How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market

I'm new to investing and trading, I will admit it, I've been doing it for a few months now, and I started with only a thousand dollars, even though Darvas once said that if you don't have five thousand you shouldn't even step in--though I'd say that was probably because the cost of the commission made it so much more difficult. I've read this book four times, once out loud to my mother who has also opened an account, and used this strategy with William O'Neil's CANSLIM to start growing her retirement, already up five thousand from the twenty thousand account she opened. This book helped me spot stocks like FUQI at ten to fifteen, STEC at twenty. I had lost five hundred dollars of my thousand before I found this book and started reading it, with it, I was able to use it to catch the trend upwards on Borders Group and ALD from April to May which turned my five hundred into twelve hundred. Through a series of stocks, I'm up to nearly three thousand, I also put a little money in the account, about a hundred and twenty, for full disclosure, but this book is excellent. I understood it right off the bat, and along with William O'Neil, I have been very profitable. I bought fifty shares of STEC it up to thirty four, FUQI is up to twenty five and I bought a hundred shares of that. I'm up to nearly five thousand dollars. This small bull market has been doing me great, and I've been prospering in it, making sure to keep my stop losses reasonably close so not to give back all my profits. I have taken a lot of losses, nearly fifteen hundred dollars worth of losses, but I've always made that back with my winners. I was trading small cap until I had a good deal of money, and used to get stopped out at thirty five cents daily. This book should be required reading for anyone considering getting into stocks, its an uplifting story, its entertaining, its fun, it lets you get a good look into the work it takes to become very profitable in the stock market. The rules I come away from with this book are simple. 1: You're going to be wrong half the time if not more, so always make sure you cut your losses. 2: Only buy into rising stocks. 3: Use volume, new products, earning growth, and price to decide if the stock is about to move. 4: Never listen to the news or analysts, they're human and can be just as wrong as you, and their information is usually late and of no use. 5: Annual Reports and Company Records mean nothing about the companies future. I've used these rules and I plan to keep using these rules. This is an excelent book, and at 8.99,7.99, its too cheap not to buy.

The best thing about Darvas' book is the simplicity. Yes, he had a degree in economics and read lots of investing books. However, he makes it clear that none of this helped his success in the market. Darvas went through a lot of heartache before he became successful and fortunately he never gave up. That is a big lesson right there. But the basic point of his story is to eliminate the noise. And I believe that's even more important today as the noise is extremely amplified by social media and too much news. I've been investing for a few years and I also found I did better when I stopped reading too much stock information. There are too many analysts and pundits out there giving recommendations. Some reviewers are upset because they believe Darvas didn't reveal his "secret." His secret box formula is nothing more than support/resistance. It should be even simpler today if you learn how to read a stock chart. The only negative I have about this book is the title. Yes, Darvas made $2 million. However, he was putting a fortune into his stocks. At the beginning of his endeavor he was buying $20-50K worth of stocks in the 1950s, which is several times over the average annual salary of that time period. I'm not even close to the point of putting $50K into one stock today. The book is great and reinforces the most basic idea of stock investing--keep it simple. It can be difficult to keep it simple, but it must be done.

Nicolas Darvas' 'How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market' is a timeless masterpiece that every investor, novice or experienced, should have in their library. Darvas' storytelling grips you from the start as he takes you on his remarkable journey from a dancer to a successful stock market trader. What sets this book apart is Darvas' unique approach to trading, blending elements of technical analysis with his own intuitive insights. His "box theory" is revolutionary and offers practical guidance for identifying winning stocks. Darvas doesn't just share his successes, but also candidly discusses his failures, providing invaluable lessons for readers. His emphasis on discipline, patience, and emotional control resonates deeply in today's volatile market. Whether you're looking to enhance your trading strategy or seeking inspiration, 'How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market' is a must-read. Darvas' timeless wisdom continues to shape the way I approach investing, and I'm confident it will do the same for you.

Darvas' book flows along making it very easy to read and understand. I found this book to be inspirational. Darvas' system is nothing new or complicated. Considering he managed to find stocks that met his criteria without the aide of computers, easily accessible stock charts and scanning software, it is amazing he accomplished what he did. His approach, learned through trial and error - lots of error - was to look for a stock that was in a consolidation after a move up and then look for that stock to break out. He used price and volume to ascertain the breakout and patiently waited for confirmation by using what he termed, The Box Theory. This approach is not something revolutionary as it is suggested in most credible trading books. What makes this book special is how it is laid out in the easy to read story format. The book is more of a story rather than dry, jargon filled information. Obviously, Darvas was a very smart man and he was educated in finance and economics but as he humbly points out, he started like most traders - doing all the wrong things - and his results were like most traders, he lost his shirt. The sole advantage Darvas had over most present day traders is that he started with a substantial sum. His first stock was 6000 shares of a 50 cent Canadian stock. He got into owning this stock almost by accident but it turned out to be a very profitable trade and that got his curiosity going, From there he tried different thing until he formulated his theories and system. I enjoyed the book and already benefitted from the information presented therein. I would recommend this book to anyone whether they are a novice or an experienced trader. It more likely reinforces methods the reader is aware of instead of introducing a new system, but if the reader is smart enough to work with the same system until he becomes proficient, rewards will follow. Now that it has been a few days since I finished the book, I find myself reflecting back on the concepts and realizing what a great message this book offers. If I could give it 10 stars I would. A really terrific book.

