Systematic Investing Group

[BowlerBob]

LC,

When I Updated my IWM-SYNCHROVEST SS, I also added a few more columns to try an experiment. I named that portion, The Modified SYNCHROVEST. I have columns for # Shares Purchased, Cost of Shares, Total Shares, Total Cost, & GAIN/LOSS.

I ran it parallel to the 30% SS and used that SS info for the decisions. The technique was to Buy ONLY when the Investment Multiplier, for a particular month, was >=1.00. I would then buy all the stock that the 30% SS had purchased up to that point (that is, the total number of shares purchased by the 30% SS). If the next month was also above 1.00, I would buy the number of shares that the 30% SS purchased for that month, etc. This method allowed me to buy all my stock at the lowest prices only, somewhat similar to Ocroft's method with AIM. If there were months in between that were under 1.00, I just collect Cash, and then would buy the amount of shares that the 30% SS had purchased in that interim, when there was another IM above 1.00. The last several months of each of the legs, had no IM above 1.00, because Prices were rising to reach the 30% Sell Point.

In the first leg, which lasted 42 months, I made only 22 purchases -- I only bought 784 shares, compared to 866 shares for the 30% SS, but the Average Cost was $35.80, compared to $43.37. This caused the GAIN to be 62.45% for that leg, compared to 34.08% in the SS. The other legs were similar, but not as great a difference (2003 was very strong). The second leg, from 2/04 to 5/06, only had two purchases, with Avg Cost = $53.25 for 296 shares, while the SS had 562 shares, at an Avg Cost of $59.14 (this was during the continuing Up Trend in the market).

Have you run tests using this method of controlling Buys? What do you think of this modification?

Bob