🇯🇵 iShares Nikkei 225 ETF - -0.70%
Actions Taken:
- No new trades this week.
- Team reviewing potential adjustments next week based on the quarterly review.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why psychology drives returns more than stock picking
- How to identify your investing tribe
- Why “hope” is the most dangerous investment strategy
- Why disciplined selling beats clever buying
- What separates the top 2% of investors from everyone else
📈 Download the full Portfolio Performance Slides
View the portfolio breakdown: here
📧 Get in touch: theartofinvesting@ig.com
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Disclaimer
This podcast is provided for educational and informational purposes only. The content presented is not intended as personal investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any particular securities or investments. All discussions regarding the model portfolio are illustrative and for educational purposes.
Your capital is at risk. The value of shares, ETFs and ETCs can fall as well as rise, which could mean getting back less than you originally put in.
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