How to Make Money in Stocks

How to Make Money in Stocks 19A3265 How to Make Money in Stocks A Winning System in Good Times or Bad William J. O'...

Author: William J. O'Neil

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How to Make Money in Stocks

19A3265

How to Make Money in Stocks A Winning System in Good Times or Bad

William J. O'Neil

Second Edition

McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York San Francisco Washington, D.C. Auckland Bogota Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi San Jüan Singapore Sydney Tokyo Toronto

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

O'Neil, William J. How to inake money in Stocks : a winning System in good times or bad / William J. O'Neil.—2nd ed. p.

cm.

Includes index. ISBN 0-07-048059-1 (hc) 1. Investments.

HG4521.0515

2. Stocks.

—ISBN 0-07-048017-6 (pb) I. Title.

1995

332.63'22—dc20

94-28192 CIP

Copyright © 1995, 1991, 1988 by McGraw-Hill, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except äs permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval System, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

DOC/DOC DOC/DOC

909 909

7 6 5 4 (HC) 7 6 5 4 (PBK)

ISBN 0-07-048059-1 (hc) ISBN 0-07-048017-6 (pbk)

The Sponsoring editorfor this book was Philip Ruppel, the editing Supervisor was Fred Bernardi, and the production Supervisor was Suzanne Babeuf. It was set in Baskerville by McGraw-HiU's Professional Book Group composition unit. Printed and bound by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company.

This book is printed on recycled, acid-free paper containing a minimum of 50% recycled, de-inked über.

Success in a free country is simple. Get a Job, get an education, and learn to save and invest wisely. Anyone can do it. You can do it.

Contents Preface

ix

Part l A Winning System: C-A-N S-L-I-M Introduction: Learning from the Greatest Winners 1. C = Current Quarterly Earnings Per Share: How Much Is Enough?

2 5

2. A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Meaningful Growth

14

3. N = New Products, New Management, New Highs: Buying at the Right Time

22

4. S = Supply and Demand: Small Capitalization Plus Big Volume Demand

29

5. L = Leader or Laggard: Which Is Your Stock?

34

6. I = Institutional Sponsorship: A Little Goes a Long Way 40 7. M = Market Direction: How to Determine It

44

Part 2 Be Smart from the Start 8. Finding a Broker, Opening an Account, and What It Costs to Buy Stocks

80

vj|j

Contents

9. When to Seil if Your Selection or Timing Might Be Wrong 10. When to Seil and Take Your Profit

85

97

11. Should You Diversify, Invest for the Long Pull, Buy on Margin, Seil Short?

109

12. Should You Buy Options, OTC Stocks, New Issues...?

115

13. How You Could Make a Million Owning Mutual Funds

131

Preface

Part 3 Invcsting likc a Professional 14. Models of the Greatest Stock Market Winners: 1953-1993

140

15. How to Read Charts like an Expert and Improve Your Stock Selection and Timing

160

16. How to Make Money Reading the Daily Financial News Pages

180

17. The Art of Tape Reading: Analyzing and Reacting to News

207

18. How to Pick the Best Industry Groups, Subgroups, and Market Sectors

218

19. Improving Management of Pension and Institutional Portfolios

230

20. 18 Common Mistakes Most Investors Make

254

Index

259

From August 1982 to August 1987, the stock market staged a phänomenal 250% increase. Employees' pension funds made a fortune. Then in one day in October 1987, the market dropped a record 24%. Sanity and reality returned. That's the stock market. During the last 50 years, we have had twelve bull (up) markets and eleveii bear (down) markets. But guess what? The bull markets averaged going up about 100% and the bear markets, on an average, declined 25% to 30%. Not only that, the typical bull market lasted 3 3/4 years and the classic bear market lingered only nine months. Viewed with perspective...that's a terrific deal. But I will go you one better. Did you know that in the last 100 years we have had more than 25 bear market slumps (natural, normal corrections of the previous bull market advance), and EVERY SINGLE TIME THE MARKET RECOVERED AND ULTIMATELYSOARED INTO NEW HIGH GROUND? That's fantastic. What causes this continued long-term growth and upward progress? It's one of the greatest success stories in the world—free people, in a free country, with strong desires and the incentives to unceasingly improve their circumstances. America just keeps growing. The stock market does not go up due to greed. It goes up because of businesses with new products, new Services, and new inventions...and there are hundreds of them every year. The innovative entrepreneurial companies with the best quality new products that serve people's needs are always the top stock market winners. So, why haven't more people taken advantage of these tremendous

Preface

Preface

XI

investment opportunities? It's that they don't understand the market,

tables and to grow and take share of market away from The Wall Steet

and when you don't understand something you are unsure, maybe even afraid. I am going to solve that problem for you. This book will explain the market to you in simple terms everyone can understand. It will show you how to select which Stocks to buy and exactly when you should buy and when you should seil. There are two entire chapters on when to seil and nail down your profits or cut short potential mistakes. You can learn how to protect yourself against the big risks in good times or bad. There are three things I feel absolutely certain about concerning the next twenty-five years. Our government will continue to tax you äs much äs it possibly can for äs long äs you live, your cost of living will go up substantially, and the stock market and economy will be much higher. You can't do a lot about the first two, but you can benefit materially from the last one if you learn how to save and invest properly. Don't be thrown off by the swarm of gloom and doomers. In the long run, they have seldom made anyone any money or provided any real happiness. I have also never met a successful pessimist. There is one overpowering, overriding reason why there should be other bull markets ahead—the enormous number of baby boomers. Marriages will be up and couples will need housing, furniture, medical care, clothing, and education for all the new children. This giant bulge in future demand will not go away. Everyone should own common stock! It's a great way to get an extra income, financial independence, and security. It's a way you can "be in business for yourself," and it can be safe and sound over the long term...if you learn to correctly apply all the basic rules for making and protecting your gains and minimizing losses. It could put your kids through school, dramatically increase your Standard of living, and give you freedom and safety in your old age. I have spent 35 years analyzing how the U.S. economy works. William O'Neil & Co., also built the first daily Computer data base on the stock market in this country and used it to construct models of what the most successful companies looked like just before they became big successes. In 1970, we moved into the institutional stock research business. We called our first service Datagraphs. Today we are regarded by some institutional investors äs the leader in automation in securities analysis and management. A daily chart service was also developed called Daily Graphs to which thousands of individual investors subscribe. In 1983, I designed and created the basic format for Investor's Daily, a national business newspaper. It was the first paper to make significant improvements in news available to public investors via daily stock price

Journal. A completely separate organization was then set up to directly challenge the sacred 100-year-old east coast-based industry giant. My prime objective in writing this book is to help everyone discover how to get ahead by saving and investing. I'm talking about ordinary people who have never owned Stocks; those deeply concerned about Inflation and their dwindliiig dollar; everyday individuals investing in a local savings account, a money market fund, or a mortgage; people who may have bought a little art, gold, or silver.

This book will also help renters who dream of one day buying a hörne or income property, and those investors who already enjoy home ownership. It is for amateur investors in the stock market, people considering an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) or a mutual fund, retired persons, teachers of Investment courses, and students attempting to learn about Investments. It should be used in schools, whether grade school, junior high, high school, or College level. Young people growing up should learn how the American economy and market really work and how they can materially benefit from it. Lastly, this book is for sophisticated professionals managing pension and mutual funds, whose difficult Job it is to produce investment results and stay ahead in a very complex and confusing game. It is also for those who seek professional advice in the supervision of state and public employee funds and educational and charitable investment portfolios, and for foreign investors who want to invest money in the U.S.A., the land of unmatched personal freedorn and opportunity. My deep appreciation and heartfelt thanks go out to those loyal hardworking souls who read, edited, worked on the graphics, criticized, typed, and retyped the endless changes made to this work. Some of

those dedicated individuals are Anne Gerhard, Carolyn Hoffman, Jeannie Kihm, Jim Lan, Stanley Liu, Diane Marin, Milton Perrin, Kathy Russell, Lindee Shadrake, Kathy Sherman, Frank Spillers, and Susan Warfei. And, of course, a great amount of valuable assistance and numerous suggestions were provided by my wife Fay and Bill Sabin and the excellent McGraw-Hill staff.

William J. O'Neu

How to Make Money in Stocks

PART l A Winning System: C-A-N S-L-I-M

Introduction

Introduction: Learning from the Greatest Winners In the following chapters, I will show you exactly how to pick more big winners in the stock market and how to substantially reduce your losses and mistakes. I will examine and discuss other Investments, äs well. In the past, most people who bought and sold Stocks either had mediocre results or lost money because of their clear lack of knowledge. But no one has to lose money. This book will provide you with most of the investment understanding, skills, and methods you need to become a more successful Investor. I believe that most people in this country and many others throughout the free world, young and old, regardless of profession, education, background, or economic position, can and defmitely should own common stock. This book isn't written for an elite but for the millions of little guys and gals everywhere who want a chance to be better off.

YOU CAN START SMALL

If you are a typical working man or woman or a beginning Investor, it doesn't take a lot of money to Start. You can begin with äs little äs $500 to $1000 and add to it äs you earn and save more money. I began with the purchase of just five shares of Procter & Gamble when I was only 21 and fresh out of school.

You live in a fantastic tinie of unlimited opportunity, an era of outstanding new ideas, emerging industries, and new frontiers. But you have to read to learn how to recognize and take advantage of these extraordinary Situation«.

The opportunities are out there for everyone. You are now witnessing a New America. We lead the world in high technology, medical advancements, Computer Software, military capabilities, and innovative new entrepreneurial companies. The communist socialist System was finally relegated to the ash heap of history under Ronald Reagan and our System of freedom and opportunity serves äs a prime success model for the majority of countries in the world. It is not enough today to just work and earn a salary. To do the things you want to do, to go the places you want to go, to have the things you want to have in your life, you absolutely must save and invest intelligently. The second income from your Investments and the net profits you can make will help you reach your goals and provide real security. SECRET TIP #1

The first Step in learning to pick stock market winners is for you to examine leading winners of the past to learn all the characteristics of the most successful Stocks. You will learn from this observation what type of price patterns these Stocks developed just before their spectacular price advances.

Other key factors you will uncover include what kind of Company quarterly-earnings reports were publicly known at the time, what the annual earnings histories of these organizations had been in the prior five years, what amount of stock trading volume was present, what degree of relative price strength occurred in the price of the Stocks before their enormous success, how many shares of common stock were outstanding in the capitalization of each Company, how many of the greatest winners had significant new products or new management, and how many were tied to strong industry group moves caused by important changes occurring in an entire industry. It is easy to conduct this type of practical, commonsense analysis of past successful leaders. I have already completed such a comprehensive study. In our historical analysis, we selected the greatest winning Stocks in the stock market each year (in terms of percentage increase for the year), spanning more than 40 years. We call the study The Record Book of Greatest Stock Market Winners. It covers the period from 1953 through 1993 and analyzes in detail over 500 of the biggest winning companies in recent stock market history: super Stocks such äs Texas Instruments, whose price soared from $25 to $250 from January 1958 through May 1960; Xerox, which escalated from $160 to the equivalent of $1340 from March 1963 to June 1966;

A Winning System: C-A-N S-L-I-M

Syntex, which leaped from $100 to $570 in only six rnonths during the last half of 1963; Dome Petroleum and Prime Computer, which respec-

tively advanced 1000% and 1595% in the 1978-1980 stock market; Limited Stores, which wildly excited lucky shareowners with a 3500% increase between 1982 and 1987; and Cisco Systems, which advanced from a split-adjusted $1.88 to $40.75 between October 1990 and March 1994. Home Depot and Microsoft both increased more than 20 times during the 1980s and early '90s. Home Depot was one of the all-time great performers jumping twentyfold in less than 2 years from its initial public offering in September of 1981 and then again climbing another 10 times from 1988 to 1992. All of these companies offered exciting new products and concepts. Would you like to know the common characteristics and secret rules of success we discovered from this intensive study of all past glamorous stock market leaders? It's all in the next few chapters and in a simple easy-to-remember formula we have named C-A-N S-L-I-M. Write the formula down, and repeat it several times so you won't forget it. Each letter in the words C-A-N S-L-I-M Stands for one of the seven chief characteristics of these great winning Stocks at their early developing stages, just before they made huge profits for their shareholders. You can learn how to pick winners in the stock market, and you can become part owner in the best companies in the world. So, let's get started right now. Here's a sneak preview of C-A-N S-L-I-M. C A N S L I M

= = = = = = =

Current Quarterly Earnings Per Share: How Much Is Enough? Aimual Earnings Increases: Look for Meaiiingful Growth. New Products, New Management, New Highs: Buying at the Right Time. Supply and Demand: Small Capitalization Plus Volume Demand. Leader or Laggard: Which Is Your Stock? Institutional Sponsorship: A Little Goes a Long Way. Market Direction: How to Determine It?

Please begin immediately with Chapter 1.

l C = Current Quarterly Earnings Per Share: How Much Is Enough? M/A-Com Inc. Humana Inc. Kirby Exploration Co. What did shares of the above-mentioned microwave component manufacturer, hospital operator, and oil Service Company have in common? From 1977 to 1981, they all posted price run-ups surpassing 900%. In scrutinizing these and other past stock market superstars, I've found a number of other similarities äs well. For example, tradiiig volume in these sensational winners swelled substantially before their giant price moves began. The winning Stocks also tended to shuffle around in price consolidation periods for a few months before they broke out and soared. But one key variable stood out from all the rest in importance: the profits of nearly every outstanding stock were booming. The common Stocks you select for purchase should show a major percentage increase in the current quarterly earnings per share (the most recently reported quarter) when compared to the prior year's same quarter. Earnings per share are calculated by dividing a company's total aftertax profits by the company's number of common shares outstanding. The percentage increase in earnings per share is the single most important element in stock selection today.

