That's basically what CANSLIM is. You pick the stocks with best Current earnings Annual YoY growth New highs Supply/Demand (small float, high demand) Leader Institutions buying Market direction/timing In his books O'neil goes through case studies for historical big winners and all have these characteristics, then he goes through chart patterns that they form to recognize when to buy breakouts. I also read one of his books about shorting stocks, it wasn't bad as a general market timing kind of book for medium term trading.
"That's it! That'll beat 99% of "systems" out there." That is true. I am gradually sharing some of these trading traits in my thread: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2581743#post2581743 Complete with some actual trades such as this morning. . . Week of September 26, 2009 Wednesday, September 23, 2009 10:29 am EST Bought 100 shares of BCSI (Blue Coat Systems, Inc.) at $22.09 (ask). Sold (1) BCSI Oct 22.5 (IYUJR) call option contract at $0.95 (bid). Stop Loss: $21.14 p$
O'Neil is the guy who advised his readers to avoid foreign stocks. His gimmicky method (CANSLIM) is as stated above. It works well in strong bull markets, less well or disastrously in other markets. He is the quintessential hustler, a master at promoting himself.
You realize he turned something like 100k into a billion, eh? O'Neil is a seriously big play trader. In 2003 he said it was like 1932 and then LOADED UP. Personally he was out at around $SPX 1400. One reason his PA has done little to speak of this year is because he never really believed in this rally.
CANSLIM is a system for selling books IMO. All CANSLIM winning stocks having the same characteristics can be explained by data mining. Think of all the stocks which met CANSLIM criteria but did not go up and the stopout costs on those which fitted CANSLIM but did not go up. I could point you to research indicating that >90% of 10 baggers have negative earnings and poor fundamentals.
yes that is true..... ------------------------------------------------ I could point you to research indicating that >90% of 10 baggers have negative earnings and poor fundamentals.