Brandon, very true. This is what differentiates edge with luck. Trading masters always seek understanding, trading suckers always seek for easy, pat answers on how to make a zillion in a week. I think CANSLIM works when you've got a bull market (either cyclical or secular). It helps you pick out the best of the best. But when you've got a bear market or a range bound market, it doesn't offer much. I have a few gripes with O'Neil, among them, that he used to strongly discourage shorting. But then right at the bottom of 2002 came out with a book on how to short! As well, he puts too much emphasis on earnings. Earnings have nothing to do with how a stock performs. I can show you example after example of stocks that went up with no real uptick in earnings or even falls in earnings. And I can also show you stocks that cratered with good and growing earnings. The market is what it is. O'Neil doesn't test out the null hypothesis of his ideas.