Survivorship bias or survivor bias is the tendency to view the performance of existing stocks or funds in the market as a representative comprehensive sample without regarding those that have gone bust.

Real-Life Examples:

• Businesses only share positive testimonials


• “If I can do it, anyone can” v/s 99% who didn’t achieve it


• The cliche saying “ Only learn from successful people “

For example, when choosing a mutual fund, an investor might focus on the fund’s recent performance and ignore the fact that many similar funds have performed poorly. Or, when considering whether to start a business, an entrepreneur might focus on the success of companies like Google and ignore the fact that most startups fail.

People think they can be successful at the stock market based on one person, while most fail.