Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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107 of 114 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat idealistic, but lots of good tools, March 23, 2002
I read this book about 10 years ago and generally gained a greater appreciation for buying healthy stocks. Make no mistake - this is a momentum strategy. But O'Neil has created a very specific formula and process for his style of momentum investing. I also learned a lot about technical analysis and some of the other elements that affect stock movements (sentiment, market psychology, etc.). And O'Neil spends a good deal of time telling you how to sell a stock, whether at a profit or a loss. I think this is perhaps the hardest part of investing, but after reading this book, you should have no excuse for letting a huge gain slip away or digging a huge hole for yourself. Above all, the book provides dozens of examples to support many of the techniques advocated in the book. One gripe I have is that when it comes to finding certain patterns in charts (head and shoulders, cup with handle, etc.), beauty can be in the eye of the investor - I wasn't always comfortable with what qualified as an acceptable pattern, and, of course, these "iffy" charts all demonstrate money-making stocks AFTER the fact. I also believe that there are other investment approaches that can yield good results, especially in a trending market like we have found ourselves in more recently. But on the whole, this book provides a wealth of information in a concise, well-supported manner. It definitely belongs in your investment library. A bonus is that the newspaper O'Neil founded, Investor's Business Daily, can provide an ongoing educational follow up to the book, so the approach you learn in the book will never become outdated. I read it regularly.
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142 of 156 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book but true Novices Beware., September 25, 1999
By A Customer
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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75 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS BOOK SHOULD OWNED BY ALL INVESTORS, January 30, 1999
By A Customer
I have read about a dozen books on how to invest in stocks. And I'm here to tell you, this is undoubtedly the best. The man has been there done it. Whatever mistakes you've made in buying and selling stocks, he's done it. And in this book, he is passing along his wisdom so that you can learn from his past mistakes and get on the road success. If you haven't been beating the market averages and making a lot of money in the last few years, then it's because you are not following William O'Neil's CANSLIM method. CANSLIM is an acronym that defines his trading principles. These principles are the active ingredients that make a stock rise. Take it from me, give up on your hit and miss approach to investing. Begin today on his sound and proven methods of investing and you'll soon be glad you did. Do you know anybody who have lost or is down more than 50% of their trading capital on a stock? I do. Many of my co-workers have ridden stocks down to over a 70% lost. Now they are stuck in a stock or stocks they can't afford to sell. And worst of all, they are stuck when the market averages are soaring to heights. (That's gotta hurt. I know. I've been there). O'Neil methods won't let this happen to you.To be honest, I was a slow learner too. So,let me take you back a little bit. I first picked up this book in '92, read it, got excited but then went back to doing it my way. I picked it up again in '94, read it and made a note in the book that a company stock called DELL fit the profile of his CANSLIM methods, set the book down, forgot about it and went back to doing things my way. (Didn't buy DELL in '94) Finally, early last year of '98, I again picked up the book and read it. This time I saw a little note that I had written in the book in '94 about DELL and thought to myself 'why was I so stubborn' about 'doing it my way' that I missed out on so much valuable time and money. Since then, I've bought the stock and a few others that have catapuled my portfolio balance to over 200%. Now that feels real good. Like me for the first time, you'll probably understand most of what he says in the book but you may not relate to what he says entirely until you've been practing or 'getting your feet wet' in the stock market for a little while. Since buying and selling stocks is not a perfect science but rather an art, you will need to go back and reread the book many times over while you're in the market before you'll truly 'get it'. My only critism about his CANSLIM method is that he steers you towards buying stocks with a low number of floating shares which indicate small to mid cap stocks because he says these stocks have the greatest upside potential. I disagree because hitech stocks like Dell, Microsoft, AOL, and Cisco that have gone global can still grow very rapidly if not faster than some of the small guys. Other than that, armed with this book and his Investors Business Daily, you'll be able to achieve the returns that you've always wanted.
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