When you’re trying to interview a man with a deadline to write a book, finding a convenient time isn’t easy. When that man is Mark Minervini, whose hectic days are split between trading and finishing his eagerly-awaited new investing guide – Think and Trade Like a Champion – the pressure’s even worse. When I finally managed to catch him - one evening after the market close in New York - he was generous with both his time and his views.
For more than three decades, books have played a crucial part in cementing Mark’s reputation as one of America’s most closely-watched traders. This year sees the follow up to his popular 2013 guide, Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard: How to Achieve Super Performance in Stocks in Any Market. That was written 10 years after he was profiled in Jack Schwager’s Stock Market Wizards. In his new book, Mark’s promising to cover everything that couldn’t be fitted in first time around.
So what’s his appeal? Mark started trading with very little capital in the early 1980s. After several years of losses, he took his strategy back to basics and got scientific with what was working, and what wasn’t. It was a turning point that transformed his results.
In 1997 he was named U.S. Investing Champion after smashing the contest with a gain of 155%. It served to prove the effectiveness of his strategy even under the most competitive conditions. Since then, he’s won a huge following and built an education business on the back of it.
In essence, Mark is a growth investor. He made his name shooting for big gains in fast moving stocks with a strategy that blends fundamentals, technicals and strict risk management. The process is carefully laid out in his first book, with a particular focus on getting the timing of trades absolutely right.
But what comes across when speaking to him is that the precise strategy is very much a personal decision. What’s more important is the belief and mindset to stick with it, and an unswerving discipline to avoid big losses.
Mark, tell me about how you’ve evolved and developed your strategy over time?
My strategy developed very simply because I had a small amount of money and I wanted to turn it into a large amount of money. So I had to find a way to trade the markets and be able to very rapidly compound my capital.
In the…
