March 29, 2006

Rule #1 - Introduction

I’m reading Phil Town’s book "Rule #1" during my chemo. I just finished the introduction. He makes a point of his humble beginnings. It turns out he was a Green Beret and served in Vietnam. Anyone that goes through the training to become a Green Beret will have a certain amount of respect from me.

But that doesn’t mean he knows what he’s talking about when he discusses investing. Still the introduction comes across as reasonable. The salient points, to me, in the introduction seem to have validity.

I see his salient points as follows.

  • This book is a simple guide to returns of 15% or more in the stock market with almost no risk.

  • According to Warren Buffet there are only two rules to investing: “Rule #1: Don’t lose money.. . . And Rule #2, don’t forget Rule #1.”

  • In 1980, with the helps of a customer in the business he was working, he turned $1,000 into $1 million.

  • In 1906 the Dow was 100. In 1942 the Dow was 100. In 1965 the Dow was 1,000. The Dow never went over that number until 1983. In 2000 the Dow was 11,000. Since that time, the Dow has see-sawed up and down and basically just gone sideways.

  • Phil has a web site that it looks like you can, for a fee, subscribe to for updates of the use his Rule #1 system. This means the book is more of a marketing piece for his web services. I rather expected that. The web site is his back-end. I don’t see that as a problem. I have no complaints about people trying to makes some money. If he delivers good value, he has every right to get paid for it.

Posted by The Vorlon at March 29, 2006 10:18 AM
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