Earnings season puts your ego to the test

If you are an active investor, research analyst or portfolio manager the earnings season is when your discipline is tested.

I used to be lousy at this.

The better I knew an issuer,the more time I had spent researching it, the more likely I was to overlook their negative surprises. 

Yet, experience has thought me to treat my good and bad calls equally.  

Earnings season has become the time for reviewing how my assumptions feared in reality. Regardless of the returns or bottom line. 

It's bloody uncomfortable at times.

You get to realize that some wins are  in part good luck... returns that happened for very different reasons than I had assumed.

You get the frustration of the old saying "bad things happen to good decisions". 

But at the end of it you can:

• learn from all what you could have done better;

• appreciate the benefits of discipline and diversification;

• make better decisions regarding your position after the earnings. 

  
  

For me staying curious has become more important than feeling I am right.  

How are managing your ego and reviewing your portfolio these days?