1. A method of optimizing a network of filters for extracting real-time, high-value information from a stream of packets, comprising: at a computer system including a plurality of processors and memory storing programs for execution by the processors: receiving a filter graph definition, wherein the filter graph definition includes a plurality of filter nodes, each filter node including one or more filters that accept or reject packets, wherein each respective filter is categorized by a number of operations, and wherein the one or more filters are arranged in a general graph; performing one or more optimization operations, including: determining if a closed circuit exists within the graph, and when the closed circuit exists within the graph, removing the closed circuit; reordering the filters based at least in part on the number of operations; and parallelizing the general graph such that the one or more filters are configured to be executed on one or more processors.