WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE...LUCKY OR SMART?

Have you ever been asked this question before? Lucky people tend to be lucky all the time. They can sit back in a chair and generally have little to worry about. In a job hunt they are selected before others, in playing a game they are chosen for a winning team, and they even know the right time to ride the train and get a seat. A smart person, on the other hand, may have both knowledge and street smarts but may not get a seat on the train or be chosen for a job, despite their talents, skills, or education. It simply is not in the cards.

Then there are those of us that are able to work smart and hard and appear to be lucky. Last year our track record of 78% winning ideas and average performance of 41.34% did not come from just luck but from skills, dedication, and lots and lots of hard work. 

Recently one of our readers called me and asked how we are able to find ideas, in a tough market environment, many of which tend to move right after we suggest them. Yesterday we suggested an idea on NCR Corp. ($NCR), which opened slightly lower and then took off, closing 10.7% higher and still below the best levels of the day. It isa lot of hard work.

We have created proprietary programs and systems that screen for certain parameters. The computers narrow the names for us but then we dig in, get the finger nails dirty, and look for accumulation or distribution and attempt to isolate the best of the best, narrowing the lists from what might be a hundred or so items down to half a dozen. It takes time, effort, and a lot of drive...oh and maybe some little bit of luck!

So, if you have a set of skills and work hard on them you might be lucky too!