Smart Is Not Enough
How smart people can stop trailing the market and start investing systematically
Announcements:
- The Options SIG will meet on June 27th followed by the General Investing SIG on July 1st. See the SIGs webpage for details on all SIG meetings.
- If you are interested in joining our new trading platforms SIG (ThinkOrSwim/Fidelity Trader+/technical analysis), please email president@aaiirtp.org.
- Following the chapter meeting, please join us and our speaker for lunch at the Cape Fear Seafood Company (Village District).
Presentation Summary:
Smart people often underperform the market, not for lack of intelligence, but because the very instincts that built their careers betray them as investors. In this presentation, RJ Hixson reveals the three gaps between how smart you are and how your portfolio performs, then hands you three simple steps you can take this week to start protecting what you’ve built and investing with method instead of emotion.
Note: Please bring a pen or pencil for writing on a take-home handout.
What you will learn:
- Why being smart isn’t enough: the habits that served your career can quietly work against your portfolio.
- The three gaps: where knowledge, consistency, and behavior quietly cost you, plus one concrete step to close each.
- How to see your real risk: find the maximum drawdown hiding in the portfolio you live on, and the recovery math behind it.
- Why “the market always comes back” can be a trap: approaching and in retirement, the order of good and bad years can matter more than the average.
- How to set your defense in advance: write one simple, repeatable rule before the next downturn, not during it.
- How to follow through when it counts: decide in advance how you’ll respond to a downturn, so fear doesn’t make the call for you.
As with all chapter presentations, this is an educational session; no individual investment advice will be provided. Consult with qualified professionals before making any investment decisions.
Meeting Details:
Date: Saturday, July 11th, 2026
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET (mix and mingle starts at 9:30)
Location: Fairmont United Methodist Church: 2501 Clark Avenue Raleigh, NC 27607. See map of Fairmont for parking, building entrances, and the number of stairs entrances require.
Virtual access: To register to attend the Zoom webinar, please purchase a ticket on our chapter’s Square account. Then, please register with Zoom so you can receive reminders one and 24 hours before the meeting.
Cost: $10 cash (in-person) or electronic payment (webinar); $5 for students (email president@aaiirtp.org for webinar access); first time in-person attendee: free
Before attending in person, please read: the AAII Protocol for In-Person Meetings
If you feel sick, please join us virtually.
About Our Speaker
Plenty of smart, accomplished people did everything right. They were careful, rigorous, and more often correct than not, yet the market keeps outpacing them, and they wonder why their skill doesn’t pay off in investing. RJ Hixson has spent his career on that question. Over 14 years leading research and development at the Van Tharp Institute alongside Dr. Van Tharp, he saw that markets don’t reward intelligence the way careers do; they reward sound systems and the discipline to follow them. Today RJ writes, teaches, and speaks to help capable people, especially those nearing retirement, keep what they’ve earned and invest with confidence.