“Investors are ‘normal,’ not rational,” says Meir Statman, one of the leading thinkers in behavioral finance. Behavioral finance aims to better understand why people make the financial decisions they do. And it’s a booming field of study. Top behavioral finance gurus include Yale’s Robert Shiller and GMO’s James Montier. It’s also a crucial part of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) curriculum, a course of study for financial advisors and Wall Street’s research analysts. We compiled a list of the seven most common behavioral biases. Read through them, and you’ll quickly realize why you make such terrible financial decisions.

Read. However, once you get the idea of behavioral finance, keep in mind that the names associated with this article don’t have a wise strategy. Trend following is wise. Predictions, forecasts and other la la statements about what might happen tomorrow are only useful if you are masochist.