Investors & Friends:

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

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

Last week the political uncertainty over the debt ceiling and credit rating caused volatility and option premiums to spike. We took advantage and sold several put option contracts.

1) Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK/B) - We sold Jan '13 $42.50 puts.

2) United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE: UPS) - We sold Jan '13 $37.50 puts.

3) Medtronic Inc (NYSE: MDT) - We sold Jan '13 $20 puts. Note - We also looked at Stryker (SYK), which is also a wide moat company. We selected Medtronic. It's our view that Medtronic has an opportunity and room to trim its work force and boost productivity, and improve its bottom line and margins.

4) iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (NYSE: IWM) - We sold Jan '13 $35 puts.

Click here for the Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending July 29, 2011.

Click here for upcoming IPOs.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

Steve Forbes' interview with Joel Greenblatt on Forbes.com... the interview centers on Joel’s recent book, The Big Secret for the Small Investor, and Joel’s new concept of “value weighting” a portfolio of stocks. Click here.

Investors & Friends:

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

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. (NYSE: JPM) - We sold Jan '13 $20.00 puts.

Click here for the Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending July 22, 2011.

Click here for upcoming IPOs.

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 Corp. (NYSE: X) - We sold Jan '13 $22.50 puts.

Click here for the Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending July 15, 2011.

Click here for upcoming IPOs.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

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

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) - Our Jan '12 puts reached 80+% of their maximum value, so we closed them out. The date we opened the trade was 1/6/11.

2) Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE) - We sold Jan '13 $20.00 puts.

3) Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) - We sold Dec '11 $9.00 puts.

Click here for the Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending July 8, 2011.

Click here for upcoming IPOs.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Investors & Friends:

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

Option Strategies - Naked Puts

1) Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK/B) - Our Jan '12 puts reached 80+% of their maximum value, so we closed them out. The date we opened the trade was 3/1/11.

Long Stocks

2) We sold iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSE: TLT) on 6/30 @ $93.60 for a negligible 0.3% gain. We sold TLT to eliminate our exposure to the impact of the Fed's quantitative easing (QE2) program coming to an end.

Return calculation = ($93.60 sale price - $93.30 cost basis) / $93.30 cost basis x 100% = 0.3%.

The date we opened the trade was 4/26/11.

Click here for the Investrio Stock Selector Fund Bull and Bear Market Indicators Report for the week ending July 1, 2011.

Click here for upcoming IPOs.

Lead Fund Manager
Investrio

Etcetera

If real interest rates remain negative, "that will continue to be a green light for money to go into gold."
-- John Hathaway, Managing Director of Tocqueville Asset Management