William J. O'Neil (born March 25, 1933) is an American entrepreneur, stockbroker and writer, who founded the stock brokerage firm William O'Neil & Co. Inc in 1963 and the business newspaper ''

Investor's Business Daily ''Investor's Business Daily'' (''IBD'') is an American newspaper and website covering the stock market, international business, finance and economics. Founded in 1984 by William O'Neil as a print news publication, it is owned by News Corp and is ...

'' in 1984. He is the author of the books ''How to Make Money in Stocks'', ''24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success'' and ''The Successful Investor'' among others, and is the creator of the

CAN SLIM CAN SLIM refers to the acronym developed by the American stock research and education company ''Investor's Business Daily'' (''IBD''). ''IBD'' claims CANSLIM represents the seven characteristics that top-performing stocks often share before making t ...

investment strategy.

Early life and education

O'Neil was born March 25, 1933, in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

and raised in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. In 1951, he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas. He studied business at

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

, received a bachelor's degree in 1955 and served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Career

Early career

In 1958, O'Neil started his career as a stockbroker at Hayden, Stone & Company, and developed an investment strategy which made early use of

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs ...

. In 1960, he was accepted to

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

's first Program for Management Development (PMD). From his research, O'Neil invented the

strategy and became the top-performing broker in his firm. He bought a seat on the

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the List of stock exchanges, world's largest s ...

at age 30 and became the youngest at that time ever to do so. In 1963, he founded William O'Neil + Co. Inc., a company which developed the first computerized daily securities database and sold its research to institutional investors and tracks over 70,000 companies worldwide. Daily Graphs was launched by William O'Neil to produce Daily Graphs, a printed book of stock charts delivered weekly to subscribers in 1972. In 1998, O'Neil launched Daily Graphs Online as a comprehensive online equity research tool and an extension of the Daily Graphs business he launched in 1972. In 2010, Daily Graphs Inc. and its service was re-branded as MarketSmith. In 1973, he founded "O'Neil Data Systems, Inc.", to provide high-speed printing and database-publishing facilities. The company now operates as O'Neil Digital Solutions and has operations in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

and

Monroe, North Carolina Monroe is a city in and the county seat of Union County, North Carolina, United States. The population increased from 32,797 in 2010 to 34,551 in 2020. It is within the rapidly growing Charlotte metropolitan area. Monroe has a council-manager f ...

. The firm provides data-driven publishing and marketing communications. In 1988, O'Neil had a Mon-Fri stock market program on a Los Angeles UHF television station. KWHY-TV Channel 22 would broadcast the one-hour program with O'Neil holding center court. He would discuss the daily general market averages closing, why they closed as they did and what it might portend for the following trading day. The last fifteen minutes of the program were dedicated to the audience; a viewer could call the station, mention a stock they owned or were looking to purchase. O'Neil would bring up a chart on the TV screen of that stock and discuss its merits or caution the viewer. O'Neil would show a chart pattern and advise where to buy or sell. Also, early in the program, stocks that were highlighted were some of the Investor's Daily 200 stock list companies.

Investor's Business Daily

In 1984, O'Neil made research from his database available in print form with the launch of ''Investor's Daily'', a national business newspaper aimed to compete with ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. In 1991, the publication's name was changed from ''Investor's Daily'' to ''

''. As of 2015, the newspaper had a circulation of 113,000 and its website attracted 2.9 million visitors a month. In 2016, the newspaper changed its printing schedule to weekly, but continued to publish news daily on its website.

Personal life

O'Neil is married and has four children. 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. Other investors which he took great interest in were

Bernard Baruch Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier and statesman. After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in ...

Jesse Livermore Jesse Lauriston Livermore (July 26, 1877 – November 28, 1940) was an American stock trader. He is considered a pioneer of day trading and was the basis for the main character of '' Reminiscences of a Stock Operator'', a best-selling book by Ed ...

, Gerald M. Loeb,

Jack Dreyfus John J. Dreyfus Jr. (August 28, 1913 – March 27, 2009) was an American financial expert and the founder of the Dreyfus Funds. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Dreyfus was a graduate of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He is widely publicize ...

, and

Nicolas Darvas Nicolas Darvas (1920–1977) was a dancer, self-taught investor, and author. He is best known for his book, "How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market." Career Dancer Hungarian by birth, Darvas trained as an economist at the University of Buda ...

. He also greatly admired

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

. In 2007, O'Neil started donating to his alma mater, Southern Methodist University and funded a chair in business journalism at SMU's

Meadows School of the Arts The Algur H. Meadows School of the Arts is the fine arts unit at Southern Methodist University, located in University Park, Texas, U.S. It is known for its programs in art, art history, arts administration, cinema, performing arts, advertising, jou ...

, he then endowed a professorship in markets and freedom and created the William J. O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at the university's

Cox School of Business The Edwin L. Cox School of Business is an American business school, part of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. The SMU Cox School of Business is headquartered in four buildings on SMU's 210-acre main campus five miles north ...

Bibliography

* ''The Model Book of Greatest Stock Market Winners'' * ''24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success, learn the most Important Investment Techniques from the Founder of Investor's Business Daily'', McGraw-Hill (2000), * ''The Successful Investor: What 80 Million People Need to Know to Invest Profitably and Avoid Big Losses'', 2003, McGraw-Hill, * ''Sports Leaders & Success : 55 Top Sports Leaders & How They Achieved Greatness'' by Investor's Business Daily (author), William J. O'Neil (introduction) (1st edition, June 1, 2004) * ''Military and Political Leaders & Success : 55 Top Military and Political Leaders & How They Achieved Greatness'', by Investor's Business Daily (author), William J. O'Neil (Introduction) (1st edition, September 1, 2004) * ''How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short'', co-author with Gil Morales, Wiley (December 24, 2004), * ''Business Leaders and Success, 55 Top Business Leaders and How They Achieved Greatness", 2004, McGraw-Hill * ''How to Make Money in Stocks: Desk Diary 2005'', Wiley; Spiral edition (September 6, 2004), * ''

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator ''Reminiscences of a Stock Operator'' is a 1923 roman à clef by American author Edwin Lefèvre. It is told in the first person by a character inspired by the life of stock trader Jesse Livermore up to that point. The book remains in print (). ...

'' (by

Edwin Lefèvre Edwin Lefèvre (1871–1943) was an American journalist, writer, and diplomat, who is most noted for his writings on Wall Street business. Biography Lefèvre was born George Edwin Henry Lefèvre on January 23, 1871 in Colón, Colombia (now ...

), William J. O'Neil (Foreword), Wiley; Illustrate edition (September 2004), * ''How to Make Money in Stocks – A Winning System in Good Times Or Bad'', McGraw-Hill, (4th ed., May 18, 2009) *''The How to Make Money in Stocks Complete Investing System: Your Ultimate Guide to Winning in Good Times and Bad'' by William J O'Neil (Paperback August 10, 2010)

References

External links

Official website

William O'Neil Company Profile

Los Angeles Business Journal interview
March 18, 2002

Investors Business Daily, June 10, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oneil, William 1933 births Living people American finance and investment writers American financial businesspeople American investors American money managers American newspaper publishers (people) American stockbrokers American stock traders Harvard Business School alumni Businesspeople from Oklahoma City Stock and commodity market managers Southern Methodist University alumni United States Air Force officers Writers from Texas Writers from Oklahoma City