Some reviews think this book is about

* using technical analysis to buy and sell stocks in general, it is not, it is about buying the best of breed (in the very best industry groups) when the time is right and only this point is determined by looking at the chart, once this is passed in strong volume, chances are good that prices will move higher. (VOLUME is one of the classic indicators, see Livermore, Darvas etc)

* it is pushing IBD too hard, I agree on that, and I would give it 4.5 points if it were possible because of that, but IBD and esp. dailygraphs.com is simply saving you hours every day.

* think there are still too many good stocks around even in IBD and they don't say buy or sell this stock now. I remember having read Livermore's thoughts via the "make an easy buck in the stock market" crowd, "how easy is it to make a quick buck with brain surgery?" It takes a lot of work everyday to check the potential stocks.

* not all chart patterns are 100% up to the rules, this is correct but one would also check the daily charts and this might explain a bit.

Overall the book contains top advice based on old truths.

Another book that has lots of charts and explains the stages/cycles of stocks is Weinsteins "Secret for profiting..." Weinstein has good suggestions for longterm stop movement, while Weinstein is not interested in the quality of the company, it is worthwhile to read it because of the stock stages.(as mentioned in O`Neils book on when to sell, the quality of the stock -e.g. stellar growth outlook- is not important only price/volume action - a hint for DISTRIBUTION, in the stock market the future is now)

Pros:

* I know nothing about the stock market until I read this book.
* Very well explain on how to tackle the market during good times or bad.
* Even you know nothing about stock, you can have better understanding on this industry once you have read this book.

Cons:

* This book is good for gaining more knowledge but does not provide any plan or action that we need to take in order to succeed in this business. Overall, it is still ok.

William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.

This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.

I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.

In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:

C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
S = Supply and Demand
L = Leader or Laggard
I = Institutional Sponsorship
M = Market Direction

There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more. How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

I haven't traded one share of stock in the Market...yet. With that having been said, I figured, if you're going to get advice about how to be successful in the Market, you may as well go to someone who knows. William J. O'Neil has been trading since the early 1960's. He bought a seat on the Exchange in 1963. William J. is also the founder of Investor's Business Daily (IBD). If you are interested in the Market and you haven't read an IBD, I would suggest that you at least try it. Information is the key to making sound decisions.
As a whole, the book is basically an advertisment for IBD. But don't let that get in the way of the information, guidance, logic, and strategies that are offered within the book. Before reading this book, I didn't have a clue about trading stocks. Now, I'm confident that I can pick a potential winner, take a position at the right time under he right conditions, take profits at the right time and, if necessary, bail out with minimum losses.
I definately recommend this book.

Do not listen to the negative opinions or reviews. They will not make you a dime. This book will teach a way of thinking to begin to make money in stocks. There are no books that you can buy that I know of that hand you a winning secret that will make you money, and I've read about 150 investment books. This book is your introduction to the world of Bill O'Neil, an investing giant who has made enough of a fortune in the market so that he has no need to A)sell books or
B)sell newspapers to make money as others here have suggested. Those of you that are old enough may understand that in a certain point in your career you want to leave a legacy, and it appears that this is O'Neils motivation. As a successful non-financial professional, I can tell you that you can make much more in the market than you can ever make in any other job, and this is even more true for a trader such as O'Neil, and he has no need to scam anyone as some other posters have suggested.
The book is really a detailed outline of what you need to do to make big money in the market. The theory is really a continuation of previous authors extending back to jesse Livermore. Yes, O'Neil pushes the paper, Investors Business Daily (IBD), but the paper really is essential to your investing success. There is no comparison to the entertaining but useless (for making money trading)Wall Street Journal. IBD is really like having a personal research department -it's that good. You cannot superficially approach the book or the paper and expect to make money. What you are getting is the only available entre that I know of for non-wall street professionals into the world of making money trading stocks. Do not pass the opportunity to begin this journey.

Its complicated. I'm not going to paint a rosy picture here; it takes time to digest AND understand the powerful concepts that William O'neil has gathered, with arguably years of research. But once you get past the heavy technicalities of understanding stocks, you will sail through them without fear and an edge.

Decent book. Time could be better spent by finding an online article on CANSLIM. Far too much IBD (Investors Business Daily) promotion. If you're planning on subscribing to IBD I suppose with would serve as a good instruction manual with some old examples.

