Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
No message.
Hey AIMster,
See http://www.aim-users.com/diction.htm#q15 for details on the Strewie. Tom had a picture of it somewhere at one time, perhaps he can provide the link if it's still around.
Yes, you've got me on that one. The fabled Strewie, alas, has not crossed my path. Although I did see it from a distance at the 2001 AIM conference (bullet hole and everything).
I guess Bernie knew a good thing when he saw it
Not a bad idea.
Of course the museum tour would take about 30 seconds, 40 if I showed you where AI was developed. So I suppose we'd just have to spend the rest of the time out on the deck with some Lichello libations.
Hi Tom and Steve,
It seems like I'm already doing that. Whenever I see a Lichello AIM item on ebay, I just buy it (and I'm usually the only bidder -- I guess I've just let the cat out of the bag .
I think the only Lichello AIM item I'm missing is the infomercial tape. So if anyone has this, put it on ebay (or better yet, just send me an email).
Speaking of AIM collections, I also have a parallel collection going that currently stands at a few secret decoder rings and an AIM 2001 Prolific Poster award.
Hi Tom/Neil,
I have a complete set of Lichello's AIM tapes as well as 2 extra tapes ("advanced AIM") and the AIM workbook (which is a binder with 8.5 x 11" typewritten, looseleaf pages), and although they are nicely packaged, none have pictures of Lichello himself.
Lichello does speak on the tapes, so his voice is recorded for posterity. I would also be interested in finding a copy of the "infomercial."
Re: Bombardier, I had a buy in mid December 2004 at 2.15 CDN. The past 2 days have put me into sell mode (almost 50% in 7 months). Now if ATYT will do something it will be a very good summer.
Re: Testers. I now have enough testers for the new software. Thanks to everyone who volunteered. I appreciate it.
Need 2 Testers...
Hello Everyone, thanks to those who volunteered. If that's you, you should have received an email with details.
If you sent me an email and didn't receive a reply, please let me know as I believe I've replied to everyone (but sometimes my SPAM filters filter out legitimate email).
If you'd like to be a tester, there are still 2 spaces left, so feel free to send me an email (mhing@automaticinvestor.com) if you get the urge.
Need 10 Testers...
Hi everyone, I've created a new software investment product (not AIM, but can be used with AIM) and need 10 testers to review it, try to break it and send me comments and suggestions.
If you're interested, please send me an email (mhing@automaticinvestor.com).
If you're one of the 10, you'll receive a free copy of the new software once it's released and my ever-grateful thanks (as well as the opportunity to get an early peek).
Hi Dick,
I see AIMster answered your question. What he says is exactly right.
I always recommend creating a separate portfolio for each equity position as I don't see a disadvantage to it. You can always have your cash pooled in one underlying brokerage/bank account (so at the brokerage account level you really have one account).
At the AI level, you can separate your funds into multiple logical portfolios. AIM works best that way. The only time I would recommend putting multiple funds into one AI portfolio is when you're quite certain the funds are highly (i.e. > 85%) correlated -- even so, there's no disadvantage to putting highly correlated funds in their own portfolios.
I hope that helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.
AIMster, TooFuzzy, Don Carlson,
Thanks for your responses. I got what I need.
Does anyone have the following?
1) list of all NASDAQ ticker symbols.
2) list of all NYSE ticker symbols.
3) list of all AMEX ticker symbols.
or know a place where I can get them easily without too much manual effort.
If you have any of these lists, please email them to me at mhing@automaticinvestor.com Thanks!
Hi Neil,
I always wonder why guys who make tens of millions don't put a few million aside and then play with the rest. Then at least when they blow up they'd have something left.
Perhaps that's part of the mentality that made them the tens of millions in the first place.
Hi CSCO,
I don't think that 13% figure is good going forward. It probably includes the one-time special dividend they paid out to lighten their cash hoard.
I've owned the stock for many years and, without that special dividend, I haven't seen anywhere near 13% (less than 1% is more like it).
Initially I read 2 dead and 185 injured. But after reading that article I think the death toll will be much, much higher.
I hope it has the opposite effect as was intended and strengthens the resolve of the British.
Hi Don,
I remember you saying something to that effect when we were talking about the inverse funds. Is the method you've been using since May the one you showed me last month?
