(It’s all right, mine is, too.)
Here’s a lovely article from Slate, You and Your Dumb Money. The author succinctly explains the difference between smart investors and dumb:
Smart money (big-time hedge-fund managers, private-equity honchos, leveraged buyout kings) reliably outperforms the market. Dumb money (individual investors, the sort of people who casually watch CNBC for stock tips) generally fares poorly.
Basically, investors plow money into those mutual funds that have performed well recently, playing along with hype. Those same funds demonstrably perform poorly once they become overloaded with capital.
The recognition of this state of existence is based on a report for the National Bureau of Economic Research by two economists/professors from their respective universities.
Expanding on the article, are you tying your money up in investments that have had an incredible amount of inflow and hype lately? (Hmmm… housing, maybe?)
Updated February 6, 2012 and originally published August 11, 2005. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 3 comments }
Before the bit dot-com bust, I remember reading an article that basically said (I’m paraphrasing here) “when you are buying ::insert dot-com company here::, a company that hasn’t made a profit yet, at $100/share, you are basically betting that someone else will be even dumber than you and pay $120/share.”
We were considering buying an investment property recently, but I’m really wary of the real estate market right now. I’m sure there are still good investments out there, but it is a lot of work to sort through the garbage. Since we aren’t in a hurry, we decided to wait to see how it all shakes out.
erin
Savvy Saver
I think the official name for that is the Greater Fool Theory.
I refinanced recently and man, they were pushing me hard to take money out! Way too many people are “withdrawing” way too much from the First Bank of Home Sweet Home. Besides the temptation to pull out equity because of home appreciation, it’s also equally tempting to fantasize about how much I could be making if I just took on a lot of debt and purchased a couple of being-built homes. There are too many people chasing too few deals to make that a reasonable outcome, though.