William O'Neil, a tribute and a better stock market..............

This post is about what I want to say about one of my hero's Bill O'Neil. 

William O'Neil passed away at age 90.   I am forever grateful for meeting him.

But first a few words on the general market. Over the last few weeks I have been increasing exposure to the stock market.  The short, intermediate and longer term trends are in my favor.

Some names I may or may not be long have been:

LSPD

PLTR

TLGS

ORGO

MVIS

PLNT

NNOX

MATV

MU

SLQT

PLUG

OTTR

SOFI

This past week I have had plenty of time to reflect on many things.   One major milestone I have pondered this week is the life of Bill O'Neil who passed away the other day.   I had the most fortunate opportunity to attend a Los Angeles Stock and Bond Club luncheon in the summer of 1984.  I went up to Los Angeles from San Diego where I was a broker, to visit a very good friend, David B. Utter, who was the man who hired me in the securities industry.  A guy who had worked with Dave, Jim Damron who if memory serves, was the Investor Daily's first circulation manager.  Here is a reprinted article from the New York Times on the Investor Daily newspaper when they were getting started.   It says so much about Bill and what he envisioned.

After 10 weeks of publication, Investor's Daily - a California-based financial daily newspaper weighted with statistics and charts - is fighting for respect and profitability, a fight its creator insists will be won despite heavy start-up losses.

''There's about a 1 percent chance we won't make it,'' said William J. O'Neil, chairman and principal owner of Investor's Daily, although he concedes that the paper may lose $10 million this year.

Others aren't so sure that the paper will succeed. ''I wouldn't give it a year,'' said William G. Garrison, president of Garrison, Keogh & Company, a registered investment advisory firm. He and others feel that the potential audience for such a data- crammed publication is too small to find sufficient circulation and advertising.

Ranging from 18 to 20 pages and published each business day, Investor's Daily mostly offers numbers that Mr. O'Neil considers useful to investors. Many of the numbers are unavailable elsewhere because they are produced by William J. O'Neil & Company's vast financial data base.

The paper's front page is dominated each day by a business news summary gleaned from wire reports from The Associated Press, United Press International, the Public Relations News Service and Reuters. A staff of 30 reporters and editors, many with business writing experience, provides a smattering of business features and various columns.

Significantly, Investor's Daily shares the same unusually wide page size as The Wall Street Journal, making it easier to pick up ads designed to fit the Journal format - an old newspaper practice especially favored by underdogs.

Mr. O'Neil states flatly that ''Investor's Daily is aimed at The Wall Street Journal.''

The paper's crucial test will come in early fall when it begins printing an edition in New Jersey via satellite and will start an assault to crack the Eastern Corridor market between Boston and Washington with a huge direct-mail promotional campaign.

Thus far, according to Mr. O'Neil, Investor's Daily has attracted somewhat less than 20,000 subscribers, most of them in California and 10 other Western states. The first year's circulation goal is 75,000.

Profitability will require substantially larger circulation to attract the needed advertising.

''If we had 200,000 or 300,000 subscribers, we could be very successful,'' said William J. Gallagher, vice president for advertising. Newspaper analysts have estimated that to become reasonably profitable, the paper will need about nine pages of paid advertising a day, more than twice the current amount.

Investor's Daily was introduced on April 9, boldly proclaiming that it would offer brokers, money managers, and sophisticated investors something new and indispensable. But some investment experts doubted that it could find a profitable niche within the crowded field of financially oriented publications. New Formats

The paper has won ardent admirers, however, by offering statistical data not available elsewhere and by using new formats intended to facilitate the scanning of large quantities of data.

Some unusual statistical features have proved particularly popular: graphic price-performance and volume histories of the 30 most-active stocks from each of the three major exchanges for the previous day; stocks showing the greatest increase in volume of sales for the previous day, as opposed to the usual report of stocks with the greatest volume, and year-to-date performance figures for mutual funds for easy comparison.

Also well received by some readers is the in-depth analysis of one company each day, with voluminous statistical data including the number of shares owned by various mutual funds and a 15-year monthly price history.

Readers also like design innovations such as the use of heavy black type in stock lists to single out stocks with significant price increases, and the use of larger type in stock tables than that used by The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

The paper is ''something any portfolio manager should look at first thing in the morning,'' said A. Michael Kailing, president of A. M. Kailing & Associates Ltd., a Chicago manager of corporate pension funds.

