What is anchoring bias?

The first number you see drags your guess toward it, even when that number is junk.

In the classic experiments, people who watched a rigged wheel land on 65 guessed higher on unrelated questions than people who saw 10. Numbers stick. In a market, the current price is the loudest anchor in the room, and it anchors you before you've formed a view.

The defense is a habit: write down your own percent before you look at the market's. If they disagree, you've found either your edge or your anchor, and figuring out which one is the entire job.