Many of the basic rules of investing are counterintuitive. For example, rising interest rates may be good news for those shopping for certificates of deposit and other short-term savings vehicles, but they're generally bad for bond funds. And here's another zinger: The lazy investor is often more successful than the hard-working one.
If you're checking in on your portfolio holdings every day--or worse yet, throughout the day--you may be tempted to trade more than you need to. In turn, you may run up high tax and transaction costs, and you're also more likely to chase hot-performing stocks and funds in the hope that they'll continue to outperform. That can be a recipe for disaster.
Because it is possible to shoot yourself in the foot with overzealous trading, I'm a big prop