Good morning Will,
AIM proves to be proactive during both good and bad markets. Flat markets are just times to show patience and AIM is on vacation. Then, the structure of the portfolio, not AIM, is in charge. In my early days of AIMing I studied and invested in lots of chip and tech based companies as they showed high frequency and amplitude in price changes. Those tended to fuel the AIM engine very well. However, during more flattish markets, they did little to keep Total Return moving.
Over the years my portfolio has become less aggressive and more bent on total return through all markets. I did some studies back around 2000 with reasonable dividend payers that also had some growth potential. My attempt was to learn if such stocks could compete on total return with my former, wilder tech holdings. These more mature companies, with AIM's assistance, performed very well through a variety of markets.
In the last two decades, dividend stocks have had good total return and AIM benefitted from the cash flow from dividends (interest rated contributed nearly nothing). My "Sandbox" portfolio of 10 stocks ranges from a high of 9%/yr to near zero yield with an average of around 3-4%. That helped during 2008-09, Covid and 2022.
Over time my efforts fell into these three goals for building AIM portfolio strategies:
1) Price Appreciation over time
2) Dividend Capture over time
3) Profitable Volatility Capture over time.
AIM is what I use for #3. The other two are used primarily for stock or ETF selection. No matter what emphasis one puts on price appreciation or dividends AIM will be there during times of high market stress to do good inventory management of the selections.
Fine tuning AIM to different types of investments can help, but for me, it's now "set and forget" as far as settings go.
Best wishes,
OAG
Buy from the Scared; Sell to the Greedy.....
