A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board (AIMUSERS)

[OldAIMGuy]

I posted my weekly risk report on LinkedIn this AM for those who would like to read it:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7312482304973537280/
Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Small-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Mid-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Large-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values – summary

S&P 500 : 57.4% – A proxy for large- and mega-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 92.0

S&P 400 : 62.3% – A proxy for mid-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 83.2

Russell 2000 : 43.5% – A proxy for small-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 66.5

The tables in the following posts summarize the 60 weeks in which the AIM-CASH values were at or nearest to these levels, looking back over historical data from 1947 to 2024 (for the S&P 500), from 1981 to 2024 (for the S&P 400), or from 1987 to 2024 (for the Russell 2000).

(Links to Clive’s original AIM-CASH message and spreadsheet and a description of what I’ve modified are in post # 47330.)


With kind regards,
MakeItJake

[OldAIMGuy]

Hi JD, Re: v-Wave and MRI risk outlook.......................................

That dip a couple of weeks ago in the 18 Month vW seems to have been a bit too optimistic at the time. Now the two time frames are showing an upward crossover.


SignalPoint's MRI has shown similar trend in risk to the v-Wave, but has been a bit slower to respond.


I guess we have to await tomorrow's close to know how March Stock Madness turns out. Right now only my International "Style" ETF portfolio is "up" for the month. I note that only my "sandbox" 10 stock portfolio did any buying in March as of last Friday. My other ETF portfolios all treaded water in rough seas.

Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[JDerb]

v-WAVE 3.0*

Suggested Starting Cash Value For New AIM Accounts/Positions

Individual Stocks
High Risk: At or above 51%
Neutral: Between 37 and 50%
Low Risk: At or below 36%

Diversified Funds
High Risk: At or above 34%
Neutral: Between 25 and 33%
Low Risk: At or below 24%
_________________________
Week of April 4th
_________________________

Short Term (18 Months)

Individual Stocks: 47% (Up 2 from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds or Portfolio: 32% (Up 2 from previous week)
__________________________

Long Term (3-5 Years)

Individual Stocks: 46% (Unchanged from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds
or Portfolio: 31% (Unchanged from previous week)

Oscillator: -2.41 (Up .19 from previous week)


*See posts #44585 and #44588

[JoeForkeyBolo]

Interesting. I think you or someone has mentioned that strategy before.

If you have used this strategy, could you provide some specifics on an investment and the transactions and results you achieved?

I don't like the idea of selling 100% of the security at or near rock bottom as it is counter-intuitive to AIM's goal, but willing to learn from real-world cases. Am I understanding you purchased LEAPs already in the money? So the price must go higher in order to profit from these?

[Toofuzzy]

Another strategy is when you run out of cash, sell 100% of the security and buy call leaps at a strike 50% of the price at the time.

That will free up almost 50% of the cash in that position to continue to.buy lower.

When the security recovers you can sell way out of the money calls 6 months out.

Not always
Toofuzzy

[Toofuzzy]

I have been using AIM on URTY ( 3x russel.2000) and had a buy last month and will have another this coming month.

Toofuzzy

[JoeForkeyBolo]

Thanks, Tom. I visited that site before but it wasn't intuitive for me, so I generated my own data and chart to help deal with the high drawdown ETFs I'm testing. It's always a balancing act between avoiding running out of cash and hitting the sweet spot of running out at or near the bottom of the drawdown, so you are set for maximum gains when the price recovers.

Since you appear to understand the site better than I do, I hope you are successful putting the data into a visual image. A picture is worth a thousand words, or a thousand data points. I tried working with just my data initially, but the chart is so much better than the data alone. 😎

[OldAIMGuy]

Hi JFB, Re: Cash burn rate for standard AIM.............................

This table shows draw down in a different way. It was done as an example of what happens to an investment as price/share drops.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120610011525id_/http://www.aim-users.com/cashburn.htm
Nobody turned the data into a graph, however. Maybe I'll take a stab at it later today.
Thanks and Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[JoeForkeyBolo]

I believe it would help understand my chart better if I explained the current ETF I'm backtesting, because I found myself inadvertently changing my strategy during a drawdown, which is incorrect.

