In the very short term, of course demand for a an individual stock drives up the price, like during the IPO madness of '98-'99 or during an hour's trading. But demand for stocks is fickle. It went away in '73 when companies were still making money and it came roaring back in '81 when risk-free t-bonds were yielding 13%. To profit abnormally, you'd have to figure out what the demand for a stock will be before anyone else is able to, suggesting clairvoyance. And you'd have to bet big to avoid getting chewed up by expenses, thus taking on a lot more risk.


By all means, if you know more about how a company's stock behaves than its millions of other investors and you can afford the risk and expense of trading, momentum investing could work for you. I'm not nearly that smart. Good luck, Russ.