In this original investment book, the author provides a blend of topics combining the tools taught in finance classes with the practical experience of someone with three decades of investment success. The author covers several topics including the arithmetic of stock valuation and how to use same to develop rational expectations. Accounting issues are addressed since financial statements are not always what they seem. Financial history is presented since it consistently repeats itself and those who have some knowledge have a marked advantage. The author then devotes several chapters on what to look for when pulling together the story behind various investment choices and how to link disparate information to successfully find stocks that appreciate. To help in this process, the book spends time covering economics in ways that normal people can understand and provides useful analytical models for the average investor. The book concludes with emphasis on technical analysis, pointing out that it is based on solid micro-economic principles that allow one to cut through the information clutter to discern what is really going on before researching individual stocks.