Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) Holly Corp (NYSE: HOC) - We sold June $17.50 puts for $0.60 premium. This is our second time selling puts on HOC. Our first ones expired last week.
Breakeven price = $17.50 - $0.60 = $16.90
Max Possible Return (Type A) = 7.2% (function of strike price)
Max Possible Return (Type B) = 54.7% (function of buying power)

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 12-25 is attached.

We at Investrio wish all of you a peaceful holiday season. May the season give you and yours all you deserve. Have a happy holiday.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

We recently rolled out the Investrio Putpicker. It's an optimization tool we developed, that we use to:
-Assess all the available options quickly for a particular stock,
-Ensure the premium exceeds our target,
-Ensure the downside protection from the current stock price to the option strike price exceeds our target,
-Measure how much downside risk exists from the option strike price to the stock's multi-year low,
-Ensure the return exceeds our target, and
-Compare the impact of short-term vs. long-term capital gains tax rates on our return.

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) Holly Corp (NYSE: HOC) - Our December puts, that we sold, expired.

2) Nasdaq OMX Group Inc (Nasdaq: NDAQ) - Our December puts, that we sold, expired.

3) Intel Corp (Nasdaq: INTC) - We sold July $16 puts for $0.68 premium.
Breakeven price = $16 - $0.68 = $15.32
Max Possible Return (Type A) = 7.3% (function of strike price)
Max Possible Return (Type B) = 50.4% (function of buying power)

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 12-18 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Infinera Corp (Nasdaq: INFN) - We sold Jul $12.50 calls for $0.55.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 12-11 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) Bristow Group Inc (NYSE: BRS) - We sold June out-of-the-money puts.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 12-4 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 11-27 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 11-20 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 11-13 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

Online prediction market that uses crowd-sourcing to forecast the likelihood of a drug's success...

Rational irrationality, the story of 2008's crash, and an effort to size up the problem...

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) U.S. Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) - Our Jan calls reached 80+% of their maximum value, so we closed them out. We sold Apr $12.00 calls for $0.62.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 11-6 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

1) This one sounds like it may be up our alley - an ETF that invests in merger arbitrage opportunities. However, I don’t know if I want to hand over the reins to someone else to pick which ones to invest in. As you know, there’s a lot of downside risk if any of the deals fall apart. Diversification helps to limit the risk, but just one deal falling apart could easily eat up the small returns from rest of the deals that hold together. In any case, this is probably a good source to watch to get ideas for our own arbitrage picks.

2) I'm holding off on the Hyatt (H) IPO. There's uncertainty about this IPO. None of the proceeds from the IPO will get plowed back into the company. The proceeds are going to the Pritzker family because all the shares being offered are the family's. Although the Hyatt brand and customer service are top-notch, and the company has a low debt level relative to its peers, the hotel & lodging industry is suffering, especially the higher up the luxury scale you go. Spending on luxury hotel & lodging is just part of the overall drawdown in consumer discretionary spending (especially with luxury.) I think it will be some time before this trend turns around.

3) Interview with Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's long-time business partner and the Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.

4) US Issues Guidance On Commercial Real-Estate Loan Workouts - U.S. banking regulators are urging banks to work with commercial borrowers to modify their real estate loans, wary of the damaging effect a high level of defaults could have on bank balance sheets. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which includes the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and others, said that prudent modifications to commercial real-estate loans are frequently "in the best interest" of both banks and their borrowers. Regulators, in a significant step, also said that they will not penalize banks for performing loans where the value of the underlying property is now worth less than the loan balance. "Financial institutions that implement prudent CRE loan workout arrangements after performing a comprehensive review of a borrower's financial condition will not be subject to criticism for engaging in these efforts," the agencies said in a policy statement. The guidance comes as commercial real-estate woes continue to cause headaches for regulators and financial firms. Slower to develop than the significant dislocation in the residential housing market, commercial real estate has shown increasing weakness in recent quarters. The FDIC, in its most recent quarterly analysis of the banking industry, said that the number of real estate construction and development loans at least 90 days past due was up 16.6% in the second quarter.