The ETF I'm testing is WANT - DIrexion Daily Consumer Discretionary Bull 3x Shares. It is highly volatile and has a maximum maximum drawdown of 83.3%, which makes it one of the deepest diversI've tested. I found that adding a horizontal line at this level on the chart helps the understanding.

In my testing I had a string of consecutive sells that pushed cash position to about 72%. Although this is slightly off the chart, you can see it would intersect the No Buy SAFE Adjustment curve. Remember, the goal is to be ON the curve or BELOW/RIGHT of the curve. When the first buy order is indicated, the position on the curve at that point determines the drawdown strategy for as long as buying continues. In this example, no Buy SAFE adjustments should allow you to ride the curve all the way down if the maximum drawdown is encountered.

As cash is depleted with repeated buy orders, the strategy remains the same from the initial buy in this series. When cash drops to 59% (where the 5% curve crosses the max drawdown line), or drops to 50% (where the max drawdown line crosses the 10% curve), we DO NOT shift strategy to those adjustments, but maintain the initial strategy selected all the way down until the price reverses and sell orders are starting to execute.

Basically, the strategy is determined on the first buy and continued for as long as the series of buys continues. A single sell doesn't alter the strategy and may just be a hiccup in the decline. However, when it is clear the price is recovering and consecutive sells are observed, the next buy would begin a new strategy at that point based on current cash position.

The Rule is: Select the appropriate curve and ride it all the way down while the drawdown continues. In the unlikely event cash is depleted, implement the Black Swan rule until share price recovers.

Let me know if you have any questions. I will probably generate some additional data to expand the range of the chart a bit.

[JoeForkeyBolo]

By the way, this drawdown strategy chart is specific for 10% Buy SAFE, 10% Sell SAFE, and 10% Minimum Transaction Size. The curves will be different when using other parameters, but this is what I'm using for backtesting.

[JoeForkeyBolo]

Since I'm focused on leveraged ETFs for AIM investing, and they often experience significant drawdowns and can run out of cash, I created a tool to help me in selecting the right Buy SAFE adjustment strategy for each specific ETF in my backtesting. I did this by using my manual AIM spreadsheet, setting a share price starting at $100 and incrementing down in $0.50 intervals all the way to $1. Then I selected varying starting equity positions to provide ranged of starting cash from 30% to 70% and entering the buy orders as the spreadsheet indicated, to see the maximum drawdown for three strategies: No change to Buy SAFE, 5% increases and 10% increases in Buy SAFE after each purchase (to reset after first sell). I plotted the data obtained and created the chart below. Tom was the one who suggested the 5% adjustments to Buy SAFE, but in some cases with deep divers I still ran out of cash, so I added a 10% adjustment strategy as well.

Using the historical maximum drawdown value provided for an ETF by PortfolioVisualizer.com, I use the chart to help determine best strategy to prevent running out of cash if maximum drawdown is encountered.

For TECL, a 3x-leveraged ETF in Technology sector, the maximum reported historical drawdown is 75.1%. The goal on the chart is to be on or below the line for a specific Buy SAFE adjustment strategy. The % Starting Cash can be the initial cash position, or the cash position at any point when the first buy order is indicated following a series of sell orders.

In this example, if I was starting the investment with 50% cash, I would likely use the 10% strategy to start. However, if selling pushed my cash position to 54% I would switch to the 5% strategy. If cash was further increased to 66% I would select the No Adjustment strategy. Depending on cash position, the selected strategy would be effective in buying all the way down with maximum historical drawdown without running out of cash. This will also help to maximize returns during drawdowns by not selecting a strategy that is overkill and can limit the number of shares purchased during the drawdown, and therefore limit gains on the recovery.

I've been backtesting my selected ETFs and kind of "winging it" on the strategy based solely on the maximum historical drawdown. But with this chart I can adjust that strategy based on two factors instead of one, which should improve overall results.

