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Thanks, Allie! A whole new section of the Web Site has been created - interestingly under a new domain: www.spooz.net
Lots of interesting reading here.
I have had the same impression, MC. Those who have been in closest contact with the company seem on the whole to be quite optimistic.
Do you get the feeling that anything significant has changed with the company over the last few months (apart from the share price?)
Songbird
I don't think I have heard the phrase "money center banks" before. Anyone able to educate me?
TIA!
I agree, Allie. This is where they have always said they wanted to make an impact. I think it would be for now a more lucrative market than retail.
I agree, MC. I don't think that anyone who has been following Spooz over time is expecting much in the way of strong financial reports for the period of time being audited (which I'm guessing will be 2007 and maybe earlier years)
I agree, Birdito. It doesn't seem like the company is trying to hide the share structure and financials from us.
I feel that investors have to be patient and allow them to execute their business plans. I don't think it is realistic to expect instant success and instant riches. These things normally take time to come to fruition.
Yes, the pps is going in the wrong direction for now, but share prices are not always rational for any company - especially pink penny stocks.
Thanks, MC :)
MC, I wonder if you might answer a few questions about your visit.
How would you assess the mood and morale of those you met at Spooz HQ?
I think you met employees that you hadn't met previously. Any comments on their impressions on you?
Could you give any more details about the nature of the work that Spooz is doing for their brokerage customers in the green zone? I think youu said they were using Spooz "systems" - is that SpoozToolz Pro - or perhaps other custom software?
Were you able to discuss shareholder sentiment with Paul or the others? If so, did you get any feedback. (I like the idea of some kind of official shareholder update)
TIA!
Songbird
Nice find, Allie. Thanks! It is interesting to compare Spooz in various categories to the other companies listed there.
Songbird
Thanks very much, MC. I appreciate very much your efforts to learn as much as you can about Spooz - and share with others.
Thanks for the report, Allie.
Good point, endub. The SpoozChartz PR may also be the PR for SpoozToolz Pro.
Hi, Change - do you believe that SpoozChartz does not exist?
Thanks for the response, Imperial. I understand your position and completely respect it.
Best,
Songburd
IW, could you give us an idea of how SpoozChartz is being useful to you?
Thanks!
Songbird
Yes, mtncabin, I think the management team page is new. From this page and the latest PR, I figure that Spooz currently has at least 13 employees:
Paul D. Strickland, Jr. – Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director
Darryl Dennis – Chief Marketing Officer and Director
John Unwin, Chief Technology Officer
Tom Opper, Chief Sales Officer
Catherine D Rains – Treasurer
Doug Foster, Senior Product Manager
Erik Long, Director of Strategic Technology
Scott Ryll, Product Support Manager
Craig Browder, Senior Software Engineer
Jim Hensel, Business Development Manager
Michael Martin, Technical Support Engineer
Justin Braun, Technical Support Engineer
Rebekah Heiner, Senior Administrative Assistant
Seems like this is a new mission statement on the Spooz Web site:
About Us
Spooz, Inc. is an independent software vendor developing revolutionary trading solutions for active electronic traders. Spooz's suite of technology products provide the most versatile configuration of trading screens, analysis screens and automated trading systems in a fast growth financial marketplace.
Spooz is a Trading Solutions Company focused on next generation traders. SpoozToolz™, SpoozToolz™ Pro and SpoozChartz™, the Company's flagship products, enable any trader to quickly and efficiently bridge the gap between concept and execution. The value of the SpoozToolz platform is that it enables any trader to create trading applications, including algorithmic black-box systems, that retain flexibility and customizability, are simple to use, and that facilitate bringing the traders ideas to production before opportunity for profit is lost.
http://www.spooz.com/about_spooz.aspx
Imperial,
In the last sentence you say "Real-time connectivity does not come as a part that is available to subscribers who only employ SpoozChartz in stand-alone configuration"
If you subscribe to one of the data feeds that are supported by SpoozChartz, would you not have real-time connectivity?(I don't mean in Excel)
TIA!
Hi, Allie. From my short experience with SpoozChartz I would concur and say that Spooz has indeed taken the time to create a high quality piece of software.
IMO this bodes well for future product releases. High quality products at lower prices help to put Spooz in a strong competitive position.
I think you can get real time quotes if you subscribe to one of the datafeeds it supports. (Ameritrade is not listed)
I don't think the free quotes are real time.
Please correct me, someone, if I'm wrong.
The list of supported datafeeds is given as:
ASCII
Bloomberg
CyberTrader
eSignal
Free Quotes from:
Finance.yahoo.com
Moneycentral.msn.com
Quote.com
Interactive Brokers
IQFeed
MarketCast
MetaStock
Opentick
Patsystems (J-Trader)
Quote.com
Tenfore
TradeStation 8.1
TransAct Futures
Universal DDE ***
Contact your data vendor
Bobby, why don't you try it for free for two weeks? Then you can decide whether you want to move over to it. There's so much you can play around with - I think you can learn quite a lot in two weeks.
MC, Out of curiosity I downloaded SpoozChartz today. I am certainly a novice when it comes to charting, but I thought it would be good to look at the product.