5) Bill Ackman (of Pershing Square) long CXW, short O - Pershing Square hedge fund manager Bill Ackman highlighted prison operator Corrections Corp. of America (CXW) as one of the best real-estate businesses around during his presentation at the Value Investing Congress in New York on Tuesday. Ackman noted that Pershing Square has a 9.9% stake in Corrections Corp. Ackman is known as an activist investor but he said on Tuesday that the Corrections stake is passive, because the company's management and directors are already doing a good job. "The biggest risk for Corrections Corp. is that suddenly lots of people stop committing crimes," Ackman said, noting that the recession may increase crime rates. The government is a major customer and there's strong demand for prison space and limited supply, Ackman explained. The company's shares closed Tuesday up 5% at $25.67. "It's also a hedge against your hedge fund business, because as the SEC ramps up...," Ackman said, prompting laughter at the conference in mentioning the Securities and Exchange Commission. "We shouldn't joke about that," he added. Ackman may have been referring to Galleon Group, which was rocked on Friday when founder Raj Rajaratnam was charged and arrested in what federal prosecutors say is the largest hedge fund insider trading case ever. Rajaratnam, who has been released on bail, said Monday that the charges are "entirely baseless." Ackman also said Tuesday that he is shorting Realty Income Corp. (O), another real-estate business. That short position, combined with a long position in Corrections Corp., makes a good pairs trade, although Pershing Square didn't structure its positions that way initially, Ackman explained. The company's shares closed down 1.2% to $23.20. Ackman also said Pershing bought McDonald's Corp. (MCD) shares in recent months. The hedge fund firm had a big stake in the fast-food giant earlier this decade, but sold it. Ackman got back into the shares at $55 each, because he said the company has improved and the number of shares outstanding has declined. McDonald's is also a good hedge against a falling U.S. dollar and offers some protection against inflation, Ackman added. Its shares closed down 36 cents to $58.92. Ackman said he isn't a fan of gold, but recommended
Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, BRKB) and Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) as companies that should do well if inflation takes off.

6) FaithShares, Inc. has created 5 Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) to be managed by FaithShares Advisors, LLC., that are based on the 5 largest Christian denominations in the United States. Once approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 5 funds will trade on the New York Stock Exchange Arca. Each fund will have a portfolio that is screened in accordance with the specific tenants of its respective denomination. The funds will be comprised of 100 Large-Cap companies that are equally weighted. The five funds are: FaithShares Baptist Values Fund, FaithShares Catholic Values Fund, FaithShares Christian Values Fund, FaithShares Lutheran Values Fund, and FaithShares Methodist Values Fund. A minimum of ten percent of the net income derived from each fund will be donated back to charities and/or church hierarchy representing that fund's denomination.

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Short Strategies

1) We covered our short position in the St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) on 10/30 @ $24.56 for a 9.7% gain. Our target price range was $24.29 - $24.82.

Return calculation = ($27.19 - $24.56) / $27.19 x 100% = 9.7%

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

2) Infinera Corp (Nasdaq: INFN) - Our Jan calls reached 80+% of their maximum value, so we closed them out. We're looking to sell another round when the premiums improve.

3) Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) - We sold Jun $20.00 calls for $0.60.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 10-30 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Long Stocks

1) We sold Fundtech Ltd (Nasdaq: FNDT) on 10/20 @ $13.92 for a .36% gain.

Return calculation = ($13.92 sale price - $13.87 buy price) / $13.87 buy price x 100% = .36%

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

2) Moody's Corp (NYSE: MCO) - We sold January out-of-the-money puts.

Short Strategies

3) We shorted the St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) on 10/21 @ $27.19. Our target price range is $24.29 - $24.82, and our stop is set at $29.80.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 10-23 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

We're watching the dollar (UUP) as it approaches support at $22. If it breaks support, then the stock market may go up another leg. If the dollar doesn't break support, then this will add another data point to the 'market is topping and running out of steam' hypothesis.

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 10-16 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 10-9 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) - Our Dec calls reached 80+% of their maximum value, so we closed them out. We're looking to sell another round when the premiums improve.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

2) Holly Corp (NYSE: HOC) - We sold December out-of-the-money puts.

3) Nasdaq OMX Group Inc (Nasdaq: NDAQ) - We sold December out-of-the-money puts.

IPO Opportunities

4) We sold A123 Systems Inc (Nasdaq: AONE) on 10/1 @ $23.56 for a 21.6% gain.

Return calculation = ($23.56 sale price - $19.37 buy price) / $19.37 buy price = 21.6%

Short Strategies

5) We bought ProShares UltraShort FTSE Xinhua China 25 (NYSE: FXP) on 9/30 @ $9.87.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 10-2 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) - We sold January out-of-the-money puts.

2) AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) - We sold January out-of-the-money puts.

IPO Opportunities

3) We bought A123 Systems Inc (Nasdaq: AONE) on 9/24 @ $19.37.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 9-25 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

Groupthink Inc., selling the crowd-pleasing notion of collective creativity...

Harry Dent has his own ETF now, ticker "DENT". September 16th was the 1st trading day...

Hedge fund-like ETFs, tickers "MCRO" and "QAI"...

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Our shares of American Axle & Manufacturing Hldngs Inc (NYSE: AXL) were called away on 9/11. Our position gained 157.7%.

Return calculation = ($2.50 strike price - $0.97 cost basis) / $0.97 cost = 157.7%

Long Stocks

2) We sold Google Inc (Nasdaq: GOOG) on 9/16 @ $484.38 for a 22.6% gain.

Return calculation = ($484.38 sale price - $394.95 buy price) / $394.95 buy price = 22.6%

3) We sold New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc (NYSE: EDU) on 9/16 @ $75.37 for a -5.2% loss.

Return calculation = ($75.37 sale price - $79.50 buy price) / $79.50 buy price = -5.2%

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 9-18 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 9-11 is attached. We added some new Internet resources.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

CNBC and Fortune profile the fastest growing companies around the globe...

China Investment Corporation looks to pile cash into U.S. real estate...

Investors & Friends:

There is no new investment activity to report since our last weekly update.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 9-4 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

In the New York Times Magazine Paul Krugman writes economists "will have to acknowledge the importance of irrational and often unpredictable behavior, face up to the often idiosyncratic imperfections of markets and accept that an elegant economic "theory of everything" is a long way off. In practical terms, this will translate into more cautious policy advice - and a reduced willingness to dismantle economic safeguards in the faith that markets will solve all problems."

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Clean Energy Fuels Corp (Nasdaq: CLNE) - We sold Mar $12.50 calls for $1.80.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

2) Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) - We closed our Sep puts. Our position gained 465%.

Return calculation = (($1.13 premium from selling puts - $0.20 cost of closing position) / $0.20 cost of closing position) x 100%

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 8-28 is attached. We enhanced the report by adding two new pages: Executive Summary page and Crash Confidence Index page. We also added to the list of Internet resources and recommended books to read.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

For the past few days, Citigroup (which taxpayers now own a third of), mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which were placed under government conservatorship last September) and Bank of America (which has needed $45 billion in bailout funds) have been far and away the most actively traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange...

Earlier this year, a Warren Buffett-backed electric car made its Detroit debut... here's a blog I stumbled across on the BYD Electric Car Company...

Is this HAL in the making?
Which stock should I buy?

I generally frown on investing in mutual funds, but here's two funds outperforming their peers, worth a look...
Here's a CNBC video interview with one of the four co-portfolio managers...

Bankrupt Linens 'n Things resurrected in Web-only form...

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Our shares of Ricks Cabaret International (Nasdaq: RICK) were called away on 8/21. Our position gained 47.9%.

Return calculation = (($7.50 strike - $5.07 cost) / $5.07 cost) x 100%

2) Our shares of Gold Fields Ltd (NYSE: GFI) were called away on 8/21. Our position gained 11.7%.

