Purple Chips

Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 My Background 3 Chapter 1: The Psychology of Investing 7 Singles and Doubles Are Better 7 Tune Out the Noise 10 EPS Explained 11 Chapter 2: Purple Chips versus Blue Chips 17 Finding the Purple Chips 18 Minimum Seven Years of Positive and Growing EPS 18 Smooth and Predictable Growth in EPS 19 Minimum Market Capitalization of $1 Billion 23 Purple Chips versus Common Blue Chips 24 Dilution is a Value Killer 28 Dividends, or Getting Paid While You Wait 31 Purple Chips Make Money for Investors 31 Keeping It Simple: The Purple Chips Model versus Ratio Analysis 35 Con Edison versus Entergy 36 Wendy’s versus McDonald’s 37 General Mills versus Kraft Foods 39 Google versus Yahoo! 41 Chapter 3: Understanding and Seeing Valuation 43 The Normal Curve: An Odds-Based Approach 43 The Shifting EPS Line: A Quick Gauge of Value 45 Valuation Reset 49 Chapter 4: What Else You Need to Know 55 Earnings Trend 55 Value Traps 59 Valuation Trend 62 The P/E Ratio and Growth 69 How to Build a Portfolio of Purple Chips 71 Diversification 71 Position Size 72 Stop Loss Orders 73 No More Anchoring 74 Market Crashes 76 Do It Yourself 76 Chapter 5: When to Buy and Sell 79 Step 1: Draw the EPS Line 79 Step 2: Set the Buy and Sell Targets 82 Step 3: Adjust the Buy and Sell Targets 83 Buying Checklist 84 Selling Checklist 84 Chapter 6: Practice Case Studies 91 Case Study: Abbott Labs 93 Summary 106 Case Study: AutoZone 108 Summary 117 Case Study: Johnson & Johnson 118 Summary 127 Case Study: General Dynamics 129 Summary 136 Chapter 7: Purple Chips Summarized 137 Endnotes 141 Index 143 About the Author 149