The festive reset easily pushes us toward New Year's resolutions. As we <a href="https://oninvest.com/article/prazdnicnye-obesania-pocemu-oni-bol-se-cem-prosto-spisok-pozelanij">wrote</a> earlier, the plan to become an effective investor and double your income will have to be put into practice at some point.  But almost immediately, our commitments cease to be a source of motivation and begin to weigh on us — every glance at the market or banking app increases our stress. The reason is not weak willpower, but how the brain works and the cognitive traps we create for ourselves.

New Year's resolutions as a cognitive trap: what prevents us from seeing our plans through to the end

The New Year and Christmas often feel like a clean slate, a new phase: an opportunity to reset old habits, "reset" failures and lay the foundation for future success. We make solemn promises to ourselves - commitments: to start running, to read more books or, especially important for investing, to finally strategize and increase our income.

Holiday promises: why they're more than just a wish list

Intuitively, it may seem that for the long-term investor, the best companies are those that consistently make money by selling basic necessities to people, whether the economy is growing or declining. However, a recent<a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w34402"> article</a> published by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research shows that the market is taking a toll on that psychological comfort. Issuers whose businesses are more dependent on the state of the economy have historically generated higher returns than securities of companies with stable earnings.

How crises affect stock returns: cyclical and defensive securities

Have you ever experienced that despite all your knowledge about diversification and long-term planning, you impulsively buy shares of a "hot" company at some point, and then sell them with the same zeal at the first correction? Have you ever wondered why you do this? Or why you avoid the stock market for years, preferring to keep your money only on deposit, although inflation often eats up all the income? The answer to these questions lies not only in the economic news or even in how you interpreted it, but in how you "see" money - in your unconscious beliefs. These are called Money Scripts - Money Scripts. Let's analyze them using the examples of characters from the TV series "Game of Thrones".

The psychology of money and "Game of Thrones": how money scripts affect investments

GameStop Corp.

Robinhood Markets, Inc.

Retail investing has undergone a revolution in recent years. Small traders are no longer disorganized individuals, sometimes with a legion of names. Telegram channels with signals, threads on Reddit, profile forums, and "auto follow" functions in brokerage applications have created the illusion that collective intelligence can beat the market.

Dangerous unity: how social media is worsening stock trading results

Walmart Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.

Costco Wholesale Corporation

Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Yum! Brands, Inc.

Chewy, Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Abbott Laboratories

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated

Marriott International, Inc.

Luxury brands can no longer ignore Generation X shoppers, WWD <a href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/gen-x-and-luxury-study-publicis-luxe-opinionway-1238352392/">wrote </a>Nov. 19, citing survey data from research firm OpinionWay for Publicis Luxe. For a long time, those who are now 45-60 years old have <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gen-x-1-4-trillion-171305936.html#:~:text=%D0%92%20%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5%20%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B9,%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8E%C2%BB%2C%20%2D%20%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%20%D0%A5%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD.">been</a> in the shadow of baby boomers and millennials in terms of consumption. Brands paid less attention to them. Perhaps for nothing.

"Lost" trillions: who will make money on generation X

In order to determine what is going on in the financial markets, it is necessary to understand what is going on in the minds of investors. Financial markets reflect the human nervous system much more accurately than the state of the economy, believes psychologist Mikhail Tegin.Why the "ideal rational" from textbooks does not work, how our lifestyle and wallet thickness are connected, why "we all come from childhood"? Oninvest is starting a series of materials on why rationality remains a theory, while emotions and cognitive distortions become the real cause of prices and bubbles. Series one.

Homo economicus vs. homo sapiens: why we invest not always rationally

In 2024, when the S&amp;P 500 added 25%, the average investor received only 16.5%, according to a <a href="https://www.dalbar.com/qaib/">study by</a> the financial-analytical company DALBAR. Over the long haul, the difference in returns is more modest, but the direction is the same: year after year, the "behavioral" downside eats up about 1% of the lost returns. It is not the commission or the quality of the strategy - it is a behavioral gap: the instrument is chosen correctly, but the moment is not. Economist Denis Elakhovsky wrote about the chronic problem of index funds and how a retail investor can avoid getting into trouble.

Mind the Gap: why funds win over the investors who invest in them

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Over the past three years, the classic 60/40 portfolio concept<a href="https://www.morningstar.com/economy/6040-portfolio-150-year-markets-stress-test"> has</a> proven to be very disappointing - the gold standard of 60% invested in stocks and 40% in bonds has proven to be unprofitable. There is no universal answer to what to do, but there are benchmarks that allow you to check your allocation against the way the world's capital is structured. For example,<a href="https://www.gspublishing.com/content/research/en/reports/2025/10/15/21c88473-1287-408f-97f8-36c7a80340cb.html"> The World Portfolio</a>, a new research project by Goldman Sachs, which for the first time analyzes the entire "world portfolio" - from stocks and bonds to gold and cryptocurrencies.

Diversify it: what an optimal portfolio should be

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2025/press-release/">was awarded to</a> Mary E. Bruncoe, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for discoveries in the workings of the immune system that pave the way for treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer, as well as easier organ transplantation. The mechanism they discovered is called peripheral immune tolerance - sounds confusing, let's figure it out.

Rabbits vs. scientific dogma: what you need to know about the Nobel Prize in Medicine

AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc.

The Internet was supposed to be the investor's main ally. Access to information is instantaneous, free training materials abound, a brokerage account is opened in a couple of minutes, financial blogs and channels throw up investment ideas every day.

The internet and social media have changed investment: why isn't it always for the better?

Telomir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Jupiter Neurosciences, Inc.

In mid-September, the startup Retro Biosciences, supported by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retro-biosciences-sam-altman-antiaging-brain-pill-longevity-healthspan-2025-9">announced</a> that this year it would begin clinical trials of its first development - a pill to "clean" the brain and fight Alzheimer's disease. Achieving longevity or even immortality is one of mankind's oldest aspirations, which is still relevant today. Silicon Valley techno-investors are pouring billions into researching ways to extend life. What are they betting on?