You are thinking about Nicholas Darvas. I have his book, of course, it is essentially the reverse of AIM. It just shows there is more than one way to skin a cat. You can buy the laggards a la AIM, or buy the leaders a la Darvas. But you need a disciplined reasoned plan to execute either strategy.
If one is to be a long term success in the market, he needs a well established comprehensive trading strategy. He needs to follow that strategy with patience and discipline. If this is too restrictive, he should set aside a small amount of money, with which he trades as he sees fit, outside of his trading strategy.
If you can follow the AIM program for something like the Dow Underdogs strategy (large cap value plays), I don't see how you could fail long term, if you don't deviate from your strategy.