However, I realize the best strategy is to transfer in temporary cash to fund purchases when cash is depleted. My earlier testing with SOXL (another deep diver) indicated fantastic overall returns using temporary cash injections and removing the added cash when share price recovers, compared to the other strategies, including Black Swan rule. If I had the option to inject additional cash, that's what I would do in reality. But it's helpful to have developed these strategies in case additional cash isn't an option.

[OldAIMGuy]

Hi JD, Re: v-Wave ST vs LT Crossovers...............................

Once again the cross over of the shorter term and longer term v-Wave lines has temporarily shown a near term inflection in the Indexes.



I guess this doesn't mean there couldn't be some further downside, but at least the sell-off sems to be slowing.

The SignalPoint MRI has been a bit slower to acknowledge the sell off as being finished. But, it's still descending.



If nothing else, it's nice to have some of the market risk sublimate.

Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Small-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Mid-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Large-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values – summary

S&P 500 : 57.6% – A proxy for large- and mega-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 92.1

S&P 400 : 62.5% – A proxy for mid-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 84.4

Russell 2000 : 43.7% – A proxy for small-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 67.4

The tables in the following posts summarize the 60 weeks in which the AIM-CASH values were at or nearest to these levels, looking back over historical data from 1947 to 2024 (for the S&P 500), from 1981 to 2024 (for the S&P 400), or from 1987 to 2024 (for the Russell 2000).

(Links to Clive’s original AIM-CASH message and spreadsheet and a description of what I’ve modified are in post # 47330.)



With kind regards,
MakeItJake

[JDerb]

v-WAVE 3.0*

Suggested Starting Cash Value For New AIM Accounts/Positions

Individual Stocks
High Risk: At or above 51%
Neutral: Between 37 and 50%
Low Risk: At or below 36%

Diversified Funds
High Risk: At or above 34%
Neutral: Between 25 and 33%
Low Risk: At or below 24%
_________________________
Week of March 28th
_________________________

Short Term (18 Months)

Individual Stocks: 45% (Up 5 from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds or Portfolio: 30% (Up 3 from previous week)
__________________________

Long Term (3-5 Years)

Individual Stocks: 46% (Unchanged from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds
or Portfolio: 31% (Unchanged from previous week)

Oscillator: -2.60 (Up .21 from previous week)


*See posts #44585 and #44588

[OldAIMGuy]

Re: Why the MRI Risk is Falling................................

Looking at the Speculation component of the MRI will give you some insight as to why the MRI risk is declining.



This is the Spec. Index's first journey into Proactive territory since 11/24/2023. It shows just how far speculation risk has dropped since last year's presidential election. Most of the recent drop has happened just in the last few weeks. This is Week 2 of proactive Speculation. Note that this can be breeding grounds for bouncy cats.

Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[OldAIMGuy]

Re: SignalPoint Market Risk Indicator ...............................................

A similar story is shown in the MRI histogram. It is also showing 31% current cash recommendation, down 2 points from last week.


The "dead cat bounce" in 2022 isn't as well defined here with the MRI, mid year. However, there was a brief "Caution" signal at the end of that year. Should we expect one this time around? Note we're still a bit of distance above the Proactive level with both the MRI and the v-Wave measures. It's as though the Markets are offering us Hors d'oeuvre to get our appetites ready for the Main Course. From what I've been reading, some investors went straight for the dessert table. Mr. Lichello's proportional purchasing aspect of AIM will suit us well, however.

Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[OldAIMGuy]

Hi Jon, Re: v-Wave histogram...........................

Since we're getting back toward reasonable v-Wave values, I thought looking back at 2022 might be instructive for those who feel the need to hurry their stock/fund purchases. Sometimes the pendulum stalls for a while before successfully reversing its direction.


Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[Investor Will]

Diarrhea of the keyboard - I like that.

Thank you for the update. I like the idea of using the 52 week range to determine the starting point for your backtests.

