Jay Korff's Blog

What 30 Years in Markets Taught Me About People Three decades in the markets taught me far more about people than about stocks. Prices move, cycles turn, and strategies evolve, but human behavior is remarkably consistent. If you spend long enough advising families, watching markets, and navigating uncertainty, you start to see patterns that have nothing to do with charts and everything to do with how people think, fear, hope, and decide. The first lesson is that people don’t react to numbers — they react to stories. A portfolio can be perfectly balanced on paper, but if the narrative around it feels uncertain, people become anxious. Conversely, when the story feels clear and grounded, even volatility becomes manageable. Markets are driven by data, but investors are driven by meaning. The second lesson is that fear is rarely about losing money. It’s about losing control. When markets fall, people worry less about the percentage drop and more about what it symbolizes: instability, vulner...