Decent book. Time could be better spent by finding an online article on CANSLIM. Far too much IBD (Investors Business Daily) promotion. If you're planning on subscribing to IBD I suppose with would serve as a good instruction manual with some old examples.

The popularity of books like this one explains why so many people lose so much money in the stock market.

The book puts too much emphasis on the most useless techniques of technical analysis. The use of chart patterns that O'neil loves is closer to astrology than finance.

The book talks about fundamentals (earnings, growth, etc), but in a very limited way. Using fundamentals according to O'neils way can easily make you lose your money!

A much better book on growth investing is "The Little Book That Makes You Rich". A good book on technical analysis is "How Technical Analysis Works". I also recommend reading "Evidence Based Technical Analysis" which shows how limitd technical analysis is.

i think of this book as primarily a fundamental analysis book. if you have a solid technical analysis method for entering/exiting trades his method
might (depending on the nature of your technical analysis method) tell you what is a good pool of stocks to apply your method to.

the book has a lot of promotional stuff about his IBD newspaper. this is fine. what's not fine is the most DISGUSTING republican propaganda in the politics section of the newspaper. this has nothing to do with the book, the market research seems sound. but the ideological crap makes me hesitant to
buy the services from these guys.

i think of this book as primarily a fundamental analysis book. if you have a solid technical analysis method for entering/exiting trades his method
might (depending on the nature of your technical analysis method) tell you what is a good pool of stocks to apply your method to.

This was the second book that I ever read and I hold it as one of the best. I regard William O'Neil as one of the greatest traders of all time; right up there with Livermore and Darvas. The book is full of valuable insight based upon over 50 years of historical market research. As opposed to using methods that Cramer proclaims in his books where he disregards technical analysis completely. The only way to be truly successful is to regard both technical and fundamental aspects as important, and not throw one away just because you never took the time to learn its importance.

As with all of O'Neil's titles, you cannot pick up this book and immediately make money. It requires great dedication on your part. You must perform enough research and analyze the market every single day. I do believe that many see his chart annotations to be contradictory, but this is not the correct analysis. One must be able to examine how the market is reacting and find the healthiest stocks at a given time. Many corrections are never equal in their duration or depth. Analysis of general market conditions is something you will only learn though experience and market research. You cannot and will not find your own experience in any book you read.

Many have also stated that the chart annotations look "too perfect." A great trader once said, "You'll never know until you bet." Even though a situation will not fall into the strict category of being perfect (as many do not), you place a small position and wait. If all is acting well (the stock does not fall below 7-8% of your cost) you add to the position. It is very structured and always emphasizes capital preservation by correcting mistakes. This book provides the principles to successful investing, but you must practice and learn them through your own failures to fully appreciate their value.

Many have also struck criticism with the title "A Winning System in Good Times or Bad." It does work the best in a bull market. The winning system in the bad times is the fact that you are not out buying stock. Thus, you are either in cash/treasuries or if you're experienced, you are shorting the former leading stocks. That is its value in bear markets. Many people lose money in bear markets because they don't know that the market is trending down, but this book teaches you a way to analyze it better than you will hear any pundit on CNBC.

Finally, reviewers have stated that this book is one big advertisement. This is completely untrue. There is one chapter titled "How to Find Winning Stocks Using Investor's Business Daily." This is a sole chapter out of twenty (amounting to approx. 35 pages) in this book that's just shy of 300 pages. Its sole purpose is to introduce the reader to the tools that IBD has to offer and how they're useful in finding quality stocks. If you do not want to read it, skip it, or buy an earlier version which I hear did not include this section. By no means do you need a subscription to [...] in order to benefit from this book. However, it will require a lot more work to analyze thousands of stocks without some sort of ranking system. Additionally, there are small mentions here and there of Investor's Business Daily, but they're not intrusive by any means whatsoever.

Overall it is worth the small price, unless you are looking to make easy money, then you should go out to the desert because only there will you see it (as a mirage). It requires patience, practice, and persistence. Most importantly, not one decision is based on emotion. My only criticism is the fact that O'Neil only explains once very briefly that price consolidations such as cup-with-handles, etc. form during times of market weakness. I think many get confused by when to look for chart patterns.

Great book. I would highly recommend it and even though I've had it for years, I still read portions about every day and realize something new and insightful every time.

