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The only other thing that you'd notice is a cancel button when exiting and being asked if you want to save a backup of your database (so if you click on exit and change your mind, you can cancel and not have to leave the program).
Thank you! That was on my wishlist!
Hi, Mark,
My updating went fine. Whew! I note some authors have a readme.txt which often gives the version history, particularly noting what the various upgrades and 'bug fixes' are with each iteration. Other than the resolution of the Yahoo .stocks issue, what else was added in?
Curious,
AIMster
Suppose AIM said to sell US$6543.21 (~9.89 shares). Would You sell 9 shares or 10
Of course you'd have to have the 10 shares at least to make it an option to consider in the first place, otherwise 9 will do. <grin>. Seriously, I suppose it depends on what the stock is doing and whether or not you think the uptrend that's suggested the sale is going to continue for some time or not. If you think it will, then I'd go for the 9 shares to have one more to sell at greater profit later. On the other hand, if it's a momentary spike, relatively speaking, you'll boost the cash reserve by going the extra distance now.
One alternative, if you use FOLIOfn as Jersey Al and maybe a couple of other of us on here do, you can sell the actual dollar amount's worth and the actual 9.89 shares. Lichello didn't think that fractional shares will impact things too much in the long run, but some places will at least offer you the option as a consideration, if you want to follow AIM recommendations right to the penny.
Me, I've more of a fetish for multiples of 5 shares to keep things even so I'll trade in 5, 10, 15 share lots or more, depending. Easier to figure on and gets around the pesky point that FOLIOfn takes things out to 5 decimal places and the ancient software I still use only carries 4. Nothing like that stray .00001 part of a share leftover!
Best,
AIMster
Well I did some digging around and found Jeff's book! The 1998 version and it's scary the possibility of "deja vu all over again" - he notes that there were some concerns over medical stocks due to the health care reforms proposed by the Clinton Presidency! I think that kinda deja vu we can do without, or at least that's my opinion, for the $.02 that it's worth!
What amazed me is just how much has changed in a decade. We were still in the thrall of the '90's bull, the transition to online investing wasn't quite as complete as it is now, waiting for statements... He even mentions the now venerable and several times reabsorbed Pacific Brokerage, I remember them, we'd dial-up on the modems, executing trades quickly, as there was a per-minute meter running too! They went through incarnations as Dreyfus, Brown & Co., now they've ended up as part of E*Trade for those who want the history lesson. A couple of years after Jeff's book in '98, FOLIOfn got started, an online brokerage that some of us use that combines the best of Merril Lynch's Blueprint program with the speed and ease of being online.
So thanks for the nostalgia trip and glad to see you here. We'll keep the pun-level down, well, the general humor level is always there - if we can't laugh at the foibles of life we're not living!
Enough ranting!
AIMster
I don't know if Jeff likes puns, but if he does, we can call him PAIN Weber.....................
Well, it IS good to see him here as I think I've got his book around here someplace - I think Amazon had it as a package deal with Lichello's.
But we'll find out if he's hot stuff, allright, if we don't get too much into GRILLing Mr. Weber! Of course his take on AIM may be in a different Kettle altogether! With good attention our investments should be smokin'!!!
Welcome indeed!
Best,
AIMster
Shameless indeed, Grabber! You wanted to grab that grub REAL Bad!!!
50 to the next grub in case anyone's counting.
Huh?
Ah! For the newer members to this circle of compatriots of investing, being devotees of AIMism in all of the various and sundry flavors, allow me to introduce the Grub.
At every 1,000th message, whomever posts to that, in effect putting their little grub-by paws on it is entitled to a reward from our boardmeister, Tom Veale. Or such has been the practice and I hope will be for a long duration to come.
It confers various levels of further initiation into AIMism. In particular, you will then be a proud recipient of the Secret Decoder Ring. These are forged like the tools of old in Moria and cut through the investing noise and hoopla with the efficency of a master samurai blade. Ponder this and you will be able to make your AIM clear and true amongst the befuddled masses. One may obtain multiple SDR's in order to more fully take the message to heart. It is the mantra that guides our path and frees us from the worry and anxious nights.
