Investor’s Business Daily turns 40

Justin Nielsen of Investor’s Business Daily writes about the newspaper’s 40th anniversary.

Nielsen writes, “When the newspaper launched in 1984, this stock market growth period was in its early stages. President Ronald Reagan was instituting business-friendly economic policy and deregulation. Technology advances brought more computers and automation into the financial realm. Innovations were also coming to the financial markets, including index futures entering the scene in 1982.

“One of the biggest challenges Investor’s Daily faced was getting the word out and educating the public. The paper was organized in a very different way than the typical business paper. More than words, O’Neil included charts, data, stock screens and ratings to help guide investors. The paper also excluded information that investors typically saw in financial pages, like price/earnings ratios.

“‘P/E ratios aren’t very relevant for market leaders,’ O’Neil argued, and he needed the space for his innovative ratings.

“But because Investor’s Daily was so different, it required lessons in how to use it. To that end, O’Neil hit the road giving free seminars around the country on how to use the paper to find leading stocks and interpret market action. He appeared frequently on the Financial News Network, a predecessor to CNBC, with a regular investing show.”

Read more here.