Some Criticism

But the paper also has its critics.

According to some investment experts, the data in Investor's Weekly is mainly useful to those who share Mr. O'Neil's statistical approach to analyzing stocks. Some also think that many of the paper's innovations could be duplicated by other publications if the demand were great enough.

The 51-year-old Mr. O'Neil, who is said to have made a fortune in stock trading, insists that others will not be able to duplicate most of his data because it is the product of his own data bank that holds the records of 7,000 companies and keeps track of 150 factors on each.

''Investor's Daily is not for the statistical nut or the chartist,'' he said in a Dallas drawl that he has not lost after 25 years in Los Angeles. ''It's just more factual, less opinionated.''

The paper's editorial material also draws criticism. Some readers would like the space used for more numbers. ''I don't think the cover stories or lead articles are helpful, but it's a very good statistical tool,'' said Barry J. Small, a senior block trader for Weeden Equity Trading in New York.

 'He's Got to Change'

But for other readers, there are too many numbers already.

''It's like casting pearls before swine, and I'm one of the swine,'' said Ryland E. D. Chase, vice president of Bull & Bear Group Inc. and a regular reader of Investor's Daily, ''I think he's got to change,'' he said of Mr. O'Neil. ''He needs better editorial material. If he goes on this way, it will fail because it will appeal to a very, very limited audience.''

Mr. O'Neil maintains that he has never begun a venture that failed and thinks this will be no exception. He says his research firm - William J. O'Neil & Company - provides data in weekly book form to more than 400 major institutional investors, who pay him an average of more than $50,000 annually.

Daily Graphs, his weekly collection of graphs that chart the price and volume histories of 1,600 stocks, has 30,000 subscribers. Other O'Neil ventures include Long Term Values, a publication containing data on stock prices and volume aimed at smaller investors, and The Stock Mart, a discount brokerage firm.

Because Mr. O'Neil already had presses and the data base, he was able to publish Investor's Daily at lower-than-average costs. Well known for his thrifty operations, he prides himself on the automated efficiency of Investor's Daily.

''We're not lavish, and there will be no promotional parties,'' he said. ''And we are going to monitor and measure advertising. It may take two years to become profitable, but its immaterial how much we lose the first year or two. That's just a question of how much we want to promote. I've introduced six or seven products, and I've never failed before.''

There have been a couple times I have publicly thanked the O'Neil Organization.   Both can be found at these links.

DEAN PARISIAN saying THANKS!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Hard work, luck and saying thanks..........

The show-down with reality will come over the next decade as America's boomers come face to face with the reality of "retirement". Every day as I go into the markets doing the two things that I am hired to do, protect and grow the assets of clients at Chippewa Partners I have the "retirement" of clients and myself on the line. It's not an easy job to consistently post great returns. As much as I work, the aggressive trading fund I manage will hopefully, but probably never exceed the 83% returns achieved coming out of the longest bear market in history in 2003 (it won't, we use little leverage these days, very little). Last years return of 33% with no leverage were not a "gimme" on easy street either. If it was easy, as I used to say, even the milk-man would be a trader. Unfortunatley the milk-man is a thing of the past and few can afford milk these days! The bear of 2000-2002 took care of the novices and day traders.

This year we have had some tremendous luck under market conditions that have not been favorable to the overall indexes and we've done some aggressive trading, all without the use of leverage. As I leave the office for afew days to visit my Dad in Minnesota, who at 85 may not have that many summers ahead, and returning next week I have a tremendous amount of people to thank for helping me become a better equity trader.

