FOMO

(Graphic from searcyfinancial)

After yesterday's 2.9%-3.5% (depends on which index you look at) sell-off, I dipped in my toe and shifted 1% of my portfolio from cash into equities and equity derivatives. The volatility from the tariff battles is not even close to being resolved, but at these price levels I couldn't bear if I missed another buying opportunity. In other words I am driven by the Fear of Missing Out.

Irrationality loves company. Your humble blogger takes comfort that professional money managers are also subject to emotional investing. [bold added]

Several new studies show that the so-called smart money is prone to many of the same errors as amateurs...Professional investors hold stocks too long. They react erratically to stock splits. They may even buy one stock when they intended to purchase a different one—almost as often as supposedly clueless individual investors make the same kind of blunder.

Sometimes a sector is so hot that just by including a keyword in its name a company's stock could take off--witness the near-panic buying that greeted "cloud" and "blockchain" offerings. In the near future one can expect space mining, life extension, and artificial intelligence businesses to experience similar booms and eventual busts.

Look at it this way, if your life span will indeed be extended past 100 years, you can afford to be patient. But that would be rational, and frankly, not as much fun.