Kass: Too Much Tumult

This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver on Aug. 1 at 7:17 a.m. EDT.

In Maine, this weekend, Leen's Lodge is hosting the Annual Kansas City Shadow Fed/Maine Fishing Trip, which is run by the estimable David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors.

Here are some recaps of last year's event from Barron's and from attendee Barry Ritholtz.

I was invited and would have loved to attend and schmooze with smart guys, like Steve Liesman and Ritholtz, but opted not to because, quite frankly, I decided that there is simply too much tumult and too many opportunities in the financial markets these days. After all, three out of the four trading days this week experienced 200-point daily moves in the DJIA.

My primary focus remains managing my hedge fund. All other professional obligations are of secondary importance. In times like these, manning my trading desk remains my first, second and third primary responsibilities.

Volatility remains on the ascent as the economy continues to decelerate to uncertain levels of activity.

The debate in the stock market continues to be whether the schmeissing of share prices has discounted the continued stress in the credit markets and the aforementioned deceleration in corporate profit and economic growth.

Yesterday's month-end culminated in a marking down, not a marking up. Nevertheless, I feel that the week's price action had a lack of conviction and uncertainty associated with it, so "school is still out" regarding what the trend might be.

From my perch, it's still a period of time to err on the side of conservatism and to take advantage of the market's volatility.

Back to the tapes -- this time, it's my assessment of the ramifications of the Toscafund filing on Washington Mutual (WM Quote) on CNBC yesterday.

Too many investors/traders, it seems, frame their arguments with faulty data, which is a recipe for investment failure.

Doug Kass writes daily for RealMoney Silver, a premium bundle service from TheStreet.com. For a free trial to RealMoney Silver and exclusive access to Mr. Kass' daily trading diary, please click here.