Why unloved investments deserve more attention

'WYSIATI' behavioural phenomenon among investors

It is easy to buy well-loved investments. The US stockmarket, for example, offers companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Google parent Alphabet - all of which have well-known, well-loved products and well-known, well-loved stocks.

We might excuse investors for thinking the US stockmarket will only ever go up, given its performance in recent years. Yet, of course, that is not true. Buying these stocks today - or continuing to hold them - can feel like a good idea because of a behavioural phenomenon known as WYSIATI - What You See Is All There Is. What investors see in these companies is strong past performance - so strong that it is easy to then substitute a hard question ('What investments will likely do well in the future?') with an easy question ('What investments do I want to own?'). Companies and sectors...