That they only appear in the brief time of every 1,000th posting means they are a prize worth capturing, for it is indeed of unknown time interval until the next one will appear, for the most fleeting of time.
So, pay attention, mind the message numbers, and with luck we will be able to add you to the list of the few, the proud, the individualist investor. Your enlightenment will be profound, as it will repeat the message you see quite often!
Of these secrets I shall say little else, why spoil the fun, after all. I bid you all good luck!!
Best,
AIMster
50 to the next grub in case anyone's counting.... <grin>
I think ES will need to get the "look and feel" of Newport from screenshots found on prior postings. Say what you will of Windows programs, but there was a functional simplicity to DOS programs that in a way seemed to confer a greater efficiency. Not that the current Windows programs are bad, they're not, it's that they are attuned to the Windows environment. There seems to be some nostalgic rememberance for the DOS program, even though the program has been unavailable for some time now.
I think folk would be happy to take it as-is were it to be transmogrified into freeware, even in application form only, should the author wish to retain the source code. Maybe one of these days - certainly there haven't been any developments on it for a long time.
Best,
AIMster
What's EZM? I'm not familiar with that version?
EZM is a development of Don Carlson's. Uses a laddering method to control trader, I think. Not sure if he's made it generally available to board users or whether he's keeping it for his own use/research/whatever...
Best,
AIMster
ETF? Is that a kind of mutual fund?
Yes. It stands for Exchange Traded Fund. Originally the province of index funds, ETF's have expanded in all sorts of directions. Like any mutual fund, these will hold a range of individual securities according to some formula. For instance the S&P 500 fund is market-cap weighted, meaning that the larger companies are held in a larger portion than smaller cap companies.
They can be traded like regular stocks, unlike traditional mutual funds that are priced once, at the end of the day. Traditionally they're not recommended for people saving periodically as there will be in most cases a commission charge for each buy or sell. There are ways around that, though. The other part is that most of them, not all, are passively managed, meaning that they only seek to replicate the performance of a given corresponding index, rather than use any computational and/or human intervention to "beat" the market. Thus their fees are often fractional compared to other alternatives.
They've expanded, as I mentioned, with Powershares being on the vanguard of some of the more "creative" ETF's. iShares http://www.ishares.com is one of the big players and you can learn a lot on their site.
Best,
AIMster
I'd like to get the software to I can verify my backtesting without huge Excel sheets. (Know what mean?)
Yes,
Whether with the down-to-the-nitty-gritty with Excel, or with the few simple clicks of the mouse and darn-near instant gratification, one must always remember that you're looking at the road already traveled, not the road to come. Back-testing can be a useful tool, but it is not the Holy Grail. Tom recently mentioned one stock where it was doing a fairly rhythmic cycling - then largely flatlined for a long time. And it's a very easy thing to want to 'adjust' the parameters to tune them to give you the most favorable result. But it means nothing. A million might-have-beens can never answer one what will be.
In my opinion, the best one can do is to take backtesting results with one of those big grains of salt - the kind you can sit on an LED platform and watch it change colors - the different colors representing the different tunings to the backtest run. Some will glow bright green as you've matched the parameters to the history in the most optimal way, whilst others will glow crimson red, showing you what not to do!
If you follow a practice of diversification, then follow the signals at the appropriate times, rebalancing now and again, you'll reduce the worry factor and the market itself will carry you to the destination. Lichello presciently observed that the markets will go up, go down or hang around a given range. AIM gives you the tool to adjust to any road condition up ahead, and all of them to come.
Best,
AIMster
ts better to tame a wild horse then to tame a lazy donkey!!!
Right???
<OT>
Absolutely!! Then the worst you can be accused of is horsing around. Othewise thay might want you to switch from being a lazy ass to a wise ass! And that might not be as easy as it looks!!! <grin>
Best,
AIMster
Hi, Karen,
Thanks for the advice on gout - I've sent your posting on to my dad who's had some issues with it - may work some wonders.