I read this book from cover to cover twice including the 1rst edition and I had serious problems making money using the system (I didn't). It tauts the huge returns of others using the system in the past but after subscribing to his paper and more and using his recommendations, one of 2 things happened:

1. even though it was bought at the exact buy point the stock would go up 1 or 2 % then get stopped out

2.the best looking stocks were the ones that were so thinnly traded that you couldn't invest much.
A lot of time was spent waiting for "confirmred rallies " which usually turned out to be nothing. Now I don't know if at one time this was a great way to make huge money, but it isn't now (at least for me). Maybe wall street caught on to it and preyed on those using it. the book and IBD make you believe that their way is the only way and to ignore other styles, which is what it is supposed to do, but looking back now, I wish I had expanded my horizons and tried something else at the same time. I'm finally making $ since I abandoned it and went with trend trading.

It's not likely that the most of the readers of this book will practice CANSLIM paradigm diligently to success. Do you want to know what the reason is? The reason is very simple. Most traders are lazy. They don't want to work too hard in the market. Instead, they want Get-Rich-Quick schemes to instantly satisfy their greed. Thus for that reason, this type of trading style is largely untapped and under-exploited by the majority
of retail traders. However, for the traders who went around Wall Street blocks many times and understand the core value of hard work in trading WILL DEFINITELY BENEFIT from this book. To the ones who doubt my statement, I want to point out the fact that there are indeed long lists of roster which contain the names of the traders who succeeded with many different variations of 'Growth Momentum Stock trading'. Just search on the web. You'll see what I'm talking about.

I dont think that you will make a lot of money in his way.He is distant, doesnt explain cearly all his methods..He makes a lot of publicity of HIS "investor daily publication", and the more you read, the more you get confused.After reading a couple of good investing books by famous writers, I get more confused with his book ( cup with handle patern,can slim program, bla bla bla, ..)It doesnt follow any fundamental at all,and his cocepts are way outdated.I don't consider myself a novice, but really this book makes me fell like a jerk ,dont explain well,and didnt help me a ALL

I give this book four stars instead of five with some reservation because it's difficult for me to tell how much was a problem of explanation and how much was a problem of discipline on my part. And I might have been tempted to give it a lower rating had I not read so many BAD (or just really general) books on this topic. Fact is, this is the first book I've read on stocks that tells you when and why to buy AND when and why to SELL. There are many specific examples as well as some general rules of thumb to follow re: the market at large. Truth be told, the book turns out -- at the end -- to be a sales pitch for Investor's Business Daily. But the advice was so good that I didn't really mind and, by the way, I started subscribing to IBD right afterwards. In the final analysis, I make about 10 to 20% more money in the stock market as a direct result of reading this book. QED.

I read a basic book on stock market and how it works. Then I read this book. I started trading in May 2007. I am up 42%. Sure beats sticking it in the bank for around 5% interest. I'm sold on his system.

I'll heard about this book years ago, but dismissed it because of it's title. But, I learned that someone named David Ryan won three investing championships with real money using the methods revealed in this book. And I wanted to start trading in the stock market again, but this time I wanted to learn a method that will help me be successful for a change.

I think that if you are new to investing in the stock market and would like to learn a good way to get started, then this book "How To Make Money In Stocks," by William O'Neil is a good guide.

You will learn all about the CANSLIM rules for selecting stocks that are about to make the big price moves. Also included is advice on buying only when a stock is making new highs or breaking out on big volume and cutting your loses short to protect your funds if you're wrong.

It shows you the five basic chart patterns that you should look for in a stock that is about to take off. And these patterns will help you buy at the right price.

The last few chapters are devoted to the features of Investor's Business Daily, which will help you find and track stocks that match the characteristics of the CANSLIM method.

I actually order this book at a local Borders -- paying full price -- because I didn't want to wait for the mail. I was in a hurry to learn how to use Investors.com -- one of the websites of Investors' Business Daily which I have subscribed too.

I'm new to investing but have read 7 books in the last couple of months on investing and financial statement analysis. These other books (the intelligent investor etc.) are more focused on value investing and tend to dissuade from considering stocks at all time highs. So it was interesting to read a different approach and this book would certainly make me consider looking at more growth stocks. It was also good to get some basics on chart interpretation which I think will prove useful. The downside is that the book (like all his books from looking at other reviews) focuses too much on IBD his website/newspaper, also the explanations for interpreting the charts was not really thorough enough, also a lot of the charts that he advised not to buy on did not look all that dissimilar in places to charts that he advised were good buys - its easy to go back in hindsight on the ones that didn't take off in price and pick holes into why they didn't.
Also his guide to selling at 7% to 8% below your buy price seems a bit extreme - maybe this is just for high risk growth stock buys but in general given the nature of the market most stock fluctuate far more and could be down 8% over a week to recover to the same of higher level the following week. If you sold every time as he suggests you'd constantly be selling and trying to find new stocks to buy.
He seemingly derides the value investing concept which is odd as some of the best investors of all time followed this approach - Buffett & Graham and their disciples being the obvious ones. Overall an interesting read for a different perspective and introduction to chart interpretation.

