A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board

[The Grabber]

Good Morning Tom:

Seems I only have a chance to post on the weekends, early or late at night.

It was pretty slow around VIEW last week. I'll have to check, but I think we only had one shipment.

GIEW was actually pretty busy!

Last week I had 2 Buys and 2 Sells: BUCA, SFP, DRS and AGI respectively.

The prior week (week 1 of February) was busier. 2 Buys, a Sell, a Buy, A Sell and then 2 more Buys. OSTK, SNDK, BLUD, CTXS, AEOS, XMSR and PLUG (also respectively).

After week 1, my value had inched up about 3% overall. Week 2 saw a general market decline from that point, so I had a little decline as well. However, as all of us AIM-ers know, AIM 'cushions the fall'.

When I have balanced weeks like that, I note that I'm in accumulation mode on a net basis. Compounding over time takes care of overall growth in value.

As of Friday's close, I'm up less than 1% on the month. If I'm able to squeek out a small increase, it will mark 12 consecutive months of increases in overall value. It would also mark a double from end of February '03!

Last year (Jan-Dec) my value increased 77%. But on a rolling 12 month basis (if I can maintain my current value), I will be up 100% (Mar-Feb). This would represent a monthly increase of 6% compounded.

That brings up another interesting point. As I was doing a little goal setting at the beginning of the year, I was looking at compounding.

If one were to start their portfolio at $31,185.00; and was able to consistently grow it @ +5.95% per month, then it would be worth $1,000,007.85 after only 5 years. Now certainly that is not a realistic expectation. However, it does illustrate the 'miracle' of compounding.

In my case, my growth rate (compounded monthly over the last 52 months since I started) is only 0.6%. It is the price I paid for my 'education'. Since I 'graduated' to LD-AIM however, I'm on that +5% per month track (so far).

Regards, Steve