In their classic book Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, Thomas Gilovich and Gary Belsky looked at the psychology of financial decisions.

In his new book Your Money & You Brain, Jason Zweig goes a step further, looking at both behavioral economics and the neurological side of it. The result is a fascinating look at the tricks that our minds play on us, and how they keep us from investing as well as we could.

As Zweig writes, a mile long time-line of human history would not show the first financial markets until about four inches from the end. Evolution has given us brains that are very well-equipped for fleeing from gazelles but, alas, prone to a lot of stupid mistakes when it comes to investing. And this applies to "sophisticated professionals" as well as rank amateurs.

Extensively researched -- Mr. Zweig took part in numerous experiments -- this book will give you new and profound insight into how you think about money. Every serious investor should read this book, although few will because it offers no get-rich-quick scheme or concrete tips on how to beat the market.

But it's very readable and funny in parts, and definitely one of the more entertaining investment books to come out in recent memory.

In his column "The Intelligent Investor" in the latest issue of Money Magazine, Jason Zweig offers some great tips for investors to "Stop worrying and stay invested" in the presence of a volatile markets. He also gives one of the best pieces of advice for trading that I have ever seen: "Wait for the bell. If the market is open, your portfolio should be closed. Later you can be more objective."

Don't worry about missing opportunities: All the research shows that frequent trading kills performance. Trading during the day will trick you into making impulsive investments, and make your regimen more gambler than cerebral. This also goes nicely with one of the best investing quotes of the year, from John Bogle's interview with the same magazine in March: "The stock market turns out to be a giant distraction from the reality of owning businesses, which is what investing really is. In the short run, expectations seem to drive the market, but in the long run nearly 100% of the returns on stocks come from the real market - the sum of dividend yield and earnings growth."

Zweig's advice is certainly something I plan to incorporate into my own investing. For more great insight from Zweig, buy the most recent edition of Benjamin Graham's classic book The Intelligent Investor, which has timely commentary from Zweig following each chapter.