How To Think Like Billionaire Carl Icahn

Let's face it. Most people do not have the mind of a billionaire. What does it take to change the way you invest so that you stop worrying about 2.5% annual returns from your average portfolio, and instead look for opportunities that involve retirement in half the time you previously expected... or 1/10th the time? How can you start thinking like a billionaire? Let's begin the journey with Carl Icahn.

Sure, you could buy Powerball tickets and hope against all odds that your numbers hit, but I doubt that would be a very successful investment. A better route would be to learn to buy, sell, and profit like one of the best in the game: self-made trading gurus like Carl Icahn. To help you on that journey, Benzinga would like to introduce you to some educational and actionable services that just might help you understand this mysterious trader a little bit better.

Carl Icahn is one of the most notorious corporate raiders still around, with activist positions going back as far as the 1980s. In the decades since his raider days, he has leveraged deal after deal, making himself billions of dollars in the process. As of 2010, Icahn had amassed over $10.5 billion net worth - not bad for a man with normal, middle-class roots.

Benzinga offers a diverse series of products to help you think - and trade - the way Icahn and the other "best of the best" do. Below, we will analyze some key Icahn trades from the past 30 years, and show how our products can help you make similarly wise investment choices.

One overlooked area for portfolio growth is the lower-price stock sector. Benzinga offers a Winning Stocks Under $5 service, where you can get commentary and strategy from our expert on under-five-dollar stocks. In this sector, Icahn made his move in 2010, purchasing a total of 9.6 million shares of Dynegy DYN, at an average price of $4.25 per share. Dynegy is currently trading at 5.73 a share, or an average profit of $1.48 per share.

Another way Benzinga can help you make more money than Icahn is by providing real-time, lightning-quick access to rumors filtering through the market. Icahn is famous for working behind the scenes, using his position as a top stockholder to push the companies he buys toward the results he wants, raising their stock price in the process. He did just that with BEA Systems . After buying a significant portion of the company's stock, Icahn suggested that BEA sell to a larger firm. Oracle ORCL later bought BEA at a significant profit for Icahn. Ask Icahn if there is a lot of money to be made by being out in front of news like this!

Like most successful investors, Icahn does extensive research and analysis before picking a stock. Here at Benzinga, we do most of the work for you. In 2008, Icahn sold his casino interests in Nevada, including the Stratosphere, Arizona Charlie's Boulder, Arizona Charlie's Decatur, and Aquarius Casino Resort. The sale price of $1.3 billion was roughly $1 billion more than he paid for the properties. How's that for a profit margin?

Benzinga also offers a few different products to help you navigate your way through options, including finding short and long plays , as well as a product to help you factor in entry prices, stop-losses and more. You can see this kind of thinking in Icahn's playing the short game with Lear Corp LEA in 2007. Speculators shorted the stock, only to see Icahn purchase shares of Lear. The price jumped 35% in a month, and short-sellers lost their shirts. Stockholders made a boatload of cash.

How about ETFs? Interested in investing in those funds? Or maybe a stock from the promising biotech field? Benzinga offers products to serve both those needs. Icahn certainly made money in biotech. In fact, he's gained a reputation lately for buying up top-heavy bio-techs, reducing management and then selling off parts, or whole, to larger pharmaceutical companies - again, with huge profits to stockholders . A current Icahn play has him invested in Biogen Idec BIIB, where he has helped "retire" an underperforming-CEO, and ushering in an era of streamlining and job cuts, focusing the company toward neurology products. Don't be surprised to see this one get acquired sometime soon.

Benzinga offers another pair of products to help you trade, and profit, like Carl Icahn. One focuses on swing-trades, both long and short. Featuring advice from heavy-hitter Ryan Mallory, swing-trades offers entry prices, stop-losses and target prices for each trade, along with instant email alerts before each trade.

The other product is The Benzinga Value Investor. Each month, the The Benzinga Value Investor dissects important trends for you and helps you understand where things are headed and why. And of course, most importantly, you will learn which companies stand to benefit from these unfolding trends, and which ones are at risk of being left on the sidelines.

Taken together, the entire Benzinga product and service line offers you, the investor, plenty of opportunity to invest wisely. Put your money to work for you with Benzinga!