Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management

Charles Widger · Daniel Crosby

Oct 2014 · Sold by John Wiley & Sons

About this ebook

In Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management, Chuck Widger and Dr. Daniel Crosby outline the ways in which a program of embedded behavioral finance, fueled by what matters most to you, can be your protection against irrational financial behavior. Along the way, you'll learn how to improve your investment experience, increase returns formerly sacrificed to misbehavior, and worry less about "The Economy" as you become increasingly focused on "My Economy."

Welcome to a new way of investing, a new paradigm for conceptualizing wealth, and a system of turning emotion from your portfolio's worst enemy into its best friend!

In this new model, risk is simply the likelihood that we will underperform our dreams. Irrationality is acting in ways that thwart our ability to reach those dreams. And the optimal portfolio is not the one that generates the highest return in abstraction, it is the one that helps us meet our goals without killing our nerves before we get there.

This book gives advisors the tools needed to effectively communicate the design and execution of the Personal Benchmark solution.

About the author

CHUCK WIDGER is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Brinker Capital, an investment managment firm with $17 billion in assets under management. Chuck is currently Chair of the Villanova University School of Law Board of Consultors. Chuck is a past Chair of the Gettysburg College Board of Trustees and is chair-emeritus of the Money Management Institute's Board of Governors. The Money Management Institute is the industry association for the $3.5 trillion managed solutions industry. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

DR. DANIEL CROSBY is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets. Dr. Crosby constructed the "Irrationality Index," a sentiment measure that gauges greed and fear in the marketplace from month to month. His ideas have appeared in print and online, and Daniel was named one of the "12 Thinkers to Watch" by Monster.com and a "Financial Blogger You Should Be Reading" by AARP. Dr. Crosby's well-reviewed first book, You're Not That Great (2012), applies elements of behavioral finance to the pursuit of a meaningful life.