101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners

Clem Chambers is CEO of ADVFN, Europe's leading stocks and investment website. He became CEO of ADVFN in January of 2002 and is credited with steering the company from likely dot.com failure to thriving market leader. Internet bible, Wired Magazine, for which he regularly contributes, described him as a 'Market Maven'. He is also a member of their renowned 'Brains Trust.' Clem wrote a stock column in Wired from 2000 to 2001 in a period spanning the final boom and following bust. He is a columnist for The Business, The Scotsman, Traders' and Inside Edge and is a regular contributor to a number of UK and US financial publications including Investors Chronicle, Stocks & Commodities and Futures. He is a regular commentator on CNBC, the BBC and numerous US financial radio stations.

• Introduction Golden Rule No. 1: Diversify WAYS 1-4: Internet chat rooms (discussion forums/bulletin boards) Way 1: Silence is golden Way 2: Madness is badness Way 3: Due dil Way 4: Locate minnows WAYS 5-25: Stock charts and technical trading Way 5: Good horses on steady courses Way 6: Dud IPOs Way 7: The return of the dud IPO Way 8: Volatility: going nowhere fast Way 9: Dead cat bounces Way 10: Buy the Bull Golden rule No. 2: Know the general market trend Way 11: Sell a Bear Way 12: Selling a Bull, selling a bubble Way 13: Buying a Bear, buying a crash Way 14: Investing in the Bull, trading in the Bear - buying the dips Way 15: Investing in the Bear, trading in the Bull - selling the rallies Way 16: Flat-lining companies: dead or in a coma? Way 17: Volume rises Way 18: Buying BS when the Bull rules Way 19: Boxing clever Way 20: Rockets. Ladles of money Golden Rule No. 3: Risk = reward Way 21: Half way or whole way Way 22: Long-term levels Way 23: Broken mountain Way 24: The Big U Way 25: The Big W WAYS 26-50: Common sense ways to pick stocks Way 26: Know your company Way 27: Know your company's product Way 28: Get to know the company's industry Way 29: Read the specialist press Way 30: Call up the FD and say 'Hello.' Way 31: What is hot in the States Way 32: What is hot in Japan Way 33: The market has crystal balls Way 34: Taxi ads Way 35: The curse of the shirt deal Way 36: Buy to the sound of cannons Way 37: Accounting irregularity Way 38: Death of a salesman Way 39: Portfolio: diversify or die Way 40: From the mouths of babes and sucklings Way 41: Not for sale Way 42: Making an offer that can't be refused Way 43: Invest in the obvious Way 44: Listen to our lords and masters Way 45: Takeovers Way 46: Takeovers: selling the buyers Way 47: Know the long-term Way 48: Know your risk Way 49: Beaten up brands Way 50: Negative Equity Golden rule No. 4: A pinch of salt required WAYS 51-52: Tracker funds: simple exposure Way 51: Exchange Traded Funds. Buy a FTSE tracker Way 52: Commodity ETFs. You really want to buy commodities, you really, really want to? WAYS 53-60: Let the computer do the work Way 53: P/E, the basic cheap or not cheap indicator Way 54: Sales have value - high sales to market capitalisation Way 55: Get over techno-fear. Let the robot sort you out Way 56: Sectors Way 57: Cash in the bank Way 58: PEG, unleashed Way 59: Dividends: cheques don't lie; except on the door mat Way 60: The big downer - 50% down from the high or more WAYS 61-64: Rules of thumb Way 61: Don't play with political footballs Way 62: Unhappy families Way 63: Old friends Way 64: Don't buy the top WAYS 65-69: Gold Way 65: Let's not get physical: Gold ETF Way 66: Buy a gold producer Way 67: Buy the 49ers Way 68: Gold has a silver lining Way 69: Don't buy the gold mine, buy the spade maker WAYS 70-83: What's up doc? Way 70: Sell tips Way 71: When it hits the mainstream, it's over Golden rule No. 5: Get rich slow, get poor quick Way 72: Think long-term, very long-term Way 73: Read through Way 74: Contrarian: if you want a friend buy a dog Way 75: Momentum: catch a rising star Way 76: New brooms Way 77: New brooms and 'kitchen sinking' Way 78: Check the website Way 79: Every dark hurricane cloud has a silver lining Way 80: Buy rumour, sell fact Way 81: Browse and research Way 82: Look for history repeating itself Way 83: Long-term earnings growth WAYS 84-89: What's up officially doc? Way 84: Directors' buys Way 85: Management competence: throwing parties in breweries Way 86: RNS alert Way 87: 'The next big thing' Way 88: Mad management Way 89: Profit warnings WAYS 90-91: Oil Way 90: Buy an oil producer Way 91: Those darn wildcatters WAYS 92-101: Vorsprung durch technik Way 92: Trading costs; the less the better Way 93: Sell in May and go away. Summer holidays at work Way 94: The Santa Effect Way 95: Close of day auction Way 96: No news but it's moving Way 97: Big gains Way 98: Breakouts Way 99: Constant gainers Way 100: Re-examine your portfolio Way 101: Use all available tools