Finance content is seasonal.
Tax stuff in the spring.
Earnings coverage is once a quarter.
Someone is contractually obligated to write a Sell in May blog post that month every year.
Right now it’s a combination of look-backs and look-forwards.
It’s outlook season for the upcoming year — biggest risks, opportunities, price targets, etc. for 2026. Now is the best time to make predictions about the next year because no one will hold you accountable for your forecasting ability. There are so many predictions being made that everything blends together.
But the year-end is also a time to reflect on what just happened. Writing a piece about 2025 investing lessons is a slam dunk right now.
I know because I’ve done that in years past.
Investing lessons are far more useful than investing predictions even though predictions garner more attention.
But here’s a little secret I’ve learned over time about investment lessons — they don’t really change.
You could write these lessons ahead of time and simply pick and choose the ones that apply depending on the environment.
Market volatility is an opportunity, not a reason to abandon your investment plan.
Don’t allow fear or greed to dictate your investment stance.
Don’t confuse your investment time horizon with someone else’s.
Don’t give in to FOMO.
Don’t allow recency bias, survivorship bias, hindsight bias, or short-term performance to guide your actions.
Never panic.
Never get too high in a bull market or too low in a bear market. You’re not smarter when the market goes up or dumber when it goes down.
Markets are constantly evolving. Human nature is not. The narratives are driven by price and price movements are fickle.
It’s always the same lessons!
We just have to learn them over and over again. That’s why I mostly write about the same stuff over and over again on this blog.
As Jason Zweig once wrote, “That’s because good advice rarely changes, while markets change constantly. The temptation to pander is almost irresistible. And while people need good advice, what they want is advice that sounds good.”
I have no idea what will happen in 2026. No one else does either.
Whatever it is, the lessons will be timeless.
They always are.
Michael and I talked about 2025 investment lessons, 2026 market outlooks and much more on this week’s Animal Spirits video:
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Further Reading:
20 Lessons From 20 Years of Managing Money
Now here’s what I’ve been reading lately:
Books:
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