Bill-

Many thanks for all you are teaching me. I bought into GFIs weakness yesterday and got my reward today. Up 10.8%!

In the past several weeks I have picked up companies with great business models, sound finances and earnings at multi-year lows. These were trading at 25-30% discounts from fair values. Even if the market were to correct, these companies can't decline much further. And I have them NOW. This is much better than the buy and hold "strategy" I practiced in 2000, 2001 and part of 2002 til I wised up (somewhat).

I really don't remember how I found your blog. Call it providence. Now just months later I feel that I am the one who is in control finally, not some conflicted fund manager. Oh, there have been a few lessons administered while I have learned, and I continue to do so, but the feeling that I have is one of growing competence each and every day.

Remember when I outlined my educational steps to you? You wrote about it in your blog. From those halting first steps I now have 95 stocks of good quality companies that I am following, backed with charts, Value Line, and for the first time, price targets in the form of accumulation zones not to mention strategies to exploit them and to add dollars even if I do not choose to accumulate them. What a difference four months makes.

Bill,
I recently discovered your blog and I love it (with all these prolific writings—are you really a one-man operation –just kidding >�).
Just like the other commenter, I would like to re-shape my investment strategy. Where in the masses of the info you provide can I get the leads (accumulation zones, etc.)? Also, what has happened to:
“My premium service will be available in a couple weeks. What it means is that in addition to writing a free blog, I will also report….� (from Taking_control 8/23).

With warmest regards,
Ben

Hi Bill,

One thing that kept me out of the first part of the move in August was this "COT" data that showed commericials 'people in the know' (or so the story goes) shorting gold like crazy, and speculators buying like crazy. Theory goes.. that the speculators consistently lose and that this is a contrary indicator. Do you have any insight into that? I find it confusing somewhat and would appreciate your input. Thank-you.

Ben-
If you need tips on touring around the site for self education, let me know and I will "give back" by helping you out. But really, Bill's indexing is very good from this standpoint.

MarkM,
"Giving Back" is an important concept to have and given your story to Tru, I guess I too can use some pointers here. Anything will be appreciated.

regards,

Ben

Ben-

Here's what I would look at if I were trying to grasp what this site is all about. First look at the Topic Headings that Bill has used to index things. There are two "Trader Tools" and "Trend and Cycle Analysis" that contain the meat of Bill's entry and exit system for the markets. That's right. Bill has given you the basics of his system. Scan those for pertinent articles. That would be most. There are some articles around mid-May that are outstanding. Then go up to the Nav Bar and click on the "US Equities" tab. Read that article in full. Then look at GICS in the top Nav Bar. Here Bill outlines his top down approach and how markets are structured. He then explains his thinking on the sectors in each of the sector sections to the right of that-- 10-55, energy through utilities. He gives an outstanding review of the markets in his 1Q Review filed under "The Big Picture". Luckily that coincided with the resumption of this cyclical bull so that is rather interesting. He even tells you some of the companies he likes in each sector.

I could write for a half day on this but this is a quick start for you. It took me weeks to read all this stuff and I STILL pull some stuff to review out of a file I have constructed. If you are going to beat the averages you have to do some work.