Trader William O'Neill
Trader William O'Neill went down in trading history as one of the most successful investors who developed his own approach to stock selection and published it at the same time.
This approach has been repeatedly analyzed by various financial institutions and recognized as the most effective and efficient method of selecting stocks for investment.
The book he wrote educated more than one generation of investors, and unlike other writers, William O'Neill in his book emphasized the practice and facts of his strategy, and not demagoguery.
O'Neal is one of the most successful traders and investors on the planet, but due to his lack of love for fame and reluctance to go on various TV shows dedicated to investing, quite a few people know his name.
The future investment guru was born during the difficult period of the Great Depression, namely on March 25, 1933 in the largest city in the state of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. After his parents moved, William O'Neill spent his childhood in Texas.
After William received his bachelor's degree, he decides to enlist in the US Air Force. His service was beneficial, so upon his return he entered Harvard Business School.
William O'Neill's career
After completing his studies, his abilities were noticed by the brokerage company Hayden, Stone & Co, so he received the position of stock market broker with them. In this position, he was required to develop sustainable trading strategies for the company, which is what he actually did.
In the course of his research and real trading, William O'Neill noticed that the common rule of buying undervalued stocks in practice brought only losses. Therefore, in order to develop his own approach, he decided to study the transactions of the then successful Dreyfus fund and plot the buying moments directly on the chart.
When he did this, he was shocked, since all 100 shares purchased by this fund were purchased when the price updated its maximum, and was not at a more favorable price, as all textbooks teach. It was this analysis that became the basis for his future trading strategy, and since then he has only bought stocks that were rising in price and exiting the consolidation corridor.
The change in worldview regarding stock selection had a very positive impact on William O'Neill, and he proved this in practice. So, in the period from 1962 to 1963, he creates a pyramid of orders for three stocks, reinvesting all the profits.
As a result, he literally increases his deposit from five thousand dollars to 200 thousand in a year. Having earned a very large sum of money, O'Neil quits his job and begins his own independent path.
Creating your own business
The money he earned in literally a year became an excellent stepping stone for starting his own business, so William buys a place on the stock exchange and creates his own investment brokerage company, William O'Neil & Co. The company very quickly began to acquire clients and investors, since the company was one of the first to provide information on financial markets in computerized form.
However, trader William O'Neill saw himself not only as a successful investor, but also as a businessman. Since his company constantly collected quotes and carried out various analyzes of certain data, William created the daily newspaper "Investor'sDaily" in 1983.
The most interesting thing is that the publishing house he created had to compete with such a major information giant as the Wall Street Journal, so the costs were simply immeasurable with the potential profit.
In 1988, they collected all their thoughts and experiences together and published their own book called “How to Make Money in Stocks.” This book becomes the bestseller of the year among books on investment topics. It was the publication of this book that brought O'Neill worldwide fame.
Today, the company created by William serves the largest public and private funds, and their number is more than 500.