The greater the percentage of increase, the better, äs long äs you

6


aren't misled by comparing current earnings to nearly nonexistent earnings for the year earlier quarter, like 1 cent a share. Ten cents per share versus one cent may be a 900% increase, but it is definitely distorted and not as meaningful as $1 versus $.50. The 100% increase of $1 versus $.50 is not overstated by comparison to an unusually low number in the year ago quarter. I am continually amazed at how many professional pension fund managers, as well as individual investors, buy common stocks with the current reported quarter's earnings flat (no change), or even worse, down. There is absolutely no reason for a stock to go anywhere if the current earnings are poor. Even if the present quarter's earnings are up 5% to 10%, that is simply not enough of an improvement to fuel any significant upward price

movement in a stock. It is also easier for a corporation currently showing a mere increase of 7% or 8% to suddenly report lower earnings the next quarter.

Seek Stocks Showing Big Current Earnings Incrcascs In our models of the 500 best performing Stocks in the 40 years from 1953 through 1993, three out of four of these securities showed earnings iricreases averaging rnore than 70% in the latest publicly reported quarter before the Stocks began their major price advance. The one out of four that didn't show solid current quarter increases did so in the very next quarter, and those increases averaged 90%! If the best Stocks had profit increases of this magnitude before they advanced rapidly in price, why should you settle for mediocre or down earnings? Our study showed that among all big gainers between 1970 and 1982, 86% reported higher earnings in their most recently published quarter, and 76% were up over 10%. The median earnings increase was 34% and the rnean (average) was up 90%. You may find that only about 2% of all Stocks listed for trading on the New York or American stock exchanges will, at any one time, show increases of this proportion in current quarterly net iiicome. But, remember you want to find the exceptional Stocks rather than the lackluster ones, so set your sights high and Start looking for the superior Stocks, the small number of real leaders. They are there. Success is built on dreanis and ideas; however, it helps to know exactly what you're looking for. Before you Start your search for tomorrow's super stock market leader, let nie teil you about a few of the traps and ni t falls.

C = Current Quarterly Earnings Per Share

Watch Out for Misleading Reports of Earnings Have you ever read a corporation's quarterly earnings report that stated, "We had a terrible first three months. Prospects for our Company are turning down due to inefficiencies in the home office. Our competition just came out with a better product, which will adversely affect our sales. Furthermore, we are losing our shirt on the new midwestern Operation, which was a real blunder on management's part." No! Here's what you see. "Greatshakes Corporation reports record sales of $7.2 million versus $6 million (+ 20%) for the quarter ended March 31." If you own their stock, this is wonderful news. You certainly are not going to be disappointed. You think this is a fine Company (otherwise you wouldn't own its stock), and the report confirms your thinking. Is this record-breaking sales armouncement a good report? Let's sup-

pose the Company also had record earnings of $2.10 per share of stock for the quarter. Is it even better now? What if the $2.10 was versus $2 (+ 5%) per share in the same quarter the previous year? Why were sales up 20% and earnings ahead only 5%? Something might be wrong—rnaybe the company's profit margins are crumbling. At any rate, if you own the stock, you should be concerned and evaluate the Situation closely to see why the earnings increased only 5%. Most investors are impressed with what they read, and companies love to put their best foot forward. Even though this corporation may have had all-time record sales, up 20%, it didn't mean much. You must be able to see through slanted published presentations if you want the vital facts. The key factor for the winning investor must always be how much the current quarter's earnings are up in percentage terms from the same quarter the year before! Let's say your Company discloses that sales climbed 10% and net income advanced 12%. This sounds good, but you shouldn't be concerned with the company's total net income. You don't own the whole organization. You own shares of stock in the corporation. Perhaps the Company issued additional shares or there was other dilution of the common stock. Just because sales and total net income for the Company were up, the report still may not be favorable. Maybe earnings per share of common stock inched up only 2% or 3%.

Break Down Six or Nine Month Earnings into Quarterly Percentage Changes Suppose your Company announces that earnings for the six months that


8

earlier (+ 25%). Your "pet" stock inust be in great shape. You couldn't ask for better results—or could you?

Beware. The Company reported earnings for six months. What did the stock earn in the last quarter, the three months ended in June?

Maybe in the first quarter ended in March the stock earned $1.60 per share versus $1 (+ 60%). What does this leave for the last quarter ended June 30? Ninety cents versus one dollar. This is a terrible report, even though the way it was presented to you sounded terrific. If you own common stock in a Company whose earnings had been up 60% and they came out with a Statement of $.90 versus $1 (down 10%), you had better wake up. The outfit might be deteriorating. You can't always assume that because an earnings report appears to be rosy, everything is fine. You have to look deeper and not accept the reassuring manner of corporate news releases reported in your favorite newspaper. Many times, earnings declarations are published for the most recent nine months. This teils you nothing, and all too ofteii it masks serious weakness in the numbers that really count. The first quarter may have been up 30%, the second quarter up 10%, and the last quarter off 10%. By always breaking down the figures to show the quarter-by-quarter earnings, you will be able to see a completely different picture and trend.

Omit a Company's One-Time Extraordinary Gains The last important trap the winning Investor should sidestep is being influenced by nonrecurring profits. If an organization that manufactures Computers reports earnings for the last quarter that include profits from the sale of real estate or a plant, for example, that pari of the earnings should be subtracted from the report. Those are one-time, nonrecurring earnings and are not representative of the true, ongoing profitability of corporate operations. Ignore them.

Set a Minimum Level for Current Earnings Increases As a general guide for new or experienced investors, I would suggest you not buy any stock that doesn't show earnings per share up at hast 18% or 20% in the most recent quarter versus the same quarter the


year before. Many successful money-makers use 25% or 30% äs their

minimum earnings parameter. And make sure you calculate the percentage change; don't guess or assume. You will be even safer if you insist the last two quarters each show a significant percentage increase in earnings from year-ago quarters. During bull markets, I prefer to concentrate in equities (comrnon Stocks) that show powerful current earnings leaping 40% or 50% up to

500%. Why not buy the very best merchandise available? If you want to further sharpen your stock selection process, before you buy, look ahead to the next quarter or two and check the earnings that were reported for those same quarters the previous year. See if the Company will be coming up against unusually large or small earnings achieved a year ago. In some instances, where the unusual year-earlier earnings are not due to seasonal factors (the December quarter is always big for retailers,

for example), this procedure may help you anticipate a strong or poor earnings report due ahead in the coming months. Many individuals and institutions alike buy Stocks with earnings down in the most recently reported quarter just because they like a Company and think the stock's price is cheap. Usually they accept a story that earnings will rebound strongly in the near future. While this may be true in some cases (it frequently isn't), the main point is that at any time in the market, you have the choice of investing in at least 5000 or more Stocks. You don't have to accept promises of something that may never occur when alternative investments are actually showing current earnings advancing strongly.

The Debate on Overemphasis of Current Earnings Recently it has been noted that Japanese firms concentrate more on longer-term profits rather than on trying to maximize current earnings per share. This is a sound concept and one the better-managed organizations in the United States (a minority of companies) also follow. That is how well-managed entities create colossal quarterly earnings increases, by spending several years on research, developing superior new products, and cutting costs. But don't be confused. You äs an individual Investor can afford to wait until the point in time when a Company positively proves to you its efforts have been successful and are starting to actually show real earninsrs increases.


10

A Winning System: C-A-N S-L-l-M

Requiring that current quarterly earnings be up a hefty amount is just

another smart way the intelligent Investor can reduce the risk of excessive mistakes in stock selection. Many corporations have mediocre management that continually produces second-rate earnings results. I call them the "entrenched maintainers." These are the companies you want to avoid until someone has the courage to change top management. Ironically, these are generally the companies that strain to pump up their current earnings a dull 8% or 10%. True growth companies with outstanding new products do not have to maximize current results.

Look for Accelerating Quarterly Earnings Growth My studies of thousands of the most successful concerns in America proved that virtually every corporate stock with an outstanding upward price move showed accelerated quarterly earnings increases some time

in the previous ten quarters before the towering price advance began. Therefore, what is crucial is not just that earnings are up or that a certain price-to-earnings ratio (a stock's price divided by its last twelve months' earnings per share) exists; it is the change and improvement from the stock's prior percentage rate of earning increases that causes a supreme price surge. Wall Street now calls these earnings surprises. I once mentioned this concept of earnings acceleration to Peter Vermilye, the former head of Citicorp's Trust Investment Division in New York City. He liked the term and feit it was much more accurate and relevant than the phrase "earnings momentum" sometimes used by Investment professionals. If a Company's earnings are up 15% a year and suddenly begin spurting 40% to 50% a year, it usually creates the basic conditions for important stock price improvement.

lengthy and unrewarding price consolidation period characterized by prolonged sideways movement. I prefer to see two quarters of material slowdown before turning negative on a company's earnings since the best of organizations can periodically have one slow quarter.

Consult Log Scale Weekly Graphs One reason that logarithmic scale graphs are of such great value in security analysis is that acceleration or deceleration in the percentage rate of quarterly earnings increases can be seen very clearly on a log graph. Log graphs show percentage changes accurately, since one inch anywhere on the price or earnings scale represents the same percentage change. This is not true of arithmetically scaled charts. For example, a 100% stock price increase from $10 to $20 a share would show the same space change äs a 50% increase from $20 to $30 a share on an arithmetically scaled chart. A log graph, however, would show the 100% increase äs twice äs large äs the 50% increase. The principle of earnings acceleration or deceleration is essential to understand. Fundamental security analysts who recommend Stocks because of an absolute level of earnings expected for the following year could be looking at the wrong set of facts. A stock that earned $5 per share and expects to report $6 the next year can mislead you unless you know the previous trend in the percentage rate of earnings change.

Two Quarters of Major Earnings Deceleration May Mean Trouble Likewise, when the rate of earnings growth Starts to slow and begins meaningful deceleration (for instance, a 50% rate of increase suddenly

decreases to only 15% for a couple quarters), the security probably has either topped out permanently, regardless of what analysts and Wall o..„_. „,„., „„„ „r t v,p r^tf, Of nr)warc[ orogress will dwindle into a

11

Arithmetic price scale

12



13

while the market and other equities in the same group advance. This could give you an early clue of an approaching good or bad report. You

may also want to be aware and suspicious of stocks that have gone several weeks beyond estimated reporting time without the release of an earnings announcement.

Where to Find Current

Corporate Earnings Reports New quarterly corporate earnings statements are published every day in

the financial section of your local paper, in Investor's Business Daily, and

in The Wall Street Journal. Investor's Business Daily separates all new earnings reports into companies with "up" earnings and those disclosing "down" results so you can easily see who produced excellent gains.

To say the security is undervalued just because it is selling at a certain price-earnings ratio or because it is in the low range of its historical P/E ratio is also usually nonsense unless primary consideration has first been given to whether the momentum and rate of change in earnings is substantially increasing or decreasing. Perhaps this partially explains who so few public or institutional investors, such as banks and insurance companies, make worthwhile

money following the buy-and-sell recommendations of most securities analysts. You, as a do-it-yourself investor, can take the latest quarterly earnings per share, add them to the prior three quarters' earnings of a company, and plot the amounts on a logarithmic scale graph. The plotting of the most recent twelve-month earnings each quarter should, in the best companies, put the earnings per share close to or already at new highs.

Check Other Key Stocks in the Group For added safety, it is wise to check the industry group of your stock. You should be able to find at least one other noteworthy stock in the industry also showing good current earnings. This acts as a confirming factor. If you cannot find any other impressive stock in the group displaying strong earnings, the chances are greater that you have selected the wrong investment. Note the date when a company expects to report its next quarterly

earnings. One to four weeks prior to the report's release, a stock frequently displays unusual price strength or weakness, or simply "hesitates"

Which earnings report do you think is best?

Chart services published weekly also show earnings reported during the prior week as well as the most recent earnings figures for every stock they chart. One last point to clarify: You should always compare a stock's percentage increase in earnings for the quarter ended December, to the December quarter a year earlier. Never compare the December quarter to the immediately prior September quarter. You now have the first critical rule for improving your stock selection: Current quarterly earnings per share should be up a major percentage (at least 20% to 50% or more) over the same quarter last year. The best ones might show earnings up 100% to 500%! A mediocre 8% or 10% isn't enough! In picking winning stocks, it's the bottom line that counts.

A = Annual Earnings Increases

2 A = Annual Earnings Increases; Look for Meaningful Growth If you want to own part of a business in your home town, do you choose a steadily growing, successful concern or one that is unsuccessful, not growing and highly cyclical? Most of you would prefer a business that is showing profitable growth. That's exactly what you should look for in common stocks. Each year's annual earnings per share for the last five years should show an increase over the prior year's earnings. You might accept one year being down in the last five as long as the following year's earnings quickly recover and move back to new high ground. It is possible that a stock could earn $4 a share one year, $5 the next year, $6 the next, and the following year—$2. If the next annual earnings statement were $2.50 versus the prior year's $2 (+ 25%), that would not be a good report. The only reason it may seem attractive is that the previous year ($2) was so depressed any improvement would look good. In any case, the profit recovery is slow and is still substantially below the company's peak earnings of $6:

Select Stocks with 25% to 50% Annual Growth Rates Owning common stock is just the same as being a part owner in a business. And who wants to own part of an establishment showing no growth? The annual compounded growth rate of earnings in the superior firms you hand pick for purchasing stock in should be from 25% to 50%, or even 100% or more, per year over the last 4 or 5 years. Between 1970 and 1982, the average annual compounded earnings

15

growth rate of all outstanding performing stocks at their early emerging stage was 24%. The median, or most common, growth rate was 21% per year, and three out of four of the prominent winners revealed at least some positive annual growth rate over the five years preceding the giant increase in the value of the stock. One out of four were turnarounds. A typical successful yearly earnings per share growth progression for a company's latest five-year period might look something like $.70, $1.15,

$1.85, $2.80, $4. The earnings estimate for the next year should also be up a healthy percentage; the greater the percentage, the better. However, remember estimates are opinions. Opinions may be wrong whereas actual reported earnings are facts that are ordinarily more dependable.

