Investor’s Business Daily Spots Market Trends Early

Wed, Jun 20, 2012 18:35 CET

LOS ANGELES, CA (June 20, 2012) — Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) continues to demonstrate a record of alerting readers to key changes in market direction. Many investors who follow IBD’s 3-stage approach to market trends took advantage of the gains made in the first quarter of this year, then moved more to the sidelines as the latest correction began in early April.

“IBD alerted readers to a new uptrend on December 20, 2011, giving readers the green light to begin buying stocks,” said Chris Gessel, Investor’s Business Daily Executive Editor and Chief Strategy Officer. “The market then advanced as much as 20% as scores of top-rated stocks broke out and moved higher.”

When that uptrend started to falter in March and April, IBD changed its outlook from “Confirmed uptrend” to “Market in correction,” giving investors time to lock in their gains and take defensive action.

“On March 28, as the uptrend began unraveling, we warned our readers it was time to stop making new buys and phase into cash,” Gessel continued. “The bottom line is our readers are usually in early on these trends – and on the right side of the market.”

3-Stage Approach Based on 130 Years of Market History

IBD’s unique study of every bull and bear market since 1880 shows history does indeed repeat itself. Year after year, the same patterns emerge at the beginning of a potential new uptrend, and the same warning signs appear when a new downtrend begins to develop.

Based on those historical patterns, IBD developed a system for determining which of 3 possible stages the market is in at any given time: “Confirmed uptrend,” “Uptrend under pressure” or “Market in correction.”

Keeping Readers on the Right Side of the Market

Using that 3-stage approach, IBD has alerted readers to the major market shifts in recent years:

Nov. 8, 2007: IBD changed its current outlook to “Market in correction,” helping investors avoid the major damage caused by the financial and housing crisis.
IBD isn’t perfect, especially in choppy markets that give many conflicting signals. But we don’t argue with the market and we quickly correct any missteps. For example, we said “market resumes uptrend” on June 5, 2008. However, the very next day the market reversed hard and we immediately shifted back to “correction” as the Nasdaq lost 12% over the next six weeks.
Mar. 12, 2009: While many investors were scared off by negative headlines and forecasts, IBD readers saw the outlook had changed to “Confirmed uptrend” and took advantage of the worthwhile gains that were possible in the 2009 – 2011 bull market.
Jul. 27, 2011: This shift to “Market in correction” got investors that paid attention out over a week before the Dow dropped more than 500 points in one day.
Dec. 20, 2011: IBD alerted readers to a new uptrend by changing its outlook to “Confirmed uptrend.”

“The key to investing success is to follow the rules, not the crowd,” Gessel said. “For over two decades, IBD has helped investors learn those rules and follow them to improve their performance. That’s why so many readers write to us year after year saying IBD is the reason for their investing success.”

For more information on how IBD helps readers know when to move into or retreat from the market, go to http://www.investors.com/images/promotional/pdf/NASDAQ_6012012.jpg

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Kathleen Sherman
310-448-6746
kathleen.sherman@investors.com

ABOUT INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY (IBD)

Investor's Business Daily provides investors of all levels with the ratings, research and tools they need to make money in stocks. Since 1984, IBD has established a proven record of highlighting winning stocks as they emerge and of alerting readers to major shifts in market direction.

IBD’s analysis is based on the CAN SLIM® Investing System, the number one growth strategy over the last14 years.* Developed by IBD founder and chairman William J. O’Neil, the CAN SLIM System is built on O’Neil’s unique study of every market cycle and top-performing stock since 1880.

IBD’s award-winning website, Investors.com, offers extensive training and research tools, including IBD Stock Checkup and IBD TV. IBD’s latest innovation, Leaderboard, is an online list of leading stocks with intraday updates from market experts.

Investor’s Business Daily has an extremely dedicated community, and IBD Meetup is now the largest and fastest-growing network of investing clubs in America.

*The American Association of Individual Investors' independent "real-time" study of 63 leading strategies found IBD’s CAN SLIM Investment System achieved an annualized return of +25.2% for the past 14 years (January 1998 through December 31, 2011, AAII Stock Screen). It is the #1 long-term growth strategy measured by AAII Journal.