Return calculation = (($11.00 strike - $9.85 cost) / $9.85 cost) x 100%

3) United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) - We closed our Sep calls and sold a new round of Jan calls for $2.00.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 8-21 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Our shares of Allied Irish Banks (NYSE: AIB) were called away on 8/6. Although we hate to say goodbye, our position gained 160.4%.

Return calculation = (($2.50 strike - ($1.86 cost - $0.90 premium )) / ($1.86 cost - $0.90 premium)) x 100%

2) We bought the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) on 8/6 @ $13.37 and sold September $15.00 calls for $0.60.

3) Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) - We sold December $20.00 calls on 8/5 for $0.60.

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

4) Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) - We sold September $5.00 puts on 8/7 for $1.13.

Option Strategies - Put Insurance

5) Clean Energy Fuels Corp (Nasdaq: CLNE) - Taking advantage of low volatility and cheap options, we bought August $7.50 puts for 5 cents.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 8-7 is attached.

Etcetera

Did you know you can invest in Elvis, Muhammed Ali, and American Idol via one company?

CRX Inc.'s (Nasdaq: CKXE) assets include: the rights to the name, image and likeness of Elvis Presley and the operations of Graceland; the rights to the name, image and likeness of Muhammad Ali; and the rights to the IDOLS television brand, including the American Idol series in the United States and local adaptations of the IDOLS television show format which air in over 100 countries worldwide.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Long Stocks

1) We sold Medco Health Solutions Inc (NYSE: MHS) on 7/29 @ $53.28 for a 13.1% gain, after it reported nice earnings this week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

2) American Axle & Manufacturing Hldngs Inc (NYSE: AXL) - We sold a new round of Oct calls for $0.75.

Option Strategies - Put Insurance

3) Taking advantage of low volatility and cheap options, we bought Aug puts for 5 cents for American Oriental Bioengineering Inc (NYSE: AOB).

Options are currently quite cheap because option investors are not forecasting volatility. Cheap options are generally a good thing for option buyers and a bad thing for option sellers. When dealing with cheap options, consider purchasing insurance to protect existing positions or buying some unlimited profit potential. Some investors do not like to hedge with long options because of time decay. This is understandable. The cost of time decay would be reduced if implied volatility climbs higher. A cheap time to hedge/juice a portfolio with options is when the Volatility Index (VIX) is low. It’s like buying health insurance before major health problems arise.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 7-31 is attached.

Etcetera

For past averages to be meaningful, the data being averaged have to be drawn from the same population. If this is not the case - if the data come from populations that are different - the data are said to be nonstationary. When data are nonstationary, projecting past averages typically produces nonsensical results. - Bradford Cornell, The Equity Risk Premium

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) American Axle & Manufacturing Hldngs Inc (NYSE: AXL) - The price of our October covered calls declined to $0.25 on 7/24, so we closed them out. Next week we'll look to either sell a new round of calls or just continue to hold the position.

Long Stocks

2) We sold Dynavax Technologies (Nasdaq: DVAX) on 7/22 @ $1.66 for a 7.8% gain, after it had a nice run-up this week.

Bonds & Fixed Income

3) We added a bit of fixed income into the Fund by buying Pension Obligation Bonds (POBs), issued by the Pennsylvania Authority for Industrial Development, with maturity 4/15/2017 and yield 6.97%.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 7-24 is attached. We enhanced the report by hyperlinking the Employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to the Unemployment page and by adding historical CPI and PPI data to the Inflation page.

Reminder... The registration deadline is Friday, July 31, for the Putt for Parkinson's Fundraiser at the Branchburg Golf Center in Branchburg, NJ. Let me know if you're planning to go or if you're just planning to donate or if you need me to resend the event flyer.

Finally, Investrio was selected by Scottrade to participate in their Customer Research Panel.

Etcetera

Ex-Countrywide Exec's PennyMac Files For An IPO...
(The Investrio Stock Selector Fund will have exposure to PennyMac via our investment in Blackstone, which is one of PennyMac's funding sources.)

Senator Wants Restrictions on High-Speed Trading... Stock exchanges say that a handful of high-frequency traders now account for more than half of all trades...