As for newport, no, it's not available. AI (Automatic Investor) and PCA are seemingly the most widely used, though there are others out there as well. AI, allows backtesting and a lot of control over the AIM parameters.
Best,
AIMster
i am typeing with one hand holding ice on my knee with the other. i went for some bloodwork to see if i have gout after having my knee drained and getting a cortizone shot. the novacaine hurt the most.
Hi, Toof!
Ouch!!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
You'll probably hear this from the Dr. too:
Tips:
Maintain adequate fluid intake.
Keep your weight under control. Obesity has been linked to gout.
Dietary changes can help prevent gout attacks. Avoid a purine-rich diet. Reduce alcohol consumption.
Medications can help control pain and inflammation of a gout attack and help prevent future attacks by eliminating excess uric acid or affecting the production of excess uric acid.
Be compliant with the treatment plan your doctor recommends.
What You Need:
Diet low in purines.
Medication to control pain.
Medication to control inflammation.
Medication to control level of uric acid.
Good luck - and let us all know how you're doing! Isn't getting older just wonderful!!!
Best,
AIMster
Managing risk by employing a zero risk hedge (cash reserve) or by using close stop loss orders depends on one's objectives and philosophy. The AIM Portfolio on a loose Periodic Schedule is, if nothing else, a very simple method.
There seem to be as many strategies for investing as there are investors. One fellow who seems to be a "cousin" of ours by method, I give him credit for being "family" by virtue of his incorporating some of Mr. Lichello's AIM into his own planning. The particular take he's using is constant value investing. For $12 you can get the book on Amazon, his blog which gives teasers here and there which might be of some use is here:
http://simple-trading-system.blogspot.com/2006/07/constant-value-investing.html
I've already steered him in this direction, but as the blog entries go back to 2006 - not sure how often he visits the old stomping grounds. Anyway - might pick up a few more ideas...
Best,
AIMster
Hi SL, I don't think any of us believe the weather man this time. It wasn't a "big" storm in that it didn't cover a large footprint, just intense snow where it passed.
<OT>
For what it's worth you're not alone. There was a story out of one of the Syracuse stations a few weeks back about a sudden lake-effect storm in Pulaksi, NY, [pronounced pulas-sky (as in the atmosphere sky), rather than the seeminjgly more appropriate snow sport of pulas-ski] on the Eastern edge of Lake Ontario. See:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pulaski,+NY,+United+States+of+America&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title
You may have to zoom out. Anyway, the story went that they were getting snow at the rate of four inches an hour and could barely keep up with keeping the roads clear. Might not have been on the high plains, but they had some real drifters by the time that one came and went!
Better them than me!
Best,
AIMster
News from the FUTURE!!!
It's Friday afternoon 21 March as I write this. I've found a link to a new up-and-coming bond fund etf that's dated 24 March! Now if I can just get the stock market opening and closing values from Monday today.... or even the winning lotto numbers, whatever..... not that easy... durnit!''
Still, the ETF may have some use:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-23934796.htm
That's the first sale I've had in these shares since mid 2005. Over that time there have been seven unanswered buys.
Hi, Tom,
Indeed! Good things come to those who wait!!
Best,
AIMster
Sunday night I went in to the city with a friend and stayed over monday. Monday morning I visited the Museum of Natural History
Hi. TF,
What? No food in Chinatown??? <grin> A place of downright pilgrimage for me at least, every time I go down... Here in Ithaca, though, we've finally gotten a Chinese restaurant that can do the steamed pork buns as well as any I ever had on Mott St., and roast duck isn't quite the rare offering it once was. But Chinatown, geeze you soak up much more of the atmosphere, Buddhist, Taoist temples, (Yes, I know the NYSE is the "Dow"ist temple of the West) and with all the competition, you can feed an army for almost nothing. If I can figure out sometime how to get the shiitake mushrooms back up here on the bus, I could resell them and make a fortune! And that's not what's in the cookie, either!
