Dangerous Emotions

We all make investment mistakes, sometimes on our own, sometimes with the help of smooth-talking--or e-mailing--scammers. The danger of making a bad financial decision is higher when markets are volatile and trigger investor emotions, says Eleanor Blayney, consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board: "Greed and fear often do cause people to act more irrationally."

How irrationally? Bloomberg.com asked financial advisers and wealth managers to share war stories of clients who had courted disaster. In most cases, disaster was averted. A few times, millions were lost.