What, exactly, does a formula do? This question will be answered in considerable detail in later sections of this book, but a summary of a formula's usefulness would include two main functions it fulfills.First, over a full stock market cycle, it will improve your investment profits without the application of any thought what­ever on your part. As is well known, there are many investors who do not believe that the market will ever go through a full cycle again—that the direction of the market is in a permanently upward movement, except for temporary, minor dips. It might be worthwhile to point out—without seeming to be pessimistic —that there are some good arguments against an indefinite con­tinuation of bull markets.