As far as your museum visit goes, if you've Netflix you should rent Night at the Museum. A light, comedic look at that very museum!
Glad you had a good trip. Last year when we went down, on the same SI Ferry, as we passed Ellis Island I pointed it out to my wife, "there, on that very island was an ancestor of mine, poor kid, in quarantine for several months, his name was Vito Andolini. She looked at me kinda funny-like, as in real life I don't have any Italian ancestry, and I could see the wheels in her head going that the name was ringing a little bell back there someplace. It was when I also mentioned with a faux mafia/Brooklyn accent about "my cousin Vinnie, from Bayonne over there" that she realized I was being a real wise guy and that Vito Andolini was the birth name of Vito Corleone OOOOOoooh such a smack I got, a real whack upside the head! But I almost burst a gut I was laughing so hard! Like one of those MasterCard moments, "priceless!"
Glad you had a good trip! And that all the Bull of it was our lil' Wall st mascot! BTW if you continued down Broadway past the bull, you would have passed 9 Broadway. Throw yourself back in time to 15 April 1912 and you'd have found a crowd out there, panicked and scared. You see, there were the offices of the White Star Line, and everybody was trying to get any news at all about the RMS Titanic. Never mind being within walking distance of Fraunces Tavern, which I believe still has a lock of George Washington's hair and goes back to that era. All the history under your feet going back to New Amsterdam, even!
Best,
AIMster
P.S. You can take me out of the city, but you can't take the city out of me! I still dream of subways now and then, even after being up here over 20 years! The place makes an impression on you no doubt. Nevermind when we went back to out old apartment building in Queens in 2003 - our names were still on the directory of residents - 14 years later! They've never updated them! So I told my wife, as we stepped back outside in front of the building, "if we stand here long enough, we'll see our younger selves coming out, just like the Twilight Zone!!! Of course, our younger selves would say, "You two are the future??? AAAAAAAhhhh!!!"
You and AIMster have saved from looking really foolish (and I don't mean The Motley Fool kind).
Hi, WB,
When TMF got started I used to really think that they were offering something. Now just about any article you read is little more than a commercial lead-in to subscribe to one or more of their newsletters. I think they've become waaaay too motley and I'm not fool enough to subscribe.
Best,
AIMster
I read this article this morning and almost slapped myself upside the head for not realizing earlier a great complement to an account might very well be an inverse ETF.
Hi, WB,
If you read back through this board of messages sometime, you'll find that this topic comes up every now and then when someone quite innocently enough thinks it to be the best idea since sliced bread. [and i was one of those eager "bakers" too!] What we've concluded is that whilst such a relationship between two opposite holdings may work in a short term time-frame, in the larger-term AIM context of time, not so much, due mainly to the long-term bias of up movement in the market. Sorry about that. it's a good idea for a moment or two...
Best,
AIMster
It would be interesting to check, but my guess is that about 90% of my portfolios were individual company stocks in 2000 where far far less than that is now individual holdings. My IRA has been either traditional mutual funds or ETFs since 1990...
It must not have panned out too well, or I've long since lost the memory of how to find it, but there's a memory of some mutual fund dating back to the '80's that was going to be some sort of "super-duper" fund by investing based on some sort of asset-allocation process into the whole range of things, from precious metals to largecap, smallcap, domestic, foreign, bonds, etc., and then rebalance every so often. Total Return or Totally Balanced fund, some name like that if I try for the very back neurons...
Anyway, the idea here is that since they've done all the diversification for you, well, in theory, anyhow, that all one would have to do would have an extremely simple AIM account of that one fund and corresponding cash reserve. Probably too simple to work out, or the fees ate it alive, or whatever...
Anyone else remember this or know of one like it?
Thanks,
AIMster
Re: Sector groupings
These are the kinds of things one thinks about when you're in bear territory as I am at the moment.
For me, the 2000-2002 meltdown spawned LD-AIM, so I wonder what this time will bring?
