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Strategies & Market Trends : A.I.M Users Group Bulletin Board -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LemonHead who wrote (7644)	6/10/1999 12:26:00 AM
From: RFH	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18928

Keith, I would also like to hear more about individual stock picks. However, AIM really wants particular parameters, and I tend to look at historical charts to aid me in my choices. Also, as Tom often says, you have to pick a company that will be around in the years to come. As you read over my web page, you can see that my initial AIM investments were LOSERS that I wanted to start to manage properly. In my pre-AIM days, I would choose stocks that were recommended by an investment newsletter, and often these stocks would start to go down soon after the recommendation. I would of course sell the losers and hold the winners, as most would do. Once I started to investigate AIM and all it could do, I decided to increase those holdings to the recommended levels. With regards to my investment in Wendys, (updated after my latest sell), elnet.com this stock was recommended by the newsletter, and I suspected that it would start to decline as soon as it was recommended. That, in my opinion, is an ideal scenario for AIMing a stock, so I bought it. Unfortunately, the stock just started going up, and I haven't had a buy yet. Now, I never thought I'd be bichin' about a stock just going up, but if I had a shrink, I'm sure he would blame Mr. Lichello for that one! Sincerely, RFH

To: LemonHead who wrote (7644)	6/10/1999 6:51:00 AM
From: JZGalt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18928

JZ, Tom, Ka, Bernie, RH, D1 and all the others have an opinion. But what about a little focus and a little more discussion on the equities. Keith, The only problem I see with your suggestion is that it isn't the subject of this thread. I've probably been the worst offender of dropping in off topic material, but lately I've tried to do so only when prompted by another post on the thread vs. the stock "du jour" sort of post you see on Yahoo. I've tried to label the post as OT and have just been putting brief reasoning behind the picks feeling that this thread would want to do their own due diligence as select only those stocks which were suitable for their own particular flavor of AIM. Perhaps the solution would be to start another thread where stocks suitable for AIMing could be discussed and leave this thread for the discussion of the use of the system, implications and modifcations that could be done (ala Vealies), software upgrades, or just general hints and caveats. I'm up for any way the thread wants to go. Last year I said this was one of the nicest threads on SI and I still think that is true. ---- Dave

To: LemonHead who wrote (7644)	6/10/1999 11:59:00 AM
From: OldAIMGuy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18928

Hi Keith, I guess it's been my thought to present my trades as they occur as confirmation that AIM manages lots of different stocks and mutual funds successfully over time. It's so rare that I add a new stock to my account (since I really don't have a source of "earned income") I guess I leave it to others to watch what's happening out there. After all, there's only about Umpteen Thousand stock threads here on SI and if we include the free-for-all at YaHoo, add another Umpteen Thousand! I have tried to describe HOW I go about filtering for a new stock, but I don't claim to be a great stock picker. Only a good AIMer. In my short term trading days, I spent so much time studying the fundamentals of the stocks that I traded, I many times arrived "late to the party." Also, it occurred to me that the time I spent studying companies and industries was not well compensated by short term trading. This is why AIM felt "right" to me. It allowed me to benefit from my extra effort in the form of realizing the long term potential. I was trading efficiently while waiting for the long term pay-off. Still, stock selection is a very personal thing. My daughter's choice of The GAP wouldn't interest me generally, even though it is a great stock and great AIM stock besides. I like to tinker with toys, so I tend to invest in the same things. For better or worse, my background of capital equipment sales, field installation of same, automotive, photography, music, etc. hobbies has much to do with how I go about picking stocks and where I start to look. I'd say that my love of Scientific American has also had a big part in my overall interests and investments. Instead of the GAP, I'd probably look at Circuit City or Home Depot! All retailers, but I enjoy being in the latter two more than the first! Heck, I buy all my clothes at *Mill's Fleet and Farm!* My "favorite" stocks are usually the ones that have given me profits most recently. I put up examples mostly from my own account, but also from my "watch list" portfolio that I keep in Newport. I don't know how many of you do this, but if you install Newport to a separate sub-directory, you can run it with as many "watch" stocks as you want and the data won't contaminate your "real" portfolio. I very much appreciate it when others here bring up ideas of investments. It's always my hope that they do so with AIM in mind as the management method, since that's this thread's general topic. PCA Bill usually will bring along with his ideas a summary of how AIM would have handled the stock in recent times. The more the merrier! I did receive a copy of an article from the latest Paine Webber statements. It was titled "Nouveau Cyclicals" and related to our new era of investing with rapidly changing sector preferences. They were also kind enough to make some suggestions. I've not tested any of them, but the names were familiar enough to me that I'd guess that several would do well with AIM's guidance. Another point is that the stacks at our local library are sagging under the weight of all the books on HOW TO PICK A STOCK. There's only one book there that addresses what to do with it once you've made that purchase - Mr. L's. I still feel that it's best to understand AIM's personality when attempting to find a suitable "mate." One example of a stock that had wonderful AIM character for years but seems to have fallen asleep in recent times is Chiron Corp. (CHIR). I traded the heck out of my Cetus shares before CHIR bought them out. Then I traded the heck out of CHIR until the Europeans bought about half the outstanding shares. Since then, it's been stuck in a tight range and hibernating. EVEN SO, AIM and I have managed 20 trades in the last three years. In the mean time, they've canned one boss man and brought in another, he's done some house cleaning and "refocused" the company. What has all his effort done? The stock is still stuck between about $18 and $25! That's enough for minimum size orders on both sides, but where's the growth that used to be there? Or is it just that the BioTech's and Pharms are out of favor? I'm not sure I know. I do know that there are other companies in the same industry that are doing better. So, maybe I should get off my leaden arse and get rid of CHIR and find a new pony! I think this points out a couple of things. Stocks can behave very well for very long periods of time and still screw up. Like a bad roof, a "wait and see" attitude can turn into "wait and seep" if there's a change in the weather! It's better to pick the best quality we can for the long haul as chances are it will stay one of the best. I'll quit now, as my fingers are getting tired!! Best regards, Tom