The Art of Filtering

Great up day on the averages. This run is starting to make the pain of the last few weeks disappear very quickly. It has been my experience that ANYTHING that dulls the pain that fast is going to make you pay one way or another. I just don't feel like it is "up up up" from here. Which is the subject of this piece.

Filtering......I think if you brought the word up 20 years ago, people would think you were talking about a Mr. Coffee machine. In this case it means what you take and what you throw away from the information cycle broadcast to us daily. I think that to be successful in today's economy, you have to master the art of filtering information. For me, filtering the constant onslaught of "message" "spin" and "hype" that invade our very being 24 hours a day starts with a few guiding precepts. What do I stand for? What do I believe is reality? What REALLY makes money in America today? My precepts begin by answering basic questions. For the art of filtering requires that simplicity win over complexity.

Why basic? Why am I not looking for the riddle mixed up in an enigma? Think about he great frauds perpetrated upon the American public over the years? Think of how some were able to manipulate the masses. Think about it all and underneath the scheme you will find simple slights of hand. Not grandiose schemes. "Why steal a million dollars when you can steal one dollar from a million people easier."

Mix this fact with the idea that those who would want to influence the public would use the same approach and you can easily filter out 90% of the din. Those who can see clearly, those who can wipe away the grime and excess of the spin will see the way to succeed. In the markets and in life as we know it in the post 90s bubble.