Why I wrote Money, Markets and Mistakes

When I look back at the year gone by, I see less of markets and more of people. Markets are only numbers on a screen until human beings pour their fears and hopes into them. That is why, even after three decades of writing, I keep circling back to the same idea: successful investing has less to do with predicting the future and more to do with understanding ourselves.

That thought gave birth to my new book, Money, Markets and Mistakes. It is a compact record of the year’s most important investing lessons, not as a historian would note them, but as an investor must. What mattered was not whether elections were won or lost, or whether artificial intelligence or cryptocurrency dominated the headlines. What mattered was what these events did to the minds of investors. Did they stay steady? Did they get carried away? Did they learn anything that would help them stay the course next time?

Over the last year, I watched the same old drama play out in new costumes. A frenzy of derivatives trading that left ordinary investors poorer. A new flood of “AI” products that promised miracles. Pamphlets for Bitcoin tucked into grocery deliveries, as though money could be multiplied like loyalty points. All of this was new, and yet none of it was. I have seen too many cycles to mistake a different wrapper for a different sweet. And so, in my weekly writing, I tried to do what I always do—strip away the noise and point readers back to the dull, boring truths that actually work: diversification, asset allocation, compounding, and the discipline to do nothing when the world insists you do something.

This book gathers those writings into one place. It is not meant to be read like a textbook. Think of it as a diary of an investor’s year, organised so that you can dip into any chapter and find a principle tested against the latest storm. When you are tempted to chase returns, you will find reminders of why most investors who tinker too much end up with less. When you feel bored of your SIP, you will find proof of why boredom is the most reliable companion of wealth. And when you are swept up in the market’s excitement, you will find the sobering stories of those who thought they had discovered shortcuts, only to learn the long way round that none exist.

I do not promise anything new. In fact, much of what you will read you may have read from me before. That is deliberate. As Jason Zweig, one of the writers I admire, once said, “Our job as financial writers is to say the same thing fifty times a year in ways that do not feel repetitive.” The truths of investing do not change. What changes is the disguise in which the market tries to trick you into forgetting them. My job is to keep pointing back to the basics.

Why buy this book when you can find the columns online? Because collected together, they tell a story. The story of a year when markets moved fast, but human behaviour moved in circles. And because a book is a better companion than a website. You can keep it on your desk, underline it, and return to it when greed or fear whispers in your ear.

If even one idea here helps you avoid a mistake, the book will have earned its keep many times over. That is why I invite you to read Money, Markets and Mistakes. It is not a manual for beating the market. It is a mirror for understanding yourself. And that, in the long run, is the only edge that matters.

And if you would like to test that for yourself before you decide, I’ve made a chapter available to read for free. Consider it a sample of the conversation this book wants to have with you.

Read a free chapter

If it resonates, then I invite you to keep the whole book at hand—something you can return to whenever the markets (or your own emotions) start demanding action.

Buy Money, Markets and Mistakes here

Because in the end, the price of one book is small; the cost of one big mistake is not.

This article was originally published on September 09, 2025.