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ello everyone. Fairly new to board and still getting my arms around Aim.
Welcome!
Toofuzzy's given you a good reply to start with. I want to add the suggestion that you go to Yahoo finance, for example, pick a stock or fund you might be interested in, then download the historical prices. Those will come in a .csv file, most recent to oldest. Reverse the sort, then do a spreadsheet that will let you work through the AIM calculations. You can start with Lichello's 13 column layout and work from there. By working through a few of these you'll get a better sense of how AIM works, rather than just looking at the seemingly endless tables in the book. At the end of your data, you can then compare how buy-and-hold would have compared to AIM.
The thing to understand about AIM (with or without any "enhancements") is that is serves as a volatility capture mechanism. What this means in plain English is that you sell into a price rise, then have the cash to buy more later should the price fall. Of course, starting with some cash reserve initially is usually prudent in case the stock or fund starts to fall initially, rather than rising in price.
To give an example, Hecla Mining (HL) renders a chart:
You'll note the red line following the prices, each marking a 30% retrace, which is the "default" AIM value. This is the sort of pattern that AIM likes, though I wouldn't bet the farm on this one particular stock, just found one with a good pattern for illustrative purposes.
Anyway, hope this adds to your understanding of AIM - DO feel free to ask more questions, we're a very helpful bunch around here!!
Best,
AIMster
In the dumb simple thought department.
What if on a 10% rise or drop you sold or bought enough to bring the equity value back to where you started? As it goes up you sell less shares(in each step) for the same amount of money. On the way down you buy more and more shares with the same amount of money.
Hi Toof,
What you're describing is essentially a constant value type of system, of which Praveen Puri has been mentioned as a proponent thereof. It does have an overall simplicity.
The interesting thing here is finding the optimal parameter for greatest return. Last Friday, for example, I used AI to look at the EMF fund over 5 years, using Lichello's original 50/50 parameters versus B&H. I then wrote a spreadsheet that would perform a constant value rebalance whenever the current value of the stock was +/- so many dollars from the initial investment. I was attempting to compare AIM, B&H and constant value. Using $4,000 to start ($2k in stock, $2k in cash reserve), in strict $ terms B&H ended up with the largest portfolio amount, with AIM giving a better percentage return when looking at ROCAR. Where the real performance tuning got exciting was in varying the $ amount to trigger the rebalance back to the constant value. This parameter really impacted the overall results at the end of the 5 years. Various incrementation rates yielded more or less at the end of the test, quite significantly, I might add. $1,000 turned the net value to around $6,000 - a 50% increase in 5 years. However, $1,250 was the "sweet spot" for this particular data, with a final portfolio value of $7981! Almost doubling the money. The problem, of course is that there's no way to know in advance that $1,250 would be the sweet spot and give you almost twice the return, even though you're following the same procedure!
I suppose that's true of AIM and most any other system, really. There is some rebalancing period/amount that over time will produce the most optimum results. The issue is that we can't know what it is beforehand. So we glean a percentage, and must be content with that. A glass half-full, after all, is still more than one totally empty!
Best,
AIMster
Let AIM do the buying, it is smarter than us :)
Hope this is clear?
Yes, thanks to you and Toofuzzy. There are times I might be almost as fuzzy as he is! :)
Thanks!
AIMster
...there are numerous opinions on the performance of Buffett stocks but nobody has tried them. Just opinions of hearsay.
This being the case for several reasons:
1) Mr. Buffet is Mr. Buffet. There are few who can match his performance, have the amounts of leverage and experience at their disposal to mirror his success. To expect that the "Average Joe" can duplicate the efficiencies of a singular genius is on the order of suggesting that said "Average Joe" can, with a few lessons, or even some mechanical training system, give a cello performance on the order of Yo-Yo Ma. Not impossible, but not likely either.
