The Little Book of Behavioral Investing book club questions

1. 1.

   Montier argues that more information can make decisions worse, not better. Where in your own life have you seen that pattern?

2. 2.

   What reference point anchors your thinking about a major financial decision you've made or are considering? How much does that anchor actually matter?

3. 3.

   Can you recall an investment or financial decision that looked obviously right in retrospect that wasn't actually obvious at the time? How has hindsight shaped how you remember it?

4. 4.

   Montier argues that even professional investors are systematically overconfident. How would you test whether you're overconfident in an area of expertise you care about?

5. 5.

   The book describes herding as rational at the individual level but destructive at the group level. Have you made a financial or professional decision primarily because it was the consensus view?

6. 6.

   Montier recommends pre-mortems before major decisions. Would you actually be willing to do one, and what would make you resist it?

7. 7.

   Which bias do you think affects your financial decisions most — overconfidence, anchoring, loss aversion, or herding? What evidence supports your answer?

8. 8.

   The book argues that process constraints work better than discipline. What's an area of your decision-making where you've successfully designed a process to fight a tendency you know you have?

9. 9.

   How do you distinguish between a conviction that is genuinely contrarian and one that is simply contrarian for its own sake?

10. 10.

    Montier notes that knowing about a bias doesn't prevent you from falling for it. What do you think is actually required to change a deep decision-making habit?

11. 11.

    The book treats emotion in investing primarily as a liability. Are there cases where emotional signals carry useful information?

12. 12.

    Which of Montier's proposed solutions — checklists, pre-mortems, explicit process rules — do you think would be most useful in your own financial decision-making?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.