I have played around with it a little and have discovered that it is very complex and very customizable with features that I don't yet understand. There must have been lots of work put in to put this program together.
There all kinds of studies you can apply to the charts you create - most I have never heard of!
Songbird
The PR regarding the new employees might be what Paul was referring to.
Nice find, EBI. Good to see that Mr Hines is still helping the company. It seems like he might have some good connections with his work experience.
LOL - I guess this will hit the wires tomorrow.
Thanks, MC!
Looks like it is released as of now:
http://www.spooztoolz.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=ACP1
How to receive a two week free trial on SpoozChartz:
1) Open a SpoozToolz account here, it free.
2) Subscribe to SpoozChartz from this page by clicking on the “Add To Cart “button and proceed to checkout.
3) Enter payment information. Note: your credit card will not be charged for two weeks. You may log on to your account within the two week period and unsubscribe there will be no charges. If you decide to continue with your SpoozChartz subscription, your account will automatically be charged monthly.
From SpoozChartz forum:
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:28 pm Post subject:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: Spoozchartz is now available for download on the website.
Imperial Whazoo, as an experienced trader, what are your initial thoughts about the features described here:
"SpoozChartz is a financial software application that provides charting, advanced analytics, trading system design and development, back-testing and optimization. Designed for Equities, Options, Futures and Forex traders, SpoozChartz provides an extensive range of chart types and intervals with over 200 pre-built studies for in-depth market analysis ...
One of the advanced features of SpoozChartz is its ability to plot multiple data series of different timeframes and symbols from multiple data feeds in the same chart window. SpoozChartz enables traders to mix time-based and count-based charts or insert bids, offers and last trades on the same chart. This is invaluable for multiple timeframe, correlation, and inter-market analysis enabling traders to calculate custom studies based on the several different data series at once.
Additional SpoozChartz features include: EasyLanguage® compatibility, intelligent drawing tools, internal database and quote manager, strategy creation, strategy optimization and back-testing via brute-force or genetic optimizers."
MC, this is from the SpoozToolz forum:
Q: The SpoozToolz site gives a price of $98 for SpoozChartz. Is that a onetime purchase, or monthly fee?
Also, can you say how soon it will be until we can download SpoozChartz
Thanks!
A: The $98 is a monthly fee. I cannot give an exact date however we expect SpoozChartz to be released very shortly.
Thanks
http://support.spooztoolz.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26
Thanks for the report, MC. Yes, interesting that there is an on-call support rep. I doubt there would be one if there were no users of Spooz software.
Up From The Pits (How the rowdy Chicago Merc became the world's biggest financial exchange)
Interesting article from Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0128/064.html
I won't copy the whole article (it's quite long), but here's an excerpt:
As a young broker in the hog pit of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Terrence A. (Terry) Duffy learned how to break up fights. It was a boisterous place where traders signaled, shouted and elbowed their way to buy and sell futures contracts. By waiting for the bruisers to wear themselves down, Duffy could step into the middle of an altercation and avoid getting hit. "Make sure they're tired first," he says. He must have been saving his strength for bigger fights.
Now executive chairman of CME Group, Duffy, 49, has duked it out with rivals--as well as with friends and customers--to create the world's biggest financial exchange. Biggest, that is, in notional value traded, at $5 trillion a day, and jockeying for biggest in market capitalization, at $35 billion. (Corresponding numbers for nyse Euronext: $2.6 trillion and $21 billion.) Over the six years of Duffy's tenure CME has embraced electronic trading, gone public, acquired its onetime largest competitor and increased daily volume from 2.2 million to 14 million contracts. It has pioneered new financial instruments for institutions and attracted individuals ( see box) with futures for stock indexes, real estate prices and the weather. Because its futures markets are de facto monopolies, CME, unlike most stock exchanges, has been able to hold steady the fees it collects--63 cents, on average, per contract, on both sides of every trade, compared with 65 cents five years ago. Its operating margin (Ebitda divided by revenue) of 60% puts it even with Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ) and well ahead of Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ). Over the 12 months ended Sept. 30, CME Group, including the recently acquired Chicago Board of Trade, netted $763 million on revenue of $2 billion. Under Duffy, shares have jumped eighteenfold to a recent $621.
Just a reminder that markets are closed on Monday.
Thanks for your words, MC. I appreciate your presence here!
Hi, Allie. From what I understand, TT (Trading Technologies) is not a trading company - it is basically a gateway that traders use to get access to the markets. The first release of SpoozToolz will work only through TT. Are you saying that beta testing has been going on to make sure that the connectivity via TT is working?
Market penetration in the trading industry in this geographic location would be a very positive start for Spooz.
We are expecting that Spooz's final share percentage of XXIS will be less than 50%. Could it be that the increase in OS that is needed for Spooz to have less than half will come through 504 financing?
Could it be that the increase in the OS that people are expecting (taking Spooz's shares below 50%) will come through 504 financing?
According to Critter Creek today, SpoozChartz is not quite ready - he said it should be ready for download within a few days.
It would be great to see reviews after the release.
Hi, Martingale. I don't know that we can assume that these professional traders will be getting to test the software for free.