2) Mr. Buffet has, to my knowledge, at least, (which may be part of his mythology rather than actual fact), never fully disclosed the entirety of his "system." Oh sure, he's given hints, bits and pieces here and there, from Berkshire Hathaway annual reports and the like, that various people have tried to interpret to make into various books and/or systems. I think Aptus of our board has come closest with his Value Stock Selector, though again, even he is only operating with the knowledge he's gleaned from Graham, Buffet, and so forth.
3) In light of both of the above, he has way more money than you or I are ever likely to see and thus can afford measures of investment with economies of scale far out of our reach.
Which is not to say that Mr. Buffet's ideas are worthless or shouldn't be considered for how one wants to invest their money. If you find his ideas and arguments persuasive, by all means incorporate them into your ideas and systems.
The rest of us, based on our collective experience, seem, for now at least, to become more generally biased towards investing in funds, rather than individual companies. It is rare that a fund goes to $0.00, though not impossible, SRO being a recent example. We may be trading some reward for less risk and certainly funds are likely to be less volatile than individual stocks, diminishing AIM's stock volatility capture efficiency somewhat. But if we sleep better at night...
It is a question of finding the right balance for yourself. What works for you may not for me and so on. But certainly sharing our varied ideas and opinions contributes to the benefit of the whole group. We all borrow and learn from each other, both our successes and our occasional "Strewies" - examples of when we've best shot ourselves in the foot! :)
So keep the ideas coming - even if for some of us the Buffet we're more likely to be tuned into is Jimmy, as we're "wasting away again in margaritaville," despite ourselves, or to spite ourselves, who knows?
Best,
AIMster
So maybe wise to trade a virtual portfolio and buy on AIM signals. In that manner you can create a nice income stream. I do this all the time for funds, only buying on AIM signals and building up my machines in that way.
Hi Karw,
So for income funds you don't sell at an AIM directed sell point, only buy more on AIM buys? I can see the wisdom of that if the goal is to increase the total number of shares that you hold which will similarly increase the dividends you receive. But is the sacrifice in not taking the capital gain from the occasional sell going to be made up for in future dividends is my question. Since the yield falls as the price rises anyway aren't you better served by working both sides of it, the volatility capture and the dividend play?
Curious,
AIMster
A possible source of prescreened investments is Geraldine Weiss IQTRENDS stock list. They use a value approach on the stocks such as dividend trends to predict future stock values. Has anyone ever aimed their selections?
Since it appears that one must subscribe before one can find out what's on their list, um, probably not. On the other hand, if you have access to the list, we could probably do a couple of back tests via AI to see how they would have done. Of course, the proper way to do so would be getting their list from 1 year ago, if you want to compare AIM vs B&H for that period.
Best,
AIMster
I'm gradually shifting away from individual stocks. Not completely but in the main. Also I've sold off my mutual funds that underperfored the underlying index. The trend is towards low expense ETFs, building a diversified portfolio, and using AIM on each one to boost gains.
Similar to what the "efficient frontier" types such as Larry Swedroe counsel, basically B&H the sorts of things you're recommending, low cost ETF's. Adding AIM is the extra "secret ingredient" that will likely reduce risk and hopefully provide some extra return. But with fewer trades than with stocks, most likely. More likely just letting the market do the work for you. Which is a form of simplification. Of which, no doubt, Mr. Lichello would approve.
Best,
AIMster
Did a very quick trip around the doghouse last night and ran the current "Puppies of the Dow," i.e., the 5 worst of the litter of the ten. These are the ones with the highest yield and lowest price. Backtested them for a year on AI (assuming they were still the picks of the litter back then) and found that most had one or two trades over the course of the period. Some had a buy-and-sell, most had a sell. Parameters were Lichello's original 50/50. So for the past year, at least, results weren't all that different from B&H. As we all know past results are no predictor of future returns. I believe all ended with positive return, though I'd have to make more detailed notes to confirm that 100%.
