What if being a successful investor isn't about being cleverer than everyone else?
In this episode, Steve Rowe is joined by journalist, author and filmmaker Robin Powell, whose work has helped bring the principles of evidence-based investing to a wider audience. Having interviewed some of the biggest names in financial economics, Robin Powell shares what the evidence really tells us about investing and why it can be so hard for us to follow it.
They explore our very human desire to beat the market, why yesterday's star fund manager isn't necessarily tomorrow's winner, and how biases such as overconfidence, optimism and recency can lead us astray. They also look at the role of costs and diversification, and why constantly buying, selling and reacting to the latest headlines can often do more harm than good.
It's a conversation that cuts through much of the noise around investing and comes back to a refreshingly simple message: you don't need to predict the future to be a successful investor. Sometimes, doing less and relaxing a little more might be the smarter approach.
In this episode:
- 🧠 Why our own behaviour can be one of the biggest obstacles to investment success, from overconfidence to our instinctive desire to "do something".
- 🔮 Why trying to predict markets is so difficult, and why today's prices already reflect an enormous amount of available information.
- ⭐ The problem with chasing star fund managers and past performance, and why yesterday's winners can be so tempting.
- 💷 Why investment costs matter more than we might think, particularly once you consider their impact on long-term compounding.
- 🌍 The three themes shared by some of the world's leading investment thinkers: humility, diversification and keeping costs under control.