Okay, you give me material like this... <grin>
Well, Spring is almost upon us and we've the hint of something sprouting from one of our newest board people, EvilSeed, so indeed, who knows?! On the other hand, in the classic sense, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (borough of my birth), so, like the lotto slogan, "hey, you never know!"
Happy soon to be Spring!!!
AIMster
More ponderings...
The movie Little Buddha dramatizes the story of the reincarnation of a Tibetian Lama. Along the way it gives the story of Siddhartha, who became the Buddha. The interesting part of his journey, and what led to the core of his teachings was that on his quest he took to extremes at first, opulence versus austerity, indulgence versus denial. Whilst meditating he happened to listen to a teacher going by on a boat, with a student with a sitar. If the string is too tight it may break, if the string is too loose, it won't play the right note. But it's when it's not too taut, or too loose it's the middle way that works best.
Which takes us in a roundabout way to my ponderings on AIM. We can visualize a similar tension between Lichello's idea of AIMing the whole portfolio versus individual stocks. The whole portfolio might well be too loose, as it grows in size and possible number of holdings the internal cancellation effect of those moving up versus down will slow the rate of change. One can easily imagine spending a long time in the hold zone, at least in a more settled market than we've got now! On the other end, AIMing individual holdings, without any rebalancing adjustments will eventually have the most volatile become the largest holdings - maybe having too tight an influence, so to speak.
So, what is the "middle way" here? Grouping holdings together to create virtual mini-portfolios, perhaps. These should be more active than the portfolio as a whole, but less so than individual stocks. My point of consideration at this point is grouping logic, i.e, what's the most logical combination? I've got two planes of organization - type and geography. For types I've got equity only, income only and equity/income blend. For geography domestic, foreign and global. Does anyone have a sense that favoring one logical grouping would make any great difference versus the other? Real estate and commodities are two other groupings, though outside the scope of the others mentioned above. Just wanted to mention them as they are a part of the overall portfolio. I'm sort of leaning toward geographic organizaion, but who knows, maybe it's six of one, half dozen of the other any way you go.
Pondering, pondering...
AIMster
(With regards to the Spider Analogy...I'm I the only one creeped out here? No matter.)
No, WB, you're not the only one. As bots and botnets have a dubious reputation, the thoughts of us being responsible for launching all sorts of things out onto the 'net - hopefully only for benign purposes, well, the analogy does give one pause.
We'll stay tuned for further developments.
AIMster
Congratulations, ES, on a more unusual moniker, one that causes the person to think, in the words of G'kar, Babylon 5, "No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair .. and not me." Again, congratulations on an unusual entrance!
That being said, and due welcome offered, what's this software you're thinking about? Open source? Java based to run in a browser or platform-specific, aka Windows app? Most such will need some sort of database behind them in order to accumulate changes and history, AI, for example is written around an Access database core. SQL seems to have various flavors so that might be another way to go.
Keep us in the loop.
Best,
AIMster
What's it all about, Alfie?
Since Tom recently mentioned the perennial candidate Alfred E. Neuman, though a good many people think that ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's sidekick Walter ought to be President, see: http://www.jeffdunham.com/walter.php I'd like to offer up my own commentary I've posted on my Obama blog page:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/plg6/gGB8hZ
Enjoy - and support the candidate of your choice!
Best,
AIMster
clms as an Aim stock?
I haven't done so, but the chart looks promising if they can weather whatever's pushed them down of late.
Thanks for the suggestion to check it out!
Best,
AIMster
**A loophole I use - under Automatic Investor I count the savings as dividends rather than as new cash. This allows me to increase the cash reserve without changing the internal functioning of the AIM program. When AIM needs to make a buy, there's just more cash reserve available than there would be if I totally used the closed-loop process.
How ironic: I would consider dividends as new cash.
