Once you've found a stock with all the elements in the stock-buying checklist, there's one final step: deciding when to execute your buy order. This is something you can't do with only financial figures or performance ratings. Charts will help you pinpoint the best time to buy or sell a stock. How? Once you learn to recognize a few distinct price patterns, these formations will be one of your best indicators of a stock's potential. The lesson titled "Using Stock Charts To Round Out Stock Selection," helps you learn to identify these formations easily.

• In a nutshell, to buy at the best time, you need to recognize when a stock is breaking out of a price consolidation (or base) area.

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