Hi SF
That is using standard AIM
A security needs to move 15% for your first trade. That could take a year, think about it.
If a stock keeps moving in the same direction it needs to move another 5% for the next trade. That could take as little as a month, and in a strong or shitty market you may have a run of trades.
When the price swings from low (buying) to going higher (selling) or the opposite it needs to move 30% to have a trade. Again you may have a wait of a year or two for a securitybto move that much, but that is where you really make your money with AIM, and it takes the emotion out of that trading decission.
The Zig zag is just one of the things like a moving average or SAR that you can choose to overlay on the chart. Look at the pull down menues below the chart on the left.
The only reason to look at it is to judge the volitility of something or if you wanted to get fancier (which I dont reccomend) with the AIM settings.
Tom gave you a link to the QUICK AIM CALCULATOR. You can use that to check your work.
PORTFOLIO CONTROL = starting stock investment , it increases by 1/2 of what you BUY
SAFE = 10% of current stock value
Min order size = 5%
The above is for standard AIM
PC - STOCK VALUE = X
X - 10% of stock value = order size
If order size > = 5% of stock value then buy order size
STOCK VALUE - PC = X
X - 10% of stock value = order size
If order size > = 5% of stock value then sell order size
Increase PC by 1/2 of amount purchased for next trade.
If the above is new to you, you need to reread the book. Look at the page where he has columns set up for the calculations.
Toofuzzy