Invest Like a Shark

I've been a subscriber to Real Money for about 3 years. James DePorre, who goes by the name of "Rev Shark" writes a column there. The content is mostly about market psychology and technical factors of the market rather than specific stock picks. He has written a book. It is a slim, but pithy volume, just under 200 pages and entitled: Invest Like a Shark: How a Deaf Guy with No Job and Limited Capital Made a Fortune Investing in the Stock Market.

I consider the book very empowering to the smaller investor or trader. All the more so as it was written by someone who lost his hearing, his career, his family. And while turning $30K into millions may not be in the cards for all of us, his description of his methodology is something that each of us can spin into gold. I like very much the shark analogy. It is one used to describethe investors/traders who must compete in the marketplace with the whales--the big institutional investors and hedge funds. Individual investors simply cannot compete on equal footing in the market place with whales in terms of quality of research and more intimate information (channel checks, talks with management).

Rev Shark above all else is a technician. He uses charts to determine what the big money is flowing. And let's face it, it is big money that moves stock prices--and those moves are not always linked to fundamentals as some of us mere mortals (non institutional investors) understand them to be. I would be a much better investor if I accepted that fact. But we are our own worst enemies!

The book addresses Eight Myths:

1. Buy Low, Sell High
2. Small, unknown stocsk are only for reckless gamblers
3. You can't time the market, so you should stay fully invested at all times
4. Beating the indices should be your primary focus
5. Everyone has access to the same information
6. Stock charts are useless voodoo
7. You should buy what you know
8. There is only one right way to invest

I dog eared one page which I thought represented a concept rarely discussed. It's page 176, under "Sell and Move On" that I found to be very important and worth the price of the book:

All stocks have a limited period of time in which they produce their best results. It may be a few years or even just a few months, but the big moves never last forever.

The book closes with a description of several types of sharks--different trading styles. I've concluded that I'm not a shark but rather a catfish; however I prefer the more threatening name of Seawolf--sounds like I could still swim with the sharks!



Rev Shark has a website and a separate paid service (I do not subscribe) at his website, sharkinvesting.com In addition to paid services, Rev Shark provides daily market commentary for free. It does require registration. In addition to the commentary, he also provides a "Stock of the Week"--a long or short feature for your consideration with the technical set up. I think that readers would benefit from both, and I highly recommend your checking it out.