Stock Selection Simplified
You Can Beat the Market. Most Investors Just Never Build the System That Lets Them.
The complete process for picking individual stocks, valuing them with simple math, and managing your entries and exits. Built to outperform the market over the long run without consuming your life.
Follow patterns. Not predictions.
THE GAME YOU CAN ACTUALLY WIN
You already know how to automatically save and invest, buy index funds, dollar cost average, and hold for the long term. You're ahead of most people, earning benchmark returns and letting compound interest do its work on the road to financial freedom.
This guide is about what comes next.
How to beat the market and earn above-benchmark returns by picking individual stocks using a repeatable system instead of guesswork, gut feelings, or whatever CNBC is promoting today.
That doesn't mean selling your index funds and going all-in on individual names. Most of the time there aren't enough quality opportunities available, companies worth owning that are also trading at attractive prices. Instead, use index funds as the foundation of your portfolio and add concentrated individual positions when the right opportunities appear.
Beat the market by first being in the market, then selectively beating the benchmark.
That's how I built my own portfolio. The index fund foundation did most of the early compounding while I was learning. My framework for individual positions is what I added on top, to earn above benchmark returns on the positions where I could find good companies at the right price. This guide is about that second layer – the part most investors are missing while the first layer keeps doing its work in the background.
You've likely been told that beating the market by stock picking isn't possible. Or that if it is, you need to hire a professional and pay their fees to make it happen. Yet the data overwhelmingly shows that most professional money managers don't outperform index funds over any meaningful time horizon. If the experts can't do it, regular people surely can't either, right?
Wrong – and not for the reason you'd expect.
Professionals have constraints: forced diversification, committee approval, career risk, and redemption pressure that forces them to sell at exactly the wrong time. You face none of that. You can take concentrated positions and be patient when the market panics. You can act fast when opportunities appear without asking anyone's permission.
But having the structural edge isn't enough. Most individual investors still underperform, and the reason has nothing to do with stock picking being too complicated. They're playing without a process, and every buy and sell decision runs through emotional filters they don't even recognize.
Most individuals can beat the market, but they won’t, because they never build the behavioral systems to get out of their own way.
This guide gives you those systems.
WHAT THIS IS COSTING YOU IN REAL MONEY
The behavioral patterns aren't theoretical. Researchers have documented for decades that individual investors are roughly 60% more likely to sell a winning position than a losing one. That single bias, called the disposition effect, drags annual returns by about 4.4%. It's been measured across tens of thousands of brokerage accounts in multiple countries. The pattern is wired into how human brains process unrealized gains and losses, which is why willpower alone doesn't fix it.
Compounded over 30 years, that 4.4% gap is the difference between $100,000 growing into roughly $1.5 million versus growing into $440,000. Over a million dollars of difference, sitting in the gap between what you know to do and what you actually do in the moment.
And the path most people take to "fix" this is handing the whole problem off to an advisor or a managed fund. But this quietly makes it worse. A 1% annual advisory fee on a $500,000 portfolio, compounded over 20 years at 8% returns, costs you roughly $395,000 in lost wealth. The fees themselves are only a fraction of that figure – most of it is the compounding you lose on every dollar that left your account before it had a chance to grow. The industry hopes you never run that math.
I've been on both sides of the behavioral trap. I've sold winners too early because the gain felt fragile and I've ridden losers down further than I should have because admitting I was wrong felt worse than the loss itself. Both stories are in the guide. They cost me real money, and they're part of the reason I built the system you're about to read.
You already have plenty of information. What you’re missing is a process between your psychology and your money.
60%
More likely to sell a winning position than a losing one
4.4%
Annual return drag from selling winners too soon
$1M+
30-year gap from selling too early
$395k
Lost to a 1% advisory fee on $500k over 20 years
THE SOLUTION
This guide is the complete process I've used for twenty years. It's how I've earned above-benchmark returns on the individual-stock portion of my portfolio. I built and refined it on nights and weekends while holding down a corporate job.
I call it the Davem Method, but the name doesn't really matter. The simplicity is what matters.
No finance degree, Bloomberg terminal, or 10-Ks to slog through. No scripted earnings calls to sit on. The screening tools and financial data are free. The math is percentages, and the entire system runs on a spreadsheet you can update in about half an hour per company.
What it asks of you is consistency. The willingness to follow the process even when your gut is telling you to do something else. That's actually the hard part. Everything else is just learning the steps.
