Full Title: Stock Cycles: Why Stocks Won’t Beat Money Markets Over the Next Twenty Years

Author: Michael Alexander

Publisher/Date:  iUniverse Star  (2000)

Retail Cost/Pages:  $15 Softcover / 216 pages

Cover Notes: For most Americans, a 401k plan is their first exposure to investing. Many of us are relying on the stock market to provide for us in our retirement yet at the same time, most of us are afraid of the stock market. It’s a valid concern. How can something so important to our financial future be so completely unpredictable? When Michael Alexander first started investing in the stock market, he noticed that few analysts seemed to have much knowledge of what the market has done in the past. While no one can give precise answers to questions about the future of the market and be right all the time, Alexander feels that it’s possible to gain an understanding of the future of the stock market by studying its past.Analyzing years of historical data for patterns of behavior that might repeat in the future, Alexander provides strong statistical evidence for a cyclical pattern in the stock market. These Stock Cycles show that long periods of poor stock returns have always followed long periods of good returns. Are we in for good times or is the party over?

Stendahl’s Comment:   A quick read that goes into a lot of detail about secular bull and bear cycles.  I’ve never been able to incorporate cycles into my day-to-day trading but I did enjoy the chapter on the long-term Kondratiev Cycle.  Michael’s other book “The Kondratiev Cycle: A Generational Interpretation” covers the subject in greater detail.  Between the two books I’d lean towards “The Kondratiev Cycle”.

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