The Equity Edge: A complete guide to building wealth through the stock market by Mark Jeavons

CHAPTER 1: THE EQUITY
EDGE

Introduction – Putting the odds
in your favour
If you want to grow your wealth over the long term, you
need to invest. Common stocks – shares in listed
companies – are one of the most effective ways to do so,
boasting long-term performance that is hard to match. As a
result, they play a core role in most investment portfolios.
But how do you go about investing in common stocks
successfully? 
What about beating the market average?
Can it be done reliably – and safely, with your wealth
protected from risk of substantial loss?
I think it can. I have achieved returns of just over 15% a
year; this is substantially better than the UK and world
equity markets, which delivered returns of 5.2% and 6.9%
per year respectively, over the same period. The superior
returns were also achieved with lower risk of loss, with the
largest drawdown on the portfolio being less than 12.5%
compared with 47.7% and 52.8% drawdowns on UK and
world equity markets, respectively. The approach I have
used to do so is set out in this book so that anyone else can
follow it too.
This is not the only way to make money from investing. But
it is, in my view, a sensible, effective and enjoyable one –
based on some simple and logical principles, and some
easy-to-follow methods. 
The purpose of this book is to set out this system and its
methods in a practical, no-nonsense guide, so that anyone
who reads it will be able to successfully invest in company
shares, with the aim of achieving superior returns

The Equity Edge: A complete guide to building wealth through the stock market by Mark Jeavons