Table of Contents

About the author vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction xi Prologue: the croupier's story xvii Part I The wonderful sharemarket 1 The pitch 3 2 The gun investor 15 3 No training and no idea 25 Part II Building the foundations 4 Who are you? The road to discovery 31 5 Creating your own Wall Street 47 6 The nine rules of success 61 Part III Ready, set, go! 7 Finding stocks that go up 81 8 Primary school numbers 95 9 Margins, ratios and all that jazz 119 10 All companies are different 135 11 The perfect company 153 12 Trophy cabinet to rubbish bin 169 13 Don't fight momentum 183 14 Traps 189 15 The mystery of management 203 Part IV Exploding the myths 16 Skin in the game 219 17 Look for the catalyst not the company 233 18 Old and past it 253 19 Smart money ? bad results 259 20 Other myths 267 Part V Are professionals better? 21 Professional versus punter 277 22 Money managers, money makers 297 Part VI When does a bull become a bear? 23 Is this a bull or a bear? 311 24 History has the answers 317 25 Where are we in 2011? 331 26 Get ready to touch the sky 347 Epilogue: our former croupier 363 Final word 365 Index 369

About the Author

Matthew Kidman worked as a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald covering media, telecommunications and commercial property. In 1997 he was appointed investment editor of the newspaper, with responsibility for all company coverage. He joined funds management outfit Wilson Asset Management in 1998 and over a 13-year period served as an analyst and portfolio manager. In 2003 he was appointed to the role of chief executive officer of the group. Wilson Asset Management specialises in small capitalisation companies and its flagship fund ? WAM Capital ? over a 12-year period delivered a return of more than 18 per cent per year, compared with the benchmark 8 per cent of the All Ordinaries index. Matthew is also the co-author of two bestselling books: Masters of the Market and Master CEOs.