Psychology, Top 10 of All Time

Cute Stock Names and Tickers

Agricultural stocks have been on a tear lately. One of them is [[MOO]], Market Vectors -Agribusiness ETF. Still in the same book “Your Money and Your Brain” by Jason Zweig, MOO is mentioned, among others:

Companies can exploit your reflexive system just by giving their stocks catchy ticker names. Stocks whose trading names resemble familiar words (like MOO or GEEK or KAR) tend to outperform those with unpronounceable symbols like LXK or CINF or PHM – at least in the short run. In the long run, however, stocks with cute ticker symbols have a disconcerting tendency to go bust.

(bold emphasis is mine) When I was originally looking at CML.V (Crowflight Minerals), I said to myself “I even like their name, logo and company colors!” Silly reasoning, but it’s not the only time I did it. I also like the name of Blue Note Mining, another holding of ours.

So be alert for cute names and symbols, don’t let them influence your stock buying decisions.

Gratuitous kitten never hurt anyone.