A good site for these stocks overall as well as general Dogs theory and so forth is the aptly named site:
http://www.dogsofthedow.com
Doesn't seem like too much barking up a wrong tree!
Best,
AIMster
Lets use the DOGS OF THE DOW as an example.
That sounds like a doggone good idea! Large, widely followed stocks.
Do you just AIM them each for a year? And then create a new portfolio the next year?
I would only rotate out those that would not be in the doghouse for the next year. In other words, if 7 out of 10 are still in the doghouse, keep those in the AIM program but switch out the other three with the new picks of the litter.
Do you not trade ANY of the stock for the year, treat the whole portfolio as one AIM account, and just AIM the account against cash ONCE / YEAR Or would forgetting AIM and just using the mechanical strategy be just as good, better, or close?
Well, if the main function of AIM is volatility capture, certainly reducing the AIM check-up frequency to annual or less is not a way to run the program with any measure of efficiency. Those sleeping dogs will mainly stay asleep in that case. As to AIM vs the B&H for a year, good question. I remember doing a test a few years back that netted a 24.something% return following the B&H, but following the DOGS after they chomped on Thanksgiving turkey, rather than got tipsy at New Years. so using the concept, but at a point off-cycle to the traditional calendar year program will avoid much of the herd movement as I'd suspect most people will use the calendar model.
So the predictable answer with AIM vs B&H with the dogs is "it depends." Certainly B&H will likely have slightly less costs depending on the frequency of AIM checkups and resultant actions. On the other hand AIM may well improve your ROCAR if selling over the year takes some of the risk off the table. The opposite is also true if you have to add more cash from the reserve.
On balance, it does seem to still remain a viable strategy which AIM may be able to enhance. Despite the occasional blow up of former bellwether stocks like GM.
Woof, woof!
Best,
AIMster
With beginning AIMers the argument that one does not have enough time to search for the best performers tends to result in careless equity selection and at best results in running neck on neck with the index . . .or only marginally better with a bit of volatility capture.
And for those of us not so much of the "beginning" variety, but who've also gleaned some experience from the school of deep divers, we've found that getting the best of the index, with some volatility capture by using the ETF for the index works well enough, and leads to fewer sleepless nights than holding individual stocks.
Best,
AIMster
Currently running a $100,000+ AIM program on A.I.3.0 that needs a good kick in the pants.
Hi, AIMFAN,
Welcome. Don't worry about being "wordy" we've seen good lengthy posts before.
As for your current situation, congratulations. Nice problem to have!! :)
Without knowing what's actually IN your AIM program (a single stock, broad ETF's like SPY or whatever) it's hard to offer any advice. Are you AIMing a portfolio together as Lichello first recommended, or each component individually? If the former method, you may get some volatility improvement by switching to the latter method, eliminating the cancelling-out effects that having multiple holdings in a single portfolio will do. On the other hand, doing so will, over time, favor the more volatile holdings to trade more often in AIM, which will likely change the makeup of the portfolio as a whole, so you might need to throw in some re-balancing now and then if you want to keep various components within some reasonable percentage alignments.
The other news is that there is no Holy Grail. At least not for everyone. We all have different amounts to work with, various time horizons, temperaments for risk, and so on. This latest talk of AIMing currencies, for example, may be fine for some people, but would keep others of us up at night.
As TooFuzzy already posted, AIM is to gradually get rich with by reducing risk and acting in a contrarian fashion to the market as a whole. It gives us the discipline to "buy low, and sell high," rather than blindly following the herd.
Give us some more information and you'll probably get a plethora of suggestions.
Best,
AIMster
Again, I think diversification is key even in currency AIMing. Owning and AIMing as many of the major currencies as possible would be best.
And a place to do that easily accessible to US residents, at least would be Everbank in St. Louis.
A list of their currency choices is here:
https://www.everbank.com/personal/foreign-currencies.aspx
Best,
AIMster
But if you have two underline investments that move in opposite directions, such as the fixed yield long dated bonds versus stocks ???
