🧠 Does your portfolio have FOMO?

Following trends: fun but unproductive?

Author

Nessrine Slimani
February 19, 2026

Does investing in trends mean investing in what actually works?

That's the story sold by funds that replicate Nancy Pelosi's portfolio or track social media chatter to catch the next trending stock.

Their pitch: don't miss out, and if possible, get there first.

But is this really a good strategy? Or just a sophisticated way to run in circles?

Today, we're looking at:

  • How the finance industry turned doubt into product lines

  • Why even the most "rational" people fall for FOMO

  • What tactics work to resist the urge to act

In short, how to avoid self-sabotage?

What happens when a trend emerges

When a trend takes off—whether it's a sector, stocks, or ETFs —several mechanisms take effect at once.

The first mechanism: information becomes visible

Traditional media pick it up, investor communities amplify the signal, and performance numbers appear everywhere from finance podcasts to news feeds. Everyone seems to be benefiting from this opportunity except you.
Uncomfortable, and hard to ignore.

So your brain does what it does best: simplify. The numbers are there, the trend is clear, the solution seems obvious. Why dig deeper? The golden goose is right in front of us.

The second mechanism: time pressure

This one is sneakier.

The trend settles into the media landscape for several weeks. And even if you've resisted the initial impulse, the information keeps coming back quietly. An article here, a LinkedIn post there, a coffee chat with colleagues. Each mention revives the same question:

"Maybe I should look into this?"

With repetition, doubt creeps in. Yet nothing about your situation has changed: not your goals, not your timeline, not your risk tolerance. It's just the background noise getting louder, manufacturing urgency that didn't exist weeks ago.

The multiplication of signals clouds judgement, it gets harder to tell genuine conviction from pressure-driven reaction.

The third mechanism: validation from all sides

As the trend takes hold, it becomes consensus. It's endorsed both by sources seen as expert (financial media, analysts) and by sources of trust (family, colleagues, peers), giving it double legitimacy.

If both skilled people and people you trust reach the same conclusion, disagreeing feels odd. The question shifts from "is this opportunity valid?" to "am I wrong for not acting?"

Unfortunately, FOMO is a behaviour that some players in the finance industry have identified well. They've even created products specifically to capitalise on it.

When the industry turns doubt into products

Important: None of the examples below are investment recommendations.

First example: ETFs that copy politicians' trades

Funds like NANC (Democrats) and GOP (Republicans) replicate US Congress members' trades, promising retail investors access to the same information as elected officials.

These ETFs are very recent, launched in February 2023.

We therefore don't have enough data to confirm a long-term trend. Morningstar shows that their recent outperformance comes mainly from their exposure to tech giants, not from any real competitive advantage linked to politicians' information.

A 2022 Dartmouth study found no evidence of persistent stock-picking ability among Congress members since the STOCK Act of 2012. Trade disclosures arrive with up to 45 days' delay and don't specify exact amounts, which dilutes any potential information advantage.

Despite several arguments against them, FOMO still works because of emotion. Politicians' trades are the subject of numerous memes and viral posts on social media. We see the promise of access to privileged information; we don't look at the structural delays or sector biases that actually explain the performance.

ETFs that scan social media

Funds like BUZZ or FOMO (yes, really) analyse social media to detect "trending" stocks. The promise is to use algorithms to identify what everyone's talking about or detect significant moves from retail investors before they grow.

Another Morningstar analysis highlights several limits. First, these funds end up looking like growth portfolios invested in large tech stocks (Apple, NVIDIA and the like) with a few meme stocks added in. Their performance is mainly explained by their tendency to follow general market movements, not by any advantage from the social signal itself.

Second, trends on social media are short-lived. To stay true to their strategy, these funds must rebalance (buy and sell positions) much more frequently than traditional index funds. This results in high transaction costs that eat into performance.

And above all, there's no guarantee that social media consensus is correct, especially in volatile markets where opinions shift quickly. Morningstar notes that while some thematic funds can deliver spectacular short-term returns, many fail over the long term.

Because yes, knowing when to enter or exit these funds is far from obvious.

There's a paradox at the heart of all this: the more you try to beat the market, the more you risk underperforming it.

This is what Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson's work highlights. Back in the 1960s-70s, he showed that market prices already reflect most available information, which makes any lasting information advantage structurally difficult to maintain. The logical conclusion is radical: if no one has a lasting information advantage, then the best strategy isn't to try to beat the market but to own it.

It was on this work that John Bogle founded Vanguard and launched the first index fund accessible to retail investors in 1976, with a simple promise: replicate market performance, not try to beat it.

Tactics to resist FOMO

Some information and tactics to keep in mind when facing the urge.

1. Audit your information sources
Some sources feed urgency, others help you stick to your plan. Identify which ones create impulsive urges and limit their influence, especially during volatile periods.

2. Wait 48 hours
Try to wait 48 hours before making a decision driven by fear of missing out. This pause lets you distinguish emotional impulse from considered conviction. If the opportunity is solid, it'll still be there two days later.

3. Bring news back to your goals
Does this "opportunity" change your goals? Has your time horizon shifted? If not, what really justifies changing your plan?

4. Distinguish lasting trends from fragile ones
Can this trend last for several decades? What could threaten it? A new regulation or a major structural change?

ETFs that follow politicians' trades or social media depend on regulations or fads that can disappear quickly. Worth keeping in mind.

5. Automate your contributions
Automatic contributions remove the timing question, as you don't have a monthly decision to make. This automation protects you from temptations to adjust your strategy based on noise. (But watch the fees before automating).

So what really matters?

FOMO is an anxiety, the fear of missing a lucrative opportunity that "everyone" seems to be seizing. Except what determines your long-term success is the alignment between your goals and your allocation.

Watch out for solutions that promise to capture every trend. They're designed to turn you into a speculative sheep, relying on fragile signals that can vanish overnight.

By contrast, a simple strategy built on index funds lets you ride long-term economic growth without trying to guess the perfect entry and exit points.

The tactics above create distance to help you separate emotion from conviction.

I hope this edition brings some clarity.

Take care,
Nessrine

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Articles, research and studies consulted for this edition:

Important reminder: This content is educational only, not investment advice. Do your own research before investing. Remember that all investments, including ETFs, carry risks of capital loss.

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