In no particular order let me reflect on the many who have helped in immeasurable ways. To Eddie Stephan, the Italian stallion and NYSE floor broker who took me under his tutelage on a chance meeting outside the NYSE in the early 90's, to David Ryan's meeting here in Atlanta, a highlight being his advice on the ONLY way to become a successful trader, to meeting William O'Neill in 1984 at an early seminar through my pal, Dave Utter and then our meeting in his Los Angles offices in the mid-90's as well as the thousands of dollars I spent on O'Neil advanced CANSLIM seminars, priceless. Hearing first hand of Mr. O'Neil's trading of shares of Price Club meant more to me than he will ever know. To Dave Davidson, you will never, ever know the impact you had on me on the time we spent together trading in San Francisco, thanks Dave, you turned the light on. To Gary Tremble for his insight on market trends and the utilization of macro views and sharing the O'Neil NSMI in the late 1980's that started the whole thing. To the late Bill Gritz, the price/volume trader who by hand, count-traded very well and amassed millions who would hang daily in the offices of Drexel Burnham Lambert in LaJolla and always made time to share ideas. Your work will never ever go out of style. To J. Peter Steidlmayer for so much in his work on market logic and position-sizing. To my friend Maurice Altshuler, the Morgan Stanley broker in LaJolla who opened my trading arsenal to catching the falling knife and playing the snap-back reflex move off a hard break. To Victor Niederhoffer who, among so many things, imparted balance and the importance of adjusting away from recent success. To Brett Steenbarger and his great work, to Ken Grant, risk control manager extraordinaire, to Lazlo Biryini and his great money-management work, to Jim DePorre, the finest "deaf" trader to probably ever walk the planet, to the unknown trader at Steinhardt Partners in New York City who in the early 1990's imparted to me probably the best advice ever given to me and to the great minds found on the Daily Speculations website whose experience, zest and positive optimism are of such inspiration, thank you.

As well, lest I not forget, to the great team who on a whim and a dream started "Trader Monthly" and authors Tanous, Elder, Covel, Lewis and Tharp who have shared their interesting work.

With the major indices still negative for the year I wish I was in position to be trading hundreds of millions for the thousands upon thousands of Native American children who reside on the many reservations I grew up on. They are the ones who could use my talent, drive and work ethic. Getting those Native tribal councils to fund investments with us has been truthfully, a rather long, arduous, time-consuming and expensive process. It's hard to justify the investment to help but yet we continue to help those who need us the most. There is no money in education for us and the lost time-value of money for them is astronomical. Frankly, it's a shame for the Native children of today and for those unborn in the tomorrow's ahead. We really do have a unique approach to offering so much "value"added" to Native money, and it hurts to know that few will be able to take advantage of it.

Year to date, our performance is up over 37%. Some luck, yes, lots of hard work.

May the trading gods continue to shine. It's hard to imagine how many investors think a 1% management fee we charge is "too much" to hire Chippewa Partners, a fiduciary and professional investment management firm. For us, it's all about hard work, alittle luck, staying consistent, motivated, optimistic and saying thanks.

The best is yet to come, and you can take that to the bank. I'll be back in a week.

Refreshed, recharged and ready for another foray into the largest casino on earth.

Again, DEAN PARISIAN saying Thank You to WON

Saturday, January 23, 2021

With Gratitude and Humility ............

Since January 1, a mere 14 trading days ago, my portfolio has increased by $379,952.   Over 14 trading days that is an average of $27,139 per day.    Since Halloween, my investment portfolio has increased by $1,282,229.

Not bad for being retired! 

With all due respect to my many friends who are fur trappers across the nation, it probably beats trapping fox and coyotes which is how it all started for me in putting myself through college.  I still wish I had an opportunity to trap with friends in Minnesota; if only the State of Minnesota legislature would pass laws to allow non-residents to trap.  It's about time Minnesota, but I doubt anything will happen with liberal policies and leftist retards running the show in Minnesota.  God help them.      

Today I want to publicly acknowledge the many who have helped me get to this level.  As one of my heroes, Victor Niederhoffer says, the markets are a little bit of science, statistics, gambling, economics, business, psychology and ecology.   I want to thank Victor for the many meals of a lifetime he has provided to me and others during his spectacular run both in his books and on the Spec List as well as accessing his web site, Daily Speculations.  I follow him now on YouTube with Ms. Sennett, giving a daily recap of the market action and you might want to as well if you have any interest in trading.  As Victor always says, the purpose of markets is to take money from the weak and give it to the strong.  So for me, beating the titans of Wall Street for the crumbs I have been humbled to book this month is as hard as keeping those assets in tough markets and there are difficult markets ahead. 

First, to William O'Neil, thank you.  Sitting in your office on Beatrice Street telling me how you pyramided Price Club to start the IBD newspaper probably inspired me more than anything.  The first of many  WON seminars I attended were in Los Angeles in 1984, then in New York City, Santa Monica, San Diego, Atlanta and Boca Raton.  Meeting Bills cohort, David Ryan in 1996 prior to interviewing with the William O'Neil organization to rep the New USA mutual fund at the Ritz Carleton in Atlanta was extremely beneficial.  For sure I got far more out of that meeting than he did with me but we were on the same page.   Also, running the CANSLIM Meet-Ups in both Alpharetta, GA and Crossville, TN was a big plus and kudu's to the WON sponsorship of those meetings.   I know the IBD/CANSLIM Meet-UP group in Dallas, Texas is extremely successful after attending while living in Dallas for two years.     

Another person who deserves mention is Dave Davidson, short-seller extra-ordinaire.  It was from a chance meeting when he worked for J.O. Patterson's hedge fund in Atlanta that he was to become an influence on my trading and most importantly to believe what was possible. 

I would be remiss to not mention old friend Gary Tremble who worked for the investment management arm of Security Pacific Bank in San Diego and who provided invaluable research from the WON organization for many years.  Gary is now living comfortably in Green Bay, Wisconsin and is a tremendous student of the market.

To my long time and dear friend Maurice Altshuler I owe a special debt of gratitude.   Maurice was a great student of buying the dead-cat bounce off the bottoms and helped me to always be on the lookout for that "double-bottom" on the charts that has worked so well over the years.

To Budd Zuckerman of Boulder, Colorado fame I say "thank-you".  Your "fundamental" love for small-cap names has always been fundamental in your investing success and style.  Imagine if you used charts pal!

To James DePorre who resides in both NC and FL a great amount of respect and thanks.  Jim's analysis is similar to mine and he provides the quickest read on the general levels and market trends after I have been gone from the markets.  I use Jim to get up to speed on what has been happening and then let the charts tell me what is going on.  Jim can be found on RealMoney.com as a writer,  is an active trader and is on Twitter.    

And finally to my pal Dave Utter.  I owe Dave a debt of gratitude like non-other.  He allowed me in.  He gave me a shot.  He never doubted my work ethic.  April of 1982 was special and it has been a hell of a run since Dave hired me at Kidder Peabody when the Dow Jones averages were at 688!

To the many great people I have used to help me get better I thank you.  Names like Steenbarger, Covel, Sperandeo, Morales, Steidlemeyer, Hale, Elder and Housel to name just a few. 

And finally to my bride.  I over-achieved in marriage.  My biggest fan, my biggest supporter in good times and bad.  When things got so wacked in 1998, to the 2008 debacle and being strong thru the downturn in early 2020 she has always believed.

I pray every day for what I can do to share my good fortune with others and make good decisions. I believe the miracle is the more we share the more we have.  May Creator continue to provide good health and good hunting, both for stocks and big-game. 

As a visual behaviorist I will always defer to the charts.  Charts are reality and reflect decisions based on emotions. Charts are really just emotions showing up on paper.  And to literally the millions of charts I have looked at over the years I am most thankful.  I wish I had the time to do it all over again.

In life you can have results or excuses, not both. 

Never forget, God feeds the birds but he doesn't drop worms into the nest.  

If it was easy everyone would be a trader.  For me, it's all about the work. Most people don't want to do the work.  All I need to do is work harder because preparation eliminates the fear and preparation is never time wasted.  

I am going to keep working.  I think the best is yet to come.  

In 1996 I had met Dave Ryan at the Ritz Carleton in Atlanta and from that meeting we agreed I was to fly to Los Angeles to meet Bill as they were making a decision on what to do with their fund.  I believe David was running it at the time and I was being interviewed to represent their NEW USA mutual fund.   The fund had been launched in 1992 and was sold to MFS in 1997.   Here are my notes of that meeting in Bill's office on Beatrice Street:

DEVELOPMENT OF A SERVICE AND MARKETING PLATFORM

 1.  WHAT ARE THE MINIMUM SERVICES WE PROVIDE

 2.  DOES SERVICE MAKE A DIFFERENCE OR IS PERFORMANCE EVERYTHING?

       WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE HAVE DONE

     TOP 10%, IN 1995 IN TOP 6%---”  OUR BEST YEARS LIE AHEAD, WE KNOW THAT CLIENTS EXPECT AND DESERVE TO BE SATISFIED.  OUR RIGOROUS INVESTMENT APPROACH, TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, AND CULTURE HAVE ENABLED US TO PROVIDE SUPERIOR INVESTMENT RESULTS.”----EARNINGS ACCELERATION, AN UNDENIABLE FORCE!!

