Hi Toofuzzy, Nope, bought it in both a taxable and an IRA, but not anywhere near the top. Not at the bottom, but less than a dollar from the 52 week low. As I said I was looking for a flexible and reasonable income generating place to hold money for AIM purchases down the road when they come up. I've tried two others and dumped one already as not suitable. The other, AWF, is about what I was looking for to hold cash, not great, not the 0.01% of the dealer's money market. H%^&, even the small credit union I'm the BoD of pays 15 times that pathetic amount and it ain't no great shakes.
My goal is that the income is greater than any trading commissions and position loses to buy/sell and to buy/sell the AIM positions money is coming from or going to, plus a little. Given how infrequently AIM trades about 3-4%/year will do this given a ~20-30% cash pool.
What I am finding is that I need at least 3, probably 4 different funds, to avoid selling a loser to get cash for an AIM position and to avoid missing a dividend. If I could find monthly pay ETF/ETN/Trusts that would help a lot.
The big issue, in my mind, is not the exact AIM protocol you choose to use but rather selecting the great fuel to feed your AIM engine to get it to zoom down the highway. My personal set of metrics at the moment include:
Near the 52 week low (also look at longer term low)
Beta above 1.25 (Some may work with beta below 0.6)
A history of volatility even in a bull market
Valueline Timeliness 4 or 5
Price less than $20 - seems seems threshold for best volatility
Not less than $2 averaging 52 week high and low
ETF/ETN/Trust
Out of favor sector/broad industry
Diversified if possible, but not massively so
Nothing I find fits them all so it can be a craps shoot, which is why I am trying to use No Down AIM before buying. Any suggestions to improve the selection screener most welcome.
BTW, if draw down is the biggest concern, then why get into the market, especially during a bull run, at all? We know that we can not predict (well, Sam Seiden excluded) how far down the market will go or when we will hit bottom so getting into the market is totally a craps shoot. The best we can do is look at the chicken's entrails, wet our finger and hold it up and hope that we are not too far off and that time will fix our mistakes.
Warmest Regards,
Allen
