Gene Marcial's 7 Commandments of Stock Investing - Hardcover

Gene G. Marcial

2.73

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780132354615: Gene Marcial's 7 Commandments of Stock Investing

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0132354616 ISBN 13: 9780132354615

Publisher: Ft Pr, 2008

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

“Gene Marcial provides iconoclastic insights into the art of successful investing while exploding the mythology of the conventional wisdom. His 7 Commandments of Stock Investing is scintillating reading for both individual and institutional investors who seek an advantage in their moneymaking endeavors.”

--Scott Black, President of Delphi Management Inc. and a member of the Barron’s Roundtable

“It is well understood that trading in the stock market is full of risks. But if you are ready to take the plunge, I guarantee that there will be a time when being familiar with Gene Marcial’s 7 Commandments of Stock Investing will be extremely important. Over the years, I have followed many of the same commandments.”

--Carl Icahn, Chairman, Icahn Associates

“This book begins with one of the wisest investment observations I’ve ever encountered: ‘There are plenty of ways to make money in the stock market, but clinging to mainstream thinking or so-called conventional wisdom is not one of them.’ The author’s discussion on avoiding the diversification trap is alone worth many times the price of this book.”

--Bernie Schaeffer, Chairman, Schaeffer’s Investment Research, Inc., www.SchaeffersResearch.com

“Gene Marcial has been guiding literally millions of investors to better financial performance over his more than 30 years as a leading financial journalist. He consistently has demonstrated a rare instinct for knowing when to follow a trend and when to think like a contrarian. In today’s turbulent times, his new book, 7 Commandments of Stock Investing, is essential reading for all investors and could well add precious percentage points to the performance of any who take his words to heart.”

--Stephen Leeb, President, Leeb Capital Management Inc.

Every week, the investment world turns to Gene Marcial’s BusinessWeek column. Here’s why: Marcial knows how to pick winners. Apple at 15. US Steel at 19. But Marcial’s track record isn’t limited to just one or two picks. In fact, recent analysis reveals that he’s beaten the indexes for a full decade.

You can’t get results like that following the “conventional wisdom”! You need to know what Gene Marcial has learned about stock investing--and this book will tell you. Marcial has distilled 35 years of experience into seven powerful, counterintuitive “commandments”: rules that are simple and practical enough for every investor to profit from.

Marcial reveals why diversification is not an optimal investment strategy...why you need to focus on finding big winners, and how you can...how to profit from panic, and how to lock in your profits when everyone else is “fat and happy.” Along the way, he opens up the secret, mysterious world of corporate and market insiders--showing how to track them down, emulate their approaches, and profit from their lucrative strategies.

Be prepared to profit from panic
Plot a clear strategy to seize opportunities during a macro-market panic
Learn how to “buy the losers”
Finding tomorrow’s big winners in today’s bargain bin
Profit from the unknown
Finding investments that are undervalued because investors don’t understand them
The “sweet seven”: specific stock picks for the next seven years
What to buy right now--and hold for the long term

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Gene G. Marcial has been BusinessWeek’s “Inside Wall Street” columnist for the past 26 years, and is a former columnist at the Wall Street Journal. Marcial’s BusinessWeek column is one of today’s most influential stock columns, and is closely watched by investors and corporate executives alike. A favorable mention in his column often results in a rise in the stock price on the first trading day the magazine becomes available to the public. Marcial received an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the Santo Tomas University in Manila before studying law at the New York Law School and receiving a graduate degree in Political Science from New York University.

Introduction

Praise for Gene Marcial's 7 Commandments of Stock Investing

"Gene Marcial provides iconoclastic insights into the art of successful investing while exploding the mythology of the conventional wisdom. His 7 Commandments of Stock Investing is scintillating reading for both individual and institutional investors who seek an advantage in their moneymaking endeavors."

—Scott Black,
President of Delphi Management Inc. and a member of the Barron's Roundtable

"It is well understood that trading in the stock market is full of risks. But if you are ready to take the plunge, I guarantee that there will be a time when being familiar with Gene Marcial's 7 Commandments of Stock Investing will be extremely important. Over the years, I have followed many of the same commandments."

—Carl Icahn,
Chairman, Icahn Associates

"This book begins with one of the wisest investment observations I've ever encountered: 'There are plenty of ways to make money in the stock market, but clinging to mainstream thinking or so-called conventional wisdom is not one of them.' The author's discussion on avoiding the diversification trap is alone worth many times the price of this book."

