12/08/2008

Book Review: Beat the Market: Invest by Knowing What Stocks to Buy and What Stocks to Sell

Beat the Market: Invest by Knowing What Stocks to Buy and What Stocks to Sell


  • If you would like to learn about a method which beats S&P by over 7.7 times over last 25 years, then this book is for you.
"Over the past 25 years, Charles D. Kirkpatrick's exclusive stock-picking technique has outperformed the S&P 500's performance by a whopping 7.7 times. That's right: If you'd invested $10,000 in the S&P 500, you'd have $130,000 now...but if you'd followed Kirkpatrick's published picks, you'd have $1,000,000! If that's not amazing enough, Kirkpatrick's system is remarkably easy to use.In this book, he teaches you all you need to put it to work in your portfolio! Kirkpatrick reveals why an active strategy based on relative stock rankings is the surest route to profit, and how just a few pieces of publicly available information enable you to create rankings that virtually guarantee exceptional performance."
  • This book by Charles Kirkpatrick was published in September 2008. Charles Kirkpatrick has been studying relative strength for more than 25 years. In this new book he synthesises his many years of research to come up with a very simple relative strength and value based approach to investing. The method he proposes is very simple method which involves weekly data. It at best involves a few hours of work on weekend and is easily replicable. It is a complete turnkey approach detailing what stocks to buy, why, when, how much, where to put stops and when to exit.
  • This book presents data to question some of the most widely held beliefs in market. It has created a buzz amongst knowledgeable traders and the word about the book has spread by by word of mouth and most people who read it are amazed by the simplicity and the profitability of the system.
  • Who is Charles D Kirkpatrick and what makes his system so unique.
Charles D. Kirkpatrick II, CMT is currently president of Kirkpatrick & Company, Inc., Kittery, Maine. This is a private corporation specializing in technical research that publishes the Kirkpatrick Market Strategist advisory newsletter.
In the recent past, Mr. Kirkpatrick has been a director of the Market Technicians Associationan association of professional analystsand served on its Dow Award Committee, Education Committee, and as chairman of the Academic Liaison Committee. He was editor of the Journal of Technical Analysis—the official journal of technical analysis research—and an instructor in finance at the Fort Lewis College School of Business Administration in Durango, Coloradoone of only seven colleges (as opposed to universities) in the U.S. accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). In 2007, with coauthor, Professor Julie Dahlquist, he published a textbook on technical analysis: Technical AnalysisThe Complete Resource for Financial Market Techniciansnow used in university finance classes and the Market Technicians Association’s professional education programs.
In addition, Mr. Kirkpatrick has received awards from his peers. In 1993 and 2001 he received the Charles H. Dow Award for excellence in technical researchand in 2008, he received the Market Technicians Association Annual Awardan award given once a year to someone for “Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Technical Analysis.” He is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and served as a decorated combat officer in the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam. He currently resides on an island in Maine with his wife, Ellie, and various domestic animals.
  • The book advises a reaction technique, dubbed STRACT to beat the market. It involves no prediction, it just reacts to the market and data. STRACT refers to three step reaction: setup, trigger, and the action. It offers STRACT buy and sell setups. So if a stock meets certain scan conditions it qualifies for a buy and when it satisfies certain scan conditions , it triggers a sell.
  • For last 25 years the author has been following a "relative" approach to equity selection. Stocks are ranked either by relative value, relative earnings or relative strength. So when looking for value the author does not look at the value of company but as a relative value compared to all other stocks in the market.
  • For ranking stocks by value the author uses the price to sales ratio. The logic being sales are comparatively difficult to manipulate compared to earnings. He uses price to sales ratio of last four quarters and compares it to previous four quarters a year ago. But instead of looking at absolute value, he looks at relative ranking of stocks using the ratio. The P/S ratio is very easy available information and all finance sites provide this information.
  • For ranking stocks by growth the author uses change in earnings. Again he looks at last 4 quarters of earnings growth compared to previous year 4 quarters. But instead of looking at absolute value, he looks at relative ranking of stocks using the earnings growth rate.
  • For measuring relative strength the author follows a approach similar to the approach outlined by Robert A. Levy in his 1968 article in Journal Of Finance:Relative Strength as Criteria for Investment Selection . Levy proposed using a ratio of closing price/131 day moving average to calculate price relative strength. The author uses 121 days instead of 131.
  • Charles Kirkpatrick key findings about relative value based stock selection are:
    • There is inverse relationship between relative price to sales ratio and relative price performance
    • Stocks with relative value percentile of 17 to 47 have best chance of outperforming the market over the following three months
    • Stocks with ultra low valuation (relative valuation below 7 percentile) have poor performance.
    • Stocks with relative percentile between 87 and 99 are worst buy candidates.
    • In a bear market the best buy candidates based on relative valuation are between 17th and 27 th percentile.
    • The best sell triggers are above 57 percentile or below 7 th percentile during bear markets
  • Charles Kirkpatrick key findings about relative earnings based stock selection are:
    • Relative earnings growth is a poor criteria for selecting stocks ( IBD followers might find this news very disturbing!!!)
    • Stocks with top 10 percentile ranking by relative earnings growth (or in other words stock ranked 90 % plus by EPS raning) perform poorly compared to market
    • The authors research conclusively proves that using relative earnings to select stocks for future performance has no edge.
    • Stocks with relative EPS percentile of 42 to 87 are good selection candidates for 3 to 6 month holding period.
    • During bull market relative earnings is as effective method for selecting stocks
  • Charles Kirkpatrick key findings about relative price strength based stock selection are:
    • The most reliable technique for selecting stocks in both bull and bear market is relative price strength
    • it does not work for short periods (below 3 month holding periods) and periods longer than a year
    • relative price strength breeds more relative price strength and relative weakness breeds further weakness.
    • Stocks with relative price percentile rank above 47 outperform market in next 3 month, but higher the rank the better
  • Neither relative price strength nor reported earnings growth nor relative valuation has any predictive value 12 months in future.
  • By combining relative price strength and relative value ranking the author creates a "bargain list" every week. The Bargain List Model is the heart of this book.
  • Bargain List buy triggers:
    • Relative price strength>=97
    • Relative price to sales percentile>=17 and <=42
    • Market cap>1 Million
    • stock price> 10
  • Bargain List sale triggers:
    • relative price strength <52>
    • relative price to sales percentile <=7 or >=67
  • You can set this up in Telechart very easily. See my post about this:


