FOLLOW THE LEADERS: Successful Trading Techniques with Line Drive Stocks

by Richard Blackman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1977

A technically oriented investment manual dedicated to the proposition that individuals can profit by seconding the buy or sell decisions of mutual funds, banks, insurance companies, pension trusts, and other institutions which together account for more than haft of stock market volume. The author, who heads a small brokerage firm, concedes that playing pilot fish to the institutions' shark may be hazardous. But, he confidently contends, risks can be minimized and rewards maximized through disciplined application of technical analysis: examination of the supply/demand forces influencing securities prices. He pooh-poohs fundamental research, which uses corporate earnings, balance sheets, and related financial data as criteria for the purchase or sale of common shares. Blackman maintains that his system works 80 percent of the time, turning up genuine line drive stocks: issues that ""can move almost straight up, with few corrections, for a gain of 20 percent or more."" The uninitiated will have difficulty assimilating such inside idioms as channel, trendline violation, rounding bottom, and upside breakout. But scores of charts illustrate the text's important points in satisfactory fashion. Less than persuasive, however, are Blackman's allegations that the large wire houses which manage sizable underwritings are venal and registered representatives who do not wholeheartedly endorse technical analysis are feckless. Gratuitous and self-serving as well are the final three (of 21) chapters, which make an unabashed pitch for small securities concerns of the sort run by the author. On balance, an interesting but constantly irritating brief for technical analysis which has yet to prove the whole investment story for either Wall Street pros or Main Street tyros.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION