Julia's coding blog - Practice makes perfect

From January 2015, she started to practice leetcode questions; she trains herself to stay focus, develops "muscle" memory when she practices those questions one by one. 2015年初, Julia开始参与做Leetcode, 开通自己第一个博客. 刷Leet code的题目, 她看了很多的代码, 每个人那学一点, 也开通Github, 发表自己的代码, 尝试写自己的一些体会. She learns from her favorite sports – tennis, 10,000 serves practice builds up good memory for a great serve. Just keep going. Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Warren Buffett: Stocks are 'ridiculously cheap' if interest rates stay at current levels

Here is the link.

Algorithms to review

Coding:
1. 140 wordbreak
2. 0-1 knapsack
3. 236 lca of tree
4. 204 count prime number
5. 72 edit distance
6. 210 course schedule
7. 450 delete node in bst
8. 136 single number
9. 34 first&last pos of element in sorted array
10. 545 boundary of tree
11. 314 binary vertical traversal
12. 437 path sum
13. 127 word ladder
14. 472 concatenated words
15. 380 + - random O(1)
16. 543 diameter of tree
17. 134 gas station
18. 139 140 word break
19. 215 kth largest element in array

Case study: Personal finance from August 2008 to April 2010

June 29, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to write down a case study from August 2008 to April 2010, 16 months I could not find any campus job holding F1 student visa, how I made a living those months, what lessons I should have learned from the life experience.

Case study

I like to get into my personal finance records, and then dig into the detail. I like to figure out how I should have worked hard to be a problem solver.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

It is fun to be an interviewer!

June 27, 2019

Introduction

It is my normal mock interview again on June 26, 2019. I spent time to work with the interviewee on two algorithm, one is lowest common ancestor, second one is remove k digits. The interviewee showed me how to use slide window and bucket sort to solve the algorithm called remove k digits. He surprised me since he proved to me that it is a linear algorithm.

One idea to practice

After mock interview, I decided to write C# based on bucket sort, slide window. It is painful experience, but I learn to take time and make it work first. And then review the code and make it much better.

One thing I learn from the interviewee is his very good performance in mock interview. After 60 minutes, he told me that he works for Google.

Survey of interviewees

I met so many interviewee working for big four software companies recently.

I interviewed a few weeks ago, and then after a few days, the interview got connected to me. He works for Facebook.

I interviewed an engineer, she was super good performer. She told me she works for Microsoft Seattle. It was a few weeks ago.

So my mock interview experience is such great experience for me to compare myself to those super good performers.

Top 10 Algorithms for the Coding Interview (Part 2)

Here is the link.

Two weeks count down

June 27, 2019

Introduction

It is time for me to figure out something new in two weeks. I like to push myself hard for my first technical phone screen in 2019. I like to make some plans to prepare for the phone screen.

My plan

I have to start now. I like to try a few ideas how to manage those algorithms I have practiced, and those I should have practiced early.

How much I can write in 2 - 3 hours?

June 27, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I also try to evaluate how good code I can produce today after I spend more than two hours work with Leetcode online judge, what changes I make and code review I have done to present best version of the code.

Case study

I like to show you what I have done to write the code, and then review my own code, make it much better.

I will show some changes in the following.

It is Leetcode 402: remove k digits. Here is my final version of post with the code.

Case study: Ameritrade Key Largo portfolio

June 27, 2019

I like to work on reports related to my key largo portfolio. I have to figure out how to track my portfolio, and also keep learning. I like to design a product like Ameritrade.com, and like to explore all product features on the website. One thing I can do is to go over them, blog them, train myself to pay attention to detail.

Key largo portfolio

I installed Jstock app on June 25, 2019. I like the experience to use this app to track my portfolio.

Ameritrade Cost basis is my favorite product feature

Dividend is so good to allow my portfolio easily to beat the bank return

Stock market, if you like to go to correction, bear market, I am ok. I can wait you come back in 6 months, or 12 months, or 18 months.

Actionable Items

I did some research about lottery winner and went-broke after winning. One thing I can tell is that those winners are lack of personal finance knowledge, education, experience. They also do not study behavior finance, how to treat relative and friends with money issue.

I know that before I can accumulate more wealth, I should have good knowledge of Ameritrade product feature, how to read my own data, and also get familiar with various app to track the performance.

I am still learning from various source about investment basics. I will turn 53 years old this October. I like to prepare better for my finance health.

