ain't no fortunate son

The Zweig Method: 10 Growth Investments for a Tough Market

Marty Zweig was a great read too... I bought one of his books when I was a new broker in 1986 and it really helped me pick some winners.

He also had a fantastic rule for market timing that worked great in those days before hedging with VIX and futures and the single and double leveraged ETF's skewed volume statistics to much.

It was the 9 to 1 rule. If the market had been in a protracted correction or weakness, the first day a rally attempt achieved 9 to 1 up over down volume, you had the signal to get long.

And if it did a DOUBLE 9 to 1 (two 9 to 1 up volume days) over a 2 week period of time, you backed up and loaded the truck, as they say now. Right at the end of 1986 and the beginning of 1987 I witnessed to back to back 9 to 1 up volume days (actually more like a 10 to 1 and 15 to 1 up day) and that set off a fantastic rally that lasted into the early summer of 1987. It was a barn burner.

Of course, the barn really did end up burning down on October 19, but that is a different story - that rally was sweet.