More an observation and warning sign than anything else but, following my trawl for information at the end of 2012, I subscribed (probably on New Years Eve), to an e-mail alert service specifically for news flow on Apple.
But, whilst the news flow is constant and seemingly from informed sources, it is already driving me nuts.
Working on the basis that most private investors are constantly battling the paranoia that someone else always knows more, and sooner than we do. It would also appear that the constant flow of information makes it all too easy to create a picture that either supports or undermines one's personal view.
Which raises the risk of a potentially hair triggered response to the next piece of speculation.
The easy, mechanical access to information, coupled with the near instant access from always online platforms, really does increase the potential for information overload that can supplant your own thoughts and undermine your confidence.
For me at least, I can see that it becomes very difficult to separate factual argument from speculative opinion which, with little time to consider and filter it all (before the next piece comes along), begins to garner a dependency to this instant fix of information (and perceived to be better knowledge), which leaves little room for your own thoughts.
But if we are unable to separate fact from speculation in this spoon fed environment, then it can prove a challenge not to doubt yourself and your own thoughts.
Meanwhile, there is the swelling illusion that you are in a privileged position to react to what you begin to believe is time sensitive information even if it overrides your personal view i.e. sell before anybody else does.
This potentially unthinking dependency, and any immediate response, is the exact polar opposite approach to the one I have tried to take by investing on a longer term horizon.
It also re-enforces my questioning of personal objectives and gains from the constant slew of speculative opinion, with each seeming to be more ground breaking than the last in an attempt to be heard.
So having worked hard to adopt this long term approach, this really is something that I need to keep an eye on in order to avoid it affecting my decisions by prompting a potentially damaging sell response to "Defcon 1".
It brings to mind the final scenes of the film Crimson Tide where the crew of a damaged nuclear submarine is cut-off from central command communications in the midst of a "situation".
The crew ultimately splits into 2 led factions attempting to take control in order to enforce their view of the situation.
One side wants to react to the last piece of information received (despite it being incomplete), by firing off a what it thinks to be a retaliatory nuclear response, but the second group wants to wait (for fear of it being pre-emptive and potentially self-destructive), whilst communication is restored in order to get a clearer picture of the situation.
Press the button or hold fire then.
I won't tell you how the film ends but, to my mind, the "chain of command" is very much the information dependency in this situation and the cut-off communication creates the paranoia (someone knows more), to the point where a worst case scenario picture is created by speculating on the gaps in the last partial piece of information.
In the context of this post, it also doesn't help that the information is very narrow and specific to one company so you are not being balanced, and re-energised, by opinions and views on other companies/sectors etc.
At the end of the day performance is also relative so it seems right to need diversification in information as well.
So after only a few days of this mental battering, I am already debating the merits of unsubscribing but will probably persevere now that I have recognized the issue and can turn things down a notch to Defcon 2.
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