Since I build portfolio based on S \& P index, and global index, so I just need to start to learn more about index and how economy works overall. Another idea is to get familiar with all product features of Ameritrade.com, and I should push myself hard to learn more about personal finance literacy.

Case study: Charles Schwab 401 K account

June 27, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I start to learn every feature on Charles Schwab website, I login in my Par 401 account, and today I found the button to add non-Charles Schwab account. So I added my US dollar account.

Case study

I added my Chase bank account, and then TD Ameritrade.com account. I could login my BB& account, and then I plan to close NYCB CD account very soon.

I got my information ready. It is the very beginning for me to learn how to manage myself in terms of personal finance.

I started my personal finance research from Dec. 2018, and then I found out that I should learn and be frugal, and then next step is to learn how to invest on stock market. I should have learned how to invest properly from 1998 to 2019.

I have confidence on my talent of research, so I just go ahead to move my research on algorithm and data structure to investment. What I do is to learn from basics, every feature on Charles-Schwab website, ask question about product feature, and then work on it day by day, one hour a time.

If I am humble and appreciated what I have early, then I must have learned how to invest on stock market, my 401 K and IRA should have doubled or tripled from 2010 to 2019.

Actionable Items

How to Transfer USD into your Questrade Account

Here is the article.

Log into My Questrade
Click on “My Funds”
Click on “Fund Your Account”
As you can see, only Online Banking and Pre-authorized Deposits are free of charge; Online Banking doesn't do US dollar transfers, so the only free option is a Pre-authorized Deposit
Before you get freaked out by the word “pre-authroized deposit” like I initially did, you can do a pre-authorized deposit only once- it doesn't have to be recurring (yes, you can be non-commital like me)
Follow the instructions- they'll ask for your US dollar bank account number and will verify your bank account with e-signatures
Once you've set up that account link, you can transfer USD any time with ease (no need to fill out a form/ paper work each time)
I set up the Pre-authorized deposit back in January (and forgot about it, of course), and it still worked for me today (it will work for you forever as long as you don't change your US dollar account number)
After setting this up, this time, it only took one day to transfer to Questrade from my USD account. Awesome. =)

Invesco DWA Technology Momentum ETF

Here is the link.

The Fund seeks investment results that correspond to the Dynamic Technology Sector Intellidex Index. The Fund will normally invest at least 80% of its total assets in common stocks of technology companies. The Technology Sector Intellidex is comprised of stocks of 60 U.S. technology companies.

Invesco DWA Technology Momentum ETF: up 40%

A basket of tech names that tracks fast-growing firms that are showing relative strength — a key technical momentum indicator. Top holdings include Twilio, MongoDB, Match Group and Square.

Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO)

Here is the link.

Here’s a look at the best-performing ETFs in 2019

Here is the link.

6 Things You Should Know About a Stock Market Correction

June 27, 2019

Here is the article to read.

1. Stock market corrections happen often
2. Stock market correction rarely last long
3. We can't predict what's cause a stock market correction
4. Stock market corrections only matter if you're a short term trader
5. They're a great time to buy high-quality stocks at a bargain
6. They're also a good reminder to reassess what you own
7. Stocks that could set you up for life

MarketWatch
average correction (which worked out to 13.3%) lasted a mere 71.6 trading days, or about 14 calendar weeks. The Dow between 1945 to 201

Leetcode 402: remove k digits

It is so time consuming to write the solution and make it work. The idea is simple, using bucket sorting and slide window to find minimum number.

Here is the link.

June 27, 2019

It is tough experience to write the solution using slide window and bucket sort in order to lower time complexity O(N), N is the length of string.

Case study 1: 5337, k = 2

For example, number is 5337, k = 2, slide window size is Math.Max( k + 1, num.Length), since there are 10 digits from 0 to 9, it is easy to find minimum digit in the slide window by going over buckets with size 10 one by one.

Go over example 5337, first slide window 533, the minimum digit is 3, and then next slide window we can need to move first digit 5 out of window, and add digit 7 into the window. Two arithmetic calcultions are needed.

The smallest number should be 33, somehow, my practice showed 533 because I forgot to remove first digit 5 in slide window bucket.

Case study: Slide window design

Two varaibles: start, end
Window size: maximum is k + 1
Bucket sort is applied to slide window first time, and then when every time the window slides, only leftmost digit will be removed out of the window; if window has width less than k + 1, next digit will be added to window. Also k will be changed when every digit is removed.

Case study: My practice code run into deadloop

I did not pay attention how to write a while loop to avoid deadloop.

smallestDigit - skip digit until smallest digit is met, I design a while loop with no break statement at the beginning. And it does not work for the first digit is smallest one.

Number is 12345, k = 2.

It is so easy to miss edge cases, confuse one variable with others. There are so many places to go wrong. My practice took me more than 90 minutes. So I believe that using bucket sort and slide window idea does not work for me. I will have to push hard to learn to write bug free code in less than 20 minutes.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace _402_remove_k_digits
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //var result = RemoveKdigits("543213", 2);
            //var result2 = RemoveKdigits("1432219", 3);
            var result3 = RemoveKdigits("5337", 2); 
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// use sliding window, bucket sort idea
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="number"></param>
        /// <param name="k"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static string RemoveKdigits(string number, int k)
        {
            if (number == null || number.Length < k)
                return string.Empty;

            if (k == number.Length)
                return "0";

            var digits = new int[10];
            var length = number.Length;
            var start = 0;
            var end   = Math.Min(k, length - 1); /* caught by debugger, slide window size maximum is k + 1. */

            for (int i = start; i < end + 1; i++)
            {
                var digit = number[i] - '0'; // add - '0'
                digits[digit]++;
            }

            var smallestLength = length - k; // k is changable, so need to declare a variable
            var smallest = new StringBuilder();

            while (start < length)
            {
                var smallestDigit = -1;
                
                for (int digit = 0; digit <= 9; digit++)
                {
                    var count = digits[digit];
                    if (count > 0)
                    {
                        smallest.Append((char)(digit + '0'));
                        digits[digit]--;
                        smallestDigit = digit;  // caught by debugger  
                        break;
                    }                    
                }

                // remove digits 
                // smallestDigit - skip digit until smallest digit is met
                int index = start;
                while (index < length && k > 0)
                {
                    var value = number[index];
                    var digit = value - '0';
                       
                    if (digit == smallestDigit)
                    {
                        break;
                    }

                    digits[digit]--; // caught by debugger

                    start++;
                    index++;
                    k--;                                            
                }                

                // skip one more
                start++;

                // make sure the size of window is K + 1
                while ((end - start + 1) < (k + 1) && (end + 1) < length)
                {
                    digits[number[end + 1] - '0']++;
                    end++;
                }

                // no more chars to be added - break
                if (smallest.ToString().Length == smallestLength)
                    break;

                // no more chars to remove - edge
                if (k == 0)
                {
                    for (int i = start; i < length; i++)
                    {                        
                        smallest.Append(number[i]);                       
                    }

                    break;
                }                
            }

            // remove leading zero
            var removeLeadingZeoro = new StringBuilder();
            var leadingZero = true;
            for (int i = 0; i < smallest.Length; i++)
            {
                if (leadingZero && smallest[i] == '0')
                {
                    continue;
                }                
                
                leadingZero = false;
                removeLeadingZeoro.Append(smallest[i]);                
            }

            // return "0" intead of ""
            return removeLeadingZeoro.Length == 0 ? "0" : removeLeadingZeoro.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Top 10 Algorithms for the Coding Interview (for software engineers)

Here is the link.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Top strategist: There's a pretty sizable correction coming later in the year

Here is the link.

Fed should look into rate cut, says strategist

Here is the link.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Top financial adviser: 'If all you do in life is work really hard, you're never going to get wealthy'

Here is the link.

The Surprising Way People Can Tell if You're Rich, According to Science

Here is the article I plan to read in short future.

People can tell if you're rich or poor just by looking at your face

Here is the article. I like to spend 10 minutes to read it.

Basketwang Leetcode 60 algorithms

June 25, 2019

Introduction

It is a good idea to put together all algorithms shared by a Facebook engineer on youtube.com channel called BasketWang.

60 algorithms

I like to go over those 60 algorithms one by one. And also I like his teaching very well.

Leetcode algorithm numbers:

5,
25, 27, 28, 29,
31, 33, 35, 36,
41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49,
54 59,
60, 61, 62, 63, 64,
70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77,
91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98,
100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105,
126, 127,
152,
198,
206, 210, 213, 215,
252,
312, 337.

Case study: Personal finance education

June 25, 2019

Introduction

I felt so frustrated in Nov. 2018, and I did not know what to do. So I decide to move my research from algorithm and data structure to personal finance research. I like to grow rich and build wealth. I could not believe that I like to study personal finance in the age of 52 years old, first time in my life, I do not want any relatives, friends, I just like to figure out what is going on. I know that I am running out of time to advance my career, I had two onsite from Amazon in 2016 and 2018. I have to figure out how to grow rich and build wealth.

