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Mind and markets

Lesson 97 · Written for kid, teen, and little

Anchored to the Price You Paid

Learn why the price you paid keeps hijacking what you think something is worth.

The idea

An anchor is the first number your brain grabs onto, like the price you paid or the first price a seller says out loud. After that, every other number feels cheap or expensive compared to the anchor, even when the anchor tells you nothing useful. A stock has no idea what you paid for it, and neither does anyone deciding what to pay you today. The fix is to work out what something seems to be worth now, before you look at the old number. 🧠

A

Words to know

5

Anchor

The first number you hear or remember, which quietly shapes every price you judge afterwards. See $200 crossed out and $120 feels cheap, even if it is not.

Anchoring bias

The habit of sticking close to that first number even when it is not helpful. The old $200 tag tells you nothing about what the thing is worth today.

Cost basis

What you originally paid for something. Useful for taxes, useless for guessing today's value — the market does not know what you paid.

Break-even thinking

Refusing to sell until the price gets back to what you paid. Holding a $30 stock now worth $18 only because 30 is your number.

Fair value

Your own careful guess of what something is worth right now, worked out from what it earns and owns — not from what you paid.

Try it — no accountSort into groups

Some numbers are anchors from the past. Others are real information about today.

Sort each clue into the right bucket.

0 / 6 sorted

In the full lesson

  1. 1Sort into groups
  2. 2Work out the number
  3. 3Make the call

Vine has 107 lessons like this one, each written three ways so a 7-year-old and a 17-year-old both get a version that fits.

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