Your stock market success depends at least as much on when you sell a stock as when you purchase it. While dozens of books tell you when and how to buy stocks, no book (until this one!) reveals the critical information that tells you exactly when you should sell, and how to time your sale for maximum profit.
Originally published in 1991 with a second edition published in 1997, this book is outdated. Much of the book talks about dealing with live stockbrokers, a largely moot point in this day and age of online discount brokers.
I also did not agree with his attitude towards stop-loss orders. He calls them a "cop out" and a "psychological crutch." But Cassidy only discusses his perceived disadvantages of percentage stop-losses only. He advocates investors being in reviewing the market throughout the day and being in "contact frequently with his broker (daily or more)." For all those with day jobs,
Based almost entirely on fundamental analysis and the psychology of trading, this book does not discuss at any length the subject of technical analysis. This book has more deficiencies than benefits.
Got this older edition from the library by mistake, then decided to read it anyway.
A lot of the book is devoted to the psychological reasons many people hold stocks too long.
The problem with this book is that it preaches to the choir.
I got the book because I was already convinced that "buy-and-hold" is not always good advice, and I wanted to know more about how to sell advantageously. So reading all about the rationalizations other people apply to their laziness in hanging on to stocks even after it becomes clear the stocks have become losers was not so useful to me.
There was some advice about reasons to sell, but not as much as I had hoped.