WHAT THE DAVEM METHOD IS (AND ISN’T)
There are a lot of investing styles, and most of them work. Growth, value, dividend, swing, and technical trading all have their proponents and track records.
The Davem Method isn't any one of those. It borrows from several. The screening filters lean toward what a growth investor would recognize. The valuation work draws from the value tradition. The entry timing uses simple technical support, and the exits use trailing stops the way a disciplined trader would. The behavioral framework is closer to psychology than to anything you'll read in a tactical investing book.
I didn't set out to invent something new. I tried each style on its own, found the limits, and kept the pieces that actually worked. The Davem Method is what was left after years of testing.
What it isn’t, specifically:
It isn’t day trading or swing trading. Holding periods range from weeks to years and the price tells you when to exit.
It isn’t pure technical analysis. The chart only gets consulted after the fundamentals and the valuation already check out.
It isn’t buy and hold forever. Even quality companies stumble and the selling system pulls you out before a stumble becomes a portfolio problem.
It isn’t a stock picking service. I’m not going to tell you what to buy. I’m going to teach you how to figure that out for yourself.
RECEIPTS
A sample of past positions from the last five years. Every one entered after the price pulled back and exited through the trailing stop system you’ll learn in the guide.
Position: Eli Lilly (LLY)
Return: +44.1%
Hold Period: Aug ‘25 - Mar ‘26
Position: Lululemon (LULU)
Return: +106.1%
Hold Period: Mar ‘20 - Dec ‘22
Position: NVIDIA (NVDA)
Return: +78.4%
Hold Period: Apr ‘25 - Nov ‘25
Position: ResMed (RMD)
Return: +44.9%
Hold Period: Sep ‘23 - May ‘24
Position: Shockwave Medical (SWAV)
Return: +76.3%
Hold Period: Jan ‘24 - Apr ‘24
Position: Texas Roadhouse (TXRH)
Return: +65.0%
Hold Period: Sep ‘23 - Aug ‘24
Position: Tecnoglass (TGLS)
Return: +46.2%
Hold Period: Aug ‘23 - May ‘24
Position: Veeva Systems (VEEV)
Return: +29.0%
Hold Period: May ‘21 - June ‘21
Different industries. Different market caps. Same process behind every entry and exit.
None of these positions was a magic call. The method finds the opportunity, holds them while they're working, and gets out before a position can turn into the kind of loss that takes years to dig out of.
What’s Inside the Guide
The complete method, top to bottom. Eight chapters and a closing conclusion, roughly 85 pages, walking you through the entire Davem Method from screening to selling. Every chapter ends with a Behavioral Principle that names the specific cognitive bias most likely to trip you up at that stage, and the structural fix the system uses to make sure it doesn't.
Don't let the length of the guide intimidate you. The depth is the point, but the structure is built to move fast. You can read the guide in an afternoon and then come back to specific chapters as reference while running your own analyses.
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Why individual investors have structural advantages that professionals can't access, why most still underperform anyway, and what that means for how you should approach the market. Plus the mindset shift that has to happen before any framework will help you.
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The fee math, the fund underperformance, the structural constraints that prevent professionals from doing what you can do without asking anyone's permission. The first bias to overcome before we get into any tactics.
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The focused set of financial metrics that actually drive stock prices, in plain language with thresholds you can use. Sales growth, earnings growth, expanding margins, free cash flow, return on equity and invested capital, and earnings surprises. Plus the red flags that disqualify a company even when the headline numbers look fine.
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The free screening process I run every week. Finviz filters, Stock Analysis verification, and the IBD 50 as a backup source. Takes minutes.
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The three-step valuation that takes about 30 minutes per company. A fundamental value calculation based on future earnings, a discounted cash flow cross-check, and the technical support analysis that turns a theoretical buy price into an actual entry point you can act on. Walked through with a complete real-world example on Arista Networks (ANET).
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How the watchlist works as a patience mechanism rather than a shopping list. How to add and remove companies without getting sentimental about names you've made money with. How to keep the list relevant through quarterly refreshes.
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Limit orders, position sizing across market caps, the initial stop loss set at the moment of purchase, and the one rule that overrides everything else when a position starts moving against you.
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This is the chapter that took me many years to get right. Stop losses to cap your downside. Trailing stops that widen as gains accumulate, locking in profit floors that move up with the stock. And the asymmetric math that lets you be wrong four out of ten times and still come out ahead.
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The daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly rhythm that keeps the system running without taking over your life.
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A short closing chapter on the long game.