Point taken, though you'll note that I did preface my remark, "Lichello insisted on for AIM is to have half of what's being used in a given program have a constant value." I believe the particular instance in the book was a Q&A when someone was suggesting substituting diamonds for the cash side. Since such funds and ETF's as we have nowadays did not exist when Lichello was developing AIM, he may be more amenable to your suggestion now, were he still here to consider it. Though I sort of think he'd still prefer cash from your brokerage sweep account as you wouldn't have to pay a commission on that as you would if selling TLT, for example. He did champion simplicity as a fundamental value.
Best,
AIMster
Thanks for everyone's responses!
You're welcome!
One other point I wanted to mention is that Lichello insisted on for AIM is to have half of what's being used in a given program have a constant value. In other words, the stock component can be variable, but for the cash side he wanted, well, cash. So, if you're trying to AIM two variable value items against each other, if they both decline, as has happened with my experimentation in the 3x funds variety then you don't have the ready cash to feed into the "machine" when AIM asks for more. Or not without selling at a loss - which kinda goes against the overall idea of investing to make money!
Best,
AIMster
Hi Sam,
In a "watch folio" I've been using "play money" to work with all 20 of the inverse pairs of 3x leveraged ETF's. Whilst not exactly using AIM on these, I can say after several months of working with them that the idea doesn't work because the ETF's don't track the results in the long term. Using periodic rebalancing to keep each at a near constant value, the dollar amount seems to stay fairly constant and the loss overall seems to hover at around 36% overall.
Believe me when I say this idea looks quite good in theory, but in the practical application doesn't hold water, so to speak. I'm just rather glad it's only play money in my testing! Search through the board & you'll find that this gets talked about now and then, but the results are the same - no free lunch!
Good to have your posting though and do feel free to keep asking questions or make suggestions.
Best,
AIMster
There is a new version of PI coming out in January 2011.
Um, you still didn't answer the other question, "who's the babe?" Mrs. Aptus? :)
It seems that it might be possible to run AI directly on W7.
Oh, probably. But since it runs fine with all the other XP-era (or older) software that came along for the ride to the virtual machine, why change it? On the other hand, if Mark gets one of those "round tuits" and programs a bunch of features that take advantage of the hyper-threading available on the i7 processor, oh to say, speed up the optimization analysis, for example, then it might well be worth moving it outside the box from the guest to the host environment.
Until then, it works fine, as should even older software like Newport.
Best,
AIMster
If Newport works, I'll post a note. The guy who sold me the machine told me it probably won't run older 32 bit software, so I'm not optimistic.
Tom,
The VMware has a free utility that will take a "snapshot" of your running old computer XP system, make an image file of it, then you can create the old machine, software and all into the virtual machine on the new W7 box. You'll have to re-activate it with Microsoft, but aside from that, you'll have the old xp box working just fine as it was on the original box. Plus you can soup it up if you wish. Under the vmware virtual version I gave my xp box two processors and 3GB of RAM. So it now runs much snappier than it did then when on the original box! Of course, do note that a good sized external hard drive will be useful to swap the system image between the two machines. So, in this case, Newport will still think it's running on the same XP box and be quite happy. That's how I'm running Automatic Investor. Works like a charm.
Best,
AIMster
<OT>
7 isn't any better either. I want
to run all my old software too.
Well, depending on how much RAM you have in the HP box, I've found VMware's Virtual Player to be an excellent way to have your XP and Windows 7 too. Switch to "unify" mode and the two O/S's lose the wall of separation between them to a large degree, becoming, well, one "unified" PC running both at the same time. One can frost the cake, and eat it too, once in a while. But you have to decide what works best for you. With the 9GB RAM in my machine, putting in a 32 bit O/S didn't make any sense and I know the 64 bit in Win 7 is better for 64 bit support and implementation than what it would have been under XP's version. It is nice to be on the current edge, having often been a generation or two back, as the older stuff was so much cheaper! So far I'm quite content with Win 7.
