One of the nice things about this business is that you get to meet a lot of great people. One of them is Mr. Albert Gordon of Los Angeles, California.

Albert was 75 years old when he first subscribed to VectorVest in January, 1997. He was a tough, old guy, and bluntly told me that he wasn't going to use VectorVest if it didn't help him make money. The good news is that he made money consistently and continued his subscription for over eight years. Last summer he called and said he would have to discontinue using VectorVest because his eyesight had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer use a computer. Before he quit, however, he wanted to tell us what he was doing.

I knew it was going to be good because Albert was an avid researcher and had written to me many times in the past. This time, however, he wanted to train me in the system he was using to make money. I didn't feel I had the time to do this, so we agreed that he would train one of our best researchers, Keeley Murphy.

Albert's system is basically one of buying Call options on high VST-Vector stocks. He bought Call options because he didn't like to tie up a lot of money in any single stock and neither did he want to lose a lot of money on any single stock. Now Mr. Gordon didn't just mechanically pick any high VST-Vector stocks. He studied their graphs very carefully and favored those with smooth price patterns and accelerating price increases. He didn't just buy any Call options either. He favored the cheapest, in-the-money options he could get on a cost per month basis and always went out at least six months. He said it was like paying rent. He usually had at least ten long positions, never paid any attention to timing the market and said he never lost money in any given month.

Over the years, I found Albert to be an extraordinarily interesting person. He was a lawyer by training and had a keen, analytical mind. Most of all, he understood that VectorVest is a tool and it was up to him to learn how to make money with it. So he did his research and enjoyed it immensely. He often wrote to me about his observations and I wrote essays regarding Albert on two previous occasions, December 19, 1997 and March 16, 2001.

Keeley gave a presentation of Albert's system to the Los Angeles VectorVest User Group last summer and it was very well received. Keeley will give this talk again at the upcoming Options Course on Friday night, March 3rd.

I haven't heard from Albert for a long time now, but I buy Call options on high VST-Vector stocks. I think of this strategy as Albert's Gift to VectorVest.

THE RIMM STRADDLE/STRANGLE SWAP UPDATE.
Please see last Friday's essay. RIMM closed at $72.31 per share today. I bought to close the 10 RIMM February 70 Call contracts at $2.05 per share, losing $615.00, and I bought the 10 RIMM February 70 Put contracts at $0.05 per share, making $1,937.50 for a net gain of $1,322.50. At this point, I can close the 10 March strangles for a loss of $80.00 including commissions for a net gain of $1,242.50.