60 Minutes

I understand that this evening, a new medicine intended to help people in recovery from mthamphetamine addiction with make the ultimate media splash for such a product. It will be featured on a segment of the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

The drug is called Prometa, and the company benefitting from the publicity splash is Hythiam Inc.

I'm mentioning it only to give my readers the benefit of a quick warning. Look before you leap. When news like this hits, there's a temptation to want to jump on the train. But the market may have alrady discounted the potential market value of this particular locomotive. Surely the recent dramatic run-up in its stock price suggests as much. It suggests that there's no bargain to be had here by jumping on the caboose.

More generally, for most people in most circumstances, my own bias is that "stock picking" is an expensive avocation. Stick to broad indexes -- the more passively managed the better.

And, of course, don't take seriously any advice on investing you get on internet blogs. Though I'm happy to imagine you've at least read all the way through this bit of it.