Investors can suffer from a behavio

Investors can suffer from a behavior gap, which is the distancebetween what they should do and what they actually do. Beingaware of your biases is only a first step in combating this gap.Mitigating biases requires developing a conscious plan as well ascreating and following fundamental investing guidelines. Simplyknowing about your biases is insufficient because you also need tochange your behavior. Awareness may lead to a small improvementin actions and decisions, but any effect is probably shortlived because the stimuli for the biased action have not been changedor removed. As you’ll see, changing behavior can be difficult.Anyone who has ever tried to stop smoking or lose weight knowsthat making such a change is challenging.The effects of behavioral bias on economic behavior and decision-making can be similar and can lead to questionable decisionsand erroneous conclusions. Thus, investors can unknowinglybecome their own worst enemy. As Jason Zweig, a columnist forThe Wall Street Journal and author of Your Money and YourBrain, notes, “Investing isn’t about beating others at their game.It’s about controlling yourself at your own game.”