Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard: How to Achieve Super Performance in Stocks in Any Market: How to Achieve Superperformance in Stocks in Any Market

by Mark Minervini

The problem for most investors is that they fail to notice the important nuances and clues from leading stocks near turning points, and that causes them to lose perspective. Why? Investors are gun-shy after the market has been declining steadily. Just about the time the market is bottoming, most investors have already suffered large losses in their portfolios because they refused to cut their losses short. After a market correction, many investors are busy hoping to break even on the open losses they hold or are convinced that the end of the world is coming because they got crushed during the previous decline and refuse to acknowledge the buy signals individual leading stocks are offering. Making it even more difficult is the fact that leading stocks always appear to be too high or too expensive to most investors. Market leaders are the stocks that emerge first and hit the 52-week-high list just as the market is starting to turn up. Few investors buy stocks near new highs, and fewer buy them at the correct time. They focus on the market instead of the individual market leaders and often end up buying late and owning laggards. Adding to the distraction is the fact that the news media are usually wrong at major turning points. At a market bottom they’ll predict the end of the world, and at a top the same people will say you can’t go wrong investing in stocks. It can be very confusing if you listen to what people are saying instead of paying attention to what the stocks are t...