There's an old saying about the stock market, "A rising tide floats all boats, and a falling tide shows who's swimming naked." We have had a falling tide for some time now, so most investors really do feel like they've been "swimming naked." Over the past ten years there have been massive changes in the way we invest. This means we must also change the way we navigate the investment waters moving forward.

New technology now allows everyone to have the same information instantly while an activist media forces constant negativity on us. As a result, we now have a more volatile and emotionally driven market than ever before. With slower growth, more government spending, and impending inflation, times have changed and investing requires new skills to navigate new markets.

You might say that "sailing markets" exist when the prevailing economic winds are the primary driver of investment returns. When the markets were going up as they did for much of the 80's and 90's, we could sail along by simply raising our sails and allowing the prevailing winds to carry our investments to higher values. "Buy and hold" was king because everyone knew that great stocks like General Motors would always do well.

Today, however, we are faced with "rowing markets." These are markets in which navigating economic and emotional factors require considerable skill and hard work in search of consistent returns. The old buy and hold traditions may need to be replaced with a more nimble buy-hold-sell strategy. Diversification may need to include "hard asset" alternatives that do not trade on emotion such as real estate, natural gas, commodities, and precious metals. And most of all we need to tune out the noise that surrounds us and redefine our own navigational goals. After all, who wants to climb out of the water and realize they've been swimming naked?