Stan’s approach was based on a timeless principle of the four stages that stocks go through, placing importance on knowing what stage a stock is in at any specific time. The ideal scenario, as Stan saw it, was to buy stocks when they are coming out of the first stage and beginning to make a run higher, which is the second stage. Then the objective is to sell them as they approach the peak of the cycle, which is the beginning of the third stage. The fourth stage, as you might guess, is a full-fledged decline that you want to avoid or during which you go short.
