GSAM's McCurdy: Behavioural finance rules apply to CIOs too

Avoid the ‘gridlock of groupthink’

From appointing a devil's advocate to conducting a 'pre-mortem', Brendan McCurdy runs through four best practices to help investment professionals manage their own behavioural biases.

Behavioural finance is a topic du jour for investment professionals but many of us fail to look inward as we apply the discipline's insights. The fact is, however, it is not just individual investors - investment teams and investment committees can be driven by behavioural biases too. Chief investment officers (CIOs) at private banks and discretionary managers should, in our view, be especially aware of pitfalls hiding within team decision-making processes. To think the topic through, let's turn to a social-science classic - Groupthink by Irving L. Janis - for four best practices in mana...