Hi Allen, Re: ZigZag and AIM's Hold Zone...........
I see that Toof has already answered your question. As he notes, if you sum all the components of the Hold Zone (Buy and Sell SAFE plus the % Minimum for trading both on the buy and sell side) you get a value that you can use for the ZigZag range.
Another example for a conservative ETF might be Buy SAFE = 10%, Sell SAFE = 0.0%, Min Buy = 6% of holding, Min Sell = 5% of holding. This would be 10 + 0 + 6 + 5 = 21%. That would approximate what you could put in for Zig Zag and see how the ETF would have tracked on a weekly basis for the last three years.
AIM-Hi would use a different total, for instance. It would want 10% Buy + 10% Sell SAFE plus 10% minimums for both buying and selling. That adds up to 40%. So, one would set the Zig Zag to 40% and see how often reversals occur.
While AIM makes money during times of reversals it also can make money during times of price appreciation. In times of no reversals or price appreciation a portfolio can make money from dividend distributions. Picking the best settings for an investment purely on ZigZag will help AIM to do its best. But we can't lose sight of the other two objectives of investing (price appreciation and dividend capture).