  • The author offers three methods for creating a portfolio using the above stock selection approach:
    • Fully invested portfolio in bull and bear market
    • Adjusted for market capital risk using max number of stocks
    • Adjusted for market cap risk using simple moving averages
  • So if you want to beat the market this book is a worthwhile investment. It is a small 157 pages book, very well written and above all offers you one of the simplest method to beat the market.


Are you serious about your trading?

If you are serious about your trading and want to build an enduring edge the Stockbee Member site might help you. Members tell me they have tried lot of things before coming to my site and it has offered them the most extensive and detailed methods to swing and position trade.

It is only for those who want to develop their own self sufficient trading method. It is not a stock picking service. It is service for you to build your own scans and trading method to have your own daily pick based on your method.

Be warned it will take you time to learn to trade. Learning to trade is difficult art and unless you are willing to spend months or years to perfect your strategy and also develop your mental edge you are unlikely to succeed in this game. Unless you understand that no site, no service, and no mentoring is going to work.

Why traders come to stockbee?

The member site is one of the most recommended site for learning to trade by other traders and bloggers. You will see no advertising, no hard marketing, no promotions, no free offers, no affiliate marketing, no incentive to other bloggers to promote the site, no constant twits self promoting the site, no free trial  and no tall claims of making you instantly wealthy, and yet the site attracts new  members everyday. Members come from all walks of life and all kinds of trading size and trading styles.

