Page 656 - How to Make Money in Stocks Trilogy

Success Stories 485

I moved back to Denver in the summer of 1998 and continued using IBD
both personally and professionally. I had the same success here, with many
of the same student reactions as I did in Guatemala. Then, last year, during
the 2000–2001 school year, I taught a sixth- through eighth-grade after-
school business club. Using IBD, I helped my students participate in the
Denver Post annual stock market competition. One team, a group of two
Ethiopian boys and one boy from the Philippines, all of whom had only been
in America for a year, won second prize in the state! In fact, the only prob-
lem I’ve had using IBD in my classroom is when these students fought over
who got IBD’s ‘Your Weekly Review’ section on Fridays.
As a result of this success utilizing IBD in my classroom, I have a lot of
other ideas for using IBD in education. If you ever think about creating a
curriculum outreach program, I’d love to share them with you. There is so
much in IBD that would be great for schools!
As far as my own investing, I still read IBD daily and subscribe to Daily
Graphs Online. I am more confident now and strongly feel that when this
bear slowly turns itself into a bull, I will be able to find and buy, at the pivot
point, the next Qualcomm, JDSU, or Qlogic. (The pivot point took me about
three years to completely appreciate!) At first, I was the typical beginner
with no discipline. I would cheat on the CAN SLIM rules, simply buying
anywhere and anytime regardless of what the chart showed. I also bought
Internet stocks simply because they were Internet stocks. And I tried many
other methods looking for instant profit and success. All in all, during my
first two years of investing, I ‘nickeled and dimed’ my account to very low
points, dragging my ego down with it.
Finally, I disciplined myself and made a CAN SLIM checklist. I swore
that I wouldn’t violate any of the system’s rules. As a result, my successes
have increased. And even though the market during the last year and a half
has been rough, I did make a few nice trades, such as with Techne, Skech-
ers, International Gaming, and Direct Focus. I have read and reread Chap-
ter 11 [When to Sell and Take Your Profit] in How to Make Money in Stocks
about 20 times so that I can remain focused for the next rally. I’ll be shoot-
ing for the stars like you did from 1962 to 1963.
In conclusion, I would also like to express my appreciation for your love
and respect of America. I have taught and traveled in many countries, and it
is easy to say that America isn’t perfect, but I feel, as you do, that if you work
hard in America, great things will come. My father came to America as a
poor, young immigrant in 1950 and has built up a great mason business, all
through hard work. He always told me that if you work hard and remain pos-
itive, you can achieve anything you want. I feel that you and IBD express this
same sentiment every day. And believe it or not, I bought my father a sub-
scription to IBD for his birthday, and now he loves it, quotes from it, and
reads it every day!