I bought this book because William O'Neil and David Ryan of investors business daily recommended it. I must say it's one of the best books on stocks. What was amazing is how Darvas cut losses very short. This is rule number one, don't take more than a 10% loss, ever. From what I saw Darvas average loss was under 5%, it's no wonder why he made millions in the market. Mark Minervini average loss is about the same as Darvas. I had to learn the hard way that not cutting losses when they are small lead to huge losses.

What this book is about: Simply put, it walks through one man's adventures getting rich in the stock market. He starts making an accidental small fortune (he was paid in stock that took off in value before he even knew anything about the stock market), immediately sees the value in the stock market he has ignored his whole life, and then begins his learning process from there. I saw some reviews that state that he never explains how he gets his "feelings" about stocks to pick. Well, he does actually. What he explains in the book is that he looked for stocks that were resisting the declining indexes and he reasoned these stocks would be the ones to take off when the market recovered. This is where he developed what he felt was his "sixth sense" after awhile, where he could begin to see these stocks without tons of effort. This book was written in the 1950s, so it is certainly dated. There are concepts that I think we can all apply to our trading though. The symbiosis of technical and fundamental investing is something I've thought about in the past but never really made any serious attempt at developing a system for. Well that's what Darvas does after a fashion. And what could really be more powerful than that? Combining the best of both worlds to come up with a unique system of your own that no one else is doing (or maybe some are doing but they aren't sharing the knowledge). Anyways, it's a great read. The real value of books like this, in my opinion, isn't that they walk you through by the hand and explain how to do this stuff --- it's that they get your mind thinking in different directions. Rich Dad / Poor Dad was the same way for me. This book had more "meat" to it that Rich Dad / Poor Dad, however. By that I mean that it feels like there is more real life stuff you can start exploring right away in the stock market that Darvas's book will help you think about.

This weekend I had assigned myself the task of reading what many consider to be some trading classics, including this one by Darvas. First, let me get my criticisms out of the way: On this particular Kindle version, there appears to be many textual anomalies. They do not make it unreadable, but they are distracting. I don't believe Darvas fully divulges his stock picking strategy. Without that, a lot of the book was meaningless to me. Now the positives: I really was floored by how insightful this man was into trading, especially when it came to what I would consider a topic which resonates today: information overload. This man specifically regimented himself to only receiving updates through telegrams, and he was still able to trade the markets successfully. If this isn't a case against trading off CNBC, I don't know what is, and was very surprised to find this here. I found this to be worth the price of the kindle download alone. For me, it wasn't a huge negative to discover Darvas traded off price breakouts, and used a stop loss strategy. When I read the other negative reviews, you can almost read between the lines that they were expecting some secret potion, or something they haven't heard before that'd answer the question for them, and make them billionaires overnight. There is a basic principle in life about learning and it's this: Information you may read either supports and reinforces an existing belief, or may challenge and change a belief. HOWEVER, if it reinforces, it's actually better, because it means you're on the right track. If you are looking for a magic bullet, you are probably never going to find it. Don't be afraid to hear what you've heard before. If it's in a different voice or different experience, it is just further evidence you are doing the right thing. Takeaway: Two thumbs up on philosophical trading content Two thumbs up on the technical aspects of implementing trades Two small thumbs down on kindle version Two thumbs down on position sizing and pyramiding strategy (seemed very discretional) Two thumbs down for clarity on his stock screening methodology (wasn't clear how he picked stocks)

I first found a dog-eared paperback copy of this book in a second-hand bookstore in about 1980. I'm sure it cost me less than one dollar. As the great bull market began in August 1982, the Darvas method was an ideal way to get onboard. My return on investment in that book was truly astronomical, even though I modified the Darvas technique to suit my own personality. This is a wonderful story of an extremely talented and hardworking man. He is brutally honest in his self-examination of trading errors. At the same time he exhibits a charming exhiliration upon discovering the sources of his trading problems and their solution, which each time helps him refine his trading methodology. Many other reviewers have done a fine job of summarizing the book's contents. I have one contribution to make and that is Darvas' observation that detachment from the markets is very important to successful operation as a trader. Trend followers with a time frame measured in months or longer cannot improve their performance by watching intraday action, listening to CNBC, or allowing their ego to inflate along with their bank account. Those activities cut into whatever edge you may have, eroding confidence, instilling doubt and ultimately result in losing money. Darvas found this out himself when he went to Wall Street. Read his firsthand account in the book (Chapter 9: My Second Crisis) to learn more. I know this from firsthand experience, trading while living overseas, receiving my Wall Street Journal 3 days late, and submitting orders to my broker via Telex at night. Snap decisions were impossible, but it was easy to see the longer-term trend. At the time I thought this a disadvantage, but it proved a profitable method of trading. In a similar manner, 20+ years earlier, Darvas unwittingly traded best at a great physical distance from the markets, while on a world tour with his dance act, and later after his "second crisis" at a great psychological distance from the markets. The lesson: detachment is key for a trend follower. How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market is a detailed and entertaining true story well worth reading by any investor. I have no hesitation giving it 5 stars.