Customer Reviews

Beat the Market: Invest by Knowing What Stocks to Buy and What Stocks to Sell

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3 star:		(6)
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Although I would like to applaud the book and not wind up in the position of "reviewing the reviews", a little of both is necessary. I bought the book on the strength of 6 very positive reviews. But I have to wonder about these reviews.

The book makes it very clear that results from this method could not be achieved quickly. A good testing window would be a minimum of 3 to 6 months. The book was published in 9/2008. Some of the reviews were written in less than 3 months. I find it very hard to believe that these people: 1) tested the methods in the book; and 2) achieved positive results in that time frame. It would be especially hard to achieve positive results, given what most stocks were doing between 9/2008 and 2/2009.

On the author's web site as of today (4/9/09) it is clear that very minimally positive results have been achieved in the last 6 months from the best of the 3 methods outlined in the book. Add to that the fact that in the book, there are numerous spelling and grammatical errors, plus an error in captioning one of the more important charts, plus a few typos thrown in for good measure.

I'm sure that Mr. Kirkpatrick is a learned and accomplished person, and it's very likely his systems have achieved positive results. However, given the extremely shoddy proofreading, one has to wonder about the actual level of attention to detail in the content of this book.

To be sure, I plan on taking up the author on one of his recommendations, and paper trading using his admittedly best system, in real time. It's possible I will subscribe to the newsletter he liberally touts in the book. But I wanted to add a more realistic opinion of the book, and of the process by which I purchased the book, to Amazon's review collection. No one should buy this book based on the 6 highly positive reviews previous to this one, without knowing that there may be a few warning signs lurking between the lines.

The book is short ans succinct in describing his investment philosophy and methodology. Easy to understand and a quick read. I was able to duplicate his Bargain List results using a backtesting website called Portfolio123.com. Keep in mind that Kirkpatrick advocates the use of an overal portfolio filter to determine whether and how much you should be in the market. This is regardless what his stock screen is telling you to buy. Reason is his individual stock selection and disposition method, although will outperform the market over a cycle if fully invested at all times, can have some fearsome drawdowns in a short period of time when the overall market is in correction mode. This was borne out by my portfolio123 backtesting. So if you are sure the market is in a bull market, his methodology does really well. But you need to have portfolio-level risk management in place to control the losses.

I read the previous book Kirkpatrick co-authored, "Technical Analysis," and so when I saw that he had a new book, I ordered it at once. It arrived on a Saturday morning. I started reading it and didn't get up -- couldn't get up -- until I finished it. I've read many books on the stock market. I only need this book to make money. Kirkpatrick is a leader in his studies of relative strength investing. (Several pages are devoted to his methods in Robert Colby's "The Encyclopedia of Technical Market Indicators.") He has been trading his techniques for 30 years and the results are astounding -- far outperforming the market. His approaches are as simple and straight-forward as they are powerful. Moreover, nothing is proprietary. I am able to duplicate his methods myself without needing to subscribe to his newsletter, even though I do subscribe because I enjoy it. I particularly recommend his chapter on market timing -- how to avoid getting caught in the horrors of a bear market such as we are experiencing now. I highly recommend this book.

Charles Kirkpatrick is one of a select few who provides individual investors a valid method to outperform the market. There is so much crap out there - from popular investing shows to investment advisors - all there to simply entertain you, or worse yet, to take your money. New stock market investors have a hard time grasping the fact that the market is not here to make them money, it is here to take their money. If you are going to successfully invest in individual stocks you must learn to play with the pros. You absolutely need a valid stock selection method and buy and sell rules. All of these are provided in this book. From a time investment vs. performance yield perspective this book ranks at the top of the list.

