Gary Kinder the author of Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, Random House, NY, 1998 essentially wrote 3 stories in one  – the first one a description of turn off the century California when gold was discovered. Then the story of the travels between the ports of New York and San Francisco with a stop through the Panama Canal, together with the reports of what the hurricane was similar to. The next story is the person who discovers methods and ways to search for the gold – an amazing creative engineering mine of Tommy Thompson who has to make discoveries to work in the deep oceans. The last chapters are what happens when gold or valuables are discovered. Who do they belong to and who should see them?

The first part of the story deals with the California gold rush – at a time when people made a few dollars a day, just by dipping a pan into a river could give you thousands of dollars, there was vast numbers of people who went to California to try their luck. It would be similar to buying a lottery ticket, many try only a few succeed but there are stories everywhere. The people went over the rivers and many found something – most not as much as they wanted but they found enough to change their previous lives. The story of the SS Central America was the story of the successful ones and at a time of gold prices at $20 an ounce, when the ship went down; the bars were worth the cost of the trip.

If you look at the ocean, you will see that it is big and even if you know the story well, where would the ship be? The method Tommy Thompson used was to gather as much information as possible – press reports, court hearings, survivors accounts and build a matrix. In addition to the reports, he needed to try to understand the ocean, currents, the terms which people used and build up a knowledge based on the journey. The matrix became known as the Data Correlation Matrix taking up a wall – if you watch Sherlock Holmes TV show – you often see a matrix on the wall.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there is a numerous methods to gather information and the internet has made it easier. For your investments, you will continue to monitor the industry to ensure you know when to move to alternatives. The first step is to decide on which stocks, then ensure you understand how the companies make a profit; and the next stage is the easier part – the monitoring.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.