     SIZE ADVANTAGE--200MM WITH A 500MM CAP

     12 MONTH/18MONTH/3 YEAR COMPARISONS

     THE O’NEIL TEAM WORK ETHIC:  THE RESEARCH PRODUCT ITSELF:  THE TEAM TRACK RECORD, WHY IT CAN ONLY GET BETTER     

 3.  IDENTIFY OUR “CORE, MODEL” SALESPERSON

WHAT BROKERS/PLANNERS LOOK FOR:

WHERE NEW USA FITS IN PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE AND RISK

INVESTMENT STYLE, PHILOSOPHY (CANSLIM), AND APPROACH 

INTANGIBLES;  “O’NEIL/RYAN” NAME BRAND, 

 4.  REEXAMINE MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

     WHERE ARE THE ASSETS NOW, WHERE DO WE WANT THEM TO BE?

     FEE-BASED VS. COMMISSION BASED

     MAINTAINING EXISTING CHANNEL RELATIONSHIPS

     PRICING ISSUES:   B, C, D, NO-LOAD SHARES?

     INCREASED MARKETING SUPPORT

     EXPENSE RATIOS;  SHOULD WE MOVE UP THE 25bp TRAILER CURRENTLY PAID?

     IBD--AOL--INTERNET--GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT AND SALES IN

     BUYING BUSINESS--RECIPROCAL TRADING?

    5.  CYBERTRADE

      REAL-TIME TRANSACTIONS DIRECTLY WITH NEW USA

     INTERACTIVE REAL-TIME ACCESS TO ACCOUNT INFORMATION:  INVESTMENT ADVISORS NEED ACCESS TO PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

    6.  ADDITIONAL SALES

      SALES TRACKING/CROSS SELLING

     DATABASE---THE WONDA PRODUCT TIE-IN??

     VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES       

 7.  FUND SHELF SPACE--DOES THE CONVENTIONAL WHOLESALING APPROACH WORK?

     “PRODUCT POLLUTION”

     NEW USA VS SCHWAB VS FIDELITY

     A ROLE FOR NICHE FUNDS?

Here is an article that summarizes what Bill was all about.  To me, in every instance he was about hard work, straight up no bullshit talk and humility in all aspects of life.  It wasn't easy going to those classes.  It was expensive, flights, hotels and you have to eat!   But it was an education well rewarded.  I felt I attended so many of his classes around the country I should have been paid to teach!  Probably in retrospect those classes and those tapes were the single best investment I have made in my short 69 years.  New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Florida, California I flew on my dime because it was important to learn from Bill.   I listened and Bill delivered so many truisms, about stocks, about markets and about life.    Here are some"

Secret No. 1? "How You Think Is Everything." In other words, stay focused on success.

Secret No. 10: "Be Honest And Dependable; Take Responsibility."

Perhaps an 11th secret helps the founder of Investor's Business Daily and Investors.com continue to influence readers today:

No matter how big you've hit it, be modest. Stay humble.

If you walked into his office at IBD's Los Angeles headquarters a few years ago, you would have found it similar to the way it was about 10 years earlier in 2004, when IBD celebrated its 20th birthday.

The room was the same size as before, with barely enough space to house a conference table and shelves. Same metal desk. Same gray carpet. No mahogany paneling. No Impressionist or postmodernist paintings on the wall.

Instead, it featured a portrait of a dog, front pages of IBD and a photo of O'Neil meeting President Reagan in the Oval Office in the 1980s.

When a reporter asked O'Neil, "Outside of starting IBD, what is the achievement you are most proud of?" the Oklahoma native, now 85, arched his eyebrows, breathed deeply and shrugged.

"I don't think of that, don't look at that very much," he replied. "I think starting a business is important because you've got the total freedom to start and create what you want. We've obviously created products that have helped a lot of people."

He added: "If you want to start a business, you've got to have some experience in the field. If you're going to be selling peanut butter or something, you better have some experience with peanut butter."

