Last Updated on December 10, 2025
Overview – The Fear of Being Left Behind
Let’s start with a simple thought exercise: how do you feel whenever you are left behind?
Whether it’s something as small as missing the bus, missing out on limited-time merchandise, or choosing to forego advanced education when many of your peers pursue it, what thoughts cross your mind during these times when the world moves on without you?
Like most people, being left behind or the thought of being left behind is an unpleasant experience, and as a result, is something most people try their best to avoid. People constantly endeavour to keep up with the times, caught up in a never-ending pursuit of staying abreast with everyone else.
This fear of being left behind is commonly expressed in a simple acronym: “FOMO”, the Fear Of Missing Out.
Because of its universality, FOMO can permeate many aspects of our lives, including our ability to make logical investment decisions.
Investors will always have to deal with the perpetual struggle of keeping their emotions at bay, but FOMO is arguably the most difficult one they’ll need to deal with.
The Fear of Missing Out Is a Persistent Challenge to Investors
Imagine you’re an investor in the 1980s/90s.
The internet was still in its infancy. Like any new technology, you keep hearing about the vast potential that it offers both in terms of its applications and the financial rewards that await.
Because of this, you buy into the hype and start to “invest” (i.e., speculate) in things that are even remotely connected or related to the internet, afraid that you’ll miss out on this “once in a lifetime opportunity”. Then, the Dot-Com Bubble happens, and your portfolio full of “internet investments” is now worth nothing, simply because you didn’t want to miss out on what was supposed to be a gold mine.
This experience with the infamous internet stocks of the 1990s/2000s is nothing new. It is, instead, a recurring theme throughout investment history: the fear of missing out on what is allegedly an investment opportunity that will never come again.
Every time this phenomenon happens, it more or less follows the same formula: something new/unexpected garners mainstream attention, people get excited over its potential, investors/speculators catch wind of this attention and think of the possible financial benefits they can gain, then they try to seize this “opportunity” before it’s too late regardless of whether there’s any subtance behind the hype.
Because some investors/speculators get overly greedy with the returns they wish to achieve, and due to countless more lacking the ability to control their emotions in the face of external pressure, the fear of missing out will, unfortunately, always be something investors run into.
There will always be new investment fads and countless people who push it as “the next big thing you don’t want to miss out on”, and as a result, there will always be the fear of missing out.
Succumbing to the Fear of Missing Out Only Brings Ruin to Investors
It’s tempting to listen to those pushing “once in a lifetime investment opportunities” and to think that what they say has merit, but most of the time (with some rare exceptions, which will be discussed later), succumbing to their smooth talk never ends well.
Why? Because the fear of missing out is built on multiple premises, namely: creating an artificial sense of scarcity, getting people to discard their rational thinking in favour of letting their emotions take over, moving as fast as possible instead of taking the time to think things through, and to avoid the possibility as being the odd one out who failed to seize this opportunity when everyone else did, to name a few.
All of these directly run counter to what any sensible investor would do, such as performing thorough analysis, letting their rational thinking decide their actions, and taking their time before making any major decisions.
The fear of missing out offers the world, but is built upon a superficial basis that will ultimately bring ruin to those who are seduced by its grand, yet hollow, promises.
So, anytime investors find themselves bombarded with non-stop declarations of “this is the next big thing”, “if you don’t get in now, your loss”, “this new tech/opportunity/etc will change the course of history” or any other grossly outlandish claim, they’re much better off ignoring these.
Eliminating the “Scarcity” Mindset to Combat FOMO
After having discussed the danger of succumbing to the fear of missing out in investing, how can investors hope to counter such a destructive phenomenon? The solution is, surprisingly, quite easy, but the same can’t be said for its implementation: getting rid of the “scarcity” mindset.
The fear of missing out is built on the notion that there are only a limited number of worthwhile investment opportunities available throughout history. Once these opportunities have passed, those who missed out are out of luck since there are now even fewer worthwhile opportunities available to them in the future, until one day, there will be no more worthwhile investment opportunities left.
But instead of believing this absurd notion, what if investors took a more optimistic approach and thought to themselves, “Oh well, the ship has already sailed for certain investments and there’s nothing I can do about that, so I better stay alert for when future opportunities arise.”
Society, the global economy, and worldwide financial markets are always marching forward, which means that new investment opportunities will always appear, no matter what era investors find themselves currently living in. An investor’s job is to constantly stay vigilant to uncover those hidden gems.
There’s no need to feel a sense of being “left behind” if you know that the notion of “scarcity” that drives the fear of missing out is nothing but a false narrative. This single, fundamental shift in mindset can make a world of difference.
With all that being said, learning to get rid of the scarcity mindset isn’t something that all investors can immediately do. Some investors may need to take their time to shed this harmful mentality, but that’s fine; what matters is that they eventually do so before it becomes nearly impossible for them to do so.
Fear of Missing Out vs. Seizing Excellent Opportunities Before Anyone Else
Throughout this article, we’ve discussed the plight that investors face by succumbing to the fear of missing out, and how they can hope to avoid it. While everything we’ve previously gone over is crucial, there exists a special caveat we’ve yet to look at.
Succumbing to the fear of missing out is highly detrimental, yes, but there is a major difference between FOMO and seizing highly-promising investment opportunities before anyone else does. One is built on unsubstantiated hype and a false notion of scarcity, whereas the other is achieved by constantly staying vigilant and uncovering potentially lucrative opportunities that others will overlook.
Investors who successfully identify the overlooked investments they feel offer lots of potential have a legitimate reason to move as fast as possible to acquire them; otherwise, they may “miss out” on a legitimately promising, yet currently overlooked, opportunity before its value (hopefully) skyrockets.
In this special case, investors aren’t acting out of the fear of being left behind, but rather before a rare opportunity that’s currently underappreciated (and therefore, underpriced) enters the investment mainstream.
Naturally, recognizing these overlooked opportunities before other investors catch wind of them is much easier said than done. But investors who are confident they’ve discovered these gems in the rough have every reason to move as fast as possible in acquiring them.
Wrapping Up
Most people have no interest in being labelled as “one of the unfortunate who was left behind”, and so do everything in their power to avoid that. Investors are no different.
The fear of missing out is one of the oldest and most damaging phenomena in investing. Throughout history, many investors have ended up making some very poor decisions simply because they didn’t want to be “left behind”. FOMO is built on nothing more than uncontained emotions and empty promises, so succumbing to it never ends well.
Intelligent investors, however, understand the difference between acting out of FOMO and seizing underappreciated investment opportunities that have not yet garnered wider attention. In this special case, investors have a compelling reason to acquire these overlooked investments before their value (hopefully) skyrockets once everyone else has caught on.