I find it interesting that we discover something simple like the Permanent Portfolio and then we try to tweek it into something much more complex over time. We have done this with AIM and other systems also.
Interesting observation, Toof,
I suppose it's a human failing that refuses to accept simplicity. We're coached into this belief I think by the financial media which markets, to use Larry Swedroe's term so much "investment pornography," promising all sorts of things, especially if you use such-and-such a complex system. Add to this the focus on a tendency to want to produce greater and greater returns in the shortest possible time, so the idea of patience in allowing one's investments to mature in their own fashion flies in the face of such expectation.
Even Lichello himself was not immune, calling himself "a tinkerer" when working with AIM. Indeed he revised the core system from the first edition through the fourth. In similar fashion, I suppose is the fundamental part of curiosity that posits, well, we've got this interesting system here, but can we make it better? The hardest idea to put into actual practice may be, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Thanks for the insight!
Best,
AIMster
It stands for "Ultimate Buy and Hold Strategy" and is the brainchild of Paul Merriman.
Just out of curiosity, how do you think Mr. Merriman's UBaHS compares to Harry Browne's permanent portfolio? I too noticed the lack of a precious metals exposure. Indeed, one could almost call his article, such that it is, a glorified infomercial for subscribing to Dimensional Fund Advisers services. I think it would make more sense for them to simply run a regular mutual fund, similar to the Permanent Portfolio Fund, if that's what they really think is the best solution for the most people, rather than creating some sort of "elite" status whereby one has to go through an intermediary first. Just my 2 cents worth.
Best,
AIMster
<OT>
I'm still using XP
I am sorry for you that you are still using such an ancient Windows computer program
I had been running XP on an old IBM Netvista computer which I got for around $600 in 2003. It came with 256MB of memory and I later added a 1GB DIMM so I was running 1.2GB. By 2010, however, it was starting to feel s l o w. Time for an upgrade! Went back online and found a HP with 9GB of memory, the latest Intel i7 chip which, with the hyperthreading on four cores makes it look like there are 8 computers in there. Cost of this one, around $600!!! Came with Vista home premium which promptly "died" on me so I ended up going to Windows 7 Professional.
I also found an interesting freeware (for personal use with registration) called the VMware player. With a VMware tool, I was able to take an image snapshot of my old XP computer system while it was running and transplant it to the new computer as a virtual XP system. I've also added a Linux distro so I can have XP, Windows 7 and Linux all running together on the same machine at the same time. With memory to spare. BTW the box will support 24GB total. So for ancient software that may be "happier" in XP than anything later, this solution works well. At a remarkably efficient cost too. Oh yes, the "transplanted" XP system got an upgrade from one core to two and from 1.2GB of memory to 2GB of memory so all the old stuff has even more resources than before. Now that's progress! <grin>.
A-mazing what's out there these days. My vendor of choice for these used systems has been ubid.com.
Best,
AIMster
Interestingly ALD which no longer seems to exist was part of this class. Anyone know what happened to ALD ?
Didn't find anything under ALD, but did find Allied Capital under the symbol AFC - which is now defunct itself as they merged with another firm, see:
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2010/03/22/daily75.html
The business of consolidation!
Best,
AIMster
From the "for what it's worth" Department:
I went to tucows and tried out the Darvas software mentioned recently. Couldn't get it to work, most likely due to the way Yahoo formats their data now compared to whenever the program was written.
Further the "help" function directs one to http://www.stressfreetrading.com where one Mark Crisp is promoting his e-book with alleged testimonials with a mention of "momentum" trading. Not being too curious to get more spam, I decided to look up Mr. Crisp on Amazon.com to see if the one on his website (or any other titles he might have) are bona fide and what the reviews of same would be. I found one reference here:
http://www.amazon.com/Stock-Trading-Momentum-System-Crisp/dp/1449913490/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281556717&sr=8-5 - go down to the reviews and judge for yourself. I think I'll stick with Mr. Lichello and not get "extra Crispy."