The completed analysis spreadsheet
The exact valuation walked through in Chapter 4, with every formula in place and every input documented. Open it next to the chapter and you’ll see how each calculation produces each output. Make a copy in Google Sheets and you’ve got a working valuation tool you can use forever, on any company you want to evaluate.
WHAT YOU ALSO GET
When you buy the guide, you also get the working tools I use myself. All delivered immediately, all yours to use however you want.
Live access to the Davem Watchlist
My continuously updated list of quality companies with valuation status and support levels. The same watchlist I check daily.
Six months of the Davem Investors Club
The Club is where the method comes to life beyond the pages of the guide. Members get The Davem Cut, my signal from the noise analysis every other week. Real-time opportunity alerts when conditions actually align on a watchlist company. Ongoing access to my personal portfolio with positions and reasoning. Community chat with other members doing the same work. And monthly live group calls.
The investment journal template
A simple structure for tracking every position from entry to exit. Purchase date, entry price, stop loss level, stop expiration date, exit conditions. The operating log I use for every active position I own.
WHO THIS IS FOR
You’ll get the most out of this guide if:
You’re already investing in some form (index funds, a 401k, a few individual stocks) and you’re ready to take more direct control of a portion of your portfolio
You’ve noticed your own emotional patterns getting in the way of decisions
You want a repeatable system more than you want hot tips
You’d rather learn how to make decisions yourself than hand your money to someone whose incentives might not match yours
WHO THIS IS NOT FOR
This guide isn’t going to help you if:
You’re looking for stock picks, market predictions, or someone to tell you what to buy this week
You want to get rich quickly. Compounding at 15% annually is a 20-year plus game, not a 20-day one
You’re not willing to look at your own behavior honestly. The system assumes you have biases and is built around managing them
You think the answer to better investing is more information rather than better filtering
Founding Rate - Good Until August 1, 2026
$59
Once the launch window closes, this rate won’t be coming back. You benefit by being early.
Stock Selection Simplified - the complete 85-page guide
The completed analysis spreadsheet
Six months of the Davem Investors Club
The investment journal template
Live access to the Davem Watchlist
EVERYTHING BELOW DELIVERED THE MOMENT YOU BUY.
Frequently Asked
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No. This is a digital product and you receive every bonus and resource the moment you buy. If you’re not sure my approach is right for you, read through The Davem Dish newsletter archive first. You’ll know quickly whether the voice and the method resonate.
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No. I'm not a licensed financial advisor, and nothing in this guide constitutes personalized investment advice. I share my methodology, walk through how I evaluate companies, and teach you to do the same. Investment decisions are your own.
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The guide assumes you have an investing account, bought index funds, placed a few individual investments, and you understand the basics of how the market works. If you've never bought a stock or fund, start with The Davem Dish first to build a foundation.
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About two to three hours cover to cover. Most readers go back to specific chapters as reference while they're running their own analyses. Chapter 4 in particular gets re-read alongside the spreadsheet template.
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No. Finviz (free), Stock Analysis (free), IBD (free at the library) and a Google account for the spreadsheets and watchlist. That’s it.
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The six-month Club membership is the natural next step and it’s included with the guide. If you want personalized one-on-one work, the Davem Investor Audit is a 90-minute strategy session I offer separately.
ONE MORE THING
You can keep doing what you've been doing. Reading articles, scrolling threads, buying when something catches your attention, selling when the position feels wrong, hoping the math works out.
Or you can spend an afternoon with this guide, set up the spreadsheet, and start running your own decisions through a process that's been refined over twenty years and is producing real results today.
The choice is yours.
See you soon.
Andrew
P.S.
The most damaging belief most investors carry is that picking stocks successfully is too complicated for someone without a Wall Street pedigree. That belief doesn't come from evidence. The evidence shows the professionals fail at a staggering rate, and they charge enormous fees to do it. The belief comes from decades of intentional messaging by an industry that profits from your dependency.
The math is percentages, the tools are free, the information is public, and the process fits on a spreadsheet.
The only thing standing between you and consistent market-beating returns is a system that manages your behavior. That's what this guide is. The one I built for myself over twenty years, packaged so you don't have to spend the next twenty figuring it out the hard way.
Disclaimer: Stock Selection Simplified is an educational guide. Andrew Dempsey and Davem Advisors LLC is not a licensed financial advisor, broker, or investment professional. Nothing discussed in the guide constitutes personalized investment advice. All investment decisions are made at your own risk.