—Bernie Schaeffer,
Chairman, Schaeffer's Investment Research, Inc.,
http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com

"Gene Marcial has been guiding literally millions of investors to better financial performance over his more than 30 years as a leading financial journalist. He consistently has demonstrated a rare instinct for knowing when to follow a trend and when to think like a contrarian. In today's turbulent times, his new book, 7 Commandments of Stock Investing, is essential reading for all investors and could well add precious percentage points to the performance of any who take his words to heart."

—Stephen Leeb,
President, Leeb Capital Management Inc.

Introduction

There are plenty of ways to make money in the stock market, but clinging to mainstream thinking or so-called conventional wisdom is not one of them. This book's seven commandments are definitely out-of-the-mainstream thinking, aimed at conditioning your mind to always look at the stock market as a market of opportunity. These seven commandments should clear your mind of old market clich�s and encourage you to jump on hidden opportunities to make money.

Panic is the enemy of the investor. The stock market offers great chances to make money when the big institutional investors are running for the exits and driving stock prices down. Ditto, when the institutions are driving up stock prices as they go on a buying rampage. That, in essence, is what the first commandment of this book is all about.

The second commandment addresses most investors' favorite strategy: diversification. It has universal investor appeal. Most folks feel safer when their portfolios sport a diversified, "low-beta" look, consisting of stocks of every stripe. My advice: Don't. Do not diversify. Instead, concentrate the bulk of your stock market capital in a few stocks to reap robust profits. Diversification might make you feel safe. After all, that is what the many market mavens have been drilling in your head all these years. But what diversification guarantees are mediocre returns. The banks are a safe place to store money. The stock market is not. To reap rich rewards from the stock market, you must bear some risks.

My third commandment goes against the widely accepted norm of going with the winners. My view: Let the winners gallop into the sunset without you. Instead, go after some of the prominent stocks that have stumbled or fallen. When a company's stock has crashed, the market almost invariably has discounted all of the bad news. And that's just the time when you can pick up real bargains from the casualty list.

The fourth commandment rejects the popular notion that "timing is everything." That might be valid in other aspects of life, but it's not in the stock market. Timing the market can screw up your portfolio. I debunk the concept that investors should time their entry or withdrawal from the market based on the economic cycle or seasonal or historical events. Timing is part of the "herd mentality" syndrome, which, more often than not, leaves an investor in negative territory.

The fifth commandment: Nobody wins like an insider does. By thinking and adopting the ways of an insider, an outsider can also win big. This book provides a formula for trading on the inside and unravels the mystique surrounding insiders. My first book, Secrets of the Street: The Dark Side of Making Money, revealed the clever ways insiders use to make millions. They were mostly of the illegal kind. But there are ways to get valuable information like an insider without getting enmeshed in illegal trading. Adopt the insider's ways— and win.

The sixth commandment tackles the unknown—the investors' fear of what they aren't familiar with. Little-known companies, like the biotechs, as well as the shares of foreign companies, offer great opportunities. This sixth maxim familiarizes you with the world of hidden stocks, where many still-undiscovered opportunities have not been brought to light. The pros who focus on this universe of practically invisible stocks make their pile when they attract liquidity or buyers to them. Don't fear the unknown. Know and understand it as a real opportunity.

The final chapter's seventh commandment advocates long-term investing. It is, after all, the best investment strategy. This chapter looks at how the pros profit from their long-term investing, and it recommends seven "sweet stocks" for the next seven years.

One principle that underlies the entire book's seven commandments is the widely known but seldom followed adage, "Buy low, sell high." Even hard-nosed investment pros dismiss that advice because they consider it too simple. The truth is, that strategy is difficult to put into effect. It is more complex when you attempt to execute and translate it into reality. It requires all the guts and courage to practice it—to know just when a stock is actually selling at a low price—and to have the discipline and conviction to buy it.

This book is not about predicting the direction of the market or forecasting the next meltdown or "melt-up." It exposes the basic misconceptions that have victimized investors all these years. Despite the flood of books published every year and the stream of countless newspaper and magazine articles and market newsletters, unrealistic concepts still saddle multitudes of investors with losses. This book can help you avoid being victimized and make you a winner in the market.

January 14, 2008

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