STRAIGHT UP

Retail Mindset

When we talk about “retail” in financial news, we mean the crowd: the average Jill and Joe putting their money into the markets.

Buuuuuut,,,retail has become the punchline: the investor who arrives late, FOMOs into the hottest trends and gets caught wrong-footed when the timing turns.

Retail is the herd. And it points to something beyond investing: the retail mindset.

Outside finance, it comes from our blind consumption of digital media feeds: the trending story, the viral opinion, the social cause of the week, each one prompting us to care, react and publicly declare our position.

It’s the retail investor all over again. Only now we’re buying headlines instead of stocks: late to the story, sure of it anyway, and the last to know when it changes.

Only now we’re buying headlines instead of stocks.

Being aware of the retail mindset doesn’t mean rejecting every trend. It means noticing where your attention is being directed, by whom, and whether your opinions are actually yours.

You do not always have to go against the crowd.