How to overcome the difficulty?

I live like a teenager, I did not take any risk to purchase a condo when I came to Vancouver in 2010. I had a lot of tears and went over my own personal finance research starting from Dec. 2018 to March 2019; I went over those credit card statements, and then disputed with my siblings from Dec. 2018 to March 2019.

Emotions are biggest enemy for me to build wealth and grow rich.

I wasted net income over $100,000 US dollars back from 1998 to 2001. Because I want all, I want wealth, I want to have relatives in my life, my mom, and friends, I wanted a brand new car Ford Explorer SUV, I wanted so many clothes, travel, stocks, and vacations.

In March 2019, the first time I noticed that I missed 10 year stock market bull market, all more retirement funds and saving are earning less than 2% interest rate. I found out that I am not financial responsible person from 2010 to 2019. I was so ashamed that I do not study personal finance, I even do not do any book keeping. I was too emotional to live a normal life, fight for opportunity to grow rich and build wealth, no matter how small income I have, no matter if I have permanent residentship in USA or not.

I learn that I was so stubborn and did not take any risk to learn personal finance, learn how to invest on US stock market. All those savings are still the same amount after over two decades.

I invested on stock market, but I did not spend time on the research. I had time from 1998 to 2009 9 years on stock market, but I did not spend 10 hours a month to study stock market, economy, and get into detail, show curiosity in building wealth. And in 2009, I decided to sell every thing and closed stock account and IRA account from Ameritrade.com, since I failed my Canada permanent residentship application.

Case study: Online code screens in 2019

June 25, 2019

Introduction

It is hard for me to pass online code screen in 2019. I moved on personal finance research starting from Dec. 2018, since I like to figure out how to build wealth and grow rich.

Back to algorithm and data structure research

I had to move back to algorithm and data structure research this March, after I got my first online code screen from Amazon Vancouver. I could not clear it. I need to put two task together, personal finance research and learn how to build portfolio and move my assets in bank to stock market first, in the same time, I have to push myself to overcome difficulty to pass online code assessment.

In April 2019, I passed the first time Microsoft online code assessment. In June 2019, I passed the first time Amazon online code assessment. I write the blog because I like to get Facebook phone screen in short future in 2019. I have to work hard.

Great art of Amazon phone screen email

I got this email today. I really like the art and marketing idea.

Huge thanks to Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft and Google

I just could not believe that I become such a good programmer, super patient, and also once a while hard to control my nerve under stress. But overall I learn how to be a better problem solver, not just algorithm and data structure. I start to apply personal finance.

I only have one hour phone screen, one day onsite interview at most from one company one year. I have only two onsite with Amazon 2016 and 2018, one onsite with Microsoft in 2008, I missed so many opportunities to build wealth in stock market from 2010 to 2019.

But I learn the importance to be open, I learn every week day as an interviewer, discuss algorithm with interviewee on interviewing.io.

I just could not believe that how good I become to use one algorithm to interview people. I should write one more show case of my recent mock interview.

Case study: 2016 June 6 Amazon onsite Vancouver

June 25, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to figure out how many lessons I have after I failed 2016 June 6 Amazon onsite Vancouver onsite interview.

Case study

I turned 50 years old in 2016, but I was very naive at that time. I did not know that Amazon is such a great company, I should put all my saving in Canada dollars and also IRA US dollars into Amazon stock purchase.

If I purchase in 2016 IRA $20,000 US dollars, move them from NYCB 1.2% interest, and also $30,000 Canadian dollars into Amazon stock, I will have biggest achievement in finance right now in June 2019.

The stock price in June 6, 2016 is around $716 dollars.

There are a few mistakes I made, and also I need to work on those things in order to pass onsite interview.

I will write down later here.

America's Savings Crisis

Here is the link.

Monday, June 24, 2019

Top 10 Ways to Break Bad Habits

Here is the article.

Being frugal - Costco shopping log

June 24, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to be a frugal person, so I have to watch how much I spend on grocery.

Costco shopping log

Today I bought a bag of apple, less than $10.00 dollars. A bag of carrots, less than 10 dollars. A bag of 20 lb potatos, less than 10 lbs.

How To Celebrate Small Wins To Achieve Big Goals

Here is the link.

How I celebrate small succss as a software programmer?

I only took a few hour breaks last weekend to prepare an online code assessment. What did I do to celebrate the small success? I solved those two algorithms in the code screen. I wrote some code to celebrate, after mock interview.