What Is a Normal Stock Market Cycle? Most bull (up) market cycles last two to four years and are followed by a recession or bear (down) market and eventually another bull market in common stocks. In the beginning phase of a new bull market, growth stocks are usually the first sector to lead the market and make new price highs. Heavy basic industry groups such as steel, chemical, paper, rubber, and machinery are commonly more laggard followers. Young growth stocks will usually dominate for at least two bull market cycles. Then the emphasis may change for the next cycle, or a short period, to turnaround or cyclical stocks or newly improved sectors of the market, such as consumer growth stocks, over-the-counter growth issues, or defense stocks that sat on the sidelines in the previous cycle. Last year's bloody bums become next year's heroes. Chrysler and Ford were two such spirited turnaround plays in 1982. Cyclical and turnaround opportunities led in the market waves of 1953—1955, 1963-1965, arid 1974-1975. Papers, aluminums, autos, chemicals, and plastics returned to the fore in 1987. Yet, even in these periods, there were some pretty dramatic young growth stocks available. Basic industry stocks in the United States frequently represent older, more inefficient industries, some of which are no longer internationally competitive and growing. This is perhaps not the area of America's future excellence. Cyclical stocks' price moves tend to be more short-lived when they do occur, and these stocks are much more apt to suddenly falter and encounter disappointing quarterly earnings reports. Even in the stretch where you decide to buy strong turnaround situations, the annual compounded growth rate could, in many cases, be 5% to 10%.


16

Requiring a company to show two consecutive quarters of sharp earnings recovery should put the earnings for the latest twelve months into, or very near, new high ground. If the 12 months earnings line is shown on a chart, the sharper the upswing the better. This will make it possible in many cases for even the "old dog" about-face stock to show some annual growth rate for the prior five-year time period. Sometimes one quarter of earnings turnaround will suffice if the earnings upswing is so dramatic that it puts the 12 months ended earnings line into new highs.

Check the Stability of a Company's Five-Year Earnings Record While the percentage rate of increase in earnings is most important, an additional factor of value, which we helped pioneer in the measurement and use of, is the stability and consistency of the past five years' earnings. We display the number differently than most statisticians do. Our stability measurements are expressed on a scale from 1 to 99. The lower the figure, the more stable the past earnings record. The figures are ca^ulated by plotting quarterly earnings for the last five years and fitting a trend line around the plot points to determine the degree of deviation from the basic earnings trend. Growth stocks with good stability of earnings tend to show a stability figure below 20 or 25. Equities with a stability rating over 30 are more cyclical and a little less dependable in their growth. All other things being equal, you may want to choose the security showing a greater degree of consistency and stability in past earnings growth. Earnings stability numbers are usually shown immediately after a company's five-year growth rate, although most analysts and investment services do not bother to make the calculation. EARNINGS GROWTH RATE (STABILITY) RANK 1983-87

+ 31%

( 6)

1981-85

+ 19%

( «)

1979-83

+ 19%

(")

Earning* stability rank

If you primarily restrict your selections to ventures with proven growth records, you avoid the hundreds of investments having erratic earnings histories or a cyclical recovery in profits that may top out as

they approach earnings peaks of the prior cycle.


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How to Weed Out the Losers in a Group When you investigate a specific industry group, using the five-year growth criteria will also help you weed out 80% of the stocks in an industry. This is because the majority of companies in an industry have lackluster growth rates or no growth. When Xerox was having its super performance of 700% growth from March 1963 to June 1966, its earnings growth rate averaged 32% per year. Wal-Mart Stores, a discount retailer, sported an annual growth rate from 1977 to 1990 of 43% and boomed in price an incredible 11,200%. Cisco Systems growth rate in October 1990 was an enormous 257% per year and Microsoft's was 99% in October 1986, both before their long advances. The fact that an investment possesses a good five-year growth record doesn't necessarily cause it to be labeled a growth stock. Ironically, in fact, some companies called growth stocks are producing a substantially slower rate of growth than they did in several earlier market eras. These should usually be. avoided. Their record is more like a fully matured or nearly senile growth stock. Older and larger organizations frequently show slow growth.

New Cycles Create New Leaders Each soaring new cycle in the stock market will catapult fresh leadership stocks to the attention of the market, some of which will begin to be called growth stocks. The growth record in itself, however, is only a starting point for would-be victorious investors, and it should be the first of many earnings measurements you should check. For example, companies with outstanding five-year growth records of 30% per year but whose current earnings in the last two quarters have slowed significantly to + 15% and + 10% should be avoided in most instances.

Insist on Both Annual and Current Quarterly Earnings Being Excellent We prefer to see current quarterly earnings accelerating or at least maintaining the trend of several past quarters. A standout stock needs a


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sound growth record during recent years but also needs a strong current earnings record in the last few quarters. It is the unique combination of these two critical factors, rather than one or the other being outstanding, that creates a superb stock, or at least one that has a higher chance of true success.

Investor's Business Daily provides a relative earnings ranking (based on the latest five-year annual earnings record and recent quarterly earnings reports) for all common stocks shown in the daily NYSE, AMEX, and OTC stock price quotation tables. More than 6000 stocks are compared against each other and ranked on a scale from 1 to 99. An 80 earnings per share rank means a company's current and five-year historical earnings record outclassed 80% of all other companies. The earnings record of a corporation is the most critical, fundamental factor available for selecting potential winning stocks.

Arc Price-Earnings Ratios Important? Now that we've discussed the indispensable importance of a stock's current quarterly earnings record and annual earnings increases in the last five years, you may be wondering about a stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. How important is it in selecting stocks? Prepare yourself for a bubble-bursting surprise. P/E ratios have been used for years by analysts as their basic measurement tool in deciding if a stock is undervalued (has a low P/E) and should be bought or is overvalued (has a high P/E) and should be sold. Factual analysis of each cycle's winning stocks shows that P/E ratios have very little to do with whether a stock should be bought or not. A stock's P/E ratio is not normally an important cause of the most successful stock moves. Our model book studies proved the percentage increase in earnings per share was substantially more crucial than the P/E ratio as a cause of impressive stock performance.

During the 33 years from 1953 through 1985 the average P/E for the best performing stocks at their early emerging stage was 20 (the Dow

IFRANKLIN RES INC 3.494.000 SHARES -97% ANNUAL EPS GROWTH LAST QTR EPS -115%, PRIOR QTR EPS -150%

Profile of a standout stock


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Jones Industrial's P/E at the same time averaged 15). While advancing, these stocks expanded their P/Es to approximately 45 (125% expansion

of P/E ratio).

Why You Missed Some Fabulous Stocks! While these figures are merely averages, they do strongly imply that if you were not willing to pay an average of 20 to 30 times earnings for growth stocks in the 40 years through 1993, you automatically eliminated most of the best investments available! P/Es were higher on average from 1953 to 1970 and lower between 1970 and 1982. From 1974 through 1982, the average beginning P/E was 15 and expanded to 31 at the stock's top. P/Es of winning stocks during this period tended to be only slightly higher than the general market's P/E at the beginning of a stock's price advance. High P/Es were found to occur because of bull markets. With the exception of cyclical stocks, low P/Es generally occurred because of bear markets. Some OTC growth stocks may also display lower P/Es if the stocks are not yet widely owned by institutional investors. Don't buy a stock solely because the P/E ratio looks cheap. There usually are good reasons why it is cheap, and there is no golden rule in the marketplace that a stock which sells at eight or ten times earnings cannot eventually sell at four or five times earnings. Many years ago, when I was first beginning to study the market, I bought Northrop at four times earnings and in disbelief watched the outfit decline to two times earnings.

How Price-Earnings Ratios Are Misused Many Wall Street analysts inspect the historical high and low price-earnings ratios of a stock and feel intoxicating magic in the air when a security sells in the low end of its historical P/E range. Stocks are frequently recommended by researchers when this occurs, or when the price starts to drop, because then the P/E declines and the stock appears to be a bargain. Much of this kind of analysis is based on questionable personal opinions or theories handed down through the years by academicians and some analysts. Many "green" newcomers to the stock market use the

20


faulty method of selecting stock investments based chiefly 011 low P/E ratios and go wrong more often than not. This system of analysis often ignores far more basic trends. For example, the general market may have topped out, in which case all stocks are headed lower and it is ridiculous to say "Electronic Gizmo" is undervalued because it was 22 times earnings and can now be bought for 15 times earnings. The market break of 1987 hurt many value buyers.

The Wrong Way to Analyze

Companies in an Industry Another common, poor use of price-earnings ratios by both amateurs and professionals alike is to evaluate the stocks in an industry and conclude that the one selling at the cheapest P/E is always undervalued and is therefore, the most attractive purchase. This is usually the company with the most ghastly earnings record, and that's precisely why it sells at the lowest P/E. The simple truth is that stocks at any one time usually sell near their current value. So the stock which sells at 20 times earnings is there for one set of reasons, and the stock that trades for 15 times earnings is there for other reasons the market already has analyzed. The one selling for seven times is at seven times because its overall record is more deficient. Everything sells for about what it is worth at the time. If a company's price level and price-earnings ratio changes in the near future, it is because conditions, events, psychology, and earnings continue to improve or suddenly start to deteriorate as the weeks and

months pass. Eventually a stock's P/E will reach its ultimate high point, but this normally is because the general market averages are peaking and starting an important decline, or the stock definitely is beginning to lose its earnings growth. High P/E stocks can be more volatile, particularly if they are in the high-tech area. The price of a high P/E stock can also get temporarily ahead of itself, but so can the price of low P/E stocks.

Some High P/Es That Were Cheap It should be remembered that in a few captivating smaller-company growth situations that have revolutionary new product breakthroughs, high P/E ratios can actually be low. Xerox sold for 100 times earnings


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in 1960—before it advanced 3300% in price (from a split-adjusted price of $5 to $170). Syntex sold for 45 times earnings in July 1963, before it

advanced 400%. Genentech was priced at 200 times earnings in the over-the-counter market in early November 1985, and it bolted 300% in the next five months. All had fantastic new products.

Don't Sell High P/E Stocks Short When the stock market was at rock bottom in June 1962, a big, heavyset Beverly Hills investor barged into the office of a broker friend of mine and in a loud voice shouted Xerox was drastically overpriced because it was selling for 50 times earnings. He sold 2000 shares short at $88. After he sold short this "obviously overpriced stock," it immediately started advancing and ultimately reached a price equal to $1300 before adjusting for stock splits. So much for amateur opinions about P/E ratios being too high. Investors' personal opinions are generally wrong; markets seldom are. Some institutional research firms in recent years published services and analyses based on the principle of relative P/E ratios for companies, compared to individual company earnings growth rates. Our detailed research over many cycles has shown these types of studies to be misleading and of little practical value.

The conclusion we have reached from years of in-depth research into winning corporations is that the percentage increase and acceleration in earnings per share is more important than the level of the stock's P/E ratio. At any rate, it may be easier to spot emerging new trends than to accurately assess correct valuation levels. In summary: Concentrate on stocks with a proven record of significant annual earnings growth in the last five years. Don't accept excuses; insist the annual earnings increases plus strong recent quarterly earnings improvements be there.

N = New Products, New Management, New Highs

3 N = New Products, New Management, New Highs: Buying at the Right Time

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6. Houston Oil & Gas, in 1972-1973, with a major new oil field ran up 968% in 61 weeks and later in 1976 picked up another 367%. 7. Computervision stock advanced 1235% in 1978-1980, with the introduction of new Cad-Cam factory automation equipment. 8. Wang Labs Class B stock grew 1350% in 1978-1980, due to the creation of their new word-processing office machines. 9. Price Company stock shot up more than 15 times in 1982-1986 with the opening of a southern California chain of innovative wholesale warehouse membership stores. 10. Amgen developed two successful new biotech drugs, Epogen and Neupogen, and the stock raced ahead from 60% in 1990 to the equivalent of 460% in January 1992. 11. Cisco Systems, another California company, created routers and networking equipment that allowed company links with geographically dispersed local area computer networks. The stock advanced over 2000% in 3V2 years.

It takes something new to produce a startling advance in the price of a stock. This something new can be an important new product or service, selling rapidly and causing earnings to accelerate above previous rates of increase. It could also be new top management in a company during the last couple of years. A new broom sweeps clean, or at least may bring inspiring ideas and vigor to the ball game. Or the new event could be substantial changes within the company's industry. Industrywide shortages, price increases, or new technology could affect almost all members of the industry group in a positive way.

In our study of greatest stock market winners from 1953 through 1993, we discovered more than 95% of these stunning successes in American industry either had a major new product or service, new management, or an important change for the better in the conditions of their particular industry.

New Products That Created Super Successes

The Stock Market's Great Paradox

1. Rexall's new Tupperware division, in 1958, helped push the company's stock to $50 a share, from $16. 2. Thiokol in 1957-1959 came out with new rocket fuels for missiles, propelling its stock from $48 to the equivalent of $355. 3. Syntex, in 1963, marketed the oral contraceptive pill. In six months the stock soared from $100 to $550. 4. McDonald's, in 1967-1971, with low-priced fast food franchising, snowballed into an 1100% profit for stockholders. 5. Levitz Furniture stock increased 660% in 1970-1971, with the popularity of their giant warehouse discount furniture centers.

12. International Game Technology rose an astounding 1600% in 1991-1993 with new microprocessor-based gaming products.

There is another fascinating phenomenon we found in the early stage of all winning stocks. We call it "the great paradox." Before I tell you what this last new observation is, I want you to look at three typical stocks shown on the next page. Which one looks like the best buy to you? Which stock would you probably avoid? Among the thousands of individual investors attending my investment lectures in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, 98% said they do not buy stocks that are making new highs in price. The staggering majority of individual investors, whether new or experienced, feel delightful comfort in buying stocks that are down substantially from their peaks.

N - New Products;' New Management, New Highs

25

I have provided extensive research for over 600 institutional investors in the United States. It is my experience that most institutional money managers are also bottom buyers—they, too, feel safer buying stocks that look cheap because they're either down a lot in price or selling

Stock A

near their lows.

The hard-to-accept great paradox in the stock market is that what seems too high and risky to the majority usually goes higher and what seems low and cheap usually goes lower. Haven't you seen this happen before? In case you find this supposed "high-altitude" method a little difficult to boldly act upon, let me cite another study we conducted. An analysis was made of the daily newspapers' new-high and new-low stock lists during several good, as well as poor, market periods. Our findings were simple. Stocks on the new-high list tended to go higher, and those on the new-low list tended to go lower. Put another way, a stock listed in the financial section's new-low list of common stocks is usually a pretty poor prospect, whereas a stock making the new-high list the first time during a bull market and accompanied by a big increase in trading volume might be a red-hot prospect worth checking into. Decisive investors should be out of a stock long before it appears on the new-low list. You may have guessed by now what the last intriguing new realization is that I promised to disclose to you earlier. So here are the three stocks you had to choose among on the previous page, Stock A, Stock B, and Stock C. Which one did you pick? Stock A (Syntex Corp, see below) was the right one to buy. The small arrow pointing down above the weekly prices in July 1963 shows the same buy point at the end of Stock A in July on the previous page. Stock B and Stock C both declined.

Stock B

Stock C Stock A ADJUSTED FOR A 3:1 SPLIT

Which stock looks like the best buy? + 400% in >U month* from July 1963

A Winmng System: C-A-N S-L-I-M

26

N = New Products, New Management, New Highs

27

10% from the exact buy point off the base. Here is an example of the proper time to have bought Reebok, at $29, in February 1986 before it zoomed 260%. The second graph shows the correct time to have bought Amgen at $60—in March 1990—before it jumped more than sixfold.

Stock B

- 42% in six months from August

392% increase in 13 months

Stock C

u. - 21% in five months from March

When to Correctly Begin Buying a Stock A stock should be close to or actually making a new high in price after undergoing a price correction and consolidation. The consolidation (base-building period) in price could normally last anywhere from seven or eight weeks up to fifteen months.

As the stock emerges from its price adjustment phase, slowly resumes an uptrend, and is approaching new high ground, this is, believe it or not, the correct time to consider buying. The stock should be bought

just as it's starting to break out of its price base. You must avoid buying once the stock is extended more than 5% or

681% increase in 22 months

How Does a Stock Go from $50 to $100? As a final appeal to your trusty common sense and judgment, it should be stated that if a security has traded between $40 and $50 a share over many months and is now selling at $50 and is going to double in price, it positively must first go through $51, $52, $53, $54, $55, and the like, before it can reach $100. Therefore, your job is to buy when a stock looks high to the majority of conventional investors and to sell after it moves substantially higher and finally begins to look attractive to some of those same investors.

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In conclusion: Search for corporations that have a key new product or service, new management, or changes in conditions in their industry.

And most importantly, companies whose stocks are emerging from price consolidation patterns and are close to, or actually touching, new

4

highs in price are usually your best buy candidates. There will always be something new occurring in America every year. In 1993 alone, there were nearly 1,000 initial public offerings. Dynamic, innovative new companies—a bundle of future, potential big winners.

S = Supply and Demand: Small Capitalization Plus Big Volume Demand The law of supply and demand determines the price of almost everything in your daily life. When you go to the grocery store and buy fresh lettuce, tomatoes, eggs, or beef, supply and demand affects the price. The law of supply and demand even impacted the price of food and consumer goods in former Communist, dictator-controlled countries where these state-owned items were always in short supply and frequently available only to the privileged class of higher officials in the bureaucracy or in the black market to comrades who could pay exorbitant prices. The stock market does not escape this basic price principle. The law of supply and demand is more important than all the analyst opinions on Wall Street.

Big Is Not Always Better The price of a common stock with 300 million shares outstanding is hard to budge up because of the large supply of stock available. A tremendous volume of buying (demand) is needed to create a rousing price increase. On the other hand, if a company has only 2 or 3 million shares of common stock outstanding, a reasonable amount of buying can push the stock up rapidly because of the small available supply. If you are choosing between two stocks to buy, one with 10 million shares outstanding and the other with 60 million, the smaller one will usually be the rip-roaring performer if other factors are equal.

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The total number of shares of common stock outstanding in a company's capital structure represents the potential amount of stock available for purchase. The stock's "floating supply" is also frequently considered by market professionals. It measures the number of common shares left for possi-

ble purchase after subtracting the quantity of stock that is closely held by company management. Stocks that have a large percentage of ownership by top management are generally your best prospects.

There is another fundamental reason, besides supply and demand, that companies with large capitalizations (number of shares outstand-

ing) as a rule produce dreadful price appreciation results in the stock market. The companies themselves are simply too big and sluggish.

Pick Entrepreneurial Managements Rather Than Caretakers Giant size may create seeming power and influence, but size in corporations can also produce lack of imagination from older, more conservative "caretaker managements" less willing to innovate, take risks, and

keep up with the times. In most cases, top management of large companies does not own a meaningful portion of the company's common stock. This is a serious defect large companies should attempt to correct. Also, too many layers of management separate the senior executive from what's really going on out in the field at the customer level. And in the real world, the ultimate boss in a company is the customer. Times are changing at a quickening pace. A corporation with a fastselling, hot new product today will find sales slipping within three years if it doesn't continue to have important new products coming to market. Most of today's inventions and exciting new products and services are created by hungry, innovative, small- and medium-sized young companies with entrepreneurial-type management. As a result, these organizations grow much faster and create most of the new jobs for all Americans. This is where the great future growth of America lies. Many of these companies will be in the services or technology industries. If a mammoth-sized company occasionally creates an important new product, it still may not materially help the company's stock because the new product will probably only account for a small percentage of the gigantic company's sales and earnings. The product is simply a little drop in a bucket that's just too big.

S = Supply and Demand

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Institutional Investors Have a Big Cap Handicap Many large institutional investors create a serious disadvantage for themselves because they incorrectly believe that due to their size they

can only buy large capitalization companies. This automatically eliminates from consideration most of the true growth companies. It also practically guarantees inadequate performance because these investors may restrict their selections mainly to slowly decaying, inefficient, fully matured companies. As an individual investor, you don't have this limitation. If I were a large institutional investor, I would rather own 200 of the most outstanding, small- to medium-sized growth companies than 50 to 100 old, overgrown, large-capitalization stocks that appear on everyone's "favorite fifty" list. If you desire clear-cut factual evidence, the 40 year study of the greatest stock market winners indicated more than 95% of the companies had fewer than 25 million shares in their capitalization when they had their greatest period of earnings improvement and stock market performance. The average capitalization of top-performing listed stocks from 1970 through 1982 was 11.8 million shares. The median stock exhibited 4.6 million shares outstanding before advancing rapidly in price.

Foolish Stock Splits Can Hurt Corporate management at times makes the mistake of excessively splitting its company's stock. This is sometimes done based upon questionable advice from the company's Wall Street investment bankers. In rny opinion, it is usually better for a company to split its shares 2-' for-1 or 3-for-2, rather than 3-for-l or 5-for-l. (When a stock splits 2-for1, you get two shares for each one previously held, but the new shares sell for half the price.) Overabundant stock splits create a substantially larger supply and may put a company in the more lethargic performance, or "big cap," status sooner. It is particularly foolish for a company whose stock has gone up in price for a year or two to have an extravagant stock split near the end of a bull market or in the early stage of a bear market. Yet this is exactly what most corporations do. They think the stock will attract more buyers if it sells for a cheaper

price per share. This may occur, but may have the opposite result the

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company wants, particularly if it's the second split in the last couple of years. Knowledgeable professionals and a few shrewd traders will probably use the oversized split as an opportunity to sell into the obvious "good news" and excitement, and take their profits. Many times a stock's price will top around the second or third time it splits. However, in the year preceding great price advances of the leading stocks, in performance, only 18% had splits. Large holders who are thinking of selling might feel it easier to sell some of their 100,000 shares before the split takes effect than to have to sell 300,000 shares after a 3-for-l split. And smart short sellers (a rather infinitesimal group) pick on stocks that are beginning to falter after enormous price runups—three-, five-, and ten-fold increases—and which are heavily owned by funds. The funds could, after an unreasonable stock split, find the number of their shares tripled, thereby dramatically increasing the potential number of shares for sale.

Look for Companies Buying Their Own Stock in the Open Market One fairly positive sign, particularly in small- to medium-sized companies, is for the concern to be acquiring its own stock in the open marketplace over a consistent period of time. This reduces the number of shares of common stock in the capital structure and implies the corporation expects improved sales and earnings in the future. Total company earnings will, as a result, usually be divided among a smaller number of shares, which will automatically increase the earnings per share. And as we've discussed, the percentage increase in earnings per share is one of the principal driving forces behind outstanding stocks. Tandy Corp., Teledyne, and Metromedia are three organizations that successfully repurchased their own stock during the era from the mid-

1970s to the early 1980s. All three companies produced notable results in their earnings-per-share growth and in the price advance of their stock. Tandy (split-adjusted) stock increased from $234 to $60 between 1973 and 1983. Teledyne stock zoomed from $8 to $190 in the thirteen years prior to June 1984, and Metromedia's stock price soared to $560 from $30 in the six years beginning in 1977. Teledyne shrunk its capitalization from 88 million shares in 1971 to 15 million shares and increased its earnings from $0.61 a share to nearly $20 per share with eight different huvbacks.

S = Supply and Demand

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Low Corporate Debt to Equity Is Usually Better Alter you have picked a stock with a small or reasonable number of shares in its capitalization, it pays to check the percentage of the firm's total capitalization represented by long-term debt or bonds. Usually the lower the debt ratio, the safer and better the company. Earnings per share of companies with high debt-to-equity ratios can be clobbered in difficult periods of high interest rates. These highly leveraged companies generally are deemed to be of poorer quality and higher risk. A corporation that has been reducing its debt as a percent of equity over the last two or three years is well worth considering. If nothing else, the company's interest expense will be materially reduced and should result in increased earnings per share. The presence of convertible bonds in a concern's capital structure could dilute corporate earnings if and when the bonds are converted into shares of common stock. It should be understood that smaller capitalization stocks are less liquid, are substantially more volatile, and will tend to go up and down faster; therefore, they involve additional risk as well as greater opportunity. There are, however, definite ways of minimizing your risks, which will be discussed in Chapter 9. Lower-priced stocks with thin (small) capitalization and no institutional sponsorship or ownership should be avoided, since they have poor liquidity and a lower-grade following. A stock's daily trading volume is our best measure of its supply and demand. Trading volume should dry up on corrections and increase significantly on rallies. As a stock's price breaks out of a sound and proper base structure, its volume should increase at least 50% above normal. In many cases, it can increase 100% or more. In summary, remember: stocks with a small or reasonable number of shares outstanding will, other things being equal, usually outperform older, large capitalization companies.

L = Leader or Laggard

35

Depot advanced 10 times from 1988 to 1992, while Waban and

Hechinger, the laggards, clearly underperformed.

5 L = Leader or Laggard: Which Is Your Stock? Most of the time, people buy stocks they like, stocks they feel good about, or stocks they feel comfortable with, like an old friend, old shoes, or an old dog. These securities are frequently sentimental, draggy slowpokes rather than leaping leaders in the overall exciting stock

market. Let's suppose you want to buy a stock in the computer industry. If you buy the leading security in the group and your timing is sound, you have a crack at real price appreciation. If, on the other hand, you buy equities that haven't yet moved or are down the most in price, because you feel safer with them and think you're getting a real bargain, you're probably buying the sleepy losers of the group. Don't dabble in stocks. Dig in and do some detective work.

Avoid Sympathy Stock Moves There is very little that's really new in the stock market. History just keeps repeating itself. In the summer of 1963, I bought Syntex, which afterwards advanced 400%. Yet most people would not buy it then because it had just made a new high in price at $100 and its P/E ratio, at 45, seemed too high. Several investment firms recommended G. D. Searle, a sympathy play, which at the same time looked much cheaper in price and had a similar product to Syntex's. But Searle failed to produce stock market results. Syntex was the leader, Searle the laggard. Sympathy plays are stocks in the same group as a leading stock, but ones showing a more mediocre record and weaker price performance. They eventually attempt to move up and follow "in sympathy" the powerful price movement of the real group leader. In 1970, Levitz Furniture became an electrifying stock market winner. Wickes Corp. copied Levitz and plunged into the warehouse furniture business. Many people bought Wickes instead of Levitz because it was cheaper in price. Wickes never performed. It ultimately got into financial trouble, whereas Levitz increased 900% before it finally topped. As Andrew Carnegie, the steel industry pioneer, said in his autobiography, "The first man gets the oyster; the second, the shell."

Is the Stock's Relative Price Strength Below 70? Buy among the Best Two or Three Stocks in a Group The top two or three stocks actionwise in a strong industry group can

have unbelievable growth, while others in the pack may hardly stir a point or two. Has this ever happened to you? In 1979 and 1980, Wang Labs, Prime Computer, Datapoint, Rolm Corp., Tandem Computer, and other small computer companies had five-, six-, and seven-fold advances before topping and retreating, while

grand old IBM just sat there and giants Burroughs, NCR, and Sperry Rand turned in lifeless price performances. In the next bull market

cycle, IBM finally sprang to life and produced excellent results. Home

Here is a simple, easy-to-remember measure that will help tell you if a security is a leader or a laggard. If the stock's relative price strength, on a scale from 1 to 99, is below 70, it's lagging the better-performing stocks in the overall market. That doesn't mean it can't go up in price, it just means if it goes up, it will probably rise a more inconsequential amount. Relative price strength normally compares a stock's price performance to the price action of a general market average like the Standard & Poor's (S&P) Index, or in some cases, all other stocks. A relative strength of 70, for example, means a stock outperformed 70% of the

36


stocks in the comparison group during a given period, say, the last six or twelve months. The 500 best-performing listed equities for each year from 1953 through 1993 averaged a relative price strength rating of 87 just before their major increase in price actually began. So the determined winner's rule is: Avoid laggard stocks and avoid sympathy movements. Look for the genuine leaders! Most of the better investment services show both a relative strength line and a relative strength number and update these every week for a list of thousands of stocks. Relative strength numbers are shown each day for all stocks listed in


37

live strength reading of 90 or higher just before breaking out of their first or second base structure. A potential winning stock's relative strength should be the same as a major league pitcher's fast ball. The average big league fast ball is clocked about 86 miles per hour and the outstanding pitchers throw "heat" in the 90s. The complete lack of investor awareness, or at least unwillingness, in establishing and following minimum realistic standards for good stock selection reminds me that doctors many years ago were ignorant of the need to sterilize their instruments before each operation. So they kept killing off excessive numbers of their patients until surgeons finally and

Updated relative strength numbers are also shown in Daily Graphs charting service each week.

begrudgingly accepted studies by a young French chemist named Louis Pasteur on the need for sterilization. It isn't very rewarding to make questionable decisions in any arena. And in evaluating the American economy, investors should zero in on sound new market leaders and avoid anemic-performance investments.

Pick 80s and 90s That Arc in a Chart Base Pattern

Always Sell Your Worst Stock First

the Investor's Business Daily NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ price tables.

If you want to upgrade your stock selection and concentrate on the best leaders, you could consider restricting your buys to companies showing a relative strength rank of 80 or higher. Establish some definite discipline and rules for yourself. If you do this, make sure the stock is in a sound base-building zone (proper sideways price consolidation pattern) and that the stock is not extended (up) more than 5% or 10% above this base pattern. This will prevent you from chasing stocks that have raced up in price too rapidly above their chart base patterns. For example, in the Reebok chart shown at the end of Chapter 3, if the exact buy point was $29, the stock should not be purchased more than 5% or 10% above $29. If a relative price strength line has been sinking for seven months or more, or if the line has an abnormally sharp decline for four months or more, the stock's behavior is questionable. Why buy an equity whose relative performance is inferior and straggling drearily behind a laige number of other, better-acting securities in the market? Yet most investors do, and many do it without ever looking at a relative strength line or number. Some large institutional portfolios are riddled with stocks showing prolonged downtrends in relative strength. I do not like to buy stocks with a relative strength rating below 80, or with a relative strength line in an overall downtrend. In fact, the really big money-making selections generally have a rela-

If you own a portfolio of equities, you must learn to sell your worst-performing stocks first and keep your best-acting investments a little longer. In other words, sell your cats and dogs, your losers and mistakes, and try to turn your better selections into your big winners. General market corrections, or price declines, can help you recognize new leaders if you know what to look for. The more desirable growth stocks normally correct l'/2 to 2/2 times the general market averages. However as a rule, growth stocks declining the least (percentagewise) in a bull market correction are your strongest and best investments, and stocks that plummet the most are your weakest choices. For example, if the overall market suffers a 10% intermediate term falloff, three successful growth securities could drop 15%, 20%, and 30%. The ones down only 15% or 20% are likely to be your best investments after they recover. Of course, a stock sliding 35% to 40% in a general market decline of 10% could be flashing you a warning signal, and you should, in many cases, steer clear of such an uncertain actor.

Pros Make Mistakes Too Many professional investment managers make the serious mistake of buying stocks that have just suffered unusually large price drops. In

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June 1972, a normally capable, leading institutional investor in Maryland bought Levitz Furniture after its first abnormal price break in one week from $60 to around $40. The stock rallied for a few weeks,

rolled over, and broke to $18. Several institutional investors bought Memorex in October 1978, when it had its first unusual price break. It later plunged. Certain money managers in New York bought Dome Petroleum in September 1981 after its sharp drop from $16 to $12, because it seemed

cheap arid there was a favorable story going around Wall Street on the stock. Months later Dome sold for $1, and the street talk was that the company might be in financial difficulties.

None of these professionals had recognized the difference between the normal price declines and the highly abnormal corrections that were a sign of potential disaster in this stock. Of course, the real problem was that these expert investors all relied solely on fundamental analysis (and stories) and their personal opinion of value (lower P/E ratios), with a complete disregard for what market action could have told them was really going on. Those who ignore what the marketplace is saying usually suffer some heavy losses. Once a general market decline is definitely over, the first stocks that bounce back to new price highs are almost always your authentic leaders. This process continues to occur week by week for about three months or so, with many stocks recovering and making new highs. To be a truly astute professional or individual investor you must learn to recognize the difference between normal price action and abnormal activity. When you understand how to do this well, people will say you have "a good feel for the market."

Control Data—Abnormal Strength in a Weak Market During a trip to New York in April 1967, I remember walking through a broker's office on one day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over twelve points. When I looked up at the electronic ticker tape showing prices moving across the wall, Control Data was trading in heavy volume at $62, up SV-j points for the day. I immediately bought the stock at the market, because I knew Control Data well, and this was abnormal strength in the face of a weak overall market. The stock subsequently reached $150. In April 1981, just as the 1981 bear market was commencing, MCI Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based telecommunications stock


39

trading in the over-the-counter market, broke out of a price base at $15. It advanced to the equivalent of $90 in the following 21 months. MCI tripled in a declining market. This was a great example of abnormal strength during a weak market. Lorillard did the same thing in the 1957 bear market. Software Toolworks soared in January 1990. So don't forget: It seldom pays to invest in laggard performing stocks even if they look tantalizingly cheap. Look for the market leader.

I = Institutional Sponsorship

41

money. More recently, numerous new "entrepreneurial type" investment counseling firms have been organized to manage institutional monies.

Performance figures for the latest 12 months plus the last three- to

6

five-year period are usually the most relevant. However, results may change significantly as key portfolio managers leave one money management organization and go to another. The institutional leaders continually rotate and change.

For example, Security Pacific Bank (now merged into Bank America)

It takes big demand to move supply up, and the largest source of demand for stocks is by far the institutional buyer. A stock certainly does not need a large number of institutional owners, but it should have at least a few such sponsors. Three to ten might be a minimum or reasonable number of mutual fund sponsors, although some stocks might have a good deal more. The would-be winning investor should learn to sort through and recognize that certain institutional sponsors are more savvy, have a stronger performance record, and are better at choosing stocks than others are. I call it analyzing the quality of sponsorship.

had somewhat modest performance in its trust investment division up to 1981. But with the addition of new management and more realistic concepts in the investment area, it polished up its act to the point that it ranked at the very top in performance in 1982. In 1984, the top manager of Security Pacific left and formed his own company, Nicolas Applegate of San Diego. If a stock has no professional sponsorship, chances are that its performance will be more run-of-the-mill. The odds are that at least several of the more than 1000 institutional investors have looked at the stock and passed it over. Even if they are wrong, it still takes large buying to stimulate an important price increase in a security. Also, sponsorship provides buying support when you want to get out of your investment. If there is no sponsorship and you try to sell your stock in a poor market, you may have problems finding someone to buy it. Daily marketability is one of the great advantages of owning stock. (Real estate is far less liquid and commissions and fees are much higher.) Institutional sponsorship helps provide continuous marketability and liquidity.

What Is Institutional Sponsorship?

Is It "Overowncd" by Institutions?

Sponsorship may take the form of mutual funds; corporate pension funds; insurance companies; large investment counselors; hedge funds; bank trust departments; or state, charitable, and educational institutions. For measurement purposes, I do not consider brokerage firm

A stock can also have too much sponsorship and become "overowned." Overowned is a term we coined and began using in 1969 to describe a stock whose institutional ownership had become excessive. In any case, excessive sponsorship can be adverse since it merely represents large

I = Institutional Sponsorship: A Little Goes A Long Way

research department reports as institutional sponsorship, although a few exert influence on certain securities. Investment advisory services and market letter writers are also not considered to be institutional or professional sponsorship in this definition. Financial services such as Vickers and Arthur Weisenberger & Co. publish fund holdings and investment performance records of various institutions. In the past, mutual funds have tended to be slightly more aggressive in the market, but banks have managed larger amounts of

potential selling if anything goes wrong in the company or the general market. On the other hand, Snapple, in April 1993, was underowned. The "favorite 50" and other lists of the most widely owned institutional stocks can be rather poor, and potentially risky, prospect lists. By the time performance is so obvious that almost all institutions own a stock, it is probably too late. The heart is already out of the watermelon.

A,

I = Institutional Sponsorship

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42 disclosures of a fund's new commitments are published after the fact,

An Unassailable Institutional Growth Stock Tops In June 1974, we put Xerox on our institutional sell list at $115. We

received unbelievable flack because Xerox was then one of the most widely held institutional stocks and had been amazingly successful up to that point. However, our research indicated it had topped and was headed down in price. Institutions made Xerox their most widely purchased stock for that

year. Of course that didn't stop it from tumbling in price. What it did prove was how sick the stock really was at that time, since it declined steadily in spite of such buying. The episode did bring us our first large insurance company account in New York City in 1974. They had been buying Xerox on the way down in the $80s until we persuaded them they should be selling instead of buying.

Famous Last Words—"We'll Never Sell Avon Products" We tried that same year to get another well-known eastern insurance company to sell Avon Products at $105, and I recall the head of their investment organization pounding the table and saying, "We'll never sell Avon Products; it's such an outstanding company." I wonder if they still have it?

Professionals, like the public, love to buy on declines. They also make mistakes and incur losses. In many ways, some institutions are like the public. Money management organizations have their experienced and realistic decision makers, as well as their less seasoned or unrealistic portfolio managers and analysts. It is, therefore, not always as crucial to know how many institutions own a stock as it is to know which of the better ones own or have purchased a particular stock in the last quarter. The only important thing about the number of institutional owners is to note the recent quarterly trend. Is the number of sponsors increasing or decreasing?

Note New Stock Positions Bought in the Last Quarter New institutional positions acquired in the last quarter are more rele' • ' - - - l —M rnr vnme- tim e . Many investors feel

too late to be of any real value. This is riot true.

These reports are available publicly about six weeks after the end of a fund's quarter. The records are very helpful to those who can single out the wiser selections and understand correct timing and the proper use

of charts. Additionally, half of all institutional buying that shows up on the New York Stock Exchange ticker tape may be in humdrum stocks and much of the buying may be wrong. However, out of the other half you may have some truly phenomenal selections. Your task, then, is to weed through and separate the intelligent, highly informed institutional buying from the poor, faulty buying. Though difficult, this will become easier as you learn to apply and follow the rules, guidelines, and principles presented in this book. Institutional trades usually show up oil the stock exchange ticker tape in most brokers' offices in transactions of 1000 shares up to 100,000 shares or more. Institutional buying and selling accounts for more than 70% of the activity in most leading companies. I estimate that close to 80% or 90% of the important price movements of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange are caused by institutional orders. As background information, it may be valuable to find out the investment philosophy and techniques used by certain funds. For example, Pioneer Fund in Boston has always emphasized buying supposedly undervalued stocks selling at low P/E ratios, and its portfolio contains a larger number of OTC stocks. A chartist probably would not buy many of Pioneer's stocks. On the other hand, Keystone S-4 usually remains fully invested in the most aggressive growth stocks it can find. Evergreen Fund, run by Steve Lieber, does a fine job of uncovering fundamentally sound, small companies. Jim Stower's Twentieth Century Ultra and his Growth Investors funds use computer screening to buy volatile, aggressive stocks that show the greatest percentage increase in recent sales and earnings. Magellan and Contra Fund in Boston scours the country to get in early on every new concept or story in a stock. Some other managements worth tracking might be AIM Management, Nicolas Applegate, Thomson, Brandywine, Berger, and CGM. Some funds buy on new highs, others try to buy around lows and may sell on new highs. In a capsule, buy stocks that have at least a few institutional sponsors with better-than-average recent performance records.

M = Market Direction

7 M = Market Direction: How to Determine It You can be right on every one of the factors in the first six chapters; however, if you are wrong about the direction of the broad general market, three out of four of your stocks will slump with the market averages and you will lose money. Therefore, you need in your analytical tool kit a simple reliable method to determine if you're in a bull (up) market or

a bear (down) market. If you're in a bull market, are you in the early stage or in the latter stage? Most importantly, what is the general market doing right now? Is it weak and acting badly or is it merely going through a normal decline? Is the market doing just what it should be, based on current conditions in the country, or is it doing something abnormally strong or weak? If you want to analyze the overall market correctly, you must start at the most logical point. The best way to determine the direction of the market is to follow and understand every day what the general market averages are doing.

The Vital Importance of Daily General Market Averages The daily Dow Jones Industrial Average is a simple convenient stock market average to study. The S&P 500 can also be used; however, it is no more reliable for determining trend or direction, even though it is a broader, more modern and representative average consisting of 500 companies. The most comprehensive average is the Investor's Business Daily 6000 market value-weighted index, which covers all New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ common o.^,-v« on tVif»m

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Be Smart from the Start

just like everybody else. The United States' system of freedom and opportunity is the greatest in the world, so learn to use it.

Are Income Stocks Recommended? I do not believe most people should buy common stocks for dividends or income. In theory, income stocks should be safer, but don't be lulled into believing they can't decline sharply. People think utility and bank stocks are conservative and that you can just sit and hold them because you are getting your dividends. Ask any investor about owning Continental Illinois Bank in 1984 when the stock plunged from $25 to $2, or any of the electrical utilities caught up in nuclear power plant problems. Electric utilities nosedived in 1994. If you do buy income stocks, don't strain to buy the highest dividend yield available. That will probably entail greater risk and lower quality. Trying to get an extra 2% or 3% yield can expose your capital to larger losses. Dividends can also be cut if they are not being adequately covered by a company's earnings per share. If you need income, my advice is to buy the very best stocks you can find and simply withdraw 6% or 7% of your investment each year for living expenses. You could sell off a few shares and withdraw lV 2 % per quarter. Higher rates of withdrawal are not generally advisable, since in

time they could lead to possible depletion of your principal.

Are Warrants Safe Investments? Most investors should shy away from low-priced warrants. It is another complex specialized field that sounds fine in concept but which few investors understand. Warrants give a person the right to buy so many shares of a company's common stock at a specific price, up to a certain date. Many warrants are cheap in price and, therefore, seem appealing.

The real question comes down to whether the common stock is correct

Should You Buy Options, OTC Stocks, New Issues. . . ?

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First, the few outstanding new issues are going to be in such hot demand by institutions that if you are able to buy them on the offering, you may only be able to buy a tiny allotment. If you can acquire all the stock you want, in many cases it may not be an outstanding issue. Although most underwritings seem to be underpriced in the 1990s, new underwritings can occasionally be overpriced, and since they have no well-established market, you cannot be sure whether they are overpriced or not. This speculative area should, in most cases, be left to experienced institutional investors who can afford the necessary indepth research and who are able to spread their new issue risks among many different equities. Larger individual investors who can afford several expensive and varied services may want to consider Value Line's New Issue Service. However, many of the stock offerings being followed here that were initially filed with the SEC may not actually come public. The IPO Reporter, a Florida-based service, also provides information on new issues. Once an initial public offering has been trading in the marketplace for two or three months or more, you have additional valuable market price and volume action data on which to judge the situation. Stocks that have formed proper price bases should definitely be considered by experienced investors who understand correct selection and timing techniques. This can be a great source for new ideas. There are always standout companies with superior new products and excellent current earnings to be considered from among the broad list of businesses that become publicly held in the previous three months to three years. I.B.D.'s New America page covers many of them. Even so, new issues can be more volatile and occasionally suffer massive corrections during difficult bear markets. This usually happens after a period of wild craze in the new-issue market, where any and every offering seems to be a "hot issue." For example, a new-issue boom developed in the early 1960s and in the beginning of 1983.

to buy. Most investors will be better off to forget the field of warrants.

Merger Candidates Can Be Erratic

Should You Buy New Stock Issues?

Should the individual investor speculate in merger candidates? No, not normally. It is usually safer to buy sound companies, based on your C-A-N S-L-I-M evaluation, than to try to guess whether or not a company will be sold. Some merger candidates run up substantially in price on rumors of a

Should the average individual investor buy new issues on the initial offering? I don't generally recommend it. There are several reasons.

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deal falls through or other unforeseen circumstances occur. In other words, it can be a risky, volatile business and in most instances should be left to experienced professionals.

Should You Buy Foreign Stocks? How about foreign stocks? Don't they have terrific potential? Yes, a few

foreign stocks have great potential at the right time and the right place, but I don't advise individual investors to waste much time investing in foreign stocks. The potential profit should be two or three times as large as that in a standout U.S. company to justify the additional risk of owning a foreign stock. For example, the player in foreign securities must understand and follow closely the general market of the particular country involved. Sudden changes in the country's interest rates, currency, or governmental policy could, in one sweeping action, make your investment considerably less attractive. There have also been such onesided moves as nationalization of companies by countries. It is not really necessary for individuals to find foreign stocks when there are over 8000 securities to select from in the United States. Foreign stocks should probably be left to professionals who specialize in this field. There are a few good mutual funds that excel in this specialty. In 1982, some of our large banks learned the hard way the substantial added risk they assumed when making loans and investments in foreign countries.


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Do You Belong in Futures? Should you speculate in commodities or other futures? Probably not. Commodity futures are extremely volatile and much more speculative than most common stocks are. It is not an arena for the inexperienced

or small investor unless you want to gamble or lose money quickly. However, once an investor has four or five years' experience and has unquestionably proven his or her ability to make money in common stocks, the "strong of heart" might consider this medium. In commodities it is even more important to be able to read and interpret charts. The chart price patterns in commodity prices are similar to those in individual stocks. Being aware of futures charts can also help stock investors evaluate changing basic economic conditions in the country. There are a relatively small number of futures in which you can trade. Therefore, astute speculators can concentrate their analyses. The rules and terminology of commodity trading are different and the risk is far greater, so investors should definitely limit the proportion of investment funds which might be committed to futures. There are worrisome events, such as limit down days, where a trader is not even allowed to sell and cut a loss. Futures can be treacherous and devastating. Most futures fall under the group categories of grains, precious metals, industrial metals, foods, meats, oils, woods and fibers, financial issues, and stock indexes. The financial group includes government securities such as T-bills and bonds, plus foreign currencies. One of the more active stock indexes traded is the S&P 100. Large commercial concerns, such as Hershey, use the commodity market for "hedging." Hershey, for example, might lock in a current price by temporarily purchasing cocoa beans in May for December delivery, while arranging for a deal in the cash market.

Avoid Penny Stocks The Canadian and Denver markets list many stocks you can buy for only a few cents a share. The reason I suggest you avoid gambling in such cheap merchandise is that everything sells for about what it's worth. You get what you pay for.

These seemingly cheap securities are unduly speculative and low in quality. The risk with them is higher than with better-quality, higherpriced investments. The opportunity for questionable or unscrupulous

promotional practices is also greater. I do not like to buy any common stock that sells below $10 or $12 a share. If you want to fly, why not go first class?

Should You Buy Gold, Silver, or Diamonds? Should you invest in gold, silver, diamonds, or other precious metals or stones? Some investors have lost a great deal of money investing in such commodities. Many of these items were once promoted in a superaggressive fashion with little protection afforded the small investor. There was no SEC to protect against exaggerated, or possibly fraudulent, claims made by

some dealers in precious metals. Many books were written boldly pre-

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dieting gold would bolt to several thousand dollars and our country would go down the drain.

Gold, silver, diamonds, and other items of this nature are commodities. In recent years, they became highly speculative commodities. When the frenzy died down, many investors were left with investments they had bought at inflated price levels. The dealer's profit markup in these investments was excessive in some cases. Furthermore, these investments did not pay interest or dividends during a period of very high interest rates. Gold, silver, and diamonds all made very major long-term tops in 1980. At some point these commodities will rally back to a degree. However, due to the wild speculative furor that occurred, there is no way to know how much time must pass to completely clean out past excesses. There will be periodic short, quick runups in gold, caused by fears or panics regarding potential problems in certain foreign countries. But, this type of commodity trading can be a pretty emotional and unstable game, so I suggest extreme care and caution. The Soviet totalitarian economic system and that of most captive satellite Iron Curtain countries have been dismal failures. The Soviet Union's continued agricultural failures and vast spending for armaments create recurring pressures for them to sell gold, oil, and other assets to obtain badly needed currency and items their economy is unable to successfully and efficiently produce. This does not add to gold's appeal. A certain amount of the past speculation in gold was fueled by the Arab world during the inflationary period when the price of oil was rapidly escalating. This situation has now changed somewhat. Because of excessive oil prices in the 1970s and early 1980s, the long-term world demand for oil slowed. To prevent excessive dependence on imported oil from OPEC and future costly inflationary binges, the United States could and should press hard to open the deep interior of Alaska for oil drilling. I spent a few years stationed in Alaska while in the Air Force and can say that only a couple of thousand people a year visit this extremely remote area, where the temperature falls to 70 degrees below zero in the winter. It should be developed for the benefit of 250 million human beings. Silver may find fewer uses as photography companies convert to discs and films that no longer use silver. Diamonds were hawked to the public with almost fraudulent sales pitches, claiming diamonds are guaranteed to go up every year in price because they had always gone up. People were erroneously told that the diamond-market price is totally controlled and set by DeBeers.


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Many investors were surprised to learn, as prices collapsed during 1980, that the law of supply and demand also works for diamonds. New sources of supply for diamonds also came into the world market. As you can surmise, I do not normally recommend investing in metals or precious stones. It is possible at some point that small investments in such items will become timely and reasonable. However, even in this case, investors still may have to contend with large price markups and a lack of ready marketability. Marketability becomes a vital issue when you decide to sell and have trouble finding a willing buyer.

Should You Invest in Real Estate? Should you invest in real estate? Yes, at the right time and in the right place. In the past, a greater percentage of individual investors in real estate have probably made money than have investors in stocks. I am completely convinced that every able-bodied citizen should work toward either owning a home, a savings account, or common stock. Two-thirds of American families report they own their own homes. The typical equity in a home in 1984 was $40,000. Even most insurance companies have made more from their big real estate equity investments than they have from bond and stock investing. That is in part because real estate has been easier for most people to understand. Home ownership has always been a goal of Americans. Their ability to obtain long-term borrowed money through mortgages and the like, with only a small down payment as equity, has created the leverage necessary for Americans to make large real estate investments possible. Time and leverage have usually paid off. However, this has not always been true. People can and do lose money in real estate if:

1. They buy in an area that is slowly deteriorating or is not growing. 2. They buy at inflated prices after several boom years and just before severe economic setbacks in the economy or in the particular geographic area where they own real estate. This might occur if there are major industry layoffs or the closing of an aircraft or steel plant that is an important mainstay to a local area. 3. They get themselves personally overextended with real estate payments that are too high, and their source of income is reduced by the loss of a job or an increase in rental vacancies, if they own rental

property.

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4. They make a poor initial selection, the area deteriorates, or they're hit by fires, floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes.

Real Estate Questions for You to Ask

They say there are three golden rules to buying real estate—location, location, and location! If you live in the Sunbelt area, you'll have an advantage because that's where much of the past and future growth in the United States has and will occur. Southern California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and Florida are the fastest growing Sunbelt locations. California is already the largest state in the union, with 33 million in population and good year-round weather. Texas will one day be the second-largest state in population. Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, and Austin are just a few of its dynamic areas. Lots of land is available in this giant state, and the state government doesn't overtax or overregulate. But be careful. Dallas is more of a distribution and evolving technology center, and Houston is more dependent on the oil industry. In early 1983, the unemployment rate in Houston was higher than in Dallas due to softness in the oil industry. Florida has been known for past real estate booms followed by occasional busts when the speculative fever got too hot. Florida will continue to develop rapidly, and light industry should evolve. Tourists and retired people alike will keep on finding their way to this fabulous land. Tampa-St. Petersburg and the surrounding area is one of the regions pensioners seem to prefer. Around the turn of the century, sunny Florida will become the third-largest state in terms of U.S. population, and New York will be the fourth largest. Your own home is probably the first real estate investment you will make. Location is key here also. However, timing and financing are now becoming vital factors too. If you have to pay an inflated price plus a 10% mortgage, you will be up to your ears in payments. Your risk-reward ratio has to increase. If you use creative financing that could force you to refinance in three to five years, your risks materially increase because you don't know what loan conditions may be like in the future. There will be many other forms of imaginative financing. These absolutely must be investigated very carefully because most of them could force you, the buyer, to assume greater risks or payments down the road. Remember, it is definitely possible to lose money in real estate or to lose your house if you can't under any and all future circumstances continually meet the payments. I would also shun the widely promoted, starry-eyed, nothing-down craze.

Within or around a particular city, which locations are best? Ask yourself some questions. What are the better areas? Quality usually holds up best in the long run. In which direction is the city most likely to grow? Are you close to good schools and shopping areas? How easy would this house be to resell later? Does it have all the features other families would want? How about the neighbors and the neighborhood? What do these people do? Is the home overbuilt for the area? What have other houses in the immediate vicinity sold for? Where are the main traffic arteries or freeways, and do you have reasonable access to them? How long will it take you to get to and from work each day? Is a long trip worth the time, fatigue, and gas expense? Then there are questions of a different type. Could there be any possible problems in the future, like a new freeway a half block away; new assessments for streets, sewers or lights; or a worn plumbing or heating system or roof that may have to be replaced? Is the foundation solid and is the land the house is built on sound? Has the house passed all required inspections? Are you in a high-risk area for fire, earthquakes, or floods? Can you get insurance? Then you come to the financing. What will your total monthly payments be? Can they escalate and if so, how much? Will you be able to handle the increases? Are you sticking your neck out a little or a great deal? What are all the hidden costs, taxes and insurance, "points" charged to obtain a loan? How much total cash will you have to come up with in addition to the down payment? Can you positively get a clear title? Are there unreasonable prepayment penalties in the lender's agreement? Where will you get the money to make a balloon payment if one will be coming due? Real estate can be an excellent investment if you take your time and

make sure you know exactly what you are doing. Two twin opportunities that real estate offers are tax advantages (depreciation and tax deduction for interest on your home or on commercial or rental property and expenses), and leverage (using other peoples' money). However, leverage has killed more than one amateur real estate operator who greedily overexpanded, so beware of trying to use leverage to acquire too many pieces of property. That's dangerous. You could be building a house of cards diat will be blown down in the next healthy recession. Don't get carried away; use your head! Also, tax laws can change.

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You should, furthermore, be careful of putting too large a down payment on property you buy because when you eventually sell, you may not be able to get all your cash out. You will probably have to take back a large amount of paper in the form of a second mortgage. And remember, second mortgages have no legal right to the property and are subject to substantial discounts when you try to sell and convert them to cash. I would also be a little less interested in investing in condominiums because you will, in effect, own an apartment without much land. Frequently, land appreciates more over the years than does the structure. A friend of mine who was in charge of real estate investments for the New York Life Insurance Company for 25 years had the following advice: "In office buildings or apartments, location and economic factors that will affect the area in the future are key. Is the area dependent on one industry? What is the unemployment rate? Is this the type of facility or unit that is going to be in demand? If the demand is for $20 per square foot units and you build for $25, you'll have trouble. Or if people are wanting three bedrooms and you build one-bedroom units, you will get hurt." These factors, he feels, are more important than the fact that a facility has a big-name tenant on the lease. From a future supply-and-demand point of view, there is an interesting angle to land: they aren't making any more of it.

13 How You Could Make a Million Owning Mutual Funds Mutual funds are outstanding investment vehicles after you learn how to utilize them correctly. Most people, however, do not have a solid understanding or conviction about mutual funds. The first absolutely essential point to understand is that the big money in mutual funds is always made by sitting through several business cycles. In other words, to reap large returns from funds, you have to have the strong belief and patience to sit tight for 10 or 15 years or longer. It's like real estate. You may not make anything if you buy and later become impatient or shortsighted and sell out after only three or four years. It simply takes time. Nervous Nellies are not good fund shareholders. Investors in open-end investment companies, as mutual funds are sometimes called, tend to buy the best-performing fund after it has had a huge performance year. The next year or two will probably show slower or poorer results followed by an inevitable economic recession. This is usually enough to scare out those with less conviction or the "I want to get rich quick" fund holders. Sometimes shareholders will switch to another fund that someone convinces them is much safer (usually at exactly the wrong time) or has a "hotter" recent performance record. Switching breaks up your longrange holding plan. I suppose you should switch if you have a really bad fund or the wrong type, like an income or industry fund when you should own a diversified growth fund, but too much switching quickly destroys what must be a long-term commitment. Bear markets can last from nine months to two years or more and if you are going to be a successful long-pull investor in funds, you'll need to acquire the courage and perspective to live through numerous discourag-

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Hou You Could Make a Million Owning Mutual Funds

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ing bear markets. Have the vision to build yourself a great long-term growth program, and stick to it. I have sold mutual funds, known many top fund portfolio managers, provided research to hundreds of mutual funds, managed two mutual funds myself, and started the New USA Mutual Fund in 1992. In 1966,

does not have to be in the top three or four in performance each year to give you an excellent profit over 10 to 15 years. The fund can be either a no-load, with no commission, or load, or one where a sales commission is charged. If you buy a fund with a sales charge, discounts are offered according to the amount you invest and

one of the funds was up over 10%, when the Dow was down 23% in a

some funds have back-end loads which you may want to check. The

bear market. The other fund set a performance record for diversified growth funds of + 116% in the following year. A huge number of stocks in its portfolio doubled. We had even planned that our goal at the beginning of the year was to be the number one fund for the year. The fund did not do as well the next year. We had size problems, as assets u n d e r management in the fund and individual accounts increased dramatically. We also owned too many thin, volatile holdings, as we had just invented Datagraphs in January 1968 and, for the first time, had information on microfilm of several thousand smaller companies no one had ever seen before. Some people thought we were a "flash in the pan" with one lucky year, but most were unaware that twice before, in 1963 and 1965, we had also made 100% or more in many individual accounts. In 1963, the lowest-performing individual account I managed was up 115%. It was a cash account. From its inception, the fund ranked in the top 22% of all common stock funds until the day it was sold to another investment organization. This is an important fact most media people overlooked. An even more important point is that those original shareholders who held onto their shares as they were merged into the new company had a total increase of over 1,100%, which is the vital point I'm trying to make. The super big gains from mutual funds come from compounding over a span of years. Funds should be an investment for as long as you live. Diamonds are supposed to be forever—well, so are your mutual funds. So buy right and sit tight, period!

commission paid is substantially less than the mark-up you pay to buy

How to Become a Millionaire the Easy Way Here is what I regard as the ideal manner for a shrewd mutual fund investor to plan and invest. Pick a diversified domestic growth fund that performed in the top quartile of all mutual funds over the last three to five years. It will probably have averaged an annual rate of return of about 20%. The fund should also have a better-than-average record in the latest 12 months when compared to other domestic growth stock funds. Steer away from funds that concentrate in only one industry or one area like energy, electronics, or gold. The investment company you pick

insurance, a new car, a suit of clothes, or your groceries. You can also sign a letter of intent, which will allow a lower sales charge to apply to any quantity purchase made over the following 13 months. When you purchase a mutual fund, you are hiring professional management to make decisions for you in the stock market.

Most diversified funds should be treated differently from individual stocks. A stock may decline and never come back in price. That's why the loss-cutting policy is necessary. However, a well-selected fund run by an established management organization will, in time, almost always recover from the steep corrections that naturally occur during numerous bear markets. This is because mutual funds are broadly diversified and should participate in each recovery cycle in the American economy. Therefore, I believe an extraordinarily different strategy should be employed with mutual funds. Each time you get into the thick of an economic recession and the newspapers and TV tell you how terrible things are, why not add to your fund when it is off 25% to 30% from its peak price. It might even be a possible time to borrow a little money and buy more shares. If you are patient, within two or three years the shares should be up sharply in price. Remember, you're going to hold through many economic cycles, so why not be smart and add to your investment during each bear market? You can also reinvest your dividends and capital gains distributions and benefit from compounding over the years. When you buy your growth mutual fund, you should make up your mind at the outset that you are positively going to sit through the next three or four bear markets or economic recessions. This will give you the maximum opportunity to make really big money.

How about Income Funds? If you need income, you may find it more advantageous not to buy an income fund. Instead, you could select the best possible fund available and set up a withdrawal plan equal to l!x>% per quarter or 6% or 7% per year. Part of the withdrawal would come from dividend income

134


received and part from your capital, but the fund should generate

enough growth over the years to more than offset the withdrawal of capital, if it is limited to 6% or 7% per year. There are many organizations, such as Fidelity, Thomson, AIM, Scudder, Twentieth Century, Oppenheimer, Dreyfus, United Funds, Vanguard Group, and IDS Mutual that offer a family of funds with varied objectives and the right to switch to any other fund in the family at a nominal transfer fee. These families could offer you the added flexibility of making prudent changes many years later. The mid- to small-cap growth funds in a family are generally the better performing choices.

How Many Funds Should You Own? As time passes, you may discover a second fund you would also like to begin accumulating in another long-term program. If so, do it. At the end of 10 or 15 years, you might own a worthwhile amount of two or even three funds, but there is no reason to diversify broadly, so don't overdo it. Those rare individuals with multimilliori-dollar portfolios could spread out in more funds which would allow them to place almost unlimited sums into a more diverse group of funds. If this is done, some attempt should be made to own different-style managers. For example, money may be spread among one value-type growth fund, one aggressive growth fund, one small cap fund, one global fund, and so on. If you own a growth fund which, by definition, invests in more aggressive growth stocks, it should go up more in bull-market years and fall off more in price than the general market in some bear market years. This is fairly common and in keeping with the nature of most growth portfolios, so don't get alarmed and panic out at the wrong time. During the poor periods, try to look ahead several years. Daylight follows darkness.

When Is the Best Time to Buy a Fund? Any time is the best time. You'll never know when the perfect time is and waiting will usually result in your paying a higher price.

Should You Buy a Global or International Fund? Yes, these could be a sound investment and provide further diversification, but I would definitely limit the percent of your total fund investment


135

investments. International funds can, after a period of good performance, suffer several years of laggard poor performance.

The Size Problem of Large Funds Asset size is a problem with most funds. If a specific fund has billions of dollars in assets, it will be less flexible in retreating from the market or in acquiring meaningful positions in smaller, better-performing stocks. Therefore, I would generally avoid most of the very largest mutual funds. However, if you have a fund that has performed well for you over the years and it has now grown large but still performs reasonably well, maybe you should sit tight. Remember, the big money is always made over the long haul.

Checking Management Fees and Turnover Rates Some investors try to evaluate the management fees and portfolio turnover rate of a fund. In most cases this nit-picking is not necessary. In my experience, some of the best-performing growth funds have higher turnover rates. The Fidelity Magellan Fund, during its three biggest performance years, averaged an annual turnover rate of over 350%. CGM Capital Development Fund, managed by Ken Heebner, had a turnover rate of 272% and 226% in 1990 and 1991 respectively and was the top-performing fund from 1989 to 1994. You can't be active and on top of the market and do nothing. A good fund manager will sell stocks when he or she is worried about the overall market or a specific group, believes a stock is overvalued, or finds another, more attractive stock to purchase. That's what you hire a professional to do. Also, institutional commission rates that funds pay are extremely low, only a few cents per share of stocks bought or sold.

Are Monthly Investment Plans for You? I do not generally favor monthly investment plans, where an investor adds $100 or so every month to a fund program. My reason is practical. Most people do not stick with them religiously. Therefore, they delude themselves by thinking they are going to achieve substantive long-term goals with such plans. If, on the other hand, you can have money automatically

136


If you can, it is best to evaluate your choices very carefully, then try to make a larger initial purchase and have the courage to stay with it. I

also do not think people should make long-term investments in bond or preferred funds. Common stocks perform better. If you want to check performance records, most magazines produce an annual survey that evaluates the performance of most of the funds.


two when performance is slower or down. Why not buy and sit tight for the rest of your life and make a big fortune?

The Five Dumbest Mistakes

Your stockbroker or library should have special fund performance rating services such as Arthur Weisenberger or the Lipper service.

Mutual Fund Investors Can Make

Investor's Business Daily rates the prior 3-year record and shows the

1. Failing to sit tight for an absolute minimum of 10 to 15 years.

year to date and the prior year's percentage change in asset value for all mutual funds that are quoted daily in the newspaper. Additionally, several times a week it carries an article on a different fund and its investment activities. An open-end fund continually issues new shares when people want to buy diem. Shares are normally redeemable at net asset value whenever present holders wish to sell. This is die most prevalent form of mutual fund. A closed-end fund issues a fixed number of shares. Generally, shares are not redeemable at the option of a shareholder. Redemption takes place through secondary market transactions. Most closed-end fund shares are listed for trading on exchanges. There are ordinarily better long-term opportunities found in open-end mutual fund investing than

in owning closed-end funds that are subject to the whims and discounts below book value of the auction marketplace. A few people successfully trade aggressive no-load growth funds on a timing basis, using moving average lines. There are several services that specialize in fund switching. This requires considerable experience, timing, skill, and emotional discipline. I do not advise the typical investor to attempt to trade no-load funds, because mistakes would probably be made in timing of buy and sell points. Get aboard for the long pull. Finally, some individual or professional stock traders use growth stock funds for their IRA or Keogh retirement plans.

Why Many People Lose Money in Top-Performing Funds Believe it or not, half of the people invested in some of the best-performing funds in the country may lose money. How can that happen? Very few people buy during a bear market. They're afraid. Far more people buy much later, during a bull market, when they feel much

more assured. Some of these people then sell out over the next year or

137

2. Worrying about a fund's management fee, turnover rate, or dividends paid. 3. Being affected by news in the market when you're supposed to be investing for the long pull. 4. Selling out during bad markets. 5. Being impatient and losing confidence too soon. Here are some strategies from a few of the smartest and best mutual fund portfolio managers in the business: AIM Aggressive Growth Fund's Harry Hutzler and Jonathan Schoolar emphasize companies with a small market capitalization of $200 to $300 million. They evenly divide assets among 200 or so holdings to avoid having a bomb detonate in the portfolio if they had 4% or 5% in any

one stock. They like stocks posting accelerating and better than expected earnings and also prefer to see both sales and earnings growing vigorously. Earnings reports are "where the rubber hits the road." Hutzler and Schoolar do not visit companies and will sell when earnings start decelerating or come in below expectations. They stay glued to the news wires for indications that earnings will be a lot higher or lower than expected. Donald Chiboucas of Thomson Opportunity Fund states that their investment process is based on the theory of positive momentum-positive surprises, which asserts that a good company doing better than generally expected will experience a rise in its stock price. Conversely, a company falling short of expectations will experience a drop in its stock price. Thompson looks for signs both on a company level and an industry level including capacity utilization rate. They break down every industry and company to their bellwether indicators that will signal surprises. They closely watch about 12 areas of a company's business. Twentieth Century Ultra's forte is picking the very best growth stocks and they too look for companies showing strong earnings and sales

138


growth. Their policy of remaining heavily invested at all times does, however, create volatility.

Michael DiCarlo of John Hancock Special Equities says they start by ranking each industry sector based on expected earnings per share growth as well as current business conditions. Then, within roughly the

top five groups, he picks the companies with the best potential for price appreciation using a bottom-up approach. Generally, DiCarlo looks for companies with growing revenue and earnings of at least 25% per year, preferring those that are able to do this consistently. To summarize, the way to make a fortune in mutual funds is almost always by your long-term sitting, not your thinking. If you purchase $10,000 of a diversified domestic growth stock fund that is able to average about 15% a year over a period of many years, here is what could occur, compliments of the magic of compounding and time: First five years

$ 10,000

Next five years

$ 20,000

goes to $ 20,000

goes to $ 40,000

Next five years Next five years

$ 40,000

goes to $ 80,000

Next five years

$ 80,000 $160,000

goes to $160,000 goes to $320,000

Next five years Next five years

$320,000 $640,000

goes to $640,000 goes to $1.28 million

Now suppose you also only added $2,000 each year to your program

and let it compound over the years and you also bought a little extra during each bear market while the fund was temporarily down from its peak 25%. What do you think you'd be worth? Although there are no absolute guarantees in this world, and yes, there are always taxes, the example above is somewhat close to what's been happening with the better growth mutual funds over the last 50

years and the American Stock Market has been growing since 1790. (See the chart on page xiv at the front of this book.) So, in my opinion, faith and confidence in America's long-term future is a very shrewd and

intelligent position to take and stick with for as long as you live.

PART 3 Investing like a Professional

(

141

Models of the Greatest Stock Market Winners — 1953-1993

SHARES

5

7

14

18 29 24

Models of the Greatest Stock Market Winners— 1953-1993

25 10 10 5

14

8 25 25 22 25 15 10 15 15 15

and now, afterwards, have put it down in writing to, we hope, help you.

fun; each classmate had one beginning share worth $10 in the fund. Marshall Wolf, then with National Newark & Essex Bank in Newark, New

Jersey, and later an executive vice president at Midlantic National Bank, had the thankless job of Secretary-Treasurer, keeping the records, informing the gang, and filing and paying taxes each year. I got the easy job of managing

the money.

It is an interesting account to study because it proves you can start very small and still beat the game if you stick with sound methods and are

allowed plenty of time. The account on September 16, 1986, after prior taxes were paid, was worth $51,653.34. The profit was over $50,000 and a

share was worth $518. That is nearly a fiftyfold gain in about 25 years. Here are some of the actual buy-and-sell records to illustrate in vivid detail the '

'- ---—"*-'••"• ^-""-'1icrn««if"rl un to this point.

1/1/61

1/4/61

2/21/61 3/10/61 4/13/61

10/31/61 11/1/61 2/28/62 4/5/62

2063/4 209 41 52H 99K

15 15 50

Lockheed Xerox Xerox Homestake Mining Homestake Mining Polaroid Korvette Chrysler RCA

RCA Coastal States Chrysler

Chrysler Control Data Intl. Minerals Chrysler Chrysler Syntex

Syntex Syntex Control Data RCA

RCA RCA Pan Am

647/8 67>4 533/4 42>/8 453/4 13 447/8 463/8 48Y2 108H 110 64^4

Polaroid Polaroid Korvette Korvette Crown Cork

Chrysler

PRICE PAID

4/26/61 6/13/61 6/27/61 7/25/61 9/1/61 * 9/1/61 10/11/61

Brunswick

started the first PMD Fund with the grandiose total of $850. It was partly for

can't, either teach or write"? Well, we did the work, produced the results

Lockheed Lockheed

Crown Cork Brunswick

In 1961, all my classmates in the first PMD program chipped in $10 and

bought. Have you ever heard the saying "those who can, do, and those who

Endevco Corp. Lockheed

5

Tracing the Growth of a Small Account

loss or nail down a profit, I should mention that a number of the models of Greatest Stock Market Winners, 1953—1993 we actually recommended or

Bristol Myers Bristol Myers Brunswick Certain-teed Stan. Kollsman Stan. Kollsman

Crown Cork

3 3 30 30 10 30 5 5 10 10 10 30 10 15 15 15 25

Now that you've previewed C-A-N S-L-I-M and know when to sell and cut a

STOCK

6 20

DATE BOUGHT

5/28/62 6/15/62 6/20/62 6/25/62 7/16/62 7/16/62

7/31/62 10/24/62 10/30/62 11/1/62 1/16/63 1/18/63 2/28/63 2/27/63 3/14/63 4/23/63 5/6/63 5/13/63

5/17/63 6/11/63

8/7/63 10/9/63 7/9/63 1/8/64 1/9/64 1/10/64 2/17/64

GAIN

DATE

PRICE

SOLD

SOLD

2/21/61

783/4 78%

OR LOSS

2/21/61 3/10/61 4/13/61 6/27/61 6/27/61 5/25/61

68 39-V4 45 433/8 17!/2

8/29/61

48!/4

10/2/61 10/24/61 11/1/61

IDS1/* 58'/8 54

(223.49)

180

(191.68)

2/21/61 3/30/62 4/13/62

477/8 54!4 97'4 39-54

149.87

223.35 (104.30) (82.66) 102.96 7.55 (100.52)

183.96 (50.48) (81.02)

41'4

5/22/62 6/2/62

127'/8 54'4

190.30

54'4

105 217/8

7/12/62 7/24/62 7/24/62 7/19/62 9/28/62

977/8 351/8

(87.66) (101.86) 385.94

1/15/63

835/8

545.40

62 32!^

(111.02) (8.46)

109'/8

300.03 102.55 11.47

1043/4 105 '4 59'/2 5834 59

6034 62'/2 65'4

2/28/63 31% 3/14/63 92H 93 4/16/63 44'/8 5/13/63 527/8 5/15/63 543/8 6/10/63 55% 6/10/63 89'4 9/23/63 114H 9/23/63 149i/8 10/22/63 69^ 7/17/63 102.02 2/11/64 106.19 2/11/64 107.33 2/11/64 65.53 3/9/64

495/8 547/8

61334 61 4

neJ/s H6'/8 225 67!4 1055/8 1055/s 1055/8 68

211.30

2975.71 (59.62) 53.98 (8.49) (25.54) 123.29

\

142

Investing like a Professional

\

Models of the Greatest Stock Market Winners—1953-1993

143

Notice that while there were about 20 successful transactions through 1964, there were also 20 losing transactions. The average profit was around 20% and the average loss, about 7%. If losses had not been cut in Standard Kollsman, Brunswick, and a few others, later price drops would have caused much larger losses. This small cash account concentrated i|i only one or two stocks at a time. Follow-up buys were generally

made if the security moved up in price. The account made no progress in 1962, a bad market year, but was already up 139% by June 6, 1963, before the first Syntex buy occurred. By the end of 1963, the gain had swelled up to 474% on the original $850 investment. The 1964 year was a struggling, lackluster year with no real gain. However, worthwhile profits were made in 1965, 1966, and 1967, although nothing like 1963, which was certainly an extremely unusual year. Since there simply is not room in this book to show 20 long, boring pages of stock transactions, let me mention the next 10 years showed further progress, but there were net losses in 1969 and 1974. Another period of interesting progress started in 1978 with the purchase of Dome Petroleum. All decisions beginning with Dome are shown on the following page.

A valuable lesson can be learned about why most stocks sooner or later need to be sold. Dome Petroleum eventually declined below $2! Note also that the account was worn out of Pic'N'Save on July 6, 1982, at $15, but we bought it back at $18 and $19, even though it was at a higher price, and made a large gain by doing so. Another engaging example of the C-A-N S-L-I-M principles being properly applied is the one of David Ryan, a research associate and winner of the 1985, 1986, and 1987 U.S. Investing Championships. David entered the stock division of the contest in January 1985 with his own account in the market and won the national derby with a 161% increase for the year. In 1986 he increased 160% and in 1987 was up another 118%. Here are some of the characteristics of David Ryan's winning stocks at the time he bought them: 1. Average annual earnings growth rate, 24%. 2. Median EPS percentage increase, current quarter, 34%.

144


3. Average P/E, 15.

4. Average Relative Strength, 85. 5. Relative Strength line up an average of 6.5 months. 6. Median shares outstanding, 4.6 million. 7. Median average daily volume, 10,000 (not critical). 8. Median industry group strength, top 30%. 9. Average alpha, 1.78.

10. Average after-tax margin, 7.3% (not critical). 11. Median stock price, $24. Another associate, Lee Freestone, participated in the U.S. Investing Championship in 1991 when he was just 24 years old. Using the C-A-N S-L-I-M techniques, he came in second for the year with a result of 279%. In 1992, he gained a 120% return and again came in second. The U.S. Investing Championship is not some paper transaction derby. Real money is used and actual transactions are made in the market.

Examples of Great Winners to Guide You A selected group of the greatest stock market winners are presented here and on the following pages. They are models of the most successful investments in the United States between 1953 and 1993. Study them carefully, and refer to them often, because they are examples of what you must look for and learn to spot in the future. The thin line below prices is a relative strength line.


145

146



147

148



149

150



151

152



153

134



155

156



157

158



159

Study these patterns. History will repeat itself. All models show the stock's chart pattern just before the point where you want to take action. For example, the first model in this series of charts, Lorillard, broke out of its five-week sideways price base from $24 to $27 the very next week in November. If you bought as it traded at $27, Lorillard advanced to $98 or 250% in the following twenty months. You are seeing pictures of the most outstanding price accumulation patterns just before enormous price moves began.

How to Read Charts like an Expert and Improve Your Stock Selection and Timing

15 How to Read Charts like an Expert And Improve Your Stock Selection and Timing X-rays and brain scans are "pictures" doctors study to diagnose what is actually occurring in a human being. EKGs and ultrasound echo waves are recorded on graph paper or televisionlike terminals to show what is happening to the human heart. Maps are plotted and set to scale to

help people tell exactly where they are and how to get where they want to go. Seismic data is traced on charts to help geologists study which structures or patterns seem most likely to contain oil. Economic indicators are plotted on graphs to assist in their interpretation. The priceand-volume history of a stock is recorded on graph paper to help determine if a stock is strong and healthy or if it is weak and behaving in an abnormal fashion. A doctor would be irresponsible not to use X-rays and EKGs, and investors are foolish not to use and learn to interpret price patterns. Chart books allow you to follow a huge number of different stocks in a highly organized, time-saving way. You can subscribe to any one of the many chart services and receive complete updates weekly. In them there is just too much valuable information about what is realistically going on that you can't easily get any other way. That's why doctors study Xrays and EKGs and why knowledgeable professional investors study and try to understand and interpret charts. Charts record and represent pure facts on thousands of stocks. Prices that actually occurred are a result of daily supply and demand hi the

161

largest auction marketplace in the world. Facts on markets are much more reliable than 98% of the personal opinions and academic theories circulating about the stock market today. Milton and Rose Friedrnan, distinguished economists, devoted the first 28 pages of their excellent best-selling book, Free to Choose, to the power of the marketplace and the unique ability of prices to transmit important and accurate information to decision makers.

Those investors who train themselves to properly decode price movements have an enormous advantage over those who are either too lazy or too ignorant to learn about such seemingly irrelevant hocus-pocus. Reading charts is easy to learn if you will take a little time. 1 have seen many high-level investment professionals ultimately lose their jobs because they didn't know very much about market action.

Learn to Use Historical Precedents History repeats itself in the stock market. Many price patterns and price consolidation structures that stocks form are repeated over and over again, just as geological formations recur. Therefore, price patterns taken from successful stocks in the past few years should definitely be used as models or precedents for future selection of successful stocks. Attorneys and geologists rely heavily on precedents; why shouldn't you do the same?

Our record book of Greatest Stock Market Winners was compiled to provide historical patterns and important precedent data which could be used by institutional investment professionals as models when searching for successful stocks. Chart patterns are simply areas of price correction and consolidation, usually after an earlier price advance. The primary challenge in analyzing price consolidation structures is to diagnose if the price and volume movements are normal or, instead, signal significant weakness or distribution. Major advances occur off sound price patterns and bases. Faulty base structures and completely obvious patterns that everyone sees bring failure. Price patterns are certainly not Ouija-board magic fakery. Fortunes are made by those who take the time to learn how to properly interpret a graph's market action. Professionals that scoff at, or do not believe in, such important tools are openly confessing their total ignorance of the use of modern highly sophisticated measurement and timing mechanisms.

162


Search for Cup-with-a-Handle Price Patterns One of the most fundamental chart-base price patterns looks like a cup with a handle when the outline of a cup is viewed from the side. Cup

patterns last, in time duration, from 7 to as many as 65 weeks (most are usually three to six months). The usual percentage correction from the absolute peak to the low point of the price pattern varies from 12% or

How to Read Charts like an Expert and Improve Your Stock Selection and Timing

163

its 54% annual-earnings growth rate and its latest quarterly earnings up 192%, along with several other equities to Fidelity Research & Management in Boston during a monthly consulting meeting in early June 1975. One of the portfolio managers became instantly interested in the stock upon seeing such big numbers.

SEA CONTAINERS INC

15% to 33%.

Cup-with-handle price pattern: + 554% in 101 weeks

Cup with handle: 3500% increase in 61 months

It is normal for growth stocks to create a cup pattern during intermediate general market declines and correct l1/^ to 2 times the market averages, sometimes up to 2l/z times. However, stock downturns exceeding 2l/z times the decline of the general market averages during bull markets are usually too wide and loose and should be regarded with suspicion. As discussed earlier, your best choices generally are stocks with base patterns that deteriorate the least during an intermediate market decline. A very few volatile leaders can plunge as much as 40% or 50% in a bull market. Base patterns correcting over this amount while in bull markets have a higher failure rate if they attempt to make new price highs and

resume their advance. The reason is that a downswing over 50% from a peak to a low means the stock must increase 100% from its low to get back to its old high. Many stocks making new price highs after such a

huge move may fail 5% to 15% beyond their breakout price. Here is one glowing exception. Sea Containers descended about 50% during a sharp intermediate decline in the 1975 bull market. It then formed a perfectly shaped cup-with-handle price structure and proceed~"~ '

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