It is wonderful to be alive in the information age. We know in a matter of seconds the change in the value of gold in Switzerland, the death of a world leader or the birth of a peasant in Israel.

We are inundated with facts and figures and the emotional tribulations of both famous and infamous people. Can we possibly assimilate all this? Does it help us in our daily lives?

When you begin to analyze it you realize all this information is just an agglomeration of stuff and contains no wisdom. If you were to memorize the Encyclopedia Britannica would that make you wise? Not really. You might know all about everything and you could answer questions on any subject, but unless you could correlate the facts and understand their interaction it would be of not much use at all.

I am in the financial industry. Would it help me to make more money to have memorized the Morningstar Manual? Oh, I would know the PE ratios and earnings of every company and a lot more, but will all that information tell me if the price of a company's stock will go up? Again, not really.

Wall Street has the public believing the myth that you must do research; find out everything about a company, its competitors and that industry. Now that you have done that and all the figures say that according to conventional wisdom this is a "good" company does that mean the stock price will go up? Not really. When you do your historical study you will find there is hardly any correlation in price appreciation and the fact it is a "good" company.

Financial research is worthless. If it were wisdom everyone would be rich.

The reason Wall Street brokerage companies insist you do nonsense research is so you won't sue them when their "recommendations" don't make you any money. There is only one thing you really need to know. Is the price of the stock steadily going up? The simple way to do this is to check the weekly closing price for the past several years. You can get this data at the library. If it has a nice steady upward path what more do you need to know? Everything that is known about this company is reflected in the last price transaction. In that price you are seeing all the world's research.

Information per se is not wise. It is the intelligent application of information that is wisdom. Apply your own common sense wisdom. Don't listen to Wall Street.

Al Thomas

Albert W. Thomas has spent most of his life in the field of finance. In 1965 he founded an insurance holding company, Security Dynamics Investment Corporation, after having been an agent and General Agent for several life insurance companies. In 1970 he became cofounder and president of Real Life Estate, Inc., that marketed a unique real estate and life insurance package.

After he became interested in commodities he bought a seat for his personal trading on the Chicago Open Board of Trade, which is now known as the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange. Later he became a full time trader and also acted as a commodity broker for a few select clients. By fellow floor traders Al is considered to be an excellent technical analyst much of which is outlined in his book IF IT DOESN'T GO UP, DON'T BUY IT! It became a best seller on Amazon.

In 1981 he sold his membership on the Exchange and with his wife, Carolyn, lived full time aboard their 41' ketch, the Aumakua (which means guardian angel in Hawaiian). They sailed in Florida and the Bahamas for two years.

He founded World Trading Group in 1984 that grew to the seventh largest introducing commodity brokerage firm in the U.S. with 35 offices from coast to coast, Alaska and Canada. It was sold in 1992.

Al is a graduate of Northwestern University with a B.S. degree in Commerce and is a member of MENSA. He is now president of Williamsburg Investment Company that syndicates his weekly financial column since 1999 to more than 300 newspapers and writes a financial market letter called Over My Shoulder that is quoted in Barron?s and many other publications. A 3-month trial subscription is available on his web site. He is a regular guest on several financial radio talk shows.

His favorite pastime is fishing.

Mr. Thomas is available for speaking engagements. Please call 321-453-5300 for more information.