American Association of Individual Investors

Last updated
American Association of Individual Investors
Type Non-profit
Genre Investment
Founded1978
FounderDr. James Cloonan, PhD
Headquarters,
United States
Key people
John Bajkowski (president)
Website http://www.aaii.com

The American Association of Individual Investors is a nonprofit organization with about 150,000 members [1] whose purpose is to educate individual investors regarding stock market portfolios, financial planning, and retirement accounts. [2] AAII "assists individuals in becoming effective managers of their own assets through programs of education, information and research." [3] The organization markets itself as an unbiased source of investment information because of its not-for-profit status.[ citation needed ]

Contents

The organization was founded in 1978 by James Cloonan, Ph.D. Over the last thirty years, AAII's members report "investment returns that are consistently higher than those of the stock market as a whole" [2] (using the S&P 500 as reference). Since 2003, AAII has maintained two real portfolios—a shadow stock portfolio and a mutual fund portfolio for education purposes. These portfolios' returns and contents are available online and, the site reports, have outperformed the market considerably over the course of their existence. [4]

Membership

AAII.com is the organization's main outlet for their educational materials. While it does offer some completely free information, requiring no registration or membership dues, a large portion of the site requires free registration or membership. AAII's best and premium content is made available only to members, who pay fees starting at $29 a year. For this fee, they receive the AAII Journal (the organization's monthly ad-free magazine), access to the organization's model portfolios, techniques for screening stocks, free investment courses, and other benefits. [5] For members interested in using their computers as an investment resource, AAII offers the Computerized Investing journal and microsite for an additional annual fee. [5] AAII also offers members the opportunity to attend its annual investor conference for an additional fee, featuring notable speakers from across the finance space. [6]

Mentions

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Forbes.com. "Forbes.com Best of the Web - AAII". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  2. 1 2 James Cloonan, PhD. "About AAII". AAII Website.
  3. Better Business Bureau. "BBB Review of American Association of Individual Investors". BBB.org.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  4. AAII.com. "Introduction to Model Portfolios". AAII Website.
  5. 1 2 AAII.com. "Join AAII". AAII Website.
  6. "Conference page". AAII website.
  7. Humberto Cruz. "Humberto Cruz: Long-term investing or out for the quick buck?".[ dead link ]
  8. Peter Birchler. "Sentiment Surveys and the VIX".
  9. tradersnarrative.com. "Sentiment Overview: Week of February 13th, 2009".
  10. SentimentTrader.com. "AAII Sentiment Survey". Archived from the original on 2009-05-13.
  11. Chiconomics101.com. "Chiconomics 101: Stocking Up". Archived from the original on July 8, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. Linda Stern. "Money: Invest The Time Yourself".
  13. Jonathan Ping. "American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Review – The Numbers Behind The Non-Profit".