Finding #1 Stocks: Screening, Backtesting and Time-Proven Strategies (The Zacks Series)

Kevin Matras wrote a very good guide to choosing stocks. If you only have 15 minutes a week to focus on your investments, use this guide from Zacks to pick top stocks with Zacks #1 or #2 ratings (strong buy or buy) based on a number of factors. Adjust your portfolio every Monday morning, if any of your stocks have fallen to #3 or below sell them and replace with a #1 or #2. Using this plan, they back-tested 10 years (2001-2010) and estimated $10,000 would have turned into millions - even with the great recession. While it is not the only plan, it does deserve serious consideration from investors seeking above average returns and wanting to take charge of their investments. Although I am not currently using the system, it certainly presented a valid and logical program. I am aware of and pay attention to Zacks rankings and how they compare different stocks.

First, I should address the negative reviews by those who have lost money and quit the system or who thought they followed the system when they really failed to do so. You can lose money trading the Zacks methodology. The market and individual equities do go down in value or price from time to time. Trading equities is not the best practice for people that have no tolerance for drawdowns. If this is you walk away and don't look back. If you recognize the market is subject to national and world economic events that can wreak havoc and still want to invest or trade you can gain insight and confidence from the material in the book and from the back test features of the Research Wizard software and database. The book has flaws. It is a great book. Still it has imperfections. The Research wizard software also has a few flaws. It will not provide a path to perfect stock selection or entry and exit timing. What it can do is provide a tool you can use to beat the market by a meaningful margin with a reliable but less than perfect track record. If you have the will and tenacity to invest in a market index and accept those results (something Warren Buffet recommends) then why not follow the Zacks system and invest in the roughly 230 stocks with a Zacks #1 rating and sell them when they no longer have that rating? If you can do that but hate the idea of managing 230 positions why not take advantage of adding one or two simple conditions to further limit the number of stocks in your portfolio to a manageable number? For example... instead of holding an average of 226 stocks and adding or removing about 60 each week by following the Zacks #1 strategy why not simply add a Price to book filter and only hold Zacks #1 stocks with a Price to Book ratio between 0.35 and 0.10 times the mean price to book ratio of stocks in their X-industry group. Now you average # of stocks held drops to 27 and you are rotating about 8 or 9 in and out each week. This simple adjustment improves annual growth rate by about 5% over the base Zacks program to nearly double the S&P growth rate in a back tested model portfolio. Of course your results will be different. Of course past results will not match future performance. Do you have a better system? If you do you don't need this. If you recognize there could be more to learn and better tools than you are currently using this could be the best decision you ever made.

I've been reading this book for a while now, and it's definitely proved worthwhile. To be completely honest I expected it to mention valuation techniques and research techniques as well but all it does is talk about the Zacks Investment Research. At first I was a bit dissappointed but after using this system (the rating) and understanding what the different strategies are, I've gotten very positive results on my portfolio and have to say I was somewhat investing blindly before but not anymore. Definitely recommend you purchase this book and start using the system they offer.

I felt the book did a great job on all levels. When I called Zacks, I spoke to someone at who offered me a 2 week trial period, which I took. After sending numerous emails to the Research Wizard department regarding questions on the product they got back to me within hours. I then bought the program, and have been happy ever since. The program IS NOT only for screening, it is in my opinion the most powerful program when it comes to research. I have used other programs and the Research Wizard is on different level. I was also very surprised that Zacks has a web site forum based only on Research Wizard questions, you can exchange screens, ideas, thoughts. Kevin Matras did a great job explaining why and how certain screens work. I highly recommend this book as well as the Research Wizard.

Very interesting and useful... I have made a lot of successful investings, taking my inspiration from this book. I don't know how to thank Kevin Matras for his talent !!!

If you are pushing your knowledge for a year or 2 and want to level up , this is a great one. Lots of ideas and inspiration for various styles and tweaks. Good for intermediate starting traders!

I find it useful and even though it eventually points you to the Zacks programs, the information it the book can be used independently.

Don’t waste time and money on this book

Great condition of book!