Rating: 
Summary: Solid foundation to begin your investing education
Review: If you are a beginner or a novice, this book can introduce to the market and give you one view on how to make money trading. This was the first book I read to learn about stock trading. It has important lessons that can come cheaply if you just listen to them out of the book (Buy rules, sell rules, etc...). I would have saved thousands had I just followed the simple rule of selling at an 8% cut off point. It has taken me over 5 years along with thousands of dollars in unnecessary losses to round out my education, but this book should be helpful for anyone who wants to learn short to intermediate term trading. If you combine O'Neil's theories with your own ideas and throw in some technical analysis and hard work, you can be well on your way to riches. For charting, check out tc2000.com, great software. I saw one review ripping on technical analysis and the guy said he was a professional. Technical analysis should be used for buying and selling in my opinion; otherwise you are just letting chance and instinct determine when you buy and sell. This book will give you a brief idea of charting and technical analysis but if you want a more detailed description check out Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by Edwards and Magee.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book but true Novices Beware.
Review: This is a great book from a man who obviously knows investing from experience (he has been successful). The book describes investing in Value stocks (moderate to high price stocks in steady companies) using technical analysis. Patterns of successful stocks in history are reviewed and a system for choosing winning stocks is explain using detailed company information and charts. If you don't like math or don't want to spend time weekly reviewing your investments, this book is probably not for you. Ture novice investors (like myself) BEWARE. Mr O'Neil does not describe many of the basic concepts he discusses in his book. I found myself becoming frustrated in several chapters as he discussed terms like "price consolidation", "overhead supply","upside buypoint", "pivot point", etc. After reading the book, I went and bought a more basic book (The Neatest Little Guide...5 Stars) to help me as a true novice. In summary, I am glad I purchased the book. I now understand the investing viewpoint from a Value/Technical investor as well as the patterns of past winning stocks.
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Summary: Should be titled INVESTING 101
Review: This book is one of the greatest stock market investing primers that I have ever seen. You know, if you want to drive a car, you need to get a license on how to drive a car. WHY? Because the Government says so. (That's because it's a matter of life and death and the government wants to protect you) When it comes to investing, it's not that way. While I am not proposing the government to tell you what to read, (I love the freedom that I am provided with in the USA) I must say that people should become more learned about investments before putting their hard earned money in stocks. I watched too many people BET their life savings on the stock market during the late 1990's, only to be heartbroken and dead broke when the bubble crashed. Reading books like this one, and applying its principles--will help you become a winning stock market investor. Highly recommended. Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated
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Summary: The Book I Started Trading With...
Review: Ten years ago, this book probably launched tens of thousands of eager investors on a journey towards riches. Two years ago, it probably ruined thousands more. I'm not saying that O'Neil's methodology doesn't work. In fact, I have great respect for O'Neil and this book because it launched me on my journey into the markets just a few years ago. The only drawback is that this methodology works best in a bull market environment. When you hit a persistent bear market like we've seen for nearly 2 years now, you are basically sitting in cash spending endless hours looking for that perfect stock to break out of a long-term consolidation. If you don't have the time to search chart-after-chart every night for the perfect setup then you should try a great investment book I just heard about called the 401(k) MarketBuster. The 401(k) MarketBuster will probably find you the same, or better, account returns in the long-run that you'd find with intermediate-term trading; at a fraction of the research time (literally minutes a year). If you are like me and have the time and inclination to learn more about the markets so you can find that elusive "perfect" setup to trade (Lord help you), then you might want to take a look at Dave Landry's book on swing trading. It will offer you more opportunities more often.
Rating: 
Summary: mixed bag
Review: On the one hand, O'Neil's method seems reasonable to me. He says that to make money you have to buy growth stocks, and you also have to attempt to judge when the market is improving vs. getting worse. You cut your losses when you're wrong, and don't worry about them, because your real goal is to make sure you are in there, in the right stocks, when the big money is made, as for example in the 1998-2000 market. (Now I just told you everything of value in the book, so you don't have to buy it.) On the other hand, O'Neil himself apparently couldn't work his system very well. He ran a growth fund which he was forced to close. He makes his money off his newspaper and books, not investing. His two early scores, heavily trumpeted in his books, could easily just be luck. Furthermore, in his book he constantly touts his newspaper, IBD. Now, I subscribed to IBD for a year, and I can tell everyone that there is no way you can use the information in IBD to assist you in investing. The stock ratings still leave hundreds of stocks for you to plow through. The "stocks in the news" also include too many stocks to work with. "New America" is the same...too many companies. And as a newspaper, IBD is a joke. The English is at the "See Dick Run" level and the world news is stuffed into a few columns. Here is my advice: get the book from the library or from someplace free. Do not pay for it, further lining O'Neil's pockets.
