Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
William O'Neil and IBD
William J. O'Neil (25 Mar 1933 – 28 May 2023) was a Los Angeles stockbroker who studied past stock-market winners with early computers, founded the research and brokerage firm William O'Neil + Co. (1963), bought a New York Stock Exchange seat at 30 (1964 per Bloomberg), launched Investor's Daily (9 Apr 1984; Investor's Business Daily from Sep 1991), and codified the CAN SLIM growth-momentum method in How to Make Money in Stocks (McGraw-Hill, 1988; "more than 4 million copies" per his firm). He ran two public mutual funds — the O'Neil Fund (1966–75; +116% in 1967, then a fall from a ~$49m peak to ~$6m) and the New USA fund (1992–97; +67% through 1996, behind the S&P 500) — and sold IBD to News Corp for $275m (completed May 2021). The most testable public record of his ideas is the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY): from its first trading day on 9 Apr 2015 to 6 Nov 2026 it returned 1.74% a year net of fees, against 13.32% for SPY, with a −59.5% drawdown (this batch's Yahoo data; see below). CAN SLIM is graded D in this knowledge base (CAN SLIM). O'Neil is the book's case of a published system — and its tested record.
At a glance
- Born / died
- Born 25 Mar 1933, Oklahoma City; raised in Texas; BBA, Southern Methodist University, 1955; US Air Force; died 28 May 2023, aged 90 (Wikipedia; Bloomberg via WealthManagement.com, 30 May 2023)
- Type
- Individual trader, research firm founder, publisher and fund sponsor; private group of companies (William O'Neil + Co.; Daily Graphs → MarketSmith; O'Neil Data Systems; Investor's Business Daily until 2021; a broker-dealer renamed O'Neil Securities in 2010; O'Neil Global Advisors, an SEC-registered adviser, from 2019 — Bloomberg). This profile has six moves (rule 6 allows 5–7 for individuals)
- Markets
- US growth stocks; institutional research clients (~350 per the firm's website, as reported by Bloomberg, 2023)
- Scale (dated, reported)
- Own account "a 20-fold increase … in 26 months" before 1963 (firm biography); $5,000 → $200,000 via Korvette (short), Chrysler and Syntex (Schwager, Market Wizards, as cited by Bloomberg); O'Neil Fund ~$10m within two years of 1966 (NYT via Bloomberg), peak ~$49m; New USA fund ~$170m (Bloomberg); IBD paid circulation ~313,000 (2001), print 113,000 and 2.9m web visitors a month (2015), 100,000 digital subscribers at the 2021 sale (Wikipedia)
- Regulatory record
- No SEC action found against O'Neil or William O'Neil + Co. FINRA censured and fined William O'Neil Securities $30,000 (reported May 2023) for supervisory failures over two private securities transactions approved in 2020–21 and late Form U4 updates (altswire, 26 May 2023 — secondary; verify AWC)
- Writings
- The Model Book of Greatest Stock Market Winners (1971); How to Make Money in Stocks (1988; 4th ed. 2009); 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success (2000); The Successful Investor (2003/04); How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short (with Gil Morales, Wiley, 2004); foreword to Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Wikipedia; firm biography)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Hayden Stone broker and the winners study (1958–62); William O'Neil + Co. and the NYSE seat (1963–64); the O'Neil Fund (1966–75) and New USA fund (1992–97); Investor's Daily (1984); How to Make Money in Stocks and CAN SLIM (1988); the IBD 50 ETF record (2015–)
6 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1958
Hayden Stone and the Winners Study
Start of a career / research method / large trades (reported)
1963
William ONeil and Co and the NYSE Seat
Founding / technology and data bet
1966
ONeil Fund and the New USA Fund
Fund launch / closing a fund (failure) — twice
1984
Investors Daily
New product and distribution / sale
1988
How to Make Money in Stocks and CAN SLIM
Publication of a system / evidence problem
2015
IBD 50 ETF and the Public Record
Product launch — a CAN SLIM-style stock list packaged as an exchange-traded fund