[JoeForkeyBolo]

I've completed a few more. I've had computer issues over the last few days, and just got the issue resolved this morning, so I'm behind on testing. I'm rethinking the 10-year testing as it simply takes too long and I'm not sure what additional benefits it provides. Many of the leveraged ETFs had lackluster volatility in the first few years of testing, and there weren't many trades, which hurts overall performance for the period.

The main reason I switched to 10-year periods in the first place was to obtain performance during more downturns in the market, to evaluate maximum drawdown, but I found the website www.portfoliovisualizer.com that determines the historical maximum drawdown for me, and I've already tested various drawdown strategies for several ranges of drawdown, and now can evaluate each fund separately and employ the drawdown strategy more appropriate for that specific ETF.

I've suspected this for a while after testing prices from many years ago, but it seems to me those managing leveraged ETFs have gotten a lot better over the last 5 years at achieving the target daily returns (and resulting volatility), by whatever means they employ, than in the earlier years. In many cases the earlier years ETF prices were in the low single digits, which might also have been a contributor. In any case, going forward I'm generally going to doing 5-year testing only, and may re-report the previously completed results for only the 5-year period.

Here's the updated table with some new additions. I want to have all testing completed by end of March so I can update everything and possibly just update once per quarter afterwards. Some ETFs may drop off in the future, since some are duplicates of the same index, only with different investment firms. My goal is not to randomly test leveraged ETFs, but to test those I am considering for my own use. But, as you can see from the only global ETF on the list, the performance isn't exactly what I'm looking for from a leveraged ETF. Perhaps the more recent 5-year test will yield better volatility and better results than in earlier years.

Also, since I already have the 10-year data on all of these, I think I'm going to approach each new 5-year test by looking at the previous 52-week data to evaluate where the starting share price is in relation to the 52-week range, and use this to adjust the initial 50/50 split a bit to match where the current share price is in that range. For example, if I was about to invest in SOXL, I can see the current price is very low in the 52-week range, so I'm likely not going to start with a 50/50 split, but perhaps 60/40 or 70/30, since less cash would be needed for the drawdown that's already occurred.

Sorry for another long post. I type very fast and words go on the screen about as fast as I'm thinking them. Diarrhea of the keyboard is what one of my friends call it. LOL

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Small-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Mid-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Large-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values – summary

S&P 500 : 57.9% – A proxy for large- and mega-cap stocks. Percent rank : 92.6

S&P 400 : 62.9% – A proxy for mid-cap stocks. Percent rank : 87.3

Russell 2000 : 44.2% – A proxy for small-cap stocks. Percent rank : 69.9

These are all increases from the previous week.

The tables in the following posts summarize the 60 weeks in which the AIM-CASH values were at or nearest to these levels, looking back over historical data from 1947 to 2024 (for the S&P 500), from 1981 to 2024 (for the S&P 400), or from 1987 to 2024 (for the Russell 2000).

(Links to Clive’s original AIM-CASH message and spreadsheet and a description of what I’ve modified are in post # 47330.)



With kind regards,
MakeItJake

[Investor Will]

Any updates on this table Joe?

[JDerb]

v-WAVE 3.0*

Suggested Starting Cash Value For New AIM Accounts/Positions

Individual Stocks
High Risk: At or above 51%
Neutral: Between 37 and 50%
Low Risk: At or below 36%

Diversified Funds
High Risk: At or above 34%
Neutral: Between 25 and 33%
Low Risk: At or below 24%
_________________________
Week of March 21st
_________________________

Short Term (18 Months)

Individual Stocks: 40% (Down 15 from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds or Portfolio: 27% (Down 10 from previous week)
__________________________

Long Term (3-5 Years)

Individual Stocks: 46% (Unchanged from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds
or Portfolio: 31% (Unchanged from previous week)

Oscillator: -2.81 (Up .22 from previous week)


*See posts #44585 and #44588

[Make It Jake]

The apple's impact
(Remember?) felt wonderful!
(By comparison)

[OldAIMGuy]

Newton had bubbles
Gravity was the Lesson
I thought this was New!