You will see that many trading bloggers have been using my market timing methods, scans , stock ranking lists and chart templates. They have developed their own methods based on my methods. Many paid newsletter site recommend my site to their subscriber for learning about trading and market.

Over the years thousands of traders have been members and those who benefited from the learning talk about the site to others or talk about the methods used and that is how new members learn about the site.




What will I learn in the members site?

The members site will give you in depth understanding to develop your own trading method. The emphasis is on making you self sufficient and confident of your own trading method and style.

As a member you will learn the basics of swing trading, momentum investing, growth investing and risk management.

You will learn about Stockbee Trend Intensity Breakouts method that uses momentum based swing trading to find 3 to 5 day swing trades for 8 to 40% profit.

You will learn about Stockbee Episodic Pivots Breakout method which uses Post Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) to find stocks that had a game changing earnings and that are likely to rally for 3 months to 12 months.

You will learn about  Stockbee Dollar Breakout method that uses momentum, range expansion and swing trading approach to find 5 to 40 dollar moves in high priced stocks.

You will learn about  Stockbee Lemonade Strategy for 401k which uses market timing and momentum to invest in 401k. You will get weekly update on how I am using the strategy on our 401k to do allocation decision.

You will learn about Stockbee Market Monitor method for market timing using breadth. It allows you to avoid risky periods in market and allows you to identify market turns. It is used for 401k allocation decisions.

You will learn about Stockbee Double Trouble method to find stock with confirmed upside momentum using anchored momentum and that are likely to continue their up move.

You will learn about Stockbee Night Time is Right Time method to find news catalyst based trade ideas for short term day trade and swing trade.

You will learn about Investor's Business Daily’s IBD 200 list and how it can be used to find swing trading candidates for explosive moves.

You will learn about Telechart 2000 and how to use it effectively to scan for swing and position trade ideas and to set up your 401k strategy.

You will learn about Jesse Livermore Range Breakout, Darvas Box setup, and many other member shared methods.

You will learn how to set up your own scans, select right kind of stocks, how to set up stops, when to enter , when to exit, how much to risk, how to track your trades and all other details about trading. You will learn about developing your own methods and not relying on others for trade ideas.

The site has hundreds of videos and trading methods and variation of methods. Members help each other in developing the methods and share actively their research and finding. A collaborative spirit allows you to get input from others on your trading ideas or problems.

The site gives you opportunity to interact with some of the most successful traders and learn from them about their trading methods. It is a vibrant community with members from different background and experience willing to help each other. The emphasis is on continuous learning and up gradation of market knowledge and setup knowledge. The members range from hedge fund employees, financial advisers, active swing traders, investors and new traders.

If you are looking to develop your own trading strategy the membership site might be for you. You have to be willing to put in the effort to build your own method. There are no silver bullets offered on members site. Every method, every scan, every nuance is detailed and all possible help is offered to design your own method.

Do you have a trial?

If you are just looking for trial you are better off trying thousands of other trading site that offer free trial or one month trial and offer you promise of riches.

It is for those who are ready beyond the trial phase and ready to put serious months or years  of efforts to learn to trade on their own. It is for those who want to learn to find their own fish.

The free blog has all the details about the methods I trade and if you go through the posts highlighted in the sidebar you will learn about them.


How can I become a member?

To sign up go to www.stockbee.biz and follow the sign up process. The site uses Paypal for payment processing.

4 comments:

Complacent Panda said...

Bought it two days ago through amazon. Hoping to get it by Friday.

Thanks for sharing it.

Rhonda J. Steffen said...

Hey Pradeep,

you are always so up on momentum topics so you may have already seen this but if not, I thought you might like to check it out. Here is a link a recent paper for LSE on momentum. Cheers! Rhonda

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/paulWoolleyCentre/

Pradeep Bonde said...

Tks

Complacent Panda said...

Excellent book. Thanks again.