This is a rather simple strategy with which I am sure a lot of seasoned traders are very familiar, possibly under some other name with which I am not familiar. I wanted to write about it because I don't see anyone talking about it anymore. Since the big hey-days of day trading and, of course, the burst of the Internet bubble of 2000, there seems to be a lack of patience that this strategy needs to work.

A lot of people seem to be moving back into the markets since the declines of 2000. If you were one of those that jumped back in during the early part of 2004 you reaped big profits. But now there seems to be a fair number of Wall Street Pundits that are beginning to raise the "irrational exuberance" flag once again. If you have been watching some of the unrealistic gains in recent high flyers, you may be looking for a bit more conservative way of being in the market.

In the early 70's I met a young Dean Witter Reynolds broker and told him I had a few dollars I wanted to put into the stock market. The first thing he told me was that unless I had $100,000 I wanted to invest one time into a diversified portfolio with a buy and hold strategy?or?. $10,000 I wanted to invest in a more aggressive "trading" strategy, he was not interested in my account. Keep in mind, this was a long time before the day trading craze hit. I was impressed with his straightforward and honest approach. However, I did not have $100,000 back then, but I did have a bit more then $10,000. With that we were off to the races, and this is the trading plan he put to work for me.

First of all he stayed away form the high flyers altogether. He followed a number of solid, top quality companies that had a history of paying above average di