By Porter Stansberry in the S&A Digest:

I've already written quite a bit about why bond investing is the one skill I'd choose to give any individual investor. I firmly believe it is easier to value and time the bond market than the stock market. Bonds are undeniably less risky than stocks. I think distressed bonds – bonds that no longer carry an investment-grade credit rating – are particularly attractive to individuals because lots of institutions are forbidden from owning them and individual investors are heavily discouraged (by the brokers) from buying them.

As a result, the market for these bonds tends to be illiquid, unloved, and ignored. So it's easy to find values if you know what you're doing and if you're patient. Remember: There's no such thing as a bad bond, there's only a bad price. Almost any credit, if it's cheap enough, is safe to buy.

Take the recent story of General Growth Properties – the big mall owner that went bankrupt in 2009. Investors bought up its bonds for as little as three cents on the dollar. And now, those bonds are trading for more than $1 as it appears bidders for the company's assets will pay enough to cover all of the debts. Admittedly, this kind of investing is not for everyone. It takes a bit of homework and a lot of guts. One good way to learn the basics is to subscribe to our bond-investing letter, True Income. Mike Williams has been investing in bonds longer than I have been alive. He's very thorough. And he's very conservative. (Editor's Note: You can learn more about True Income here.)

The next "advanced" strategy I discussed in detail with you was selling put options...

Now... assuming you are going to buy stocks in addition to buying bonds and selling puts, the question remains which stocks to buy. Lots of folks seem to think this is the main problem for investors – but it's not. You shouldn't get to individual equity selections until after you've figured out allocation and position sizing and until after you've bought bonds and, if appropriate, sold a few puts.

So... again... assuming you're going to buy stocks, which stocks should you buy? We have analysts who cover just about every sector of the market. And we have a few "generalists" – like me, Dan Ferris, Steve Sjuggerud, and Braden Copeland – who cover almost any kind of business. But if I were going to recommend just one of our equity analysts for you to follow, it would be Braden Copeland.

Some of you would probably doubt my sincerity about this endorsement. After all, Dan Ferris must have the best overall track record, in terms of average gain and the percentage of winning recommendations – at least in equities. The kind of deep-value investing Dan practices for us is also the most rigorously proven way to invest successfully in individual stocks. And Dan is truly a world-class analyst – which is why I asked him to pen The Digest with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I absolutely endorse Dan's work. Lots of people – perhaps even most of the S&A Alliance members I meet – tell me Dan is their most trusted source of investment advice.

On the other hand, I know most of you simply aren't going to pay $1,000 for a newsletter – no matter how good it is. I also know value investing seems like a lot of work to some people. There's lots of talk about intrinsic value and free cash flow. Dan does a great job of bringing his stories to life... but I know most individual investors are looking for a bit of action in their stocks. They want interesting stories. They want buying and selling. Value investing is, on the other hand, boring by design. That's why I'd actually recommend new investors focus on insider trading strategies before they graduate to value investing.

Braden finds attractive businesses where the company's insiders are heavily buying shares. Please understand, what he is doing is totally legal. We're simply monitoring the SEC's filings looking for the telltale signs of insider activity. We know insiders sell stocks for many different reasons – sometimes they need the money, sometimes there's a problem with the company. You can't tell. But there's only one reason they buy stocks: They are certain the stock is going up. And they're usually right.

Each week, Braden takes the list of all of the companies with lots of insider buying and goes from there, looking for value. I can say with total sincerity I think Braden is every bit as good of an analyst as Dan Ferris. He looks under every nook and cranny when he takes on his assignment each week. It's inspiring to watch. Whether you decide to buy the stock or not, Braden is going to teach you a ton about business and investing just by explaining – in detail – how each of his recommendations works.

If you're going to buy stocks, why wouldn't you start with companies where the executives themselves are also buying? Not surprisingly, we've had consistent success with this approach, which even produced a winning average return in 2008, when the market fell in half.

If you combine bonds, selling puts, and buying stocks with insider activity together, there's no doubt you can go from a novice investor to a shrewd pro in less than a year. I urge you to try it. And lest you think all of my nudging is merely for the sake of our business, you ought to note Inside Strategist is our cheapest publication on a per-issue basis. We charge $199 for a year, but it's published weekly. That's roughly 50 issues, or a little less than $4 per issue. Coffee costs more than that at Starbucks.

Crux Note: To learn more about Braden Copeland's Inside Strategist, click here.

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