A master of tree algorithm called lowest common ancestor

June 25, 2019
Three practice for three ideas; I like to be a master of the lowest common ancestor! I started again from May 8, 2019, met a lot of talent in Sillicon Valley, Seattle, Toronto area on interviewing.io on this algorithm.

Dare to be a master! Self-claim first!
find one path first and then look up path for second given node q
C# find path from given node p to root first and then find q and lowest common ancestor
find one path first top down and then look up path for second given node q
C# Find top down path for a given node p and then find q's path and look up lowest common ancestor
backtrack to find path from root node to given node p
C# backtrack to find root node to given node p

Preparing for your Software Engineering Interview at Facebook

Here is the link.

Burton Malkiel on October's rough ride: Hang on

Here is the link.

John Bogle's million-dollar advice

Here is the link.

Home RetireMentors Investing When markets tumble, be like Bogle — 'Don't peek'

Here is the article for me to read. I like to read it like my Bible.

Risk-adjusted investing is an important concept, one that many people misunderstand. If you are going to be in the market for many years — and that's what retirement investors do — the goal isn't to grab a market-beating year. Rather, you should do nothing at all.

Common sense

To quote John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group and a longtime proponent of passive investing: "One of my favorite rules is 'Don't peek.' Don't let all the noise drown out your common sense and your wisdom. Just try not to pay that much attention, because it will have no effect whatsoever, categorically, on your lifetime investment returns."

The reason why you don't peek is risk. If you target a specific return, say, 8% annually, the next question you must ask yourself is, "How much risk can I withstand to reach for 9%?"

Save Money By Renting Instead Of Buying A Home

Here is the article.

I like to learn how to analyze rent expense compared to expense as an owner.

The Top 10 Technology Companies

Here is the article.

How to be a smart investor?

June 24, 2019

Introduction

It is my first time to set up a few portfolio starting from this April, I work on my personal finance research; I like to be frugal, I like to be independent. I like to invest on stock market. But I have difficult to focus on learning economy, market, expand my personal finance knowledge, I tend to check balance all the time. How to be a smart investor?

Install JStock app

I installed JStock app on my Samsung mobile phone, so I can save time to look up balance quickly.

What to check?

I like to invest middle term or long term. So I have to learn US economy, how many shares I am holding, how diversify they are; it does not matter too much the value right now, I may need to learn how and when to do rebalance, buy low and sell high.

The 5 Industries Driving the U.S Economy

Here is the link.

Case study: How I calm down during online code assessment?

June 24, 2019

Introduction

It is most important skills to learn how to calm down during online code assessment. What I did last Sunday was to read the problem statement loud word by word, so I can fully understand the problem. It saved me a lot of time. Since I know the requirement very well after I read the problem statement word by word.

Case study

It is very emotional under stress. My mind was thinking that it will be my last try since I could not pass online code assessment. A lot of emotions will come out in the first 10 minutes. I spent first 10 minutes to read two problems, but I did not understand the problem.

After the first 10 minutes, I decided to calm down, read word by word loud, and it is working once I slow down.

NBA star Andre Iguodala is turning more players into tech investors

Here is the article.

Iguodala’s motivation for educating fellow athletes is to help them have more agency in taking control of their fortunes, while also giving them tools to avoid the kinds of riches-to-rags fates that befell stars like Antoine Walker, who earned more than $100 million in his career and then filed for bankruptcy, or Gilbert Arenas, who blew through all of his nearly $200 million in NBA earnings and endorsements.

How this NBA champ became an avid tech investor

Here is the link.

These Are the Richest Investors Playing In the 2018 NBA Finals

Here is the link.

How to Develop a Thick Skin and Not Take Things Personally

Here is the link.

Mastering your mean girl: The No-BS guide to silencing your inner critic and become wildly wealthy, fabulously healthy, and bursting with love

Here is the book on Amazon.com

Here is the interview video.

10 Ways To Gain Independence As A Woman

Here is the article.

1. Spend some time reflecting upon yourself
2. Learn to enjoy alone time
3. Understand your finances
4. Change your vocabulary
5. Understand your own words, needs and desires
6. Know your strengths and weaknesses and play to them
7. Get to know your personality
8. Make yourself a priority
9. Be assertive
10. Learn how to forgive, yourself included

12 Things Strong, Independent Girls Don’t Do

1. They don’t neglect their careers.
2. They don’t fail to handle their own situations.
3. They don’t overreact to bad situations or mistakes.
4. They don’t rise to the bait of haters.
5. They don’t stop learning.
6. They don’t act on first impulse.
7. They don’t let other people affect their confidence.
8. They don’t neglect their physical needs.
9. They don’t have unrealistic expectations.
10. They don’t stay in toxic relationships.
11. They don’t let someone else dictate their relationships.
12. They don’t lose control of their lives.

