How behaviour affects your investment strategy
and what to do about it

December 2025 | 3 min read

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Key Takeaways at a Glance

  • Emotional investing tends to prioritise comfort over performance.
  • Certain behaviours are common under pressure or volatility.
  • Biases can amplify poor timing or concentrated exposure.
  • Developing psychological guardrails enhances decision-making.
  • Citi can help you align your behaviour and investment strategy with long-term wealth outcomes.

Introduction

Even experienced investors are not immune to behavioural missteps. This article examines how psychology impacts the investment process and what proactive steps you can take to counterbalance emotion with structure. By aligning behaviour with a disciplined investment strategy, you can stay focused on outcomes, not impulses. Future articles will explore decision-making frameworks and cognitive tools for wealth resilience.

What Behaviours Typically Undermine Investment Performance?

Confirmation Bias Seeking out only information that supports your view.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Buying late into trends due to peer activity.
Status Quo Bias Avoiding changes even when conditions shift.
Disposition Effect Selling assets that have made gains too early while holding on to assets that are losing money for too long.

These patterns can shrink returns and erode confidence in even the most well-structured investment strategies over time.

How Do Emotional Cycles Align With Market Movements?

Investors often move through emotional cycles:

Optimism → Excitement → Euphoria → Anxiety → Fear → Despair → Hope

How Do Advisors Help Manage Behavioural Risk?

  • Acting as a sounding board during volatility.
  • Bringing objective perspective and market context.
  • Guiding portfolio reviews and course correction.
  • Providing product recommendations that match risk tolerance.

Advisory support helps ensure that your decisions remain in sync with a long-range investment strategy rather than short-term sentiment.

 The Citi Advantage

At Citi Singapore, you benefit from:

  • Trained advisors who understand both market movements and human behaviour.
  • Tools for tracking decisions against goals while factoring out noise.
  • Regular strategy check-ins to maintain emotional and financial alignment.
  • A philosophy grounded in a risk-managed, long-term investing strategy.

Are You Investing With Confidence or Caution Fatigue?

Behaviour is a variable you can control. When managed effectively, it becomes a strength—not a liability—in your overall investment strategy.

Start your wealth relationship and opt in as an Accredited Investor

Discover Goal-Focused Investing

We can help you manage behavioural risks and stick to your long-term plan. 

Speak to your Client Advisor now

Start your wealth relationship and opt in as an Accredited Investor

Begin your relationship with Citi

Do you want help navigating emotional highs and lows with consistent, goal-based guidance?

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