This book is very easy and most interesting to read. The author, Wm. O'Neil is the founder of Investor Business Daily newspaper, which I have always considered the best financial newspaper.
If you are willing to "study" and learn rather than just read this book, You will make money in stocks.
I use this book and Jim Cramer's 'Real money' and 'Mad Money' books daily (almost like text books) to study, learn and apply what I learn.

An excellent book on how to use both fundamental and technical analysis together to produce big profits. William J O neal is a great author.

Great book. Sound concepts that work. Yes, I subscribe to the paper (IBD) and use his rules. I'm up over 30% in a solid bull market over the last 4 months without being fully invested. When the market pulls back, my stocks also pull back, but when the market is up, my stocks tend to go up hard.

I find that I do better when I pyramid up after a bounce off the 50-day rather than every 2% or round number like promoted by Darvas. It's a good book worth underlining and scribbling all over the margins.

William J. O'Neal reveals the secrets of the CANSLIM formula that has allowed the IBD 100 to outperform the S&P 500 year after year. Mr. O'Neal makes it clear - if you want to really make money in the stock market, you can - but it's going to take work. There is no get-rich-quick system: Mastering the markets requires intelligence and dedication. I fully believe in the CANSLIM principles and I am an Investor's Business Daily subscriber. IBD and this book have made me a lot of money. But on the downside (preventing a perfect 5-star rating), this book is rather dry. I had to read most sections several times to fully absorb the information, but it was worth it!

I'm not a native english speaker so I really appreciate the language, in which the book is written. Regarding the content, this book is good guide book "how to make money in stock". just read it twice or three times and then take some guts and money and try it.

It is easy to read and understand. O'Neil's strategy in picking stocks is supper simple. It is easy to follow his strategy, although there is no garantee that it will make you win money.

How to Make Money in Stocks is one of the best books on the market ever written.

Indeed, Bill O'Neil is a proven winner and is gifted with the rare combination of trading genius and creative business man. He is indeed a rare person.

The 3rd edition is a valuable reference tool and provides a system for holding winning stocks and selling losers.

If you have talent, discipline and are willing to work hard and suffer until you learn to trade, you can become a successful operator. O'Neil's book will help along the way.

Buy it.

great book.. i've been investing for about 5 years now and this book pretty much summed up what i learned (and a lot more that i didn't know) in about 200 pages...

only minus is that it really pushes you to subscribe to Investors business daily which will run you another 200USD a year for a basic membership (of course i gave in and joined... but made a decent amount of money sooo i 'm not complaining)

I haven't finished read, but so far it is a pretty good book for getting started in stocks trading, you will learn many basics and get several advised on what to do or not. Starting to learn how to read charts and which stocks to pick.

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is an outstanding essay for those who want to learn how to select stocks for a value portfolio. Where we differ is that for the typical investor he does not have the resources to build a properly diversified portfolio- either financial or mental resources. Value stocks do provide returns in excess of broad market returns but in order to have adequate diversification you must assemble several hundred issues well beyond the resources of the average investor. Further one must have the time and skill to evaluate several thousand issues.

I can offer a solution to this problem. I want to recommend for you a book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission This book is a must for those wanting to find out about indexing (passive investing) and why it is the superior method for the small investor (and big one too). This book is an outstanding guide to personal investing. It will be useful to all investors from novices to highly the highly experienced. This book prepares the reader to approach investing from the standpoint of the underlying science. It is the antithesis of a 'get rich quick scheme'.

All aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and passive (index) investing are explained in a through and easily understood manner. The aspect I like most is that as well as a solid theoretical foundation the book is very practical and shows the reader how to create (and more importantly) and manage over time a successful portfolio. This is a great book- for the beginning investor, it's a great place to start and for the experienced investor there are many valuable suggestions.

