Comments on: Book Review: Rule #1 by Phil Town

By: SJS

SJS — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:54:03 +0000

Also, since buying Payback Time and registering on the site, I’ve been contacted a few times regarding “investment opportunities.”

One of these schemes essentially involved buying debt from collection agencies and trying to collect it yourself!

If you are reading this Phil, why sacrifice your credibility by selling questionable products and services?

If your investment advice is as successful as you say it is, why grovel for the extra $$?

By: SJS

SJS — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:44:53 +0000

I stumbled on this thread about 18 months ago, right after Rule #1 was recommended to me…..I held off on commenting, but I’ve been actively investing since then…

1) His system of identifying solid companies that have been trading at a discount is a good one. Instead of finding companies that have meaning to you and then analyzing them, I would suggest using a stock screener and working backwards. http://www.stock2own.com is a good website for this (I have no financial interest in this site). This methodology has lead me to stocks like VAR, DLB, CMG, BIDU, and ISRG. You can look up for yourself how they’ve done.

2) The three tools he talks of is overly simplistic and actually lost me money on occasion, either by getting me into the stock too late, or stopping me out right before a huge upswing. It is no surprise that he abandons this approach in his next book Payback Time.

3) More recently, I’ve read some other great technical analysis books that have given me a slightly longer term perspective on “getting in and out with the big guys.”

4) Using technical analysis with fundamentally sound companies seems to be a good way to go for me personally, since it does offer an aura of protection if your fundamental analysis is slightly flawed and the stock tanks and stays depressed (making a stockpiling strategy worthless). Furthermore, if stocks extend way past their fundamental value, you won’t sell based on some arbitrary calculated number, only to watch it continue to sky (check out Amazon’s stock).

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:41:01 +0000

I noticed that this blog does not include any dates for when the comments were made, but they appear to be sometimes months apart. I also bought both of Phil Town’s recent books (Rule #1 and Payback Time) and have wanted to believe in his methods. I also attended one of his two-day seminar. I have only paper traded with these guidlines, with some pretty good success, although I realize that that this could be due to dumb luck, or the fact that the market is generally up this past year. I will say I am really troubled to hear that Town seems unwilling to share his past record with anyone. It should be pretty clear to him that the success of his books have at least as much to do with his trading success (as well as the trading success of the family he cites in both books) as it does to his method-arguably more so. It is that very proof as was offered in the book-that kind of profit potential that people are buying into, myself included, and not just his method. It would be a bit of a paradox indeed if it turns out that the system works, but the salesman has never achieved the success he claims. Come on Phil, we spent good money on your books, and have made you fairly wealthy as a result-we are entitled to the truth. Show us the proof.

By: Puxatowny Fill

Puxatowny Fill — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:04:19 +0000

This book is so boring, maybe I should bring it to jiffy lube just so I can finish it quickly and comment thoughtfully.

Seems to me, Fill is selling hope so he can go yachting again on his kayak. Get Real People! Sell something that makes life better for people-you’ll have enough money.

By: Still Learning

Still Learning — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:45:39 +0000

Very interesting

By: TFB

TFB — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:35:30 +0000

My investment in PCRDX is up 50.5% since 12/5/2008.

By: popo.jay

popo.jay — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:31:58 +0000

Just jumping in to see if anyone is willing to update their positions…

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:13:35 +0000

Interested to see how the battle between you and nomad works out. I notice nothing from the two of you for the past 5 months. Did both investments buy the farm? I’d think the way market has run since then (+ approx 800) that general float would have benefited both of you…

By: junebug

junebug — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:27:52 +0000

your a rule #1 hater.. stop bragging about your investment and admit that mr towns methods work

Junebug aka rex in effects aka mr crash bandit

By: TFB

TFB — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:38:43 +0000

Hi nomad – Thank you for stopping by again. The fund I mentioned in comment #20 is up 43.0% since I bought it on 12/5/2008.