Introduction

Hi, I am Brian L. Nowell. And I am writing this book specifically for you the beginning stock market investor or trader who wants to make money through investing or trading in the stock market and who is willing to spend time learning what to do and what to avoid. If you have some experience in investing already and you believe in continuing to learn things which will help you invest more wisely and more effectively, then this book is for you too.

First of all, I want you to know a little about me and my reasons for writing this book to you. I am not a stock broker, nor any type of stock market related professional. I am a psychologist who spends his time educating the willing about various matters which will help them live happier and more successful lives. I have been doing that for the last 25 years. As for me personally, I am a very curious person, and I have been blessed, through diverse education and experience, to understand many essential matters pertaining to human behavior. Because I have been trained as a scientist and as an artist, because I am very practical/functional in my approach to solving problems, because I am very interested in rapid accumulation of wealth for the endowment of The Development Center, and because I love learning about many different disciplines of knowledge, I have developed a different and useful method to understand and predict stock price increases and decreases. I will not be writing about any theoretical influences on stock prices. I will be writing about what works (although it never works perfectly). I know that the prediction methods contained in this book work, because I have used or currently use them for my many stock transactions.

I am writing this book to help you make consistent moderate to large financial gains through investing knowledgeably and logically in the stock market. I know that you can do this because I have already taught hundreds of other beginners how to do it. I am currently investing and trading in stocks and I am getting the moderate to large financial gains which I will teach you to make. When I first began investing a few years ago (1996), I lost $30,000 rather quickly because of making the major kind of mistakes which I will teach you to avoid. Unfortunately, I didn't have anyone to teach me except hard experience. But that same hard experience and the rewarding interaction with many individual investors just like you has enabled me to get the knowledge and learn the techniques which you will learn in this book

I never in my wildest dreams (which can be pretty wild) thought or planned to know much about the stock market. Oh sure, I learned the required minimum about the stock market when I was a sophomore in college. But I quickly let that minimal information get buried somewhere in my "never will use this information" memory files. Then, in 1996, I was counseling with my friend Susan (name changed to honor privacy), who wanted to learn to improve her marriage and family life, when I was suddenly and unexpectedly introduced to the amazing psychology of the stock market. That happened through her husband Fred (name changed to honor privacy). Because I was helping my friend, I also got to become better friends with her husband Fred.

Fred had been a stock broker at one time in his professional career, and one day, as our friendship developed, he took me to a local brokerage office to show me something about the stock market. Remember that my level of understanding about the stock market was close to zero at that time. Fred was very knowledgeable and he was also patient with my lack of understanding. He showed me an On-Line stock charting program in the brokers office and I quickly became hooked. Why was I hooked? Because, I received a stream of insight after looking at those stock charts which really excited me. I realized that stock prices depend on people's beliefs and actions and that people's beliefs and actions can be observed, evaluated, and therefore predicted fairly well. Those insights made it perfectly clear that future stock prices could best be accurately predicted through understanding the psychology, tools, and practices of all types of stock market participants. After many refinements of the investing/trading knowledge, tools, and practices I started acquiring in 1996, I am now able to teach the average beginner investor/trader in my stock market classes to predict stock price changes 9 times out of 10 correctly.

Not only can stock price changes be predicted by an eclectic psychologist like myself, but any willing individual can learn the things which I have learned through my stock market failures and successes. I have taught hundreds of individuals to successfully predict stock price changes 9 times out of 10 correctly. You can learn to do the same if you are willing. If you want to be a wise and effective stock market investor/trader, you will find that knowledge is your number one friend. I am grateful that you are reading this book to get knowledge and I sincerely hope that you will continue to learn all that you can which makes you a more successful stock market investor or trader.

In the course of my learning about the stock market, I have had the opportunity to interact with several stock market professionals. I believe that most individual investors like yourself will benefit from the help of one or more good stock market professionals. The key word here is good, which I will explain later in this book in the section called How To Pick A Good Full Service Broker (Chapter 25). Don't ever use the services of a stock market professional who is not good. In my profession of psychology, and I suppose in all other professions, it is my opinion that there are only about 10% or less of the members of that profession who qualify as good (as I define good in Chapter 25). Never stay with a stock market professional who is not doing a good job with your investing, just because you have used that professional's services before. The stock market professionals I have interacted with have ranged from inadequate to good. Look for, find, and work with the good stock market professionals to help you to invest/trade wisely and effectively.

I have spent a lot of time learning about the psychology, the practices and the tools of the stock market. I have learned a lot of great things to improve my investing and trading. I want you to think carefully about the things you will read later in this book. Don't take my word that they work. See for yourself that they work by using the things that you learn to predict real stock price changes. If you learn and then carefully do the things which I write in this book, and any other good things which actually help you predict stock prices accurately, you will surely prosper financially. Don't take shortcuts, pay the price to get good knowledge and to use the safest investing/trading practices, and you will be very glad that you did.