It's a shame to think of how much money investors have lost "investing" in the stock market over the years. I wish I had read this little book years ago. The chapter on automatic investing recommends a number of portfolios that follow modern portfolio theory and adjust risk as you age without any effort on the part of the reader at all. Had this book been written years ago and had I followed its directions I would be rich today of that I am certain. Nevertheless I will pursue one of the portfolios recommended and stick to my chosen asset plan.

I'm sorry, but I have serious issues with this book.

Let me explain my problem by way of example; O'Neil is very keen on the so-called "Cup with Handle" pattern, and is credited with being the world's leading guru on the subject. He provides lots of advice as to what to look for in a healthy Cup with Handle, together with numerous charts. I tried to establish a set of rules for identifying good looking Cups with Handles based on his narrative. I ended up with a list of about 12 rules of what to look for, in terms of desirable features, undesirable features and nice to haves. Then I looked at the charts he provides, and that, I'm afraid, is where I came badly unstuck.

O'Neil has applied various annotations to his charts to highlight the features he finds interesting. But, for my money, he hasn't done this with any consistency. He will enthusiastically point to one of his highly desirable features such as declining volume in the low of a handle when it occurs. But when such a feature is conspicuous by its absence, he makes no comment. Indeed, some of the features in the charts he supplies seem to fly in the face of his own requirements.

Trying to persevere, I began to modify the rules I had collated from O'Neil's narrative in a futile attempt to gain some consistency with the annotations in the charts. What I ended up with was just a ridiculous mass of contradictions: "It's highly desirable for condition x to occur, except when it doesn't because that can also be good"!

Now I accept that Technical Analysis is a bit of a rough science, if it can be called a science at all. But there's a limit to how much rough I can stand! How I wish a book such as this one could be written with the analytical skill of a proper mathematician, but that's very unlikely to ever happen.

William O'Neill is, without doubt, a great trader with an extensive track record. Unfortunately, this book leaves me with the impression that he doesn't really know why.

to think the information in this book will make you money is to be severely deluded. go on, buy it, and you will be lucky to be earning a brass razoo more a year from now. books like Why We Want You To Be RIch by Trump and God Doesn't Run a $2 Shop by Sage Saint Francis are much more useful than this dreck. This guy is making a buck, the people that read it ain't. Wake up people!

simply excellent -very to the point - covered just enough to be boring like some other interview books I have read recently

The 3rd edition is an improved version with more up-to-date charts.However, as this a "How to" book, the presentation could have been improved by putting the charts opposite the text so that the reader do not have to flip back the pages to review the charts in order to follow the explanations given by the author.
Although they are in colour, most of the charts (which are 3 inches x 2 inches) are way too small. The charts of the models of the greatest stock market winners are even smaller (2.5 inches x 1.5inches). Being such an important part of this book, they should have been made much bigger and easier on the eyes. Although this will increase the number of pages and the cost of the book, it is what distinguishes a great book from a good book.
In addition, a more detailed explanation together with a worked example of how the author calculates the relative strength would be of great help to readers who are not residing in the USA and buying US Stocks. Otherwise this book appears nothing more than advertising to promote the sale of Investors Business Digest.
I hope these comments can be taken into consideration in the next revised edition.

I purchased this as a gift for my boyfriend (based on other Amazon reviews). He has read quite a bit of it and really loves it. He says it is very informative and interesting.

This is exactly what I wanted. This book assumes that you know nothing and explains each and every concept in detail and in simple language.

This book has some common-sense strategies that any beginning investor should start with. His main focus is to remain emotionally detached and to set a limit where you sell even if you love the stock. That is a great piece of wisdom.

The reason for 3 and not 4 stars on this book is that he heavily plugs his website as an added reference and doesn't hook us up with any math to back up some of his analysis. Still, this is a book that most investors would want in their bookshelf.

At the top with, Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor. Great Great read.

Finally an investment book that shows the novice how to do the fundamental things necessary for intelligent investing. Even if you are not a believer in Bill O'Neill's philosophy, the chart reading tools and common-sense tips will help anyone who invests. My only complaint is that I think the chart reading chapter and some of the chapters dealing with the fundamentals should be first instead of later in the book.

Really got me thinking and was filled with very useful, helpful, informative, but easy and simple to understand tricks. One of my favorites. A+

William O'neal covers all major stock trading areas in this book: how to find a broker, his CAN SLIM method for making money on stocks, When to sell,how to diversify, when to buy options, he shows charts of the biggest stock winners from 1953 to 1993, how to read stock price history charts and much more. It is a lot of information to take in and is not for beginners. I would advise reading "The neatest little guide to the stock market" before reading this book if you are just starting out in the land of individual stocks.

