How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition

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Summary: Important Reading For Growth Investors
Review: Using a computer database, William J. O'Neil selected over 500 stocks that had the greatest increase in share price for the calendar years from 1953 through 1993. He then analyzed these stocks in detail and determined 7 characteristics that they all had in common, which he refers to with the acronym CANSLIM: C = current quarterly earnings per share (should show a major % increase compared to the prior year's same quarter); A = annual earnings - look for meaningful growth; N = new products, new management, new highs; S = supply and demand - small capitalization plus volume demand; L = leader in the industry; I = institutional sponsorship - a little goes a long way; and M = market direction. The above points alone make the book worth reading. He also advises investors to avoid penny stocks and to follow a disciplined approach to investing. He points out that buying stocks during a bear market is not easy to do based on human nature (even experienced investors sometimes succumb to exaggerated doom and gloom in the media combined with emotional recommendations from newsletters or full service brokerage firms and sell). Nevertheless, buying sound growth stocks near the end of a bear market can obviously be very profitable for investors whom Mr. O'Neil describes as "having a feel for the market". Mr. O'Neil downplays the fact that taxes and commissions have a negative impact on the real returns that are achievable with a market timing strategy. In fairness to him, professional money management is a highly competitive business wherein managers are often judged on short-term performance (similar to managers of college and professional sports' teams). Many money managers view commissions and taxes as the clients' responsibility and, through the manner in which they are evaluated, are forced to avoid topics such as return as a function of risk, tax efficiency or after-tax performance. Academicians would point out that most scientific studies indicate that a non-diversified portfolio based on market timing and technical analysis, as advocated by Mr. O'Neil, is risky. Since many successful investors (the most famous example being Warren Buffett) believe that there is a role for value investing, a buy and hold strategy and portfolio diversification, investors who are interested in culling pearls from How to Make Money in Stocks should also consider reading at least one of the following important books on investing: 1. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel; 2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham; 3. Beating the Dow, 1992: A High-Return, Low-Risk Method for Investing in the Dow Jones Industrial Stocks with as Little as $5,000 by Michael O'Higgins and John Downes; 4. The Dividend Investor by Harvey C. Knowles, III and Damon H. Petty; and 5. What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time by James P. O'Shaughnessy. Reviews of the above books can be found at the web site that you're already at: the best discount bookstore on the internet.

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Summary: Buy this book !
Review: This book is, without a doubt, the best common-sense book I have yet read on investing in common stocks (and I have read MANY). Although I don't feel O'Neil tries to hype his newspaper (Investors Business Daily) in the book, he does mention it a lot. The reason I say this is because so many other stock market books are really just a bunch of hype to get you to subscribe to investment services, attend seminars, ect. This book is none of that. It is straightforward, common sense ideas stated in terms that can be understood. However, I do feel perfectly comfortable reccomending IBD, I don't think any other financial publication comes close to IBD in quality (even the venerable WSJ). Do yourself a service, buy and read this book and subscribe to IBD. It is money WELL spent !

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Summary: Best investment book
Review: This is THE BEST Investment book that I ever read. Everyone out there investing in stocks should read it first. The Investors Business Daily Newspaper is best used with this book. GET ONE TODAY and the newspaper. The ideas really do work and in most cases save your from picky bad stocks.

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Summary: Revolutionary!
Review: After reading for years about investing in stocks, and trying many methods, no book could completely answer these nagging questions: am I buying at the right price, how do I know when to sell, and why is this stock better than all the others? "How to Make Money in Stocks" answered all three! This book is a study manual. It has revolutionized my investing methods!

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Summary: Make $ with this book!
Review: Best common-sense guide to growth stock investing I've seen yet. Use it and win.

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Summary: The best book I've read on how to make money in stocks.
Review: I'm only writing a review because I consider it the best book ever written on how to make money in stocks. This book will stand the test of time

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Summary: A must read for all investors!!!
Review: By far one of the best written and easy to understand book on investing. Mr. O'Neal has taken the myth out of consistant winning on Wall Street. His approach is a far cry from that of the main stream think on Wall Street. An absolute must read

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Summary: The best you'll find.
Review: This is the best system you'll find anywhere. I originally worked as a broker for a firm that followed the Bill O'Neil philosophy and that firm made $$ for their clients consistently. Now I follow this system and trade for my own accounts with even better results. My last stock, TASR, was up roughly 100% (much more on margin) in one month and I found this stock by using the fundamental & technical analysis that I've learned through Investors Business Daily along with dailygraphs (www.dailygraphs.com). His strategy of cutting losses quick and letting winners ride is necessary to preserve capital and maximize gains. AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) rated this as the best performing strategy over several years period.

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Summary: Start smart
Review: 1] One of the best bangs for your buck; more detailed than any other top trader interviewed by Jack Schwager.
2] Explains tech analysis better than most & Cliff Droke does also ; gems like novices want to much with too little work.
3]Explains buy high & sell higher- warning about overhead resistance,which may not matter much in strong bull market.

4]Overhead RESISTANCE is like you see a traffic jam UP ahead, so you turn around with your money in you wallet now.Overhead resistanse looks like a traffic jam on charts and some investors turned around [sold], because of congestion, & lack of progress in a reasonable, well measured time period.

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Summary: Blasting the myths off!
Review: You can't beat 50 years of research and most of it hands on. Unlike other research that just analyzes past data without ever getting hands dirty, successful investor and founder of Investor Business Daily's William O' Neal presents what most fundamentals-only and value investors find hard to believe - average cost up; forget low p/e stocks, don't buy and hold forever, technical analysis matters as much as fundamental analysis, markets can be timed, etc. The list gets more incredible for such investors.

After investing for more than 8 years, I happened to find this book. I don't blame myself, instead I consider myself fortunate - better late than never! The CANSLIM approach sure sounds like good investing criteria to seive out possible candidates, but that is not all. The key is to identify when to buy stocks and when to sell them. You will learn about pivot points - points when to buy stocks - along with high quality criteria to consider before buying.

While I started of as a fundamental and value investor, I have slowly started to pay attention to technicals and that has paid off more. Thus this book has more relevance at this stage of my investing career.

The first part of the book clearly explains the CAN SLIM approach with numerous examples and first hand accounts of big-wigs failing ignoring market signals. The second part is the gem - it highlights nineteen common mistakes most investors make, when to sell and cut losses, when to sell and take profits, etc. Even if you don't believe in the CANSLIM approach, this part is a must read for any investor. The last part gives you sound advice including how to use IBD and the web site to identify winning stocks, examples of great winners of the past with extensive chart analysis.

If you are just beginning to invest and find it hard to believe in this approach, just follow one of the rules in the book - don't take more than a 7-8% loss. That alone will keep you up from the most common misery in investing. If you are convinced, however, let this book not be just another book you read. There is too much practical advice to ignore. However, keep in mind - this book is about buying the right stock at the right time. The timing is key here; very, very few people can time it right most of the times. Good luck, anyway!