Snap Judgment: When to Trust Your Instincts, When to Ignore Them, and How to Avoid Making Big Mistakes with Your Money

"Adler’s argument is illuminating and reveals that, when it comes to investing, we should always have second thoughts about our first impressions."

--Publisher's Weekly

WHY YOUR INSTINCTS CAN BE YOUR #1 ENEMY—AND HOW TO DEFEAT THEM!

“David Adler’s Snap Judgment is a well-written, entertaining review of human action in risky situations, including stock market behavior and other risk-facing situations. In particular, Adler recounts the conclusions of many practitioners and behavioral finance scholars who have studied such matters. This book is well worth reading, both for its practical advice for the novice and its wealth of illustrations for the pro.”

— Harry Markowitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics and father of modern portfolio theory

“David Adler has done a great public service by translating a dazzling array of research in economics and finance into practical terms that anyone can understand and profit from. This book should be required reading for every investor.”

— Andrew W. Lo, Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management

“Investing and managing your money on the basis of emotion, instincts, and intuition is a road straight to the poorhouse. This book teaches you why—and how to rid yourself of the irrational impulses that torment your portfolio.”

— Peter Navarro, bestselling author of If It’s Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks and The Coming China Wars

“Adler’s book makes a compelling case, illustrated through engaging examples, that the mind and the purse are well served by the triumph of analytic intelligence over intuition.”

— Gary Loveman, Chairman, President, & CEO, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.

DAVID E. ADLER is the producer of the forthcoming PBS NOVA documentary on behavioral finance and is a contributing high-net-worth writer for Financial Planning magazine, the leading industry magazine for financial planners. He is coeditor of the anthology Understanding American Economic Decline (Cambridge University Press). Adler has written for Barron’s, Institutional Investor, Psychology Today, and The New Republic. He was recently awarded a grant by the CFA Institute Research Foundation to conduct a study of tax awareness in investment decision-making by wealth managers. Educated at Oxford University and Columbia University, he holds an M.A. in economics from Columbia.