Here is a summary of his CAN SLIM method to making money in the stock market, this is how to buy stocks:
C= Current quarterly earnings:are they enough?
A=Annual earnings increases:do they have meaningful growth?
N=New products,New management,New highs:is it time to buy?
S=Supply and demand:Small capitalization plus big volume demand equals price increase.
L=Leader or Laggard:Only buy leaders.
I=Institutional sponsorship:A little will drive up price.
M=Market Direction=How to determine it and follow.

The final chapter is 18 common mistakes most investors make, this is excellent advice for what not to do.

This book's author believes in buying for growth with little regard to actual value or P/E ratios. He justifies this by showing all the the big misses a value investor would have had not buying hot stocks over the years because a value investor would have thought they were over valued, when they were priced at a premium due to growth factors.

Great book I highly recommend.

If anyone read How To Make Money In Stocks once or twice and made a consistent profit over the last three years, my hat is off to them!

To make money while using this book requires study, testing, study, testing and a healthy portion of experience. There is a wealth of good information contained in the book, but one will realize consistent profits with it much more readily in an up market rather than a down or sideways market.

One excellent caution included in the book is the warning against using options until one has gained (a few years of) experience with the underlying stocks.

In my opinion, "paper trading" stocks for several months to a year or more using O'Neil's system would be a really good idea prior to trying to trade stocks immediately after reading this book. And as I said, one will consistently make money using the book much more readily in an up market.

Otherwise, it's an enjoyable read, with many interesting ideas derived from years of experience and possibly the greatest stock database ever assembled.

This is a very good introductory book for stock trading. Its concept of CAN-SLIM system provides an entry point for novice of how to do stock trading. Besides, it also points out many bad habits of major investors which should be avoided. Even for experienced investors, this book is good for review too.

This book is good for the long term investor but it could use a few practical strategies for those interested in realistic short term profits.

When investing short term one needs to realize that the stock market can present us with a lot of hot stocks every day.

Most of them may seem promising, but the truth is that a good number of these trading & investing opportunities might not be as profitable as one might think. That's why it's very important to know how to choose them especially if you plan to take advantage of them on a daily or weekly basis.

One site that I recommend is MomentumStockPick com. They have a pretty clear way for trading hot stocks with momentum using easy to understand strategies. This is also a place where you can learn why knowing how to manage the stock rally is critical to your success.

This book is a classic and has been around for quite some time. The author William O'Neal is the founder of Investor's Business Daily.

The author shows his CANSLIM method of stock selection. This method is also detailed in the publication Investors Business Daily.

This book is a very good read for any stock market investor.

Lex Levinrad
Author of "What I Learned On Wall Street: Why Real Estate is The Best Investment".

I bought this book to give to a young man who is developing an interest in market investing. Here is the reason: When I first began to study the stock market years ago, I found the books I bought so frustrating I nearly quit! I couldn't even understand the terminology and complained, Why don't they write in ENGLISH?! It was terrible! I didn't know about William O'Neil's books at the time. This book will give the reader a sound basis in the stock market and at least the beginning of a trading plan (I think everyone develops their own through experience). I give this book the ultimate five stars for the novice newcomer, or even for the person who has been investing unsuccessfully and wants to change that! A very worthwhile book! Arlean

Bill O'Neil is one of Wall Street's most famous investors, mostly because he founded Investor's Business Daily. In this book he outlines his trading system, called "CANSLIM," and details how he has used it for years to capture enormous moves in the stock market from stocks that are about to take off and become the next big thing. To give you an idea of the kind of stocks O'Neil prides himself on finding, his past hits include Microsoft, Home Depot, and Amazon.

O'Neil's strategy is based on both technical and fundamental analysis, though the technical aspect receives much more space in the book. In fact technical analysis (meaning the reading of charts, volume, oscillators, etc) is so essential in O'Neil's investing that he recommends not buying a stock with a bad chart, regardless of how good the fundamentals may be. The first section of the book details the points of fundamental analysis (again, he uses the acronym CANSLIM)-earnings growth, industry leadership, and market direction among others. The next section deals with technicals and charting, and the last section offers some general advice and a look at successful investors of the past.

