The Contrarian

[aim hier]

TF,

I take what the market gives me. I will do a covered call, buy a call, sell a put, or buy/write a spread, whatever appears to offer the best risk/reward opportunity. I own a couple ETFs, I have had some puts where I chose to have them exercised. If I were to name a favorite strategy, it is to sell puts, but, I am involved in buying/selling both puts and calls.

I liked Lichello's books, but he was a better writer than an investor. I prefer an approach more like Mebane Foster's 'The Ivy Portfolio' which had some threads over on the AIM board. The biggest problems with AIM, are that you wind up investing all of your monies in stocks with large drawdowns, while you sell too many shares of the best performing stocks. Sometimes that works out, often it's the reverse of what you should do.

Still, if I really believe in a company, I will buy more on a market pullback. Even a great company's stock can become overpriced, in which case I will probably sell out completely, rather than just a little. But I do invest somewhat like AIM. However, I will put on a position, even if the stock has climbed quite a bit, if i think the fundamentals support a much higher valuation. I trade more frequently than a typical AIMer.