From the book (The Professor’s One Minute Guide to Stock Management.)

Authors’ Forward

It all started in April 2009. I came home from playing golf and told my wife Marcia about a conversation I had with a friend. He told me that he lost a considerable amount of money in the stock market. He said that was dissatisfied with his financial advisor who was with supposed to be watching his investment portfolio. But apparently, all his advisor was doing was watching his investments go down. I told my friend that the technical indicators I was following were negative, and had been negative for some time, and that no one should be in the stock market under these conditions. I wondered why his financial advisor wasn’t telling him this.

When I discussed this with my wife, she opined that maybe people don’t understand technical analysis or indicators. Maybe it was time for someone to explain them in simple, easy to understand terms so everyone can use them to make investment decisions for themselves, without the need for ‘advisors’. Or if they had a financial advisor, they can use these indicators to discuss whether they should be in or out of a particular investment. I believe that investors and advisors should know how to manage a portfolio, not just watch it go up or down.

After discussing the above with Marcia, I decided to have a seminar at my golf club. So early in March 2009, with the Dow trading near 6,700, I stood before my friends and neighbors and announced that the Dow was going back above 10,000. I’m sure they wondered who this guy was that was so confident to make a prediction like this. I gave my reasons, explaining how technical analysis could be used to project a higher market. One of the participants at the seminar was so excited, that she told a neighbor about the seminar, who happened to work at the University of North Florida’s Department of Continuing Education. A few days later I was the discussing the outline of a course with them. The course was developed from a Methodology that I have used in my trading for years. When I worked for the Navy, I used to talk about this Methodology with my co-workers. Then after I left government service and consulted back to the Navy, I used to teach it to many of the people I worked with at Patuxent River, Maryland.

And now, after three years teaching the course at UNF, The Professor’s One Minute Guide to Stock Management has proven to be a very popular course. It draws overflow crowds of students of all ages and investment experience levels, and has been reported in newspapers and on TV. It is not like any other financial course or an expensive trading seminar. You don’t need expensive trading software to manage your investments. You only need to understand a few simple rules and indicators that are available for free on the internet. My One Minute Guide only requires you to look at your stocks one minute a day for you to protect yourself. Trading and investments should not be a worrisome adventure. Life is too short and every moment is precious. There are too many things that we need to be concerned about as we live our lives. Worrying about our investments should not be one of them.

I hope this book and my Methodology helps you understand the markets, and provides you with the decision tools to become financially independent and protect yourself. Take control – Do it yourself. It’s your money, your retirement, your kid’s education, your financial future. Protect it.

Hank Swiencinski
December, 2012