A more useful site without all the "sales pitch" might be found here: http://www.boxcharts.com/index.html
AIMster
DHY
I've got that one and it's gradually returning to where it was in 2007. Mostly still underwater, but there is hope for some progress. Still kicks in some dividend each month so the wait hasn't been 100% painful. They go up, and they go down...
Best,
AIMster
Has anyone tried this before and did it improve performance?
I haven't tried it but on the face of it the idea seems a sound one. As Lichello noted about not hitting a price exactly that AIM will take it into consideration and make adjustments accordingly.
Best,
AIMster
In today's environment
you might as well remove the interest column on pages 64 thru
71. 6% is assumed in the example. Is the book still in print?
Yes, 6% would be nice.
The book is still in print as the 4th edition and has even gone electronic with a version for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.
Best,
AIMster
No! It's people!
Oh I KNEW that, but it was Clive's idea for some "seaweed" type future plant growth that was the impetus for my posting. I believe in the movie they passed it off as some similar future "crop."
That being said, part of a comment I wrote off today's column in the NY Times by Timothy Egan ties in:
Actually, the best way to reduce GW [global warming] as well as our overall ecological impact on the planet is to reduce the number of humans to a sustainable level, rather than the unlimited growth in numbers that we're currently experiencing. Unlimited cell growth in the human body is called cancer and left unchecked will consume all the resources of the host. Are we any different on the body of the planet? Mind you I'm not calling for any mass eradication of the human population now living, just greater emphasis on and use of birth control so that as the current generations leave, there will be fewer, rather than more humans left behind to tend to the planet. But the only way this transformation is going to happen is to have people start to think on a planetary, rather than individual, family, locale, state, nation level as we do now. For all the "apocalyptic" predictions for 2012, what we really need is a paradigm shift. Even from those who are in denial.
Best,
AIMster
OT
Makes you wonder what type of food crops we'll be growing/consuming in years to come. Probably seaweed of some kind as the last time the ice caps were liquid back in the Jurassic
Soylent Green, anybody?
I don't see vWave for 7/9 - just 7/2 and 7/16 - does anyone have it?
I haven't seen it either, but the simple way to get an approximation would be to take the 7/2 and 7/16 values and average them together. I don't think things were too radically different in the interim such that that valuation should be inappropriate. Of course, I could be quite wrong.
Best,
AIMster
Incidentally, have you ever looked into using AIM with 2x ETFs? I played around with some spreadsheets a while ago but my results were inconclusive.
Yes, we've looked at those and have decided that they don't work, due to their focus being on short-term matching to their index, not long term.
FWIW, someone came up with the idea of only feeding AIM price data on a moving average crossover period when the 50 sma crosses the 200 ema. In some cases those have proven quite beneficial, due to capturing periods of greater trading activity.
Best,
AIMster
I haven't made any trades in 2011 yet either.
Then again it is still 2010 >grin<
Well, as Clive recently mentioned, that's where you need The Doctor. Who? yes, The Doctor. It would be interesting to make those 2011 investments in 2010, then I suppose one really could count one's chickens, before they hatch!
Confession: I always had too many stocks. And Folio allowed me to create my own "mutual funds",...
They say confession is good for the soul. :) As a fellow folio-ist, especially with their unlimited plan, there exists a great temptation to really go crazy. After all, with 100 holdings per folio, one can use either one of their predefined ones or "roll your own" to create almost any combination.
A couple of things have gone "belly-up" on me lately too, so I'm getting back some pittance of cash. Sigh. Stuff happens. But I've got this one primary Folio now that is a somewhat larger version of a permanent portfolio in terms of the number of holdings - what I do is add any extra money (whether from unexpected sales or regular savings), into whatever has the least value in this "core" group. In effect it allows for re-balancing, which is similar to what TooFuzzy calls "slow AIM."