Hi Neil/Tom,
I just read the News about the London bombing. Seems they think it's related to the G8 going on in Scotland. Looks like quite a few injuries and some deaths. Very sad to see, but more so for me since I was born in London and still have quite a few relatives there.
Normal distribution...
"it means that rare events happen with a frequency far greater than a standard normal distribution would suggest"
I completely agree with this statement. I think the math commonly used to describe the stock market can be dangerous when followed blindly.
There are two excellent books that talk about this. One is "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and the other is the "(Mis)Behavior of Markets" by Benoit Mandelbrot.
Both make very good reading if that sort of thing interests you (I'd start with the Taleb book as I liked it better, but the Mandelbrot book is also very interesting).
One of the points in the books is that people in finance borrow from statistics and use these tools incorrectly, such as when they ignore infrequent events. There are two problems with this.
First, those infrequent events occur much more frequently than they should (if you believe that stock prices are normally distributed -- which I don't).
Second, and potentially more dangerous, is even if an event is very rare, you cannot just ignore it if it brings a large negative consequence. For example, if you spin a roulette wheel, it's a relatively rare occurrence for 00 to come up, but you can't ignore it if, when it does come up, the casino takes your houses, cars, money and everything else you own. The same thing can happen in the markets.
Regarding statistical illusions, I like this quote from the Taleb book, "I have just completed a thorough statistical examination of the life of President Bush. For 58 years, close to 21,000 observations, he did not die once. I can hence pronounce him as immortal, with a high degree of statistical significance."
And while I'm on the topic of excellent books, another good one is "The Birth of Plenty," by William Bernstein, and oh, yes, this is a good one too... "Against the Gods," by Peter Bernstein.
And for those who like Lord of the Rings type books, try George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones," "A Clash of Kings," and "A Storm of Swords." One word of warning though, don't pick them up if you don't have some time on your hands. Once you start them, you won't want to put them down and they are very long -- about 3000 pages for the three of them. Finally, there are four more books coming out (so after reading 3000 pages, you're not quite done).
Hi Dick,
I know that Don Carlson has done work with inverse funds. I'm sure he'll chime in when he reads this.
I don't use funds for my investments (just individual stocks), so I can't comment from experience, but I don't think it is as easy as it looks.
Hi Neil,
In one of the upcoming service packs there will be vastly improved reporting. This is one area that I think is very useful and have wanted to add it for some time now, but there were higher priority items that I needed to address first.
Most of those items have now been completed, so reporting is now on the radar. AI charts will be part of the reporting module and you'll be able to print all of the reports.
In the meantime you can use the following workaround:
1) display the chart of interest in AI.
2) Use the Ctrl-Alt-Print Scrn key combination to capture the image.
3) Open Paint and paste the captured image in.
4) Use Paint's select tool to select the chart portion of the AI screen and cut it out. Then paste it into a Word document and print the document.
This procedure is actually easier than it sounds once you've done it a few times and it will allow you to print charts until the new AI reporting module is released.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Hi Dick,
I see that Tom posted an excellent response to your question. I would agree that when using funds with low volatility, you could first try changing the configuration settings (click the "Config" button on the toolbar to bring up the configuration window -- there's also a complete description in the AI user's guide on what each configuration parameter does. You can access the user's guide by clicking the HELP button, again on the toolbar).
The other thing you can do is use AI's asset allocator to review your allocations. Since you say you rebalance annually, I'm assuming you do use some sort of Asset allocation strategy.
AI has a built in portfolio optimizer that allows you to allocate assets in one of two ways: using the Sharpe ratio or using Modern Portfolio Theory (see the user's guide for details).
This could be used in conjunction with changing your config settings. There's an article here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/articles/mpt.html that might be of interest.
It describes how to use AIM to reduce risk at the individual stock/fund level and how to use MPT to reduce risk at the portfolio level.
If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know.
Hi Steve,
"I brought an IBM 3090 region to its knees one day with that little 'program'."
So that's why they invented pre-emptive multi-tasking...
I guess in 35 years there will be a bunch of guys sitting around their telepathically enabled internet chat rooms reminiscing about how they used to have to use keyboards and view everything on 2 dimensional panels when they were in school back in 2005.
Oh, and it took 2 or 3 SECONDS to search for and retrieve information. Not to mention that you had to load software everytime you wanted to do something useful... and people only lived to an average of about 80... and it cost money to send people to university... and, well hopefully I'll be around then to experience it with my own telepathic interface
Hey, now there are some old memories.