It's more of how Automatic investor works. According to the book, when you add "new cash," you're supposed to split the difference according to whatever you have set up as the initial cash/security ratio. In other words, if I'm running classic AIM I'd put 50% into the cash reserve and the other 50% I'd buy more stock. Or 20/80 if using AIM-HI. But since, as I indicated in the previous post, that this might not be the best time to take on more stock, it can be counterproductive to do so, especially if you're saving each and every month or even weekly.
Dividends, under AI go directly to the cash reserve, without forcing a portion to be invested at that time, rather it will just hold it as cash until AIM says, "yep, time to buy again." Perhaps the terminology was a bit unclear. What I'm doing is keeping the regular week-to-week savings out of the AIM process until AIM wants to do another buy.
One could use a TERM or TWINvest to start future AIM programs with, yes, that's the idea. Once the AIM program is going, it will pretty much take care of itself after that. One could then start another TWIN or Termvest going and spawn another AIM program in year 3 and so on.
That works if you're doing each security holding by itself. Won't work so well if you're AIMing the whole portfolio.
Best,
AIMster
why would One want to use TWINVEST when One could make AIM 'deposits'? My copy of the AIM book describes how to handle funds added to/subtracted from an AIM account.
As Toofuzzy and Tom have already mentioned, it's an optimized delaying tactic to build up both the twin components of an invested posititon and a cash reserve. Fine and fair enough.
What should be noted, though is that in traditional AIM, the function of the system works as a closed-loop system. Lichello allows for the addition or subtraction of money as required, of course, but primarily done on a very infrequent basis, so as not to disturb the functioning of the algorithm.
Synchrovest and TWINVEST (and DCA, for that matter) are for people who are saving each month and wish to make continuous periodic investments. Synchro and TWIN optimize the how much do I allocate per interval question between cash and stock, with an eye to favor buying more at lower prices and less at higher.
But, say you're running an AIM program and you're also saving $200/month. If the price of the particular stock is falling, you're better off because you're doing what AIM would be doing anyway, though likely in much smaller "bites" and with greater frequency, greater tax lots being generated too. So the bottom line in this case is AIM will go along with you, though not really amused at having to share the driver's seat, so to speak.
On the other hand, if the price of the stock is rising toward where AIM is starting to think, "yeah, maybe we can keep the greedy, greedy," here you are acting greedy yourself by increasing your position! So instead of waiting for AIM's sell signal, you're forcing AIM to carry more load, at greater-and-greater cost, rather than optimizing toward an average lower cost per share!
So that's why Lichello doesn't want you to tamper with the AIM program too much - if you're going to be saving, play it closer to one of the vest programs instead.**
**A loophole I use - under Automatic Investor I count the savings as dividends rather than as new cash. This allows me to increase the cash reserve without changing the internal functioning of the AIM program. When AIM needs to make a buy, there's just more cash reserve available than there would be if I totally used the closed-loop process.
Best,
AIMster
We have passed our 10th day above 35C, a new record after the 9 day record that was set back in the 1930's was broken.
Big fire danger day as the humidity drops to single digits and the north wind picks up.
It's going to be tough walking back from work on Friday in 41C temperatures and blowing wind, have to be careful.
WOW! Hot stuff indeed!! Whilst your walking, then, DO carry a water bottle with you. That wind will wick the persperation off, but you'll need to stay hydrated!
Nothing personal, but I hope the weather you're having now isn't a sneak preview for us later in the year!
Best,
AIMster
Does anyone recall how Robert Lichello came up with the term 'twinvest'?
One of life's mysteries, I think. I do know he used all caps for it TWINVEST. Such is often the case with an acronym, such as AIM for Automatic Investment Management. He'd previously used the term "Synchrovest," so obviously needed some sort of new name. The VEST part refers to investing, that's easy enough. TWIN may have come from it being a near "twin" to Synchrovest, but it's only a guess. I skimmed the chapter and, unless I missed it, he gives us the name for the technique - but not the why of the name.
Maybe someone else will have a better insight...
Best,
AIMster
Let me have a go at that chart - pretty amazing!
Or as Yogi would put it, "Deja vu all over again!"
Best,
AIMster
The good old days... Gone forever....
