Practice Makes Perfect: Building a Well-Behaved Portfolio

A PIMCO podcast episode in which Dr. Anastasia Buyalskaya, a behavioral finance advisor to the firm, and Devin Ekeberg, a senior consultant in advisor education, join Greg Hall to discuss the behavioral biases that shape investment decisions. They cover how advisors can keep clients level-headed when emotions run high, tools for avoiding behavioral traps, and how sources of information influence behavior. The closing section addresses whether AI is good or bad for decision making and how advisors are using it.

1. Researchers have documented more than 150 behavioral biases, and even experienced investors can fall prey to them.
2. The stated goal is not to rationalize biases away but to build frameworks that keep biased thinking from driving decisions.
3. Advisors are described as acting like financial therapists, keeping clients level-headed when emotions run high.
4. The episode examines sources of information as an influence on behavior, and asks whether AI helps or hurts decision making.