Page 769 - How to Make Money in Stocks Trilogy

Breaking Boards: Successful Trades and Lessons Learned 61

“My best trades were done when I bought correctly and sold because I
did my homework and followed the rules.”

Hansen’s Natural. 156% + 33% gains (two separate buys)
NetEase. 100% + 60% gains (two separate buys)

• KEY POINTS •

• Look for fashion trends. What’s new that everyone is
wearing?
• Read books by legendary stock traders.
• Watch for food or drink fads.

Tune Out the News

Dave Whitmer is a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Fighter Pilot and TOPGUN graduate.
He has been actively trading using the CAN SLIM System since 2000.
In March 2009, Dave was on the Aircraft Carrier USS John C. Stennis in
the Western Pacific Ocean. “This allowed me to distance myself from all the
news,” he says. And much like legendary stock trader Nicolas Darvas, who
was out of contact and away from the news while he traveled the world as a
dancer in the 1950s, this would prove beneficial. Bill O’Neil also advocates
tuning out the news and paying attention to what the market and leading
stocks are actually doing.
Because of the ship’s security network, Dave could not access Daily
Graphs (now MarketSmith, a premium charting research tool and sister
company to IBD) for research, so he had to rely on a good friend, John
Mackel, to help him fill in the blanks when it came to chart analysis.
Because he had such limited time and access to news, Dave wasn’t influ-
enced by media pundits who were saying the market would never turn
around. Dave was interested in stocks that were showing strength and
resilience despite the difficult market. He read about Green Mountain
Coffee Roasters in eIBD™ (the digital version of IBD) and saw the stock
setting up in a cup-with-handle base. Dave realized that as soon as the mar-
ket turned around, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters would be a stock that
he wanted to own.