My first computer was an ELF II based on an RCA 1802 processor. It had 256 bytes (yes, that's BYTES) of RAM and you programmed it in machine language (not in assembler, but using actual hex numbers).
I also bought an unassembled RF modulator with it so I could hook it up to my TV. However my soldering skills were not so good back then and I never did get it assembled and working.
So my main feats were to program the ELF to turn a LED (referred to as the Q-light I think), on and off for different durations.
But it did teach me how computers work at their most basic level (and for all the advances over the years, those concepts are still the same). I still have that computer and it still works.
My first real computer was a TRS-80 Colour Computer with 16K of RAM and a cassette tape drive for storage. There I learned BASIC as well as 6809 assembler in addition to playing a mean game of Donkey Kong -- that game had the best graphics for the time bar none.
After that it was an IBM with an 8088 (more assembler, then Pascal then C and so on and so on and so on). I had a job while I was in school where I created the interface software for input devices for severely disabled users (morse code input straws and very large expanded keyboards). Very interesting and rewarding work.
I liked the era where you could write to the actual screen bytes to control the display. I think that was the most fun I had learning and programming.
However I also like how easy it is today to create a program where you can concentrate on the functionality rather than having to manage how to bring a window up on screen.
So although I agree today's operating systems are bloated and inefficient, I don't think I would want to go back to the pre-GUI days. As long as the hardware keeps getting faster, I'm happy.
Hi Bosco,
Please read point 5 in my post on the SP3 update. That will answer your question.
Hi Don,
You're very welcome. I didn't plan on releasing the SP3 enhancements so soon, but there was a problem with SP2 and rather than just fix it, I figured I'd roll everything I was working on into the update.
I hope your holidays are going well. I had a nice relaxing long weekend here in Qualicum Beach.
Hello Troy,
1) Good idea. I had thought about it but wanted to keep the software simple. Still, I might add this at a later date.
2) Another good idea, but a bit too complicated for this tool. Although I might add an export function.
Regarding your questions...
1) The frequency is daily.
2) Data are retrieved from Yahoo! Finance. This is one of the most robust free data sources I've come across (except they keep changing their data format).
Regarding your observations...
1) Good point. I can see how that could happen. Perhaps I'll have to write it as SOMtickers.txt (or even SSOMtickers.txt).
2) Don Carlson sent me an email, after running well over 100 mutual funds, with similar questions. I haven't tested the software with funds but will look into it. If you see results that look suspect, please let me know (send me an email at mhing@automaticinvestor.com).
Thanks for your input!
Service Pack 3 for Automatic Investor 3.0 is now available.
No, this isn't a repeat notice from last month when SP2 was released. Apparently SP2 did some bad things to the Asset Allocator, so I've released SP3 a bit sooner than I otherwise would have.
However SP3 adds a few enhancements...
1) Expected Returns and Risk meters to make visualizing returns and risk much easier in the Asset Allocator.
2) A Score meter in the Fundamental Analyzer that makes evaluating Fundamentals easier to visualize.
3) You can now sort Fundamental Analyzer columns by clicking the appropriate column header.
4) The correlation matrix has been redesigned to make it easier to view correlations when analyzing many stocks.
5) The Internet Charts function has been removed in SP3. Yahoo! changed its chart format and the fix would delay SP3. So this function has been temporarily removed. However it will make a reappearance in SP4.
6) There are also a few other minor changes and an updated user's guide.
If you're a registered AI 3.0 user, you can download your free SP3 update here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/upgradecenter.html
New AI 3.0 users can download a free trial here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/trial.html
As usual, please let me know if you have any questions.
Service Pack 3 for Automatic Investor 3.0 is now available.
No, this isn't a repeat notice from last month when SP2 was released. Apparently SP2 did some bad things to the Asset Allocator, so I've released SP3 a bit sooner than I otherwise would have.
However SP3 adds a few enhancements...
1) Expected Returns and Risk meters to make visualizing returns and risk much easier in the Asset Allocator.
2) A Score meter in the Fundamental Analyzer that makes evaluating Fundamentals easier to visualize.
3) You can now sort Fundamental Analyzer columns by clicking the appropriate column header.
