cover image Changewave Investing: Secure Your Fortune Now in the Monster Stocks of the New Economy Revolution

Changewave Investing: Secure Your Fortune Now in the Monster Stocks of the New Economy Revolution

Tobin Smith. Bard Press (TX), $24.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-885167-35-4

All that glitters may not be gold in this stock-picking guide. Although Smith identifies himself as ""vice president for Phillips International, one of the largest investment advisory companies in the world,"" Phillips International in fact predominantly sells vitamins and nutritional supplements and publishes numerous newsletters. A few of the newsletters do deal with investing, but even if Phillips's entire revenue came from investment advice, the firm would not be among the 500 largest such companies in the world. The key to Smith's ""ChangeWave"" system is in the systemic trends that drive most investment opportunity and that, according to Smith, point to 10 ""Supersectors"" (groups of industries with explosive growth potential) and five ""emerging Supersectors,"" along with nine ""Superspaces"" (thinly populated areas of economic opportunity) and seven categories of profitable companies across industries. Collectively, these areas contain the fast-growing, expensive stocks that momentum investors love (and value investors hate). With 33 different point-based scales, Smith helps readers identify ""Gods"" (Game Over Dominator Stocks) or ""eGods"" (Emerging Game Over Dominator Stocks), which, he says, should be bought and sold according to moving average conditions. Some readers will find it slightly fishy that 41 of Smith's 56 featured stock picks were among the top 56 performers leading up to February 2000, when Smith finished writing, and all but four of the rest were among the top 100 (out of more than 10,500 stocks). Most of his picks are currently down at least 50%, and in many cases much more. However, perhaps this should not discourage ChangeWave believers: the author argues that fundamental technological and human truths (waves) beat temporary market aberrations (storms). Investors beware: the book does not offer sufficient evidence that the system works; it is supported by the author's personal theorizing about the economy and financial markets. (June)