Author: rensor1

Subject: Still Here

Date: 4/7/2006

Recommendations: 44

What a coincidence! I haven`t looked at this board in over five years and the very first time I pull it up to see what`s happening these days, I see a string of posts related to my amazing run up; that`s when from July 1999 to March 2000, my 100% RSIBD portfolio shot up from $272,000 to a little over $1,000,000; then watched it declined to my sell off point of $435,000. Elan was absolutely correct when, back then, he posted in response to my story, that I was purely lucky, given the boom, with little skill beyond knowing how to read the weekly screen results and make trades on-line. Well, you may be only slightly interested in knowing that I am not living in a cardbox box under some LA freeway bridge, (by the grace of God). We moved from Alameda, CA, and I`m happily still retired, living on our dream retirement three-acre property in the mountains of southern Oregon, near Ashland. In the interim, my wife and I, spent ten months near Edinburgh, Scotland, where I attended a full-time woodworking school called the Chippendale International School of Furniture Desgin and Making. We also took the opportunity to travel around the UK and Europe. Financially, we have faired reasonably well, relying on my military retirement, Social Security and IRA withdrawals (now that I`m well past the magic age of 59 1/2, at 63). Investiment-wise, I have relied primarily on the Hidden Gems Newsletter and the Stock Advisor Newsletter. I`ve been pretty much 100% invested in the Hidden Gems small caps. The portfolio currently stands at $473,000. This is not too bad, considering that I`ve withdrawn $182,000 since that original $435,000 sell-off. Actually, there`s a slight refinement of this data in that the the $435,000 consisted of both mine and my wife`s IRA; and my wife is ten years younger than I and her IRA has not been available to withdraw from without penalty. All the withdrawals, therefore, had to come from my IRA, which back then stood at $290,000. Today it stands at $273,000., again not too bad in terms of supporting our lifestyle since those heady days. And, you know, I remember reading all those posts back then about how important it is to never get out of the market when using the MI strategies. But I gotta tell you, that I`m quite sure that if I would have stayed the course with RSIBD, I would had an even more precipitous drop, perhaps by half again. In that event, there`s no way I would have had the retirement lifestyle we`ve had over the past six years. Not only that, of course, the million dollar mark should have been my sell signal. If it had been, I`d be considerably better off today. But a sober view of my current situation, tells me I am not comfortable relying on the current level of my IRA for the next nine or ten years, when we can start withdrawals from my wife`s IRA. Which completes the circle of why I took the time to catch up with what`s happening in the world of MI, when I saw the reference to my apparently infamous story. Which brings me to my question. Are there any current postings showing the performance of the various screens? I know there used to be a regular report along these lines. I`m considering getting back into MI, but am clueless on what screens to consider. I thought momentum might be the way to go, but in looking at the NDAQ run-up since October `05 using Stockcharts.com, the rate of increase has slowed considerably since early January this year, leading to pure speculation as to whether the NDAQ is the near the top of its curve or whether it will pick up again. So I`m not pretending to be anything other than still a novice at MI investing, but would appreciate any serious advice/comments. Rick Ensor