While fear is the dominant investing emotion, it is far from the only one. Any emotional reaction that distorts judgment presents problems. They also present challenges and often discomfort for advisors. In particular this class will focus on three emotions – particularly as they pertain to the investing process. The first is anger – clients who are upset, and perhaps even hostile. Also investing grief – particularly in reaction to investing losses (i.e., the sense of despair that comes from suffering investing setbacks. Lastly, what is commonly referred to as “greed”. The sense of unrealistic and potentially overoptimistic view of investing prospects. These emotions will also be addressed in more general terms in subsequent classes focusing on counseling techniques and the importance of life events.

Anger (25 minutes)

• The nature of anger
• How it is expressed
• Techniques for managing client anger
• Case study with four step process to moving clients past anger

Grief (20 minutes)

• Grief overview, different forms
• Investing loss, how it affects clients
• Kubler-Ross 5 Stages
• Guide to moving client through process at each stage

Greed (10 minutes)

• Is greed really greed?
• Better way of conceptualizing client greed (exuberance, FOMO)
• Personality factors
• Tips for working with clients with unrealistic “greedy” framework

Dr. Frank Murtha earned a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University at Buffalo.  He was the first to explore cognitive errors in gambling behavior, and he has taught at The City University of New York, Penn State, and New York University. In 2001, Dr. Murtha cofounded MarketPsych Inc., a statistically valid proxy for the NEO personality inventory diagnostic for identifying investor personality traits. Dr. Murtha currently consults to institutional investors on macro- and micro-behavioral economics. In 2021, he founded the Financial Counseling Institute to charter financial professionals as Certified Financial Counselors.