Inside the Investor's Brain
The Power of Mind Over Money
Wiley Trading Series

1. Edition July 2007
416 Pages, Hardcover
General Reading
Praise for Inside the Investor's Brain
"Richard Peterson has distilled his own first-hand experience as a psychiatrist in Silicon Valley and has used his knowledge of behavioral finance to describe the emotional qualities necessary to be a good investor. Not only is this a fascinating book for everyone, it may also be the most profitable book you ever read."
--George Akerlof Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001
"Peterson's angle is unique, provocative, and insightful. From the Galvanic Skin Response to the ritualized emotional catharsis of Star Trek's Vulcans, Inside the Investor's Brain 'gets it.' It is a readable synthesis of the characteristics of outstanding investors. It normalizes the maladjustment so common in the arcane world of high-performance investing. The only quote missing is that of General George S. Patton: 'If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.'"
--Carlo Cannell Managing Member, Cannell Capital LLC
"Richard Peterson has captured a fundamentally new and important way to understand financial markets and our behavior in them. This book is a must-read for both professional and personal investors."
--Paul J. Zak, PhD Director, Center for Neuroeconomics Studies
"Readers of this fascinating book will learn a lot about both behavioral finance and neurology. Understanding how the brain works provides insights into how to improve decisions by influencing the underlying psychological processes. Readers will come away with a resource to help them to make sense of the exciting future advances to come."
--Hersh Shefrinr Mario L. Belotti Professor of Finance, Santa Clara Universityand author of Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Financeand the Psychology of Investing
"If you have a brain, money, and any curiosity about how each affects the other, then you should read this book."
--David Leinweber Financial Technologist & Nerd on Wall Street
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Introduction.
Part I: Foundations.
Chapter 1: Markets on the Mind.
Chapter 2: Brain Basics.
Chapter 3: Origins of Mind.
Chapter 4: Neurochemistry.
Part II: Feelings and Finances.
Chapter 5: Intuition.
Chapter 6: Money Emotions.
Chapter 7: Excitement and Greed.
Chapter 8: Overconfidence and Hubris.
Chapter 9: Anxiety, Fear, and Nervousness.
Chapter 10: Stress and Burnout.
Chapter 11: Love of Risk.
Chapter 12: Personality Factors.
Part III: Thinking about Money.
Chapter 13: Making Decisions.
Chapter 14: Framing Your Options.
Chapter 15: Loss Aversion.
Chapter 16: Time Discounting.
Chapter 17: Herding.
Chapter 18: Charting and Data Mining.
Chapter 19: Attention and Memory.
Chapter 20: Age, Sex, and Culture.
Part IV: In Practice.
Chapter 21: Emotion Management.
Chapter 22: Change Techniques.
Chapter 23: Behavioral Finance Investing.
Final Notes.
Notes.
Glossary.
Index.
"Clear and Accessible." -- Bob Frick (Kiplinger's Personal Finance, December 2007)
"Highly recommended." -- (Kiplinger's Best Investing Reads of 2007)
"For those who want to take behaviouralism a step further, and to study the science of the brain - a subject that tells us a lot about ourselves, as well as about how we might just make some more money ... " --(Financial Times, December 2007)