Many investors are guilty of letting the fear of missing out interfere with their critical decision-making. There are just too many opportunities, how do we choose?

In a book I’m trying to publish on personal finance, one topic I caution people on is gambling addiction. Some of us visit the casino too often, chasing the allure of a jackpot. But what if they took all the money they had gambled over the years and invested it instead? They wouldn’t need to chase a jackpot; they would have built one of their own. It’s the thrill of the chase that overrides our rational thinking and blocks sound decision-making. Stock picking can pose the same challenges to even the most experienced fund managers.

What if other opportunities slip by? What if we miss out?

That will happen, and we accept that. Sometimes, luck is what separates top-performing fund managers from the rest, and the allure of luck is powerful. I’m not a portfolio manager who chases lucky wins any more than I would gamble to chase a winning jackpot. Data indicates that there are sufficient high-quality growth stocks available, allowing us to eliminate any need for luck from the equation. We don’t need to gamble on any opportunity that might work in our favor when we know what opportunities have the highest probability of working in our favor. We can simply select a few stocks that meet our strict criteria and then leave the thrill of the chase to other investors and fund managers. Some will have good luck, and some will have poor luck, just like visitors to the casino. Capturing every single winning stock that’s out there requires extraordinary luck. Luck isn’t what we’re after. We don’t guess, hope, wish, bet, or get caught up in any beguiled chase. We employ a data-driven approach to position ourselves with a statistically high probability of success in achieving our objective.

The same philosophy applies to timing. Northshore Wealth Management’s Mainsail Equity Model maintains cash to deploy at opportune times. The recent market pullback has been an opportune time to buy low. We don’t have a crystal ball to tell us where the lowest point is in this pullback, but we’re not pursuing perfection in timing. We’re simply following a protocol we know has a statistically high probability of achieving our objective. We have been deploying cash all week, not on a quest for the perfect entry point but simply a logically good entry point based on what we know, not on what we hope. In investing and in life, we don’t depend on luck, because luck is undependable. We decide what we want and then administer the most logical method to get it. This isn’t the casino.