Decisions

My Yahoo Finance page keeps me posted on the data of the moment at hand.  Earnings releases, economic forecasts and analysis, and indicators continue to flood my senses.  The amount and type of data coming my way is by choice. I would like my investment decisions to be informed. I will not understand everything I see or read.  Having a chance to know is better than ignorance.
 
As I look at housing data, investor confidence, and earnings analysis of companies I have invested in, I find myself holding onto a few simple principles.
 
Seeing life involved the tangible and less so.  Just because a piece of information comes in the form of an opinion or judgment, it does not mean that the information is less valid than raw data.  My support for this view comes in how others far wiser than I have approach results.  When a wisdom father noted how “day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size,”  (Acts 16.5) he was mixing analysis and raw data.
 
Not understanding everything is normal.  The data and information we receive may be incomplete.  The pieces may appear to conflict with each other.  Our view of the data can be uninformed.  Then there are our biases!  Any combination will contribute to one’s confusion.
 
Decisions will be made.  No action is a decision.  Focusing on something else is a decision.  Buying and selling are decisions.  Each moment is in itself a decision about something.
 
We may not be able to control the decisions we make.  As hard as I try, I often fail.  What I can control is what I pay attention to.  I can focus on the core fundamentals.  I can look to trusted sources of information and insight.  I can use the wisdom and help of others. 
 
As I watch the market move in my favor, I find myself returning to God.  Being in relationship requires faith and facts.  The journey has and is filled with mystery.  Each moment is a choice of remaining in God’s embrace or struggling on my own.