And good riddance!
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Old-Days-They-Were-Terrible/dp/0394709411/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205152157&sr=8-2
Be careful what you wish for!
The gory details:
The book is divided into eleven categories of topics: Air (animal and garbage miasmas, heat, windblown dirt, industrial pollution), Traffic (horsecars, the El, street hazards, snow, electric trolleys), Housing (crowded townhouses and apartments, tenant abuse, squatters, slums, slum children), Rural Life (kitchen toil, polluted wells, summer bugs, winter cold, bums, overworked farm children, burdensome mortgages, cruel Mother Nature, loneliness, rural flight), Work (dismal working conditions, on-the-job accidents, sweatshops, child labor, abysmal standards of living, strikes, dehumanizing technology), Crime (muggings, juvenile delinquents, corrupt police, prostitution, crooked politicos, unfair application of the laws, punishment, lynchings), Food and Drink (spoiled meat, adulterated dairy products, poor eating habits, unhealthy diets, saloons, alcohol abuse), Health (urban epidemics, inadequate disinfection, quack doctors, septic surgery, crowded hospitals, cruel insane asylums, drug addiction), Education (untrained teachers, corporal punishment, unruly students, under-funded schools, dismal classrooms, uninspired teaching methods), Travel (steerage, emigrant trains, indigestible railroad food, filthy Pullmans, commuting, harbor accidents), and Leisure (gambling, indiscriminate hunting, brutal spectator sports, dangerous city parks, filthy beaches).
Bettmann has absolutely nothing nice to say about anything. Even something so seemingly innocuous as butter takes a hit:
"... it was often rancid, and either a mixture of casein and water or of calcium, gypsum, gelatin fat and mashed potatoes ...Bleaches were blended into the mix to give the product the appearance of real butter."
Best,
AIMster
Hi Aimster, What's with the 23% yield on RAS. How do you get such a high yield without robbing banks or eating up the assets?
Well, yield is a function of the dividend against the price, so in the case of RAS, when the price has gone from a high of $32+ to $4+, the same dividend amount looks so much better as a percentage yield!
The price has started to do some nice AIM moves, though if it will make it back up to $32 anytime soon, I dunno.
Best,
AIMster
Remember that the S&P 500 Index is a moving target.
The "committee" can change their emphasis on sectors and restructure the Index to their current views. That means they could deemphasize Financials and add weight to a sector they like better to make the "index" look better.
This is where equal-weight funds like RSP keep a committee from monkey business.
Yesterday's rather nasty end brought in some desperate sellers eager to rid themselves of shares of NRI. We were willing to accumulate about 13% more at a price of $13.56.
Congrats on the vote of confidence in it. As of almost 11 this morning it's now down to $13.40, and I'm currently showing (ugh) a 40% loss. Not quite my time to make another stab at it. Besides with the impending merger with NRO - I'm wondering how the heck I'm supposed to cost the new shares to reflect the horrid decline I've got now? Just value the new at the original value of the old? Hmmmmm..
Best,
AIMster
Having said that, this is much like my strategy except that I tend to invest in CEFs and ETFs that own dividend growing stocks.
Hi, AH,
I do pretty much the same thing now. What ETF/CEF's are you into right now? I'd like to see how much DO great minds think alike!
Best,
AIMster
As I prepare my steps to re-enter the world of Wall Street and Paternoster Square, does anyone know of a reason to not purchase a Value Line Subscription?
Um, because you can save the money and check it for free at your public or college library?
Or, since AIM is fairly long term how often will you be planning on screening for new stocks to warrant a subscription?
Further, there are some pretty good on-line screeners for free?
Just some thoughts,
AIMster
Don't know if anyone here besides me uses Quicken to download transactions from Ameritrade or Ameritrade/Izone. I have had a problem with them for some type with duplicate dividends being reported.
I've noticed that on FOLIOfn lately too. Last night I noticed two sequential, though not identical amount dividends attributed to EAD.
Curiouser and curiouser...
Best,
AIMster