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."

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.