Forex

n The Science of Hitting, baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams revealed his approach to being a great hitter. And when a guy with a lifetime batting average of .344 and 521 home runs wants to tell you his secrets, it pays to listen.

Williams' approach was amazingly simple:

* Get a good ball to hit
* Proper thinking
* Be quick with the bat

To determine what makes "a good ball," Williams dissected the location of various pitches to figure out which ones gave him the best opportunity to get a hit. For example, the best he could hope to hit with low and away pitches was a meager .230 -- while pitches straight down the middle gave him the chance to hit .400 (which he did in 1941).

Essentially, the pitches he chose to swing at could either send him down to the minors -- or vault him into the Hall of Fame.

And the same is true for you.

Get a good ball to hit
As investors, the difference between beating and lagging the market over the long run comes down to:

* Finding great companies at great prices
* Doing your homework
* Making timely decisions

In other words, swinging at the investments that are the most likely to bring you big returns.

It seems obvious, but all too often we ignore this simple code and swing at overvalued stocks -- and in doing so, we reduce the chances of market-beating performance.

But when the market is panicking, we're presented with better opportunities to hit home runs.

Proper thinking
Tom and David Gardner follow the same philosophy -- good companies at great prices -- and it's paid off.