The Loser’s Game: Lawrence Evans on Skill, Bias, and Better Decisions

In this episode of “The Angle from T. Rowe Price,” Justin Thomson, head of the T. Rowe Price Investment Institute, sits down with Lawrence Evans, founder of Salomon Partners and an investment coach to professional investors and investment teams. The conversation explores what separates skilled investors from the rest, and why better investing may be less about short-term performance and more about the parts of the process investors can control. They also discuss the importance of self-awareness, discipline, and repeatable decision-making frameworks, including rules for buying, selling, sizing positions, and updating views over time. The episode also examines why 'sell' decisions can be more difficult than 'buy' decisions, how behavioral biases such as loss aversion and sunk cost fallacy can influence outcomes, and why journaling, checklists, feedback loops, and deliberate practice can help investors improve. Lawrence also shares his perspective on artificial intelligence, arguing that while AI may transform knowledge acquisition and pattern recognition, human judgment and self-awareness remain essential to active investing, in his opinion.