4) The correlation matrix has been redesigned to make it easier to view correlations when analyzing many stocks.
5) The Internet Charts function has been removed in SP3. Yahoo! changed its chart format and the fix would delay SP3. So this function has been temporarily removed. However it will make a reappearance in SP4.
6) There are also a few other minor changes and an updated user's guide.
If you're a registered AI 3.0 user, you can download your free SP3 update here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/upgradecenter.html
New AI 3.0 users can download a free trial here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/trial.html
As usual, please let me know if you have any questions.
Hi Neil,
You're welcome. I'm glad your stocks are coming up green. See my next post regarding another update to AI 3.0.
Hi Tom,
I haven't heard from Barry for some time now either.
We used to exchange emails on all sorts of interesting topics, but he just seemed to disappear one day.
He told me about the volatility algorithm one day a few years ago, and I remember having some time, so I wrote a program to implement it.
I hadn't thought about it for quite some time (except to fix a quote retrieval problem about a year ago), but last night I thought I'd dust it off and enhance it a bit -- so there it is.
Barry used to have a web site, but I can't find it anymore. I hope he's doing alright. Nice guy. Good voice.
I sent you an email a few days ago (hopefully to the correct email address). Did you receive it? If not, let me know.
Super Screen-O-Matic 3.0 is now available.
This tool uses an algorithm based on work by Barry Savage to rate a stock's volatility.
It's also free. So grab yours now and feel free to share with your friends.
Here's what it looks like...
You can pick it up here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/freesoftware.html
I hope everyone has a great Canada Day and 4th of July!
Super Screen-O-Matic 3.0 is now available.
This tool uses an algorithm based on work by Barry Savage to rate a stock's volatility.
It's also free. So grab yours now and feel free to share with your volatility-lovin' friends.
Here's what it looks like...
You can pick it up here --> http://www.automaticinvestor.com/freesoftware.html
I hope everyone has a great Canada Day and 4th of July!
Hi Bosco/Jack,
Yahoo! changed its chart data format (from where AI retrieved its Internet charts) and broke this function (ahh the sweet, sweet joys of working with free data).
I'll fix it in the next Service Pack and let everyone know when it's available. I think I will also add a few enhancements while I'm at it (SP 2, which was released last week, was an emergency fix meant to address a data format change at a source site that the fundamental analyzer was using).
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the info. I knew you had split the IW into small and large cap but didn't know what you were using for small-cap.
I'll grab the data for the Nas and post results of the correlation shortly.
Service Pack 2 for the Pragmatic Investor 2.0 is now available.
All registered PI 2.0 users can download the free update from here --> http://www.pragmaticinvestor.com/delivery007/pi20update.exe
Ensure you install the update into the SAME folder where you installed the Pragmatic Investor software. This is important, so please double-check the installation folder.
SP2 fixes a problem with retrieving current price data in the Fundamental Analyzer. This problem was caused by a recent change in stock quote format on the source web site.
It also adds a graphical meter to the Fundamental Analyzer so scores are easier to view.
Service Pack 2 for Automatic Investor 3.0 is now available.
Please visit http://www.automaticinvestor.com/upgradecenter.html to update your AI 3.0 software.
Service Pack 2 for Automatic Investor 3.0 is now available.
Please visit http://www.automaticinvestor.com/upgradecenter.html to update your AI 3.0 software.
Hi again AIMster,
This is something that is not likely to get into AI until the financial markets standardize on how to represent financial data (and therefore increase interoperability between systems).
There is already some work being done in this area with various XML vocabularies being put forth, however nothing has been agreed upon yet.
If we do eventually get an XML standard (which I fully expect we will, the question is when), then it will be very easy to integrate AI with any other system that understands that standard.
AI already supports XML and the next major version will provide even more support, as it will be moving to the .NET platform.
I also plan to add automatic update/order entry/etc. to AI via Interactive Brokers' API. That will seamlessly allow AI to integrate with IB and provide the option of automatically entering and executing trades when AI recommends them -- truly Automatic Investing for those who want it.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Hi AIMster,
You are correct. The adjust shares option should be on the shares menu rather than tools.
Adjust shares has been on the Tools menu since AI version 1.0 and, to be honest, I can't recall why I had initially put it there.
I will move it in a future update.
Thanks again for the suggestion (please keep them coming no matter how small or nit picky you think they might be).