| | | | | competitive position, debt to equity ratios, and many |
| Stock analysis, when done correctly, will change your | | | | more. These fundamental factors tell us about the |
| life! Stock analysis is one of the key stock market | | | | company as a business. |
| basics. It will help you to turn a small amount of | | | | There is another type of analysis...technical analysis. It |
| personal savings into a quickly snowballing trading | | | | revolves around the strength of the industry group |
| account. Analyzing stocks correctly has the potential | | | | of the stock, who is buying it right now, and how |
| to free you from work, debt and a feeling of "want" | | | | much they are buying, technical analysis of the stock |
| into one of the rare people who are truly | | | | chart, its performance over a period of time against |
| independent, can live anywhere in the world they like | | | | its peer group and the market in general. Now, most |
| and need only to work a few hours each week. It is | | | | people who rely on fundamental analysis have dirty |
| for these reasons that many people seek to master | | | | raincoats and big overdrafts in my experience. Many |
| the stock markets. Learning how to do stock analysis | | | | people, though not all, who rely on fundamental |
| the right way is the first step on a liberating journey | | | | analysis suffer from ever increasing market swings. |
| of self discovery and personal fulfillment. | | | | Most highly successful sophisticated investors look at |
| Let me take you on a little voyage of | | | | both types of analysis...it's a kind of techno |
| discovery....jump into my time machine. | | | | fundamental analysis. The balance in this method is |
| What is "the right way" to do stock analysis? | | | | heavily weighted to fundamental analysis....about 80% |
| Simple...the right way is the way which has produced | | | | with technical analysis being about 20% of the |
| the best returns over a long period of time. The | | | | weighting. It's more important to buy good |
| feature I love most about the stock market is | | | | companies than it is to jump on great entry points in |
| everything is recorded! We can literally jump back in | | | | the stock charts of poor companies. |
| time to great traders, high performing stocks and | | | | As investors, we all want to have the "margin of |
| market conditions and learn from them. How do we | | | | safety" which Benjamin Graham talked about. Buying |
| do it? We look for patterns and common | | | | stocks in outstanding enterprises goes a long way to |
| denominators. Once we have those, we try and | | | | providing this so that our downside is limited. |
| incorporate them into our trading. | | | | However, on its own, this isn't enough protection. |
| This is what Warren Buffet did. It's what Peter Lynch | | | | Great companies like Cisco have gone through |
| did, Jim Slater did it too, and so did Marc Faber, | | | | stomach churning corrections of almost 90%. The |
| George Soros, Jesse Livermore, William O Neill and | | | | missing part here was technical analysis...buying the |
| Nicholas Darvas. The list could go on and on. They | | | | best companies at exactly the right time instead of |
| never took their stock market education for granted | | | | simply buying the best companies. |
| They researched why stocks behaved the way they | | | | When you put both pieces of this stock analysis |
| did, cherry picked the winners and then went out | | | | puzzle together, buying great companies and buying |
| and looked for them! | | | | them at precisely the right time, your success in the |
| Their first step, to a man, was stock analysis...more | | | | stock markets is almost assured. |
| precisely, fundamental analysis. Fundamental analysis is | | | | So when you think about investing in or trading |
| about which type of stocks we choose. It revolved | | | | stocks, use both technical and fundamental analysis. |
| around the company that's underneath the quarterly | | | | Keep your overdraft low and your rain coat clean by |
| reports. Great fundamental analysts look at factors, | | | | doing stock analysis the right way! |
| like earnings, profit margins, operating profits, sales | | | | Limiting risk by selecting great entry points is one of |
| growth, product pipelines, management quality, the | | | | the most important stock market basics to master. |