Imitation Is the Most Lucrative Form of Flattery

Maybe your stock investments are doing well. Or it might be time for a minor portfolio tune-up.

Either way, you're fresh out of new stock ideas, or you just plain don't have time to sift through thousands of stocks. So what do you do?

You don't care for expensive newsletter subscriptions or investment services. And you don't want to lose control and pay high fees to professional managers or mutual funds for mediocre picks. Where can you turn?

I'm all for fast, simple and effective solutions in the Millionaire Zone. How can you get new investment ideas from seasoned investment professionals you agree with, without all the bad stuff?

Easy. Just find out what they invest in.

Now why haven't we thought of that before? Just look at the funds' holdings, and invest as they do, cutting out the middleman.

In fact, we've always been able to find out what stocks or other investments were held by a fund. But until a few years ago, funds were only required to disclose semiannually, usually in a printed schedule, and they didn't have to disclose all holdings.

A 2004 SEC rule amendment, however, required investment companies to file complete portfolio holdings quarterly. So now, especially with the expansion of the Internet and mutual fund portals like Morningstar and Yahoo! Finance mutual fund and ETF pages, it's easier to synch up with the pros.

Of course, you can't synch up exactly, but you can get pretty close. And close is good enough if you take a long-term value approach like I do.

Suppose as a value investor, you have high regard for Oakmark's Bill Nygren and Legg Mason's Bill Miller, two of the most famous and well-known fund managers practicing the value style.

Click here for the video version of this story from Jennifer Openshaw.