O'Neil never joins a conversation with an intention to boast. He publicly cares less about what success he's had and more about the organization's mission today: Make readers smarter investors.

"I think the stock market is complicated itself, and not very many people really understand how the stock market works," he said. "If you're going to invest in the stock market, you're going to make mistakes. The typical person doesn't want to buy and then turn around and sell it for a loss. To some extent, to be very successful in the market, you've got to do what you have to do, which means taking some profits and taking some losses."

O'Neil has done very well in a large number of stocks over the decades. In 1962, as a broker at Hayden Stone in Los Angeles, he made profits of more than $200,000 (more than $1.5 million in today's money) in a short play on discount department store chain Korvette, a long investment in Chrysler and a buy in Syntex, one of the first companies to cash in on the birth control pill.

That haul helped the graduate of Southern Methodist University start his own institutional stock research firm — William O'Neil + Co. — on Nov. 7, 1963. One of the company's early achievements: managing money for the Vatican.

In 2013, O'Neil's research firm celebrated 50 years in the business. It remains a force in the world of institutional stock research.

He was one of the first people to use computers to collect vital stock information, and one of the first to place key information on fundamentals and buying trends by mutual funds and top money management firms right on the stock chart.

These simple innovations made his products stand out immediately.

"How did William O'Neil + Company survive and grow over 50 years? We concentrated on stocks, the one thing we know best," O'Neil wrote in the introduction to the book "50 Years of Independent Market Vision." "People asked me why I didn't buy bonds or commodities. The answer was simple: I didn't want to be distracted."

He added: "Just the concept of concentrating, seeing all the details, is important to innovation and being the best."

Twenty-one years after founding the securities company, O'Neil in 1984 launched Investor's Daily (later changed to Investor's Business Daily) with a mind toward building a new business and helping individual investors use the same tools as top money managers to find stock market winners.

Today, IBD is more than a paper and a website. It hosts dozens of beginning-to-advanced-level workshops as well as IBD Summits to help investors of all levels, including money managers, to become smarter in the stock market and make consistent profits through the platforms Investors.com, Leaderboard, SwingTrader and MarketSmith.

Awareness of IBD continues to grow. Investor's Business Daily reaches over 5 million investors each month who access IBD content across platforms including digital, mobile, print, events, meetups and social media.

Long-Distance Applause

Brian Edwards, a former high school English teacher who moved to Southeast Asia to start an online toy manufacturing business, first met O'Neil during a two-day Level 4 Masters program workshop in Los Angeles in 2004.

An active growth investor, Edwards asked O'Neil about the paper's online direction and whether he felt overwhelmed by the changes sweeping the media industry.

"I was looking for insights. Bill's response was knowledgeable and reassuring, down-to-earth, the meat-and-potatoes variety. I like meat and potatoes," Edwards told IBD. "Bill's investment approach is similar. He urges one to follow historically valid rules and not to get overwhelmed by emotion. He has found stability in an environment other find chaotic."

Does O'Neil ever take losses in stocks? Of course. One reason for his success in the market is the ability to consistently keep losses small, usually in the 3%-4% range.

He quickly learned the benefit of acting fast when you realize you have made a mistake.

In addition, early in his stock-investment career, O'Neil made a point to meet Gerald Loeb in New York. Loeb was making serious money as a stockbroker and wrote the investment classic "The Battle for Investment Survival."

In that book, he advised people to limit losses to 10% in any stock.

Loeb, a California native, went to Los Angeles and visited O'Neil, who recalls: "As he was leaving, I asked Loeb, 'Do you always sell every stock in trouble at 10%?' He said, 'I would hope to be out of them much quicker than that.' "

Onward In Oklahoma

Born in Oklahoma City, O'Neil moved with his family to Muskogee, roughly 40 miles southeast of Tulsa, when he was young.

His father had left the family by then, but O'Neil says his aunt motivated him to strive for success. She encouraged him to sell magazines to women in the neighborhood when he was in grade school.

O'Neil listened. Soon he landed a better-paying job on a newspaper route. He loved sports, particularly baseball, and worked hard to earn the extra $20 needed to buy a new glove or bat. After school, he hustled to finish his newspaper route so he could join baseball games.

