Just as the overall market is affected by the health of the econ-
omy, individual stocks also react to ever-changing economic condi-
tions. Over a long period of time, trends in sales and earnings emerge.
This demonstrates that long-term growth for individual stocks will
occur in wave patterns and, to a degree, in predictable increments.
Well-capitalized, competitive corporations will experience strong
growth until their growth curve reaches a plateau. After that, there
is a tendency for close competitors to move into the lead. These
trends are found in the financial results and can be tracked; in fact,
the corporate analyst is expected to spot such ...