Hi Allen, Re: Time frame for returns..............
While everything you said is true, it must be understood that AIM can't tell time. AIM only knows about one's cost and one's targets. In the Warehouse business, we keep inventory to be sold. We don't know when it will be sold, but we do track costs to make sure we charge enough for when we do eventually sell some of it. Again, the timing isn't within our control, only the gross and net profit.
So, Grabber said we made 27%, but he didn't indicate in what time frame. That's because AIM 'reacts' to market price change, it doesn't time it or predict it. If the old horse carries us to town and that is our goal, then we can't criticize the old horse for not being as fast as a young horse. If we accomplish our goal, then we don't have to worry about time.
While having a benchmark to which we can compare our annual results is interesting, we don't own the benchmark. Sometimes such comparisons make us feel good and sometimes they make us feel anxious. If we feel we're falling behind the benchmark, we might be tempted to change our 'profit margin' target by adjusting AIM's internal settings. That can lead to chasing one's tail.