Introduction

Now it is 12:11 AM. I spent a busy weekend to prepare online code assessment, last Saturday I reviewed backtracking pattern, and worked on a few algorithms. I also like to write something based on my review of those algorithms and practice before 2019.

More patience

I think that I should show more passion on algorithm problem solving. I should write down the case study, work on a test case, explain the algorithm using my own words.

I should demonstrate the passion of learning, hard working, excellent attitude when I solve the algorithm. I need to work hard and also need to learn how to write good post on Leetcode.com discuss.

Two things are missing after the practice course schedule II back in Feb. 2017, two year four months ago. I was too shy to express myself in terms of algorithm problem solving.

I should write a discussion post to share, and also write some comment to explain the whole algorithm in more detail. Here is the post I wrote when I reviewed the algorithm on June 22, 23 weekend 2019.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Case study: Par 401 K portfolio update

June 23, 2019

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I have to push myself to learn behavior finance, and learn how to be a successful investor. I need to go over my Par IRA portfolio ( called Siva portfolio) and make sure that I am on the right track starting from May 2019.

Case study

Now I have 2.5% YTD return. I need to learn how to save time and also monitor the porfolio. How to prepare the bear market?

Last 10 years performance

401 K fund performance

How I spent a Sunday to review Leetcode algorithms?

June 23, 2019

Introduction

It is very stressful day to plan and work on Leetcode algorithm. I spent one hour to take a walk around neighborhood, and then I started to work on Leetcode algorithms, prepare to take an online assessment.

Algorithms to review

Time line:
10:00 PM - get up from bed
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM take a walk
1:00 PM - 7:10 PM study leetcode algorithms

9:00 PM - 10:30 PM take online code assessment

I tried a few things, and then I decided to go over one of Amazon engineer's github folder about Leetcode algorithm.

I chose to go over algorithms in the folder of Amazon, BFS, and Graph.

207 - study code from two posts
310 minimum height tree - hard, I spent over 30 minutes to go over discussion, I really enjoyed the time
541 0 1 matrix - medium
490 medium
815 bus route

What is Behavioral Finance?

Here is the link.

#1 Self-Deception

The concept of self-deception is a limit to the way we learn. When we mistakenly think we know more than we actually do, we tend to miss information that we need to make an informed decision.

#2 Heuristic Simplification

We can also scope out a bucket that is often called heuristic simplification. Heuristic simplification refers to information-processing errors.

#3 Emotion

Another behavioral finance bucket is related to emotion, but we’re not going to dwell on this bucket in this introductory session. Basically, emotion in behavioral finance refers to our making decisions based on our current emotional state. Our current mood may take our decision making off track from rational thinking.

#4 Social Influence

What we mean by the social bucket is how our decision making is influenced by others.

Top 10 Biases in Behavioral Finance

Behavioral finance seeks an understanding of the impact of personal biases on investors. Here is a list of common financial biases.

Common biases include:

Overcoming Behavioral Finance Issues

There are ways to overcome negative behavioral tendencies in relation to investing. Here are some strategies you can use to guard against biases.

#1 Focus on the Process

There are two approaches to decision-making:

Reflexive – Going with your gut, which is effortless, automatic and, in fact, is our default option
Reflective – Logical and methodical, but requires effort to engage in actively

Relying on reflexive decision-making makes us more prone to deceptive biases and emotional and social influences.

Establishing logical decision-making processes can help protect you from such errors.

Get yourself focused on the process rather than the outcome. If you’re advising others, try to encourage the people you’re advising to think about the process rather than just the possible outcomes. Focusing on the process will lead to better decisions because the process helps you engage in reflective decision-making.

#2 Prepare, Plan and Pre-Commit

Behavioral finance teaches us to invest by preparing, by planning, and by making sure we pre-commit. Let’s finish with a quote from Warren Buffett.

“Investing success doesn’t correlate with IQ after you’re above a score of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, then what you need is the temperament to control urges that get others into trouble.”

Learn more in CFI’s Behavioral Finance Course!

Additional Resources

Thank you for reading this CFI introductory guide to behavioral finance. CFI is on a mission to help anyone become a world-class financial analyst with the . To continue learning, these resources will be useful: