Rules For Stock Market Success

Rule 1. Consider buying stocks with each of the last three years' earnings up 25%+, return on equity of 17%+ and recent earnings and sales accelerating.

Rule 2. Recent quarterly earnings and sales should be up 25% or more.

Rule 3. Never buy or sell stocks on Tips or Rumours, no exception.

Rule 4. Cut every loss when it’s 8% below your cost. Make no exceptions so you can always avoid huge, damaging losses. Never average down in price. In a bear market, average decline of a leading stock is 72%.

Rule 5. Follow selling rules on when to sell and take profit on the way up.

Rule 6. Buy when market indexes are in an uptrend. Three out of every four stocks follow the market, either up or down. Reduce investments and raise cash when general market indexes show five or more days of volume distribution.

Rule 7. Buy leading stocks in the leading industry groups. 50% of any stocks move either up or down is because of the strength or weakness of its Industry Group & its overall sector.

Rule 8. Pick companies with management ownership of stock.

Rule 9. Buy stocks breaking out in heavy volume from chart patterns like cup with a handle, flat base, double bottom, etc.

Rule 10. Select stocks with increasing institutional sponsorship in recent quarters.

Rule 11. Current quarterly after-tax profit margins should be improving, near their peak and among the best in the stock's industry.

Rule 12. Don’t buy because of dividends or PE ratios.

Rule 13. Pick companies with a superior new product or service.

Rule 14. Invest mainly in entrepreneurial companies. Pay close attention to those with an IPO in the past 8 years.

Rule 15. Check into companies buying back 5% to 10% of their stock and those with new management.

Rule 16. Don’t try to bottom guess or buy on the way down. Never argue with the market. Forget your pride and ego. Dont back your judgements until the action of the market itself confirms your opinion. "Markets are never wrong - opinions often are". Dont let emotions take over, thats one of the biggest dangers of Investing.

Rule 17. Find out if the market currently favors big-cap or small-cap stocks.

Rule 18. Do a post-analysis of all your buys and sells. Post on charts where you bought and sold each stock. Evaluate and develop rules to correct your major past mistakes.