The methodology here is sound. When you buy stocks with the solid fundamentals O'Neil demands (which are not easy to come by) you get stocks with enormous growth potential. These are often the industry's next super-stocks, and he tries to get in them right before they take off. Because of this you can safely buy a stock with a high P/E multiple (which many fundamentalists recommend against) or one that just broke its 52 week high, and you can do this because the underlying fundamentals of the company are so incredibly strong as to ensure further momentum. Reading the chart ensures that the stock has a good base and won't have a nasty drop-off-a-cliff selloff at the first sign of a temporary sputter. O'Neil limits his losses to about 7% regardless of how good the stock is, and the idea is that your 7% losers will be more than made up for by your 25% (though sometimes many times more than that) winners.

As much as I like O'Neil's theory I was a little disappointed with the book. First, very little time is spent on the fundamental aspects of the stock. Because so much is devoted to charting, I wonder if many people would disregard the fundamentals altogether out of laziness, and instead go straight for the charts. Charting is great, but amateur chartists have a tendency to see whatever pattern they've convinced themselves will be there. I'm also put off by the constant self-touting, though I suppose I understand it. In reality this book is intended to steer people into the IBD way of investing, and get them to subscribe to the paper and/or website. The seemingly endless stream of testimonials (of almost infomercial proportion) at the end are kind of annoying as well. O'Neil's methodology is very sound and obviously proven-why he should have to cheapen it by such blatant marketing is puzzling to me. Keep in mind, also, that his system (as he himself points out) was designed for bull markets. In fact he recommends that you either stay completely out of bear markets or limit your exposure to them. The subtitle "A Winning System in Good Times or Bad" is therefore probably a bit misleading. Overall, however, this is a worthwhile book, and it is really the place to go to learn about the IBD methodology.

This book describes a system for picking stocks that has for many investors proved very useful. In fact for many years I used a similar method to make my bets on the market. If you have the time and courage to follow the system you may achieve market returns in my humble opinion and a few of you may exceed market returns.

I would like to suggest to the individual investor that he read a little about investing in index mutual funds and exchange traded funds.

The book I recommend is titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission by Gordon L. Eade. Easy to read packed with precise directions for success. A cookbook for the investor - just follow directions. I enjoyed this book a great deal for its sound advice.

It shows how indexing and diversification strategies work and why they are so important to investing success. Unlike many other books, this one is not only informative, but useful. There should be no question as how to implement Eade's strategy and measure your progress. He skillfully addresses asset allocation, and shows how to minimize tax consequences by assigning securities to tax deferred accounts. The author does not dwell on lengthy longwinded discussions but cuts to the quick with useful recommendation and directions for the novice and experienced investor as well. I recommend both books for all investors. You can't go wrong following the advice of these two excellent

This is a bubble gum type of book that does not teach anything about making money on the markets. It is a platform to sell Investor Business Daily services. If you want to learn trading look for articles written by Toby Crabel or Arthur Merrill, even Linda Raschke. They are full time professional money managers that happend to write few articles... some of them you can probably find on Ebay for cheaper....

I think this book is good enough but one needs more updated strategies to trade hot stocks

These days it's really hard to find trading books that are practical and simple to understand. Most of the info outhere is full of the same thecnical analysis jargon that makes you lose a lot of times. Basically most tehcnical trading books tell you the same story but organized in different chapters using different words and charts as examples.

Some places on the web have pretty practical information. One site that I recommend is StressFreeTraders com. They have a pretty clear way for trading stocks with momentum using easy to understand strategies. This is also one place where you can understand why the use of a Level 2 system is critical for trading the rally.

Understanding how to trade a rally is one of the most important aspects of trading, since for us traders the rally is where we make our money.

Are you ready to become a "home gamer." Are you seriously looking to improve your current results in the stock market? Do you have a moderate level of knowledge about the stock market and our economic system? Are you equally concerned with preserving your capital while earning a better-than-average return? Do you prefer a system that incorporates probability and statistics as a tool to assess risk? Are you a believer in using fundamental analysis AND technical analysis in choosing growth stocks as your preferred investment? Do you have adequate time and interest to devote to actively managing your portfolio?

If your answers to these questions (especially the final one) are "yes" then buying this classic might be the best 10 bucks you ever spent.

This little gem is chock-full of information and practical advice garnered over 50 years of investment experience, coupled with an acute observation of human nature at work in the market.