Welcome Mavest, Hope you enjoy your time here with the AIMers. Mr. Lichello was kind enough to write our general business plan, but we each individually take AIM in slightly different ways based upon our personal needs. This is why you see some variation in "style."
1) Best way to minimize taxes is to fund any tax "sheltered" accounts FIRST! This includes IRA's or other types of retirement plans, like SEP's, 401K's etc. Canada now has its own versions of these.
Next, again a personal choice, I use FIFO accounting on all individual stock investments. I use Average Cost basis for all mutual funds. Yes, I trace each share from purchase date through to when it eventually reaches the top of the pile and is sold.
2) I use different time frames for each individual investment. I update all investments weekly, but some market segments will benefit from shorter time frames between "check-ups" and others much longer. Mutual funds seem to take care of themselves as they follow broad trends rather than heartbeats of individual issues.
I like GTC orders. I use them because then I know that AIM will be taking care of business even when I'm on vacation, playing golf or watching Oprah!! I then wait, usually until the following week, to enter the next Limit Order GTC. Many of my orders sit for weeks or months before being fulfilled. Many times those orders are changed before executed because of activity on the opposite side of the AIM range. My 5 month old Sell order will get changed to a lower value if a Buy order has been executed, for instance.
3) There's good choice in software these days for implimenting AIM. AutomaticInvestor is the most recent. StockSystem.com is a similar product that's been around for a few years. Newport is a bit different and the oldest of the commercial programs.
a) the first two mentioned both will import price data from the internet and fill in the appropriate part of the spreadsheet for creating simulations of what AIM would have done over that time frame. This is very instructive and will help you build confidence in the AIM system.
These simulations also will give you the chance to fiddle with some of AIM's internals to see what they do and whether fiddling is a good or bad idea!!!
b) the last software mentioned isn't very good for simulation work but is easy and small for keeping up AIM accounts. It also provides a comprehensive package of outputs and graphs for the user.
Many here own both types of software; spreadsheets for simulation and the other for historical documentation.
Best regards, Tom |
