Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple: How We Made 18,000% in the Stock Market

Chapter 9. In the Trenches with Bill O'Neil

The period of 1998 to 2005, particularly the dot-com bubble and crash, were exhilarating periods to be working at William O'Neil + Company, Inc. managing money for the firm alongside Bill O'Neil and other very knowledgeable and talented traders at the firm, such as 1994 U.S. Investing Champion Lee Freestone, Al Savoyan, Ross Haber, Charles Harris, and Mike Webster, to name a few. They say that timing is everything, and we both were very lucky to be managing money at William O'Neil + Company, Inc. during the latter half of the 1990s, a decade that featured a parabolic move in the market (Figure 9.1). Working closely with Bill O'Neil during this fascinating market period, as well as the ensuing 2000–2002 bear market and the new "recovery bull" that began in 2003 provided one-of-a-kind lessons as we took careful notes of our real-time market discussions with him on a daily basis. What follows is an abridged edition of our combined trading diaries during our tenures at the firm, each of which could constitute an entire book in its own right.