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Just yesterday, following a conversation with a client, I experienced an all too familiar tug, not unlike the one an alcoholic might feel at a cocktail party, when the smell of alcohol is rich in the air and that drink is but an order away. During our conversation I learned that Amazon AMZN was now up 21% for the year so far. The broad stock market is up 5.7% by comparison

The financial services industry, like the medical industry, the marketing industry, and the automotive industry, all have their their unique shorthand terms and abbreviations that are clear to insiders, but confuse and obscure understanding for outsiders. It's called 'the curse of knowledge.' Jane Kennedy defines the curse of knowledge as "a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand."

The US added 235,000 jobs in February, nearly 20% more than expected by economists. Unemployment fell to 4.7%, even as the number of Americans rejoining the workforce, measured by the labor participation rate, increased.

Graph from CarlsonTwo of the most important aspects of a good investment philosophy can be summed up by the following questions. 1) Is this strategy likely to work? 2) Will I be able to stick with this strategy for long periods of time throughout the inevitable ups and down of the stock market? At Beacon, we have a thoughtful, well-defined investment philosophy that we think answers both of the above questions in the affirmative.

Socrates said that thought determines behavior, so it follows that if we want to improve our behavior, we should improve our thoughts. How do we do that? Our brain is the most powerful and complex organ in our body. It can accomplish wonderful things when we allow it to work naturally, as it is designed.