Concluding Thoughts: Measurement, Behavioral Finance, Integrity, and an Invitation for More

Abstract

The author wants to stress in this chapter that how very different the material in this book is from the typical material read and digested by investment professionals. Most of what you deal with is intellectual in nature: you hear a case for interest rates declining or for a company's growth rate to accelerate and you agree or disagree. Either way, you take the appropriate action in your portfolio. In most cases, there is no resistance between the intellectual insight and the changed portfolio. The implementation is straightforward. The material in this book, however, is not simply intellectual. For example, you could put this book down and think, ?Yes, that makes sense. We should practice curiosity and accountability and candor, and so on.? Despite this intellectual agreement??yes, we should do it??you and your team would be no closer to implementation. (The same would be true of listening to a compelling case for weight loss. You might think, ?Yes, by golly, it's time for me to reduce!,? but you haven't lost one ounce by having that thought.) The tough part about these behaviors is that, like weight loss, they require commitment, discipline, and follow-through.