😎
OAG Tom

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Small-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Mid-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values -- Large-cap











With kind regards,
-- MakeItJake

[Make It Jake]

Current AIM-CASH weekly values – summary

S&P 500 : 56.9% – A proxy for large- and mega-cap stocks
This is an increase from last week’s value. Percent rank : 91.3

S&P 400 : 62.1% – A proxy for mid-cap stocks
This is an increase from last week’s value. Percent rank : 82.0

Russell 2000 : 41.5% – A proxy for small-cap stocks
This is a decrease from last week’s value. Percent rank : 57.6

The tables in the following posts summarize the 60 weeks in which the AIM-CASH values were at or nearest to these levels, looking back over historical data from 1947 to 2024 (for the S&P 500), from 1981 to 2024 (for the S&P 400), or from 1987 to 2024 (for the Russell 2000).

(Links to Clive’s original AIM-CASH message and spreadsheet and a description of what I’ve modified are in post # 47330.)



With kind regards,
MakeItJake

[JoeForkeyBolo]

Update on my leveraged ETF testing using the preemptive AIM model. I'm about halfway with testing the funds I want to test. Amazing results. Lichello was a genius.

One thing I noticed today in completing the Technology ETFs is how rapidly the share price turned. Within a few weeks there were multiple alternating buys and sells captured by the preemptive model that would likely have been missed with manually updating AIM. It's not often I've seen this behavior but it was present in these ETFs.

These results are current as of end of February 2025. I expect to have all testing completed by end of this month and updated for end of March share prices. I am now testing everything for 10 years if the fund has been around that long. I watched a YouTube video on leveraged ETFs that directed me to a site called Portfolio Visualizer that provides excellent analysis of volatility and maximum drawdown on each of these ETFs, and I'm using this to classify the drawdown strategy needed for each fund to prevent running out of cash too early in major declines. Working well so far. This is quite a lot of work, but I'm enjoying it and learning a lot about how I want to use preemptive AIM with a number of these ETFs.

This chart is easier to view if you click on the chart to open the full size image.

[OldAIMGuy]

For many investors that were 100% or more invested (with Margin) the last couple of weeks may have been somewhat painful. AIM has once again proved to be better using its 20/20 Hindsight rather than a 50/50 Guess about the future. The v-Wave did I nice job of suggesting caution as well. It's nice to see some of the market risk evaporate as the markets consolidate.


SignalPoint's MRI also shows a turning tide of market risk. Even if these two indicators aren't used directly, they certainly do a nice job of confirming what AIM does automatically.


v-Wave down one to 31% suggested cash; MRI down one to 34% suggested cash.......

Best wishes,
OAG Tom

[JDerb]

v-WAVE 3.0*

Suggested Starting Cash Value For New AIM Accounts/Positions

Individual Stocks
High Risk: At or above 51%
Neutral: Between 37 and 50%
Low Risk: At or below 36%

Diversified Funds
High Risk: At or above 34%
Neutral: Between 25 and 33%
Low Risk: At or below 24%
_________________________
Week of March 14th
_________________________

Short Term (18 Months)

Individual Stocks: 55% (Unchanged from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds or Portfolio: 37% (Unchanged 3 from previous week)
__________________________

Long Term (3-5 Years)

Individual Stocks: 46% (Down 2 from previous week)

Diversified Mutual Funds
or Portfolio: 31% (Down 1 from previous week)

Oscillator: -3.03 (Down 1.15 from previous week)


*See posts #44585 and #44588

[Adam]

Re Selling options with AIM. Yes I do that at times and I've done it with stocks and ETFs but it works best with stocks and only with certain stocks. The stock has to be volatile enough to have a high enough premium and the strike price has to be such that AIM gives a sell/buy of 100 shares or more.

Generally I like a short time to expiration of 10-35 days to give me some time premium and yet not lock up my AIM program for too long. Ideally I want my yearly yield over 30% and ratio of premium/stock price of 1% or more.
A website I use is www.optionsellerroi.com to help with choosing the option to sell.

Adam

[Toofuzzy]

Hi make it jake

Re : laddering call options

The best example is WPM which is 25% of my assets due to AIMing over the years.

