A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board

[SFSecurity]

Hi Toofuzzy, Most excellent description of the process for starting out, except for one point, I have no great emotional attachment to any particular segment or ETF provider so my only criteria is which position is going to have the most transactions over the next 7 to 10 years. I'm 73 and the expected lifespan tables say I likely have about 14 years left, on average. I'm guessing that I might be too gaga by the time I'm 80 or so to do all that much with AIM or the stock market in general. Given this I'm looking for relatively short term stuff, both for my own income and for leaving to my daughter once I can no longer handle this stuff.

My hope is that I can find positions that will continue once it's my daughter responsibility and will give her some income to pay off college debt and/or whatever, a house, who knows. So looking back at the 2000-2013 results does me almost no good. The only part of that is that the ETF/ETNs listed by AAII have two columns, NAV Total Return % - Bull Market and Bear Market so that potentially it can help in finding ones that have the most volatility but have an overall history on the positive side unlike DBC or UNG that are losers in both bull and bear markets. Something like ICF which has a gain of 410% in a bull market and a loss of 68% in a bear market but, since 2011, has had only one losing year, 2013, for a loss of 1.8%. But even that may not be a good choice, hard to tell.

It's true, had I put AIM to work in 2002 when I bought the book I'd be way ahead today, but no use crying over that mistake.

Best,

Allen