William O'Neil

: "This article is about the stockbroker and writer. For other spellings of the name, please see William O'Neill"William J. O'Neil (born March 25, 1933) is an American entrepreneur, stockbroker and writer, who founded the business newspaper "Investor's Business Daily" and the stock brokerage firm William O'Neil + Co. Inc. He is the author of the books "How to Make Money in Stocks" and "24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success" and is the creator of the CAN SLIM investment strategy.

Biography

O'Neil was born March 25, 1933 in Oklahoma City and raised in Texas. He studied business at Southern Methodist University, received a Bachelor's degree and served in the United States Air Force. [cite book|title=Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time|date=2004|pages=p. 89|author=John Boik]

In 1960, he was accepted to Harvard Business School's first Program for Management Development (PMD). [cite book|title=Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time|date=2004|pages=p. 90|author=John Boik]

In 1958 he started his career as a stockbroker at Hayden, Stone & Company, and developed an investment strategy which made early use of computers. He stated in a 2002 interview that one of the books which was an early influence on him was Gerald Loeb's "The Battle for Investment Survival." According to O'Neil, this is the best book on the market. [cite book|title=24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success|date=2000|pages=p. 1|author=William J. O'Neil] Other investors which he took great interest in were Bernard Baruch, Jesse Livermore, Jack Dreyfus, and Nicolas Darvas. He also greatly admired Thomas Edison.

From his research, O'Neil invented the CAN SLIM strategy and became the top-performing broker in his firm. Fact|date=February 2007 He bought a seat on the NYSE at age 30 (the youngest at that time ever to do so) [cite book|title=Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time|date=2004|pages=p. 93|author=John Boik] , and in 1963 founded [http://www.williamoneil.com William O'Neil + Co. Inc.] , a company which developed the first computerized daily securities database in 1963/1964 [cite book|title=How Legendary Traders Made Millions|date=2006|pages=p. 119|author=John Boik] , and currently tracks over 200 data items for over 10,000 companies [cite book|title=Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time|date=2004|pages=p. 93|author=John Boik] .

In 1973, he founded "O'Neil Data Systems, Inc.", to provide high-speed printing and database-publishing facilities.

In 1984, O'Neil made research from his database available in print form with the launch of "Investor's Daily", a national business newspaper which has competed with "The Wall Street Journal". In 1991, the publication's name was changed from "Investor's Daily" to "Investor's Business Daily". Ten years after founding, it had a paid circulation of 149,557 [http://www.newsbios.com/newslum/oneill.htm] , with a claimed "total readership" of 850,000 (also phrased as "nearly 1,000,000 readers"), though in 2002, the "Los Angeles Business Journal" said that it has not been a moneymaker, and had had a decline in ad spending, though other O'Neil companies had done well.

O'Neil presently conducts investing seminars throughout the country.

Awards

* In March 10, 2000, TJFR Group and MasterCard International included him as one of the top 100 business news luminaries of the century.
* 2002, "Classic Award of Recognition" from the AeA, the largest high-tech industry group in the United States. Fact|date=February 2007
* The "Stock Trader's Almanac" devoted its 37th edition in 2004 to O'Neil . [cite book|title=Stock Trader's Almanac|date=2004|pages=p. 3|author=Yale Hirsch and Jeffery A. Hirsch]

Works

* "The Investor's Business Daily Almanac, 1992: The Fact, the Figures, the Trends"
* "The On-Line Investor: How to Find the Best Stocks Using Your Computer"
* "The Model Book of Greatest Stock Market Winners"
* "How to Make Money in Stocks - A Winning System in Good Times Or Bad", McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0071373616 (3rd ed., May 23, 2002)
* "24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success, learn the most Important Investment Techniques from the Founder of Investor's Business Daily", McGraw-Hill (2000), ISBN 0071360336
* "The Successful Investor: What 80 Million People Need to Know to Invest Profitably and Avoid Big Losses", 2003, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0071429597
* "How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short", co-author with Gil Morales, Wiley (December 24, 2004), ISBN 0471710490
* "Business Leaders and Success, 55 Top Business Leaders and How They Achieved Greatness", 2004, McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-142680-9
* "How to Make Money in Stocks: Desk Diary 2005", Wiley; Spiral edition (September 6, 2004), ISBN 978-0471680536
* "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" (by Edwin Lefèvre), William J. O'Neil (Foreword), Wiley; Illustrate edition (September 2004), ISBN 0471678767

ee also

* List of personalities associated with Wall Street
* David Ryan
* Jesse Livermore

References

Further reading

*cite book
last = Schwager
first = Jack D.
authorlink = Jack D. Schwager
title = Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders
publisher = Collins; Reissue edition
date = 1993
location = 16 pages
url =
id = ISBN 0-88730-610-1
*"Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time", by John Boik (May 21, 2004)
*"How Legendary Traders Made Millions", by John Boik (March 23, 2006)

External links

* [http://www.williamoneil.com/ Official website]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_11_24/ai_91480931 Los Angeles Business Journal interview] , March 18, 2002
* [http://www.newsbios.com/newslum/oneill.htm "Business News Luminaries"]
* [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/search?q=stocks+au%3AWilliam+J.+O%27Neil&fq=ln%3Aeng&qt=facet_Language Find a library of the books written by William J. O'Neil]