10: The Essential Rules for Beating the Market

Epilogue: Making the Commitment to Being a Rules-Based Investor

Thank you for spending a few hours with me. I hope you enjoyed reading and studying my 10 Essential Rules. I hope you have become more empowered to take control of your investments. I know from personal experience that your use of these rules will make you a wealthier, happier, and less stressed stock market investor.

Let's agree on one simple objective: You want to make consistent profits in the stock market, and I have given you the rules to make that happen. This book was written completely centered around and dedicated to that objective. I want this to now be your objective. I want you to notice I didn't say it is your "goal." Goals are great, but they often have a connotation of being just beyond our capabilities. Objectives, however, are definitely achievable.

For any objective worth achieving, there has to be a plan and a willingness to perform the necessary steps to attain the objective. My plan is for you to agree to follow my 10 Essential Rules by making a commitment to a disciplined course of action. Discipline is the absolute key to your success in this plan. You cannot follow 9 out of 10 of my rules and be consistently profitable. You cannot follow all 10 of these rules some of the time and not the rest of the time and be consistently profitable.

You have to commit to following all 10 rules all of the time—in good markets, bad markets, or trading-range markets.

You must be committed to letting these 10 rules ...