[Shoe]

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Unless you can show a long-term (ie- 5 to 10 years) of consistent outperformance at an acceptable level of risk, I'd say don't do it. I feel you're about to lose your shirt.

Besides, 12% is a HUGE hurdle to overcome. I pay a little over LIBOR rates for my margin, and even my current account overdraft rate is less than 12%.

Margin isn't really for investing - it's more suitable for trading or shorter-term investing opportunities.

If you desperately want to use margin, then I'd strongly suggest you only gamble with a small % of your portfolio. I keep a maximum of 30% of my portfolio exposed to margin, with a notional rtading requirement of around 5%. I never allow a trade or idea to risk more than 1% of my account equity.

I think you should concentrate more on preserving your capital than hitting for the fence every time.

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Thanks for the advice. If you count my retirment funds, this loan is nowhere close even 20% of my proftilio. I think the worst case scenario is I MIGHT only gain 10% instead of the 13% i am paying in interest. But if i missed just 1 or 2 monthly payments I am still better off taking the loan.

I definitely agree this loan is "thinking outside the box" and would traditioanly be frowned upon. But please provide me with some calculations on how much I would actually be losing out on. I don't think it would be more than 2-3k over 3 years maximum on average. And that is worst case scenario.