By Jason Zweig | Feb. 22, 2012 8:00 am ET Image credit: “Gemini,” Book of Hours (Milan, ca. 1470-1480), The Morgan Library Why are some people more prone to stupid financial behavior than others? Several of the most common and costly mistakes that investors make appear to be encoded in our genes. So argues a new research paper...
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Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Feb. 11, 2012 Past returns are no guarantee of future success. Just like smokers ignoring the Surgeon General’s warning on the side of cigarette packs, investors overlook the most obvious caution about the stock market at their peril. Even after Friday’s stumble over renewed fears about Europe,...
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By Jason Zweig | Feb. 7, 2012 2:40 pm ET Image credit: William Powell Frith, “Charles Dickens” (1859), Victoria and Albert Museum Today, as Google’s homepage doodle reminds us all, is the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens. The inexhaustible writer wasn’t merely the greatest novelist of Victorian England. He was also an...
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Image credit: “Pigeon, sitting on a plank,” Jean Bernard, 1802, pencil and watercolor, Rijksmuseum By Jason Zweig | 8:00 am ET Feb. 2, 2012 Last weekend, a Chinese shipping magnate paid 250,400 euros ($328,000) for a Dutch racing pigeon sold at an online auction. Total Return has obtained an exclusive interview with the pigeon. Total...
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