Behavioral Wealth Intelligence

Most advisors ask how you think you'll invest.

Folio AI identifies how you'll actually behave.

We bridge the gap between stated risk and revealed behavior to build portfolios you can actually stick with.

8-minute interview
20-ticker shortlist
Downloadable behavioral profile
Behavioral Profile · Sample
FOLIO·v1
The Patient Builder
Risk score 62 · Balanced-Growth
VOO
S&P 500 ETF
ETF
22%
BND
Total Bond Market
Bonds
18%
AAPL
Apple Inc.
Large Cap
9%
GLD
Gold Trust
Commodity
7%
BTC-USD
Bitcoin
Crypto
4%
+ 15 more holdings →
Built at
Salve Regina University
Anchored to
2008 Global Financial Crisis · 2020 COVID
Research base
Kahneman · Tversky · Thaler
Privacy
No SSNs · No bank logins
70 / 30 Engine

Revealed behavior, weighted

Risk tolerance scored at 70% revealed behavior + 30% stated intent. The gap is the insight.

Multi-Asset

Stocks. ETFs. Gold. Crypto.

20-ticker shortlist drawn from broad ETFs, fixed income, large/mid/small caps, commodities, and BTC/ETH.

Adaptive Personas

Beginner or Advanced rationales

Plain English for first-timers. Alpha, beta, and correlation for the technically fluent.

Philosophy

The Honesty Gap.

Decades of behavioral finance research prove that stated risk tolerance is a weak predictor of actual behavior during a drawdown.

Folio AI focuses on what you did during a 30% market drop, as past action is far more predictive than today's intent.

Prospect Theory
Kahneman & Tversky
The pain of loss outweighs the joy of equivalent gain by ~2×.
Stress-Tested
2008 Global Financial Crisis · 2020 COVID
Risk scores anchored to real drawdowns from the Global Financial Crisis and pandemic, not hypotheticals.
The 30% Rule
70% panic-sell threshold
Questionnaires predict 15% tolerance; history shows 30% drops trigger panic in 70% of investors.
Two Investors · One Crisis

The cost of panic.

Two hypothetical investors. Same $100,000 portfolio. Same crashes. Different behavior.

A loss only becomes real when you sell. Here's what that looked like across two historic crashes.

The Panic Seller

−22%
Sold near the bottom
Starting portfolio$100,000
Period
Action
Portfolio value
2008 Global Financial Crisis
Sold after 38% drop
$62,000
2010–2019
Re-entered late, missed rebound
$84,000
2020 COVID
Sold after 30% drop
$59,000
2024–2026+
Partially recovered
$78,000

Locked in losses twice. Never caught the full recovery.

The Patient Holder

+185%
Held through both drawdowns
Starting portfolio$100,000
Period
Action
Portfolio value
2008 Global Financial Crisis
Held through 38% drop
$62,000
2010–2019
Rode the recovery
$210,000
2020 COVID
Held through 30% drop
$147,000
2024–2026+
Fully recovered + grew
$285,000

Survived the drawdowns. Compounded through both recoveries.

Illustrative & educational only. Hypothetical scenarios based on broad market index drawdowns and recoveries during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and 2020 COVID crash. Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

The Evidence

The research is clear. Most investors are their own worst enemy.

Folio AI is built to close the gap between who you think you are as an investor and how you actually behave.

6.81% vs 9.65%

The average investor earned 6.81%/yr vs the S&P 500's 9.65% over 20 years. The gap is almost entirely explained by panic selling at the wrong time.

Source: Dalbar QAIB 2023
71%

71% of investors who described themselves as aggressive or moderate still sold during the 2020 COVID crash.

Source: FINRA Investor Education
15–20%

Standard risk questionnaires predict actual investor behavior during downturns with only 15–20% accuracy.

Source: Journal of Financial Planning

Losses feel twice as painful as equivalent gains feel good — which is why investors sell even when they know they shouldn't.

Source: Kahneman & Tversky, Prospect Theory 1979

Statistics cited for educational purposes. Sources: Dalbar QAIB 2023, FINRA Investor Education, Journal of Financial Planning, Kahneman & Tversky 1979.

View all research & sources →
The investor's chief problem — and even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.
Warren Buffett
Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
The real key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.
Peter Lynch
Former Manager of Fidelity Magellan Fund

Quotes attributed for educational and illustrative purposes.

Common Questions

New to investing? Start here.

Plain answers to the questions most people ask before they try Folio AI.

Do I need a lot of money to start?

No. Folio AI builds you a portfolio plan, not a minimum-balance account. The plan works whether you have $100 or $100,000 to invest. You decide how much to put in, and where.

What is an ETF?

An ETF is a single basket that holds many stocks or bonds at once. Buying one share of an ETF is like buying a tiny slice of dozens or hundreds of companies — instant diversification, low cost, easy to trade.

Is my information safe?

Yes. We never ask for your Social Security number, bank login, or any account access. Your answers stay in your browser during the session and are not saved to a profile or sold to anyone.

What do I actually get at the end?

A behavioral profile that describes how you really invest, plus a 20-ticker shortlist matched to that profile, plus a downloadable PDF report you can share with an advisor or use on your own.

The Folio Method

Folio AI is a mirror for your money.

We create a custom investment strategy that fits your real-world logic, not just a textbook profile.