"I was a pitcher. You're competing with nine batters all game long. You can do all right, then in the sixth inning, one of them beats you," said O'Neil, who also played the cornet. "I think I learned something from sports and a couple other activities."

O'Neil stresses that it's crucial to listen and learn from the very best in their respective fields.

The same philosophy applies to books. O'Neil once bought a library of investment books and found that most were junk. Only five or six really helped him learn how to make money in the stock market.

O'Neil himself has produced four editions of "How to Make Money in Stocks", a best-seller.

"Everyone and his brother has written a book on investing," he said. "Find out who is successful in a field, and if they've written a book, then the writing is from somebody who's been there, done that and been successful in that field. That, I think, is the whole key."

O'Neil is upbeat about the stock market's prospects over the next 30 years. "The country will grow and continue to grow as it's done in the past. You cannot hold human nature down," he said. "And you've got this freedom in the country, so there's a lot of opportunity. There will be new inventions, new developments, new companies. That I wouldn't worry about.

"You have this constant renewal of new products coming along, new services coming along, and a company does pretty well for a while. Then the company either gets too large to grow or is replaced by someone else. That's been going on for cycle after cycle after cycle."

In closing to remember Bill I want to say this.

About every person I have told to teach themselves about investing is to buy Bill's book on HOW to MAKE MONEY in STOCKS and, listen to me, READ IT TWICE, then get back to me.   Many never bought the book, but I do know I sold a hell of a lot of books for Bill over the years!  

You see, life is simple.  Most people don't WANT TO DO THE WORK to do what it takes to get out of the stock market what THEY want to get out of the market. 

I was lucky.  When I joined Kidder Peabody in San Diego in April of 1982 we had a guy in the office who was making a market in the shares of Sol Price's company, PRICE CLUB, symbol PCLB, for those who are still alive reading this.  Bill told me it was Price Club profits that allowed him to start the newspaper.  Bill told me, sitting in his office in 1996  that, it was by pyramiding PCLB shares and buying as much on margin as he could, every POINT UP, he was able to afford his Investor Daily start!  Hard to imagine I was sitting at a desk so close to Bill's buying power back in 1982!  

What a great, great man he was.   Rest in peace, William J. O'Neil and to Fay, and his children, what a loss.   May Creator shine on all of you at this time.  

 

DEAN THOMAS PARISIAN IS AN ENROLLED MEMBER OF THE WHITE EARTH INDIAN RESERVATION AND THE MINNESOTA CHIPPEWA TRIBE.  HE ATTENDED 4 HIGH SCHOOLS IN 3 STATES LIVING ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS, RECEIVED AN APPOINTMENT TO THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY  AT WEST POINT, AND EARNED A BACHELORS DEGREE  WITH TWO MAJORS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-MORRIS.

DEAN PARISIAN HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE INVESTMENT BUSINESS SINCE 1982,  HE TRAINED ON WALL STREET WITH KIDDER PEABODY & COMPANY, AND LATER JOINED DREXEL BURNHAM LAMBERT IN LAJOLLA, CALIFORNIA.  PRIOR TO THE FORMATION OF NATIVE AMERICAN ADVISORS, INC. MR. PARISIAN WAS AN OFFICER IN THE TRUST AND BROKERAGE UNIT OF FIRST UNION NATIONAL BANK,ONE OF THE LARGEST BANKS IN THE NATION AND MANAGED HIS PERSONAL TRADING ACCOUNT WITH SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS..

HE IS A MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENT’S CLUB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, THE GEORGIA ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, IS A MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING OF THE ATLANTA SOCIETY OF FINANCIAL ANALYSTS AND THE ASSOCIATION OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH.   IN ADDITION HE IS AN ARBITRATOR OF SECURITIES DISPUTES  FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECURITIES DEALERS AND THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.    

HE IS MARRIED, FATHER OF TWO SONS AND IN HIS SPARE TIME ENJOYS THE OUTDOORS,  SPORTS AND READING.

HIS GENERAL ADVICE TO INVESTORS IS “RULE #1 IS DON’T LOSE THE MONEY;  RULE #2 IS DON’T FORGET RULE #1” AND HIS FAVORITE QUOTE IS “SUCCESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MONEY, IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF.”