24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success
I got this book in early 2002 for free. I didn’t really read the book until this year, after subscribed to IBD. If I have read the book cover to cover 5 years ago, I might have retired by now. 
(Of course, that’s impossible given the fact that I was worth nothing at that time.)
As the founder of Investor’s Business Daily, William O’Neil really understands the stock market inside out. He points out that the stock market is largely controlled by institutions. When institutions are interested in a stock, the stock will go up and vice versa. There are certain conditions for institutions to pick up stocks. Thus, it is very important to buy quality stocks. The quality could be measured by fundamentals, such as the company’s past earning reports, or technical indicators, such as relative price strength.
In the book, William further discloses the buy indicators and sell indicators of stocks, and the top and bottom of stock market as general. If people read the book before the Internet burst in 2000, they could’ve easily escaped the market’s downfall. Unfortunately, the book was published in late 2000. Given its cheap price, it is the investment book having the best of investment!
In deed, William’s methods are so successful that a lot of people have largely benefited from IBD.
He (an old man) told the audience (in an IBD seminar) he had attended a seminar back in the mid-1980s when we mentioned Home Depot. At that point, and after doing his homework, he purchased 1,000 shares of Home Depot. This time he was back to ask me what he should do with his Home Depot. (It has only split eight times!) I (William O’Neil) told him to go buy himself a Cadillac and enjoy it.
Here are the 24 essential lessons from the book:
- What every investor should know going in
- Getting started: there’s no time like the present!
- Follow a system rather than your emotion
- Fundamental analysis or technical analysis?
- First among fundamentals: earnings and sales
- Relative price strength: a key technical tool
- Know a stock by the company it keeps
- The importance of volume and sponsorship
- How to buy at just the right moment
- How chart patterns lead to big profits
- How to read stock charts like a pro
- How to gauge the stock market’s health
- How to spot when the market hits a top
- How to spot when the market bottoms
- Putting the stock-picking puzzle together
- How to find new investment ideas in Investor’s Business Daily
- Growth vs. value investing
- Don’t try to be a jack-of-all-trades
- What’s the right mix for your portfolio?
- Sell rules every investor should master
- More sell rules investor should master
- How to make a million with mutuals
- Too busy? How to use Investor’s Business Daily in twenty minutes
- How to make the most of Investor’s Business Daily, Investors.com, and other online resouces
