Episode Details

In today’s episode, William Green speaks with Emily Haisley, who heads the Behavioral Finance team at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, with $14 trillion under management. Here, she explores the critical intersection of investing & psychology, explaining how she helps elite fund managers identify & counteract their behavioral biases, regulate their emotions, optimize their physiological state, avoid systematic mistakes, & take risks that align with their edge. This conversation offers powerful insights on how to win the inner game of investing.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: (00:00:00) Intro (00:00:40) How Emily Haisley became head of Behavioral Finance at BlackRock (00:23:52) How her team helps fund managers recognize their behavioral biases (00:28:51) How to counteract a notoriously destructive bias, myopic loss aversion (00:39:56) Why disposition bias leads investors to hold losers & sell winners (00:44:31) Why it’s helpful to experience investment pain, not just learn about it (00:53:46) How investment teams can profit by “beating up” their decision makers (00:56:00) How the best investors benefit by subjugating their own ego (01:00:14) What practical steps Emily recommended to one elite investment team (01:17:48) Why she views “tainted altruism” as “the saddest bias” (01:25:27) What investors can do to manage stress & its impact on their decisions (01:29:35) How BlackRock uses AI to simulate decision making amid extreme volatility (01:35:32) Why she’s learned to embrace uncertainty, false starts, mistakes, & change (01:52:33) How 3 new year’s resolutions nudged Emily toward a happier life

Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

• Inquire about William Green’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Richer, Wiser, Happier Masterclass⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
• Benjamin Graham’s book The Intelligent Investor.
• J. Krishnamurthi’s book On Right Livelihood.
• William Green’s podcast interview with Annie Duke.
• William’s book, ⁠Richer, Wiser, Happier⁠.
• Follow William Green on ⁠⁠X⁠⁠.
• Related ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