To implement the methods presented in this book the reader has a couple of simple choices. You can subscribe to the author's weekly newsletter for 195/yr (an incredible bargain), or if you prefer more of the DIY approach you can subscribe to a data source charting service, such as, High Growth Stock investor or Telechart. Either which way you will be using a method that puts you into winning stocks and gets you out when they start underperforming, locking in profits. Forget buy low sell high platitudes. You want to buy high and sell higher. You're almost certainly not going to outguess institutional money with their resources and researh teams, so don't play that game. Trying to do so is a low probability proposition for the average investor. Buying low also means buying stocks that the institutional investors find unattractive - that's a big clue. If institutional investors want a stock you want it because their large volume purchasing pushes the price up. If they don't want it you don't want it. It is as simple as that. The relative strength methods presented in this book will put you into stocks that institutional money is buying.

Are you an investor managing a brokerage account, IRA or 401k, but don't know much about how to make money in indivual stocks and are afraid to learn? Are you stuck in mutual funds and tired of their fees and lackluster performance? Are you willing to do just a little work on weekends to adjust your portfolio? This book is perfect for you.

This is arguably the best investment book I have read (and I read quite few). Very well written and right to the point. Original ideas and points of view can be found on every page. After reading several chapters I signed up to the author's newsletter and ordered his previous book "Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians". Looking forward to reading this one.

First of all, I want to say that I really enjoyed reading Charles Kirkpatrick's book Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians. I was thoroughly looking forward to reading this book. However, after reading it, I felt somewhat dissatisfied. The first 6 or 7 beginning chapters were all fluff about market philosophy and mistakes investors make (amateur traders may get some good pointers out of it, however), and the last half of the book I already knew about from reading O'Shaughnessy's books. Kirkpatrick did add some of his own pointers which were interesting, but I did get a little turned off that everything led up to the reader subscribing to his newsletter.

Anyway, I will try a couple of pointers he had in this book for my own methods, but I do have to say, I was a little let down by Kirkpatrick - especially since the last book was so resourceful to my trading strategy.

I really enjoyed this book. It has minimal fluff, about 90% of it is useful information, and is not unnecessarily long (I read it in about 4 hours). This book presents a surprisingly simple system that the investor can use (or for $200 annually can subscribe to the author's newsletter where he'll do all the work for you) with surprisingly effective results. The system is based on ranking relative strength percentiles of securities against each other based on price and in some cases a fundamental criteria, and buying the stock if it meets the criteria (which is clearly outlined) and selling the stock once it meets other criteria (which is again clearly outlined). The system has been walk-forward tested, which means a computer ran it on its own for 17 years, which eliminated any look-back bias and the results are simply stunning. Also, all the results are clearly explained and accompanied by figures in the book which makes it only that much more clear and convincing.

Mr. Kirkpatrick is very accomplished in the field of Technical Analysis and having this nugget of wisdom available to the individual investor is pretty nice. Now, I must say that I have not actually tested the results claimed in the book for myself, but assuming the author is not misleading us, which would be pretty devastating to his credibility, I can say the results are easily duplicated and as a result this is one investment book that is staying on my bookshelf.

This is one of the 10 best books on investing or trading I have ever read. I enjoyed it so much that I actually went back and researched Robert Levy's groundbreaking 1968 study on relative strength (which by the way was roundly dismissed at the time). A touch of class by Kirkpatrick to give Levy much of the credit and to have dedicated the book to him. A much easier read in my opinion than Michael Carr's book on RS. I read this on a plane trip from STL to KC which should tell you something about it's lack of pretense. Big Hat tip to Pradeep at the terrific "Stockbee" site for recommending this one.

This book is a rare find in the abundant population of investment literature. The author shares technical and strategic thoughts based on his vast experience, as well as providing a very precise and efficient system. Two points contribute to the value of this book. First, the author explains his system rationale based on both academic studies and his own personal research/experience. Second, the application of the system is provided with detail and precise indications on how to use it. Basically, the "why" and "how to" make the depth of this unique book. Highly recommended!

I've read a lot of investment/trading books over the years and this one is at the top. Do not let the 156 pages and $15 price tag fool you. This book, IMO is more important and valuable than many books 3 times as much and 5 times the size. There is a wealth of information on each and every page by someone who has been in the business for over 40 years. If you are an investor or trader, I strongly recommend getting this book, you won't be dissapointed. The simplicity of the method is backed by years and years of research.