20 Investment Strategies

This is an excerpt from IBD magazine.

1. Consider buying stocks with each of the last three years earnings up 25%+, return on equity of 17%+, and recent earnings and sales accelerating.
2. Recent quarterly earnings and sales should be up 25% or more
3. Avoid cheap stocks. Buy stocks selling for $15 to $100
4. Learn how to use charts to see sound bases and exact buy points. Confine buys to theses points as stocks break out on big volume increases.
5. Cut every loss when it is 8% below your cost. Make no exceptions so you'll avoid any huge, damaging losses. Never average down in price.
6. Follow selling rules on when to sell and take profit on the way up. Review "When to Sell and Take a Profit" in "How to Make Money in Stocks."
7. Buy when market indexes are in an uptrend. Reduce investments and raise cash when general market indexes show five days of increased volume distribution.
8. Read IBD's Investors Corner and Big Picture columns to learn how to recognize important tops and bottoms in market indexes.
9. Buy stocks with a Composite Rating of 90 or more and a Relative Price Strength Rating of 85 or higher in the IBD SmartSelect Corporate Ratings.
10. Pick Companies with management ownership of stock.
11. Buy mostly in the top six broad industry sectors in IBD's New Highs List.
12. Select stocks with increasing institutional sponsorship in recent quarters.
13. Current quarterly after-tax profit margins should be improving near their peak and among the best in the stocks industry.
14. Don't buy because of dividends of PE ratios. Read a story on the company. Buy No. 1 company in and industry in earnings and sales growth, ROE, profit margins, and product quantity.
15. Pick companies with a superior new product of service.
16. Invest mainly in entrepreneurial New America companies. Pay close attention to those with an IPO in the past 15 years.
17. Check into companies buying back 5% to 10% of their stocks and those with a new management.
18. Don't try to bottom guess or buy on the way down. Never argue with the market Forget your pride and ego.
19. Find out if the market currently favors big-cap or small-cap stocks.
20. Do a post analysis of all your buys and sells. Post on charts where you bought and sold. Evaluate and develop rules to correct you major mistakes. It is what you learn after you think you know what you are doing that is vital. That is how you improve your results.