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Black Belt Trading: Investing Like a Pro 143

• KEY POINTS •
• Check the relative strength line. If it slopes up and hits new
highs, it’s beating the S&P 500. True market leaders far
outperform the major indexes.
• Rely on technical analysis alone to sell a stock.
• Never take more than a 7 to 8% loss from your purchase
price.
• Sell underperforming stocks in your portfolio, and put the
money into a winner.
• Read interviews of top traders.
• Put aside personal opinions, and listen to the market’s
message.
• No matter how grim the economy or market may appear,
always do your analysis of the major indexes and the
leaders.

Kier McDonough
Kier’s first job out of college was with a large brokerage firm. He was trained to
be a stock broker but didn’t really learn very much about stocks: “They teach
you to be a salesman and follow the internal analysts’ recommendations.”
In 1990, Kier got to know a broker from another firm who was a very
good stock picker. When Kier inquired how he found stocks for his portfo-
lio, the broker handed Kier Investor’s Business Daily and recommended
that Kier read How to Make Money in Stocks.
As Kier read through the book, he began to see how successful investing
really worked. Before reading How to Make Money in Stocks, Kier was
using a number of bad investing strategies. He bought when the market was
trending down, didn’t cut his losses short, and had no idea how to isolate
which stocks were leading in the current market. Kier was excited as he read
and reread the book, because he “had found a solid framework to help him
keep in sync with the market and leading stocks.”
Kier attended his first IBD Workshop in 1992 and felt empowered from
the education. He began to employ the strategies and started to have suc-