Investing in unknowns and don’t want to become a “bag holder?” Avoid these 10 mistakes

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Are you familiar with the greater fool theory? It’s a money concept that describes choosing an investment not because of its fundamental value, but because the investor expects someone else (a “greater fool”) to pay an even higher price for it.

The greater fools are those left “holding the bag” after the savviest investors capture their profits. Nobody wants to be the greater fool—or the bag holder—when the performance of an investment starts to change.

Here are 10 mistakes that can leave you stuck holding the bag—and how to avoid them.

Chasing the high as a trader or investor means buying an asset that’s already increased significantly in price, in hopes that the price will continue to rise—what technical analysts call “buying on momentum.” But the investment may have only limited remaining upside potential. If momentum changes and the price declines, you may be among those who get left holding the bag.

Here’s how to avoid chasing price highs as an investor:

Another way to get caught holding the investment bag is to be stubborn—or worse yet, in denial—about a losing position. Stubborn traders try to recover a losing position by holding on or even adding to it. That mentality can turn a minor loss into a major one.

Losses are inevitable, but you don’t have to ride them down, or worse, double down.

Uninformed investors are more likely to end up holding the bag than those who do their homework. Buying an asset without learning about its key characteristics can lead you to make portfolio decisions that are based on hype, speculation, or greed—rather than the fundamental attributes of the asset.

Every investable asset has its own unique qualities, so you’ll need to conduct plenty of your own research before adding any new investments to your portfolio. If you’re buying stocks, for example, then you’ll want to study a company’s financial statements and growth prospects, plus the prevailing industry trends.

Some investments are riskier than others, and buying too many of the riskiest assets can leave you holding the bag. Assets that are least safe typically have the greatest price volatility, the most credit risk, and the highest potential for being a scam. Crypto investing is particularly vulnerable to such dangers.

Avoid the unwanted side effects of investing in risky assets:

You may be an experienced stock and bond investor who knows nothing about cryptocurrencies. Adding crypto to your portfolio, without first becoming familiar with the asset class, can leave you holding the bag.

The obvious solution is to familiarize yourself—thoroughly—with an asset class before investing any money. Stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and other asset classes each have unique characteristics that you should study carefully before making any investment decisions.

Bag holding is frequently linked to speculative trading. Excited about the price of Bitcoin or other crypto asset? Convinced that a hot stock will continue to climb the charts? You’re speculating, and you may well get left holding the bag.

Speculation can be extremely tempting. Here’s good advice for avoiding it:

A pump-and-dump scheme is a classic example of an investment scam that can leave unsuspecting investors holding the bag. The “pump” occurs when malicious actors hype up an asset to artificially inflate its price, and the “dump” happens when the same malicious group suddenly sells their substantial holdings—causing the price to crash for everyone else.

Nobody likes to fall victim to pump-and-dump schemes. (Nor their crypto counterpart, the “rug pull,” in which a coin’s developers will hype it, then abruptly abandon or close it, leaving unsuspecting investors holding the bag.) You can minimize this risk by being skeptical of investment hype, performing your own investment research, and generally avoiding the most speculative assets.

If you’ve ever been advised to diversify your investment portfolio, you know it’s partly to ensure that you’re not stuck holding too much of the bag if a stock, industry, or asset class has a change in fortune. Overconcentrating your portfolio is risky because it creates too much exposure to singular trends and events that may yield unwanted losses.

The opposite of overconcentration is diversification—the proverbial “spreading your eggs among many baskets” strategy. Even if you’re only passionate about crypto, for example, you can still diversify by investing in a mix of first-generation coins, altcoins, crypto stocks, and crypto exchange-traded funds.

The fear of missing out—or FOMO—is real, and it can cause you to make regrettable investment decisions. If you’ve ever berated yourself for not investing in a hot stock years earlier, you may be tempted to invest without conducting proper analysis or considering the associated risks. But beware of FOMO, lest you get stuck holding the bag.

The best ways to fight investing FOMO include:

Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies—even as investors. Confirmation bias in investing happens when you only evaluate and value information that supports your existing hypothesis, even if you encounter credible information that speaks to the contrary. Everyone can be swayed by confirmation bias, but doing so may result in you holding an unwanted investment bag.

How to avoid confirmation bias as an investor:

If you’re an active trader or investor, you’ll likely be caught holding the bag at some point. Investing confers unavoidable financial risk that can be mitigated but not eliminated entirely. But you have strategies—like developing a diversified portfolio strategy, doing your own research, and not buying impulsively—to minimize bag-holding events (and the damage caused by an individual bag-holding event).

Stay focused on money goals that are meaningful to you, and don’t get caught up in any FOMO frenzy. The market might be seeking a greater fool, looking to unload an empty bag.