The Past 7 Trading Days

I went silent for the past 7 trading days, largely because nothing was happening. A few stocks broke out and then consolidated their gains immediately. The market leaders were largely quiet, so there was not much to discuss.
And that’s good, because during that time, I had the opportunity to visit an E-Trade stock seminar held at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood last week. The big draw was Bill O’Neil.

O’Neil was the lead-off hitter of the event as he opened with a discussion on his CANSLIM approach to stocks. I have to say, it was pretty cool to see him in person for the first time after reading about him for years and using his approach successfully.

To see him still going at it himself, giving a morning lecture and selling his CANSLIM approach (and the IBD), was interesting. You’d think he’d be sipping exotic drinks on a tropical beach somewhere by now.

His routine was exactly the same as what I’ve heard on radio and online interviews. It’s his book boiled down to a 30 minute or so lecture, which is good: it’s consistent.

It was also interesting to see people huddle around him afterwards, asking for him to autograph a copy of his book – many of whom had never even read it.

I’ve known a lot of people who read the IBD regularly and have tried many approaches to buying stocks, but still haven’t grasped all that is involved in buying stocks on break outs. And this crowd demonstrated why. People don’t do their research. They don’t read books. They don’t have rules for buying and selling.