On the topic of innovation, competitive strategy, and what an accelerating rate of industry changes means for investors, Bill Gates stated "I think the multiples of technology stocks should be quite a bit lower than stocks like Coke and Gilette, because we are subject to complete changes in the rules. I know very well that in the next ten years, if Microsoft is still a leader, we will have to had to weather at least three crises."

Banning Ultra-Leveraged ETFs - In his "Eureka Moment!" segment, Cramer shouted "bravo!" to the brokerage of Edward Jones & Co. for their decision to stop selling ultra-leveraged ETFs to their clients. Cramer, a long time critic of ultra levered ETFs, said he hopes every brokerage takes a stand and follows in Edward Jones' footsteps. Cramer reminded viewers that these ultra-leveraged funds do not do what they advertise and are designed for day traders to bypass margin requirements and beat down stocks with incredible potency. He said that for most retail investors, these funds lose money, and at the heart of the financial crisis, cost the American taxpayers billions, as the government stepped in to bailout firms as their stocks faltered under the assaults from theses funds. Cramer applauded Edward Jones, and again pleaded to regulators and brokers alike, to do the right thing and ban these funds.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) United States Oil Fund LP (NYSE: USO) was above the $33.00 strike price when July options expired this past week. So, we were paid $33.00 for our shares. Our cost was $29.27 ($30.82 share price - $1.55 sales proceeds from selling call), resulting in a +12.8% return.

2) Intel Corp (Nasdaq: INTC) was above the $17.00 strike price when July options expired this past week. So, we were paid $17.00 for our shares. Our cost was $19.29 ($23.29 share price - $0.70 dividends from 5 quarters - $3.30 sales proceeds from selling 4 rounds of calls), resulting in a -11.9% return. We remain long-term bullish on Intel and may rebuild a position if the stock pulls back and gives us an opportunity.

Short Sale Strategies

3) We built a small short position in Fedex (NYSE: FDX) @ $55.71 on 7/6, and bought to cover @ 54.83 on 7/13, resulting in a +1.6% return.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 7-17 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Option Strategies - Covered Calls

1) Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE: GFI) - The price of our July covered calls declined to $0.05 on 7/10, so we closed them out and sold a new round of Aug calls for $0.90.

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 7-10 is attached. We added a new page with Fibonacci Retracements for the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq; the Gold / XAU Ratio; and additional perspective on the unemployment rate and magnitude of the loss of jobs.

This week Investrio reached another significant milestone. Investrio agreed to manage investment funds for its second client.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

What they're selling in California... Millions of dollars worth of IOUs, which the financially strapped state is issuing in lieu of cash as it grapples with a $24 billion budget crisis, are appearing on websites like Craigslist, where opportunists are buying them at a discount so they can turn a profit when the IOUs come due on Oct. 2. Meanwhile, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase agreed to accept the IOUs at face value through July 10. After that, recipients will have to go to check-cashing storefronts or credit unions, which will take them at a fraction of the full price.

Even Pope Benedict XVI is weighing in on global economic reform. In his July 6 encyclical he wrote "Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity."

We conducted an unscientific poll to find out which retailers the average consumer prefers shopping at. The results: 1) Walmart, 2) Kohls, 3) Target, 4) Costco, 5) JC Penney, 6) Dollar Tree, 7) Gap, 8) Sears, 9) Liz Claiborne, 10) BJ's Wholesale Club. These retailers were not selected by any of the poll participants: Bed, Bath, and Beyond; Family Dollar; 99 Cents Only; Ann Taylor; Nordstrom; Saks; Jones NY; Limited; and Tiffany.

Investors & Friends:

Here's a summary of our investment actions from the past week.

Covered Calls

1) Infinera Corp (NASDAQ: INFN) - The price of our July covered calls declined to $0.10 on 7/2, so we closed them out and sold a new round of Jan calls for $1.05

The Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending 7-3 is attached.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

P.S. Don't own too many names. It can be constraining, but it's better to have a few positions you know well and like.