Dan Plettner Profile Picture

Dan Plettner

Individual Investor

Dan seeks to exploit inefficiencies in Closed-End Funds and other under-followed exchange-traded securities across multiple asset categories. His discipline is exercised within various primary styles:

- Pure Short Opportunistic
- Well-Intentioned Activism
- Core Total Return
- MLP Direct Ownership
- Taxable Income
- Long-Short Opportunistic

Each model is separately licensed to Covestor. Dan's income is also augmented by providing securities research, including “buy-side” research.

Investment style

Dan emphasizes "qualitative research" in seeking to identify potential valuation changes among underfollowed securities. He believes that readily available “quantitative research” used by median market participants is of minimal value for achieving outsized returns in any associated investing style.

Dan sees every set of market opportunities as unique, and his allocation discipline is dynamic. Concentration and diversification have contrasting benefits and detriments. His balance of each adapts to the market environment. Dan is opportunistic at both the micro and macro level; embracing a higher risk profile when he believes suitable. Allocation to a certain security or set of securities is likely to be most significant when Dan has extensive conviction in the utility of his observations and conclusions.

How I got started

Dan first entered the Investment Industry directly out of college in 1997. After achieving “NSD award” as retail Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, he relocated to Morgan Stanley’s International Headquarters in Manhattan where he served as a Closed-End Fund Product Specialist until 2000.

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Investment models

Model commentary

  1. Well-priced stocks will ride out these market swings

    21 February 2012

    The question to ask, I think, is “If I were a ground squirrel just awakened from hibernation, would I like valuations today?”

  2. Stocks will likely crush Treasuries over the next 10 years 10 January 2012
  3. Ignoring conventional wisdom and embracing volatility 7 December 2011
  4. Pain is no excuse to abandon discipline 11 October 2011
  5. Why I shorted Liberty All-Star Growth Fund (ASG) 19 September 2011

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Important info

Performance of the model manager’s account is calculated by Covestor on a daily time-weighted basis, including cash and broker commissions. More

Personal Track Record returns are calculated by Covestor on a daily time-weighted basis of equity positions in the account provided by the member. More

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Month to Date returns & Since Inception returns are revised daily. All other returns (month, 3 month, year to date, et al) are calculated as of the most recent month end date.

The subscription minimum is the minimum subscription required to follow a particular model. The minimum amount is determined by Covestor, based on the characteristics of the underlying model. It should not be considered as specific investment advice for your investment situation.