The third side of the triangle is allowing our emotions to influence our investment decisions. Greed and fear are emotions we all experience. Few of us are immune to the allure of hitting the jackpot, or the fear of losing our money.

As a consequence our emotions tempt us into believing that we can time our entry into, or exit out of, investment markets. Unfortunately the outcome of this belief is that there is much research to show that investors tend to buy when markets are near the top, and sell when markets are near the bottom. Our emotions lead us into the wealth-destroying behaviour of buying high and selling low.

An investment strategy is a critical part of your financial plan. If the strategy is based on sound, realistic objectives, then the strategy and your objectives should be the only reference point for your decision-making.

Allowing your decisions to be influenced by social pressure; cognitive mistakes or your emotions will very likely derail what you are trying to achieve. Beware the Bermuda Triangle of investor behaviour, particularly when there is talk of a storm brewing.

Robert Macdonald is the head of Xchange Solutions.

• Cold heart, huge wallet (Emotion destroys more wealth than the worst bear market. How knowing this can make you rich?)

• Counter evolutionary (Evolutionary mental shortcuts that undermine investment success and ways to overcome them...)

• Managing mental traps (Evolution has entrenched behavior that causes disastrous investment decisions?)

• Fear and greed