Might not be perfect, but it does let me average down the cost and make a bit of profit, from time, to time. Keeps things moving along.
Best,
AIMster
I was wondering if anyone has used the AIM formula with periodic investing? If no, then why not?
This idea has been one of my issues with AIM as I'm still in the workforce and am trying to save what I can each month.
Lichello designed AIM to run as a closed-loop system. Start it up and it feeds itself from buying and selling. Lichello did allow the occasional "Christmas bonus" addition, but periodic investing undermines the logic of AIM. With AIM one waits for it to decide when to buy or sell, adding money all the time might have you buying more at the same time AIM is getting ready to tell you to sell! Counterproductive.
I suppose the best thing to do with a periodic cash flow would be to use Synchro or Twinvest to build up a position until it becomes large enough to convert to an AIM machine. Then repeat the process.
Best,
AIMster
Do I hear a violin playing while Wall St. burns. Funny how "Schapiro" and "Nero" rhyme.
And let's not forget how much Bernie "made off" with Billions, as the SEC was asleep at the wheel!
I suppose that other CNBC channel you mentioned, the one for the X rated financial newscasters would be for more than just to get a rise out of the Dow. I looked at the options for a "spread straddle," but couldn't quite find that terminology. On the other hand there was mention of a long straddle.
The Joy of Investing, just like the Joy of Sex. In both cases, however, you do have to know how to AIM it for best results!
Shirt still looks pretty good after all this time.
The guy looks a bit worse for wear!
Yes, but the fact that you can still fit in to the shirt 10 years later is a notable accomplishment too! I've got one the Mrs. got me 11 years ago now. Stitched into it is: "39.9999999 and Holding!"
Congrats!
Best,
AIMster
Do you all use specially designed software for this or do you use excel? I bought the book probably some time in 1995 right out of college but never did anything with it. I saved the book and started looking at it again a couple of weeks ago. I am now interested starting an AIM program. Do any of you have any start up tips for me? It seems like the more volatile the better. I am thinking of sector ETF's or an aggressive growth ETF.
Well, the dedicated software vs Excel question has merit. Especially if you're the sort, like Mr. Lichello himself who liked to tinker with the process and such. After all, if Mr. Lichello got us this far, can't I do even better? Thus the temptation to avoid the simple process and go make it complicated again. The dedicated software, being dedicated keeps you on a tighter leash, at least in that regard.
On the other hand, you don't really need dedicated software, per se. The AIM site has a calculator and can keep track of the hold zone and next transaction points for you easily enough, transcribing the results to an index card or spreadsheet if you wish. Besides, using pencil and paper, or a spreadsheet will give you a better feel for the mechanics of AIM, quite useful to see how it works.
So the answer is, "it depends."
Best,
AIMster
How would we AIM three currencies?
For example, our home currency is the USD. Then we would have two machines, one USD-Euro and one USD-Asia. How do we get the sizes of these 2 machines right?
Perhaps in that case it would work like Lichello's idea of a portfolio model rather than AIMing each individually. Split whatever you want equally between the currencies you want to AIM, then use the buy-and-sell recommendations to rebalance the holdings with.
Just a thought.
Best,
AIMster
Is there a site to check out correlation of different stocks and funds.
Did some digging and came across this one here:
http://www.assetcorrelation.com/
Another one useful for measuring risk & return (also free)
http://www.riskgrades.com
Best,
AIMster
Hi, Mark,
I just got a "screaming meemie" of a PC with the i7 chip on it, 9 Gb of RAM, yada yada yada and Windows Vista Home Premium, of the 64 bit variety to access all that memory, heh, heh, heh! :)
Will AI run in that environment okay, or should I leave it on the old machine on XP-Professional? Wanted to ask before I even thought of moving it over.
Thanks,
AIMster