There's a chapter in one of my books on Warren Buffet's investing strategies entitled, "Mr. Market and the Lemmings". It's a discussion about the herd mentality where a few people will lead and the rest will simply follow without thinking for themselves. As you're probably aware, this psychology applies equally well to everything in life and not just the markets.
Recently I have been doing a lot of reading - firstly regarding Apple speculation, and rumours and "just recently":http://trading.alexpooley.com/articles/2006/01/19/iranian-oil-bourse about the Iranian oil bourse/nuclear issue. After reading so much about certain topics it was like being backstage in a circus. I could not believe the amount of incorrect or misleading information I found - too numerous to count. With some of this from so called "credible" news sources. At the end of the day the reported news is still from some person doing the work because it's their job. Sometimes you have no choice but to trust what people say, but do your own research when you can.
If you want to stand out from the crowd, do your homework. There's a belief among many people that the crowd knows best. There are books about that stuff! Out of interest, people who back this logic often sight a supposed true story about a man at a fair that asked people to guess the weight of a cow standing behind him. The guesses varied wildly but after he tallied the guesses he found the "average" guess was really close to the actual weight of the cow. What a bunch of crap. Quote me on that.
Take a chance and stand out from the crowd!