The Successful Investor: What 80 Million People Need to Know to Invest Profitably and Avoid Big Losses Paperback – September 1, 2003

This book explains some realities of the stock market. You need to protect your capital from terrible bear markets and make the most when the market is in your favor. O'Neill reasoning makes all sense, and if you follow his methods you'll do well in the stock market.

This should be the first book that people read by O'Neill from Investors Business Daily. It is straightforward and focuses on his principles and specific tactics for buying and selling stocks in a very clear manner and explaining very well market cycles, and how you should not try to fight the market flow but profit from it. I feel is a better introduction to O'Neill strategies than his main best seller how to make money with stocks as that one bombards with you stocks charts from the beginning, rather than trying to set up the principles first. This one explains O'Neill principles first and uses the charts just as auxiliary examples not as the meat of the book. One of the most important contributions of O'Neill is the focus on selling rather than just buying and accumulating stocks for the long run as many if not most other authors advise. It is clearly more on the side of technical analysis focused on the trading momentum of supply and demand of stocks rather than fundamental analysis (price earnings etc). However, even for value investors is a good complement to understand the overall context and why sometimes a good company may not be appropriately and fairly recognized by the market due to tides and sentiment beyond its intrinsic good management control.

O'Neils data analysis is the best I've ever seen available to the public. If you want to know what a stock that's acting right looks like, then buy this book, because those are the kinds of stocks you want to buy, the stocks that don't you want to sell. Timing is everything, and O'Neil has this down to a science. And like any good science, he presents a lot of historical data to back it up, both technical and fundamental. Such enlightenment may help you develop a successful style, as it has me. O'Neil provides a big picture view of things, with respect to the general market and individual stocks. Such understanding is essential. He's basically compiled a way of looking at the market that the greatest stock market operators throughout history have seen it. Such vision, from my point of view, has provided me with a sense of empowerment I never thought I'd ever possess. I always thought I'd have to be a professional athlete to feel this way, but no more. It took me about 5 years, many failures and continued study to see the kind of results I now see. Such material benefit though, I discovered, only came after a conversion of sorts, as they say, going broke is an efficient educational agency, but I've learned that failure is only temporary.

I read this as an intro to CAN SLIM and, since I am reading his "How To Make Money In Stocks" now, I guess you can say I enjoyed the read. I would give it 5 stars if it had a little more "meat" but don't let that dissuade you from reading it.

A well-written and easy-to-understand explanation of the CANSLIM trading and investing system. I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in trading in stocks. If you read this book and like it, I recommend purchasing O'Neil's book "How to Make Money in Stocks", which expands upon the principles of this book. But start with this one.

As with O'Neil's other book, How to Make Money in Stocks, I give his books the highest of ratings for anyone who wants to learn about the stock market or, in some cases, improve performance. In my opinion, his claim to fame is not only that he does a great job of giving basics, but he does it all in understandable English. When I began to study the stock market years ago, my major complaint was that I could hardly understand what I was reading. I spent much of my time looking up words and expressions in an investment dictionary! You will not spend your time doing that with O'Neill's book. Plus he will give you a great foundational education in market investing. I not only reread this book occasionally, but it is one of my favorite books to give as gifts to young and/or potential investors who want to know more about wise investing. Arlean

I read an article written by Bill O'Neil once where he said he was amazed at how many people threw money at the market like playing darts and took little intertest in trying to learn how to do better. Then when they lose money they blame someone else. This book is written in plain language that anyone can understand. With this book and a little research on your own into various charting tools available via your trading account or just on the web you can succeed. I started with a virtual portfolio and practiced until I consistently made money and then went real. It was not exactly the same, but I adjusted for the differences and now my decisions to buy or sell based on the info in this book are 70% dead on and the other 30% are dealt with quickly and produce a small amount of damage. Thank you Mr O'Neil for sharing this stuff with us.

This is a very informative set of rules and ways to make money in the stock market if you're willing to put in the work necessary to become a successful trader.