Continued Growth

Yes, we are still continuing the expansion of the market. Friday showed a sign that the market is not just mindlessly going upward, but then it continued it's ways today.

I did sell off a few more shares from my wife's account last Monday, and the market continued upward until Friday. Cathy's account was the only one this month, though. Everyone else's took a break. Mine was within a few cents of having a sale, and if my day would have been Tuesday, I would have, but I've vowed to stay strictly with the program. I've found that, more often than not, it works out for the better. I doubt this bull market will come to a screeching halt in the next month. It might in the next few months, and it could decide to flatten out this month. I've already collected up a pretty good amount - probably not enough to fund a disaster like what happened in early 2009, but if we had a significant correction, I could pick up a good amount of stock cheap. I started Cathy's account with a good amount of cash (not the 50% you're supposed to, but I figured we'd just been through that disaster and it should be a while before something that bad happens again,) and there's more in there now. I've looked at a few charts people who do the AIM thing, and they say that your account should be around 50% cash now. Sheldon's and Harrison's accounts are getting close to that, but not mine or Cathy's.

If this trend keeps up for another 6 months we might be close, and I might get to the point of passing on a couple of selling opportunities for the boys' accounts. Once the cash balance is above 50%, many (though not Robert himself) suggest an amendment to the original formula to apply the amount of a scheduled sale to the Portfolio Control. This ensures maximum gain during a long bull market, without sacrificing the safety of the plan. The other thought is having separate Buy and Sell Safe columns so the market doesn't have to dip as deep to pick up more stock. This is all on Robert Lichello's site, www.aim-users.com, under AIM Improvements. I like these as I am not quite as conservative an investor as one would have to be to follow the original instructions Robert laid out. I just know, through personal experience, to abide by the rule to have no more than one transaction a month, be it buy or sell.

One thing's for sure, both Cathy and I have a ways to go before the cash in our account reaches 50%, and I'm even adding a little to mine every month, and my account receives a much higher dividend, as you'd expect from the small DOTD stocks in my portfolio.