Re: Too Much Information
I merely skimmed the blog article, but the discussion here has me confused about the point of the article. Is the author trying to say that more information is distracting? Or is he making a point about the way people convey their analysis to others (i.e. people who sound smart aren't necessarily doing any better)? This discussion in this thread seems to be talking about the latter.
I think some people are misunderstanding the article, but Barron's recent reply seems in line with my understanding. I don't think it's the amount of information you examine or absorb that matters - in fact, at this stage, more is better. Success ultimately seems determined by the investor's ability to filter that information and determine the pieces that are useful/relevant to his or her analysis. Smarter people don't necessarily see more information as noise or a distraction - they are simply better at filtering it and making the intelligent decisions needed to process that information.
FWIW, I don't do any sort of stock analysis (I'm a standard passive index fund investor), but I think there's a subtle distinction between the quantity of information being the culprit of a poor analysis and the individual's ability to process that information as the culprit. I think it has to be the latter.
In conclusion, more is better unless you can't handle it.
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