Hi Fox, I'll let Bob Norman answer the programming side of the questions, but I think I can address some of them.
The Notepad prints out at the bottom of the page when you print out the summary screen of that individual stock. However if you want a separate copy, bring up the Notepad, Highlight all the info from top to bottom, hit CTRL C, which will copy it, then bring up Windows Word, Notepad, or Wordpad (or any other word processor) and hit CTRL V to paste it in.
When you open Newport and it gives you the message that you need to update the prices, you can ignore it and go straight to the stock of choice.
The main reason Newport was set up with periodic updates is that it needs regular periodic price updates for graphing. One needs a linear time scale as the X axis. However, during the week you have the choice of using the What If window to look at what AIM would be suggesting at a price other than the latest update. You also can exit the stock in question and bring up the Maintenance menu and use FIX A PRICE to change the price for that week. However, it's still only one data point per week.
Newport saves deleted stock histories in a separate file. I think they are *.SAV, but would have to check. However since the note pad (NPD files) remain. If you want to start with a fresh note pad, you'll have to go into Windows Explorer and delete the appropriate *.NPD file from your Newport directory. If you anticipate "trading" a stock (adding it and deleting it several times over history) it might be interesting to keep the NPD file intact to see what all you've done over time. You'd need to edit it each time you sell out and start again with an additional note saying at what prices you did such things.
Personally I think that the update of once per week is a good compromise. No matter what AIM TRADE INTERVAL we choose (once a day, week, month, or quarter) I think it's good to at least visit our AIM warehouses once a week and make sure there's no problems. It helps me to keep focused on the various equities. Initially when Bob Norman and Dave Ratatori were designing Newport I fought against weekly updates. I was using monthly or bi-monthly at the time. However the idea of keeping the investor focused on the portfolio seemed to make sense and weekly does that just fine.
As Jack mentioned, with AIM's low key approach our hourly compensation is very good. It takes very little time and we do well. The more time we spend on it for the same return, the lower our hourly pay! AIM doesn't require micromanagement to work.
Also, we have to remember that AIM can't make any money all by itself. It's the underlying security that makes us money. So, stock selection is still the most important thing at which we must look. After that, it's a matter of management style.
Best regards, Tom |
