Customer Reviews

How to Make Money in Stocks: Desk Diary 2005

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had the 2004 version of the O'Neil desk diary, and I loved it. This version looks just as good. Another review on Amazon is highly critical of O'Neil and his investing methods. I will admit, learning how to invest with patience and hard work is probably not for everyone. This is not a "get-rich-quick" scheme. But if you want to really learn how the market works and how to find the best stocks in the world, this diary and a subscription to Investor's Business Daily will get you on your way. And the price is too good to pass up.

Like so many of the recent changes at IBD, the new IBD 2005 Desk Diary falls short. It is poorly constructed and the informative content of the newest diary is less than half of the 2004 version. Also, whereas the excellent format of the pages in the 2004 version was designed to help traders/investors in tracking their potential stock picks, the 2005 looks like an ordinary calender. It is essentially useless.

I'm a long-time subscriber to IBD. Considering the horrible format changes to the newspaper, I'm not at all surprised to see the 2005 Desk Diary has gone the way of the dogs.

O'Neil is the author of some fine books on investing and that is why I jumped at the chance to purchase this new diary-type book.
My evaluation follows.
Pros:
1) There is a small paragraph of good investing advice for every day of the year(2004 only). For example: "Don't trade on news... it can shake you out. Understand the company and how they are really doing before reacting to a single news item on the company."
2) It's spiral-bound, which makes it very easy to write in.
3) Nice small size makes it unobstrusive in your briefcase.

Cons:
1) With two days on each page, there is very little room to write anything of substance. Just barely enough space to jot down 'Stocks to watch' & 'Today's Trades' on the small lines provided.
2) No factual information included from the authors past books. Only contains "Quotes", which probably aren't even his.

In closing, I will have to recommend:
"The Stock Trader's Almanac 2004"

but don't think about writing anything on it since you won't find space in the pages to do it.
And be careful with the 2004 calendar in the back pages, since they forgot it's a leap year and February proudly displays 28 days. Let's hope the graphs are more accurate

This book is one of the very first investment/trading books I read when I start trading in the beginning of the bull market of 2003. And I thought it is a great book with a great system and I made myself a believer too. But as I read more and more, and expanded my experiences and knowledge in the markets, I realized this book is nothing but a marketing brochure for his IBD. Without IBD, you can't do anything (I was a subscriber). The articles on the newspaper are poorly written. His method is nothing other than buying breakout, you can find this information on the web for FREE. He failed to emphasize on where to set stop and limit your risk, the 7% or 8% is too general. He failed to explain when to move the stop up, and where. Failed where to get out. Just named a few. If you interest in learning how to buy breakout, where to set stop, and when to move up the stop, I recommend Nicolas Darvas's books.

FYI: O'neil started 2 funds, and both were forced to sold out. And the last one happened in the raging bull of the 90s.