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Summary: Invest comfortably
Review: I have been investing in the stock market since 1998. I've made my share and lost my share. However, it was always a chaotic affair. I wasn't investing based on anything solid, it was just going with the market. Besides who could lose in the 90's? Then came 2000 and 2001.
Lucky for me I ran into this book and let me tell you something, it has made me comfortable with the way I invest. I don't need to keep up with the market every minute and I don't stress as much. I also understand better how to read graphs and how to interpret market activities. A book well worth it.
It does mention the Investors Business Daily paper a lot because they publish it but it's a worthy paper also so I don't see anything wrong with that.
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Summary: sparse on some concepts, but relevant in bull markets
Review: First, I would have to comment that the criticism about IBD as a normal newspaper is unfair. Its analysis and opinions are encapsulated in the numbers, systematically compiled for any common stocks worth considering as investments. Any individual investor would see that at one dollar, IBD is a bargain. "How to Make Money in Stocks" is the guide to understanding the ratings of IBD, as well as a clear introduction to O'Neill's investing philosophy. The prevailing market conditions are very important to the success of CANSLIM, and reviews of the book written in the depths of the 2000-2002 stock funk may be colored indeed. I, too, had some questions about "pivot points," etc. that seem sparsely described. This is because you are supposed to look at the charts. If this isn't enough, look at more charts (the book has plenty). "Pivot points" and "accumulation" are not exact concepts, so one has to practice looking at the chart and acquire an understanding of these concepts. "How to Make Money in Stocks" is one of those rare books that relies on the graphical presentation of data as much as copy writing to communicate its sometimes fuzzy ideas. This book is superb at describing the CANSLIM method on analysis, which can be done these days with free internet sources. An excellent description for novices of investing research. My advice would be to pick up this book, read it, buy a copy of IBD, and keep track of ten or so stocks for 60 days or so. If the market goes up and these stocks don't, look for a better method. If you need more comforting words in the newspaper to guide your money decisions, drop this stuff and hire some investment professional.
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Summary: A GREAT SYSTEM FOR PROFITS . WANT ANOTHER GREAT SYSTEM?
Review: I have now read all 3 editions of this book, and find the author to have a safe method for making money based on increasing sales volume and a great method for stopping losses. There is another lesser know author who has a slightly different system, and guarantees $5,000 if you do not make money using his system. If you are interested in exploring another very profitable system, get hold of the book: GUARANTEED PROFITS WITH SMALL STOCKS by R. Max Bowser. He is like William O'Neal in that he has a method to sell your stocks if they begin to go downwards. Except, Max offers a $5,000 guarantee if you lose money with his methods of investing. Max also has two earlier books. His most popular book, which greatly refines his methods is MAKING DOLLARS WITH PENNIES: HOW THE SMALL INVESTOR CAN BEAT THE WIZARDS ON WALL STREET. Max Bowser had so many people writing to him of their successes, that he wrote their stories of stock market success in another book titled PENNY STOCK WINNERS: TRUE STORIES OF SUCCESSFUL INVESTORS. Before writing this review, I checked to confirm that all three of Max's books are currently in print, and available from Amazon and Amazon Marketplace. These two authors seem to have the best methods for making profits and cutting losses of any other authors that I have read in the financial investing world.
Rating: 
Summary: Piling on to winning stock
Review: "How to Make Money in Stocks" is a good book to get started with, but all evidence shows that piling on to stocks that are breaking out won't maximize your investment dollars. Research shows that investing off of pullbacks in stocks is how to make the most money. The stock is already trending up -- like O'Neil recommends -- but you time your purchase when a stock starts moving up again after a short downturn. "Dave Landry on Swing Trading" is probably the best book on explaining how to implement this trading strategy that objective statistics have shown is more profitable than mindlessly piling on to winning stocks.
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Summary: A Winning System? Yes Indeed!
Review: For the novice growth stock investor, this book is a godsend. In this easy to read book, Mr. O'Neil gives you the benefit of his knowledge and experience trading stocks since the 1960s. He lived it, studied it, and shared his knowledge and experiences. What impressed me is this system is not an off-the-cuff observation but was built using computer data that goes back to the fifties. As a novice investor who decided to get into the wild and wooly world of growth stocks, this book is my bible. I refer to it daily, along with my Investor's Business Daily subscription, and have made big gains. My trading account it in the black and my big winner yielded 90%!
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