In January before it ran up some more I sold yearly options out to next January.

I sold (2) June $65 calls, (2) Jan $70 calls , and (16) Jan $75 calls

I left 200 shares with no options sold against them and have sold them in the last two months.

Presently my next sell price is $70.97 ( but will have to wait till next January or I buy more shares ) and my next buy is $52.46

In retrospect it would have been better if I waited but at the time ( third week in January) WPM was just under $60 and the P/E seemed high and still does.

I took in $3.00 on the June $65 calls so if called will be like selling at $68 which was above the $59 next sell price at the time.

I waited to sell the 200 unencumbered shares at $68 and $70

PS: some of the shares that I " OWN " are actually $20 and $25 call leaps that I sold $75 calls against. ( Poor mans covered calls ). This is a way stretching your cash account especially at a market bottom.

Toofuzzy

[Make It Jake]

Hi Toofuzzy - Can you say a bit more about your second point? I want to be sure I'm understanding it.

Kind regards,
MakeItJake

[karw]

Hi All,
Late last year I also started to reorganize all my holdings, and concentrate only on my core-ETFs (world and world Hidiv).
All individual stocks and ETFs were sold. No bond ETFs here because of tax reasons, only Equity ETFs left and cash.
My last sell was on Monday this week. No buys yet.
The selling up to the top was simple, but not easy. The urge to buy was there, but I followed the Lichello model in a precise manner.
In the end all the cash helped me to build a new house and one of the advantages of AIMIng is the cash position: no mortgage needed.
Now thinking about how to build up a new set of holdings when the buy signals arrive.
Kind Regards,K

[Toofuzzy]

With the turmoil in the market I decided to review all my holdings for AIM directed trades.

I sold WPM and because of option selling will have to wait till next January to sell more. Most options have a $75 strike.

I decided to close out trading on EFA. AIM has hardly generated trades over the years and it seems like a good time to raise cash.

I also sold some HASI

I bought some URTY, and SCCO both of which pulled back recently.

Toofuzzy

[Toofuzzy]

Re: options with AIM

I use options three different ways.

1) I sell options equal to the amount I would sell.

If I own 1000 shares I might sell one option at the next trade price ( put or call ). Ideally the option premium takes me to the second trade price.

2) I sometimes ladder my options at consecutive trade prices leaving enough uncovered for a few sales

3) at the bottom of the market when I am running out of cash if a $60 stock dropped to $30, I may sell my stock ( even if at a loss ) and buy $15 call leaps freeing up cash to continue to buy lower. I pretend I am still holding stock shares.

Jeff Webber on the other hand trades the actual option prices. Unfortunately I find his book almost unintelligible.

Toofuzzy

[Toofuzzy]

Hi Tom

Looks like I had another precious metal sale ( wpm ) this month also. ( More in another post )

This will have to be my last sale till the end of January as I laddered calls against my shares at $65, $70, $75 in January just before the recent runup. Most were a $75 strike.

Toofuzzy

[OldAIMGuy]

Note: Of the 10 business sector ETFs in my U.S. Domestic ETF portfolio, only one is priced currently above its 26 Week Moving Average! All the rest are at or below that mark. While not quite time to buy, we're watching and waiting to see the whites of the Seller's eyes!

Best wishes,
OAG

[OldAIMGuy]

Two months into 2025 and the markets seem a bit confused so far. Here's the various portfolios I maintain:

U.S. Sector ETF Composite Portfolio of 10 business sectors

(18% current cash reserve)

10 Company Stock Composite Portfolio

(22% current cash reserve)

Tom's Simple IRA, Now managed with AIM

(23% current cash in reserve)

9 International "Style" type ETFs covering Growth and Value in Small, Mid and Large Caps

(27% current cash reserve)

These portfolios were basically flat for February. The first two days of March haven't been very friendly with the exception of the components of the International Style ETFs. They've been holding up better. There's not much action as of yet, but there's cash available should we see a healthy decline. In the meantime, I'm keeping some powder dry.

Best wishes,
OAG Tom