Strategy

I began my career on the analytical side of the business at E.F. Hutton, but even before I was out of high school I became interested in the stock market. My high school was in Manhattan's famed Sutton Place neighborhood, where rich folks have lived since the days of Vanderbilt.

It was there, looking at Rolls-Royces and peering at $25,000 wristwatches in store windows, that I became convinced I had to work on Wall Street. My passion for the stock market led me to Wall Street, but my need to make money led me to become a stockbroker, and it was there where I had my epiphany.

I learned that brokers -- at least back then -- were salespeople who didn't focus on finding ideas for their clients but rather on bringing assets to the business. A couple of years later I took my passion for research and my understanding of all the mistakes that brokers were making and decided to sell my own brand of research. Today, nothing pains me more than the mistakes that investors make over and over. Simply put, many individuals have unrealistic expectations and no game plans.

My focus is on a balanced approached designed to have my clients in place when a stock or industry heats up rather than chasing performance. Mostly, we incorporate fundamental analysis, but also technical work. We have a saying at Wall Street Strategies that the fundamentals tell us what to buy and the charts tell us when to buy. But more important than buying is managing the investment, the skill most investors lack because they are watching the price action in the stock too closely instead of watching the fundamentals.

By being cool and doing the work, we routinely have stocks that are among the top percentage gainers in the market on any given day. In short, the strategy is:

• Do the work.
• Don't panic.
• Stay balanced.