“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de St. Exupery

Even with all the filters available, I still receive a lot of email spam. As you might suspect, most begin with “Hey bro” but lately I’ve been getting the kind that announce the “weekly stock pick”. Does this mean there is a growing demand for investment information?

In the most recent Investor newsletter from American Funds, a comparison is made between sports and investing. “In the eyes of most Americans, investing and sports probably have little in common. Sports, although big business is essentially entertainment, while investing, no matter how you slice it is serious business. But you’d never know there was a difference by studying the media these days.”

“Today there seem to be as many magazines, cable news programs and radio talk shows focusing exclusively on investing as on sports. Even the formats are similar — a heavy focus on statistics, a profile of a top performer and maybe a little advice on how one or two shrewd trades will make all the difference. Americans have always loved sports statistics, but the demand for investment information is a more recent phenomenon. The demand has grown as the number of individual investing in the market has increased.”

Just look at all the personal finance blogs that are updated daily. But how do you sort through all the advice when it comes to active financial management? Since I’m on this quest to learn more about investing (aside from real estate), I’ve been doing research and recently found this site: Marketocracy.

“Marketocracy is an investment management and research firm that harnesses a team of the world’s best investors based on a meritocracy. They believe that investment track records matter. Whether you’re looking for stock picks, an outlook on the market, or a fund to invest in, you should know the track records of the people you are listening to.”

“Past performance is not a guarantee of future results” — heard that before? So where do you turn for information about something so complex as picking a stock or a fund. When I flip through the cable channels, I can only listen to Jim Cramer for about 30 seconds before I cringe and think that I’m at the used car lot.

It makes real estate seem easy compared to stocks and mutual funds. You buy a house, find a tenant, generate positive cash flow… rinse and repeat. Any ideas about tipping my toe in the water with other investments?