ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The term “O'Neil Disciple” was first coined by our colleague Kevin Marder, who co-founded MarketWatch.com in the 1990s. In the book The Best: Conversations with Top Traders by Marc Dupee and Kevin N. Marder (M. Gordon Publishing Group, September 15, 2000), we are both interviewed in Chapter 1, titled “The Disciples.” When we wrote our first book in 2010, the use of the term “disciples” came up as something of an inside joke, and we eventually settled on calling ourselves “The O'Neil Disciples.” Ultimately, it is a very succinct and accurate description of what we are. Our methods are steeped in the literature and methods of Jesse Livermore, Richard D. Wyckoff, and William J. O'Neil, and it was O'Neil who was our real-life, real-time mentor back in the days when we worked for his organization as internal portfolio managers. As disciples, we have taken what we have learned from these masters and synthesized it into what we believe are far more concrete and precise methods on both the long and short sides of the market. We teach and discuss these methods in our books, media and tradeshow appearances, and our website, www.virtueofselfishinvesting.com. Thus, we feel that this is the right time to acknowledge the fact that Kevin Marder was the originator of the “disciple” moniker, and we thank him for providing this seed for what we later expanded to The O'Neil Disciples.

We should also acknowledge that this work, as with all our works, was produced without the aid, cooperation, approval, or endorsement of the O'Neil organization.

We gratefully acknowledge the role that our followers and subscribers have played with their questions and feedback in helping us to improve how we teach our methods as disciples of O'Neil, Wyckoff, and Livermore (the OWL). This book is no different in this regard.

We would also like to acknowledge the help and support we have received from HGSI Investment Software, LLC (www.highgrowthstock.com) and its three main principals, George Roberts, Ron Brown, and the Big Kahuna himself, Ian Woodward. HGS Investment Software has become our “weapon of choice” when it comes to an equity analytics, screening, and charting software program, and the product includes many templates, screens, and chart views that are directly based on and related to our work and methods as discussed in our books and on our website. Their enthusiastic support in providing us the full use of their charts throughout our books, including this one, is a welcome endorsement of the validity and effectiveness of our methods and techniques, and for this we are deeply grateful.

Finally, we would like to send a shout-out to the great staff at John Wiley & Sons who helped us with this project: Judy Howarth, Tula Batanchiev, Evan Burton, Kumudhavalli Narasimhan, Darice Moore, and Pamela Van Giessen. When you are working with the top publisher of financial books in the world, not much needs to be said. These individuals set the standard for the rest of the industry!

DR. CHRIS KACHER

GIL MORALES

Playa del Rey, California
November 2014