Authors form new company
FYI -- Technical analyst John Murphy (whose interview appeared in S&C December 1996) and software developer Greg Morris have joined forces to form MurphyMorris Inc. The new company will produce multimedia educational products and services for investors.
Murphy is an analyst with CNBC television and the author of several well-known books on technical and intermarket analysis. He has been involved in market analysis and commentary for almost 30 years. Morris is an investment software developer, author and frequent speaker at seminars, both in the US and abroad. He has been developing investment software for more than 15 years and has been an active trader for 20. Both have contributed many articles to S&C in the past.
MurphyMorris Inc.
9500 Forest Lane, Suite 550
Dallas, TX 75243-5914
Phone: 214 342-9364. Fax: 214 342-9365
E-mail: learn@murphymorris.com.
The simulator automatically generates trading reports and statistics on each simulation run. It incorporates all the features and functions of SuperCharts and TradeStation, works with any historical market datafile and works in multiple time frames.
TITAN specializes in the application of artificial intelligence technologies to stock index trading.
TITAN Trading Analytics Inc.
201 Selby Street
Nanaimo, BC, Canada V9R 2R2
Phone: 250 751-8502. Fax: 250 754-2356
E-mail: jaustin@island.net. Internet: https://www.titantrading.com/.
In the area of software development, The Options Company will provide packages for options trading and analysis, as well as real-time risk assessment and portfolio management. In the area of education and training, the firm will sponsor seminars, conferences and certification courses. On the Internet, The Options Company will offer a forum that combines an organized database of options industry information and research, along with a forum for traders and firms within the industry to exchange ideas and techniques. Traders can also go online with specialists in the industry for questions, discussion and idea exchange.
FutureSource provides futures, options, cash and derivative data and news to traders and risk managers worldwide. FutureSource services disseminate data on more than 30,000 individual instruments.
Prime Analytics is the developer of Pro Opticus software for trading futures and options. The software handles options analytics with what-if statements and graphics as well as risk management.
The Options Company
955 Parkview Blvd.
Lombard, IL 60148
Phone: 630 792-2480, 800 393-6442. Fax: 630 792-2463
Internet: www.optionscom.com.
MESA96 scientifically measures the short-term cycles present in price data. From this measurement, the program determines whether the market is in trend mode or cycle mode. Trend modes are identified by Paint Bars and adaptive moving averages. Cycle mode turning points are anticipated by MESA96's sine wave indicator, which is an oscillator that avoids whipsaw signals in the trend mode.
The price of MESA96 for SuperCharts is $250.
MESA Software Inc.
PO Box 1801
Goleta, CA 93116
Phone: 800 633-6372. Fax: 805 969-1358
E-mail: john@mesasoftware.com. Internet: https://www.mesasoftware.com.
Fully researched, ready-to-trade investment models are distributed with the program, or the user may develop additional models. The package includes a historical database of stock and mutual fund prices, and data management routines allow users to incorporate existing data. Indigo is compatible with most data sources. Account management functions are also included.
The program's modeling and testing features, including entry conditions, exit conditions, profit targets and stops, allow systems to be developed, tested and used with individual stocks or with groups. Multiple systems can be combined into portfolios.
The price of Indigo is $1,595 for the standard version, $4,995 for the professional version.
MicroStar Research & Trading
8302 S. Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34238
Phone: 941 918-8068, 800 315-5635. Fax: 941 918-8168
E-mail: MStar5@aol.com. Internet: https://www.MicroStar-research.com.
The course is divided into two parts. In part 1, the principles of the technique and market basics are taught in a dozen monthly lessons. It covers commercial trading, market cycles, major and minor auctions, swing and position trading, day trading and trade exiting. A basic set of trading reference points are introduced with the first lesson. Additional reference points are developed and evaluated throughout the year. Part 2 covers market analysis, strategy development and trading.
The price is $1,200 for the year. Weekly phone and/or E-mail consultation is included with the package.
CISCO
111 Jackson Blvd., Suite 1356
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312 922-3661. Internet: https://www.cisco-futures.com
MUTUAL FUND ACCOUNT INFO ON WEB
Wall Street Quest is a stock charting program for the Macintosh by Street Logic Software.
Program functions include portfolio management, charting, technical analysis and automatic downloading.
The user can create datafiles for securities, assemble them into a portfolio and keep them updated with a single button click. Standard analysis features include moving averages, Bollinger bands and other indicators. Quest also has a built-in equation syntax, allowing the user to design technical analysis formulas. Other features include zooming, a floating tool palette, news clipping storage and candlestick charting. The user can resize charts while scrolling, add notes, and select and move trendlines.
The price is $249 plus $5 shipping and handling with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Demo versions of Wall Street Quest are available in the Wall Street Logic vendor forums on CompuServe and America Online. Wall Street Quest accepts data from Dial Data, CompuServe or Dow Jones Market Monitor.Street Logic Software
11895 River Rim Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126-1150
Phone: 619 689-4037
Fax: 619 586-7875.
The Calvert Group, which offers responsible and tax-free mutual funds, allows shareholders direct access to personal account information through its World Wide Web site. Customers also have the option of blocking their account data from access at the site. With its site, which it launched in July 1995, Calvert Group hopes to become more interactive with its shareholders and offer more than a shopping mall for site visitors. The Web site also provides a summary of how Calvert's 26 mutual funds are performing. Readers can sample site information by using the account number 3174885 with zip code 22101.DATA HANDLING PROGRAM
4550 Montgomery Ave.
Bethesda, MD 20814
Phone: 800 368-2748
Internet: https://calvertgroup.com.
FutureSoft has introduced Trader's Companion, a 32-bit program that formats historical end-of-day futures data into a commonly used format. It helps the futures trader make use of the many free sources of data available over the Internet, which may not provide data in a usable format for the trader. Trader's Companion extracts pertinent data from Web sites, then distributes the data in column-delimited Ascii datafiles consisting of date, open, high, low and close columns. The resulting files can be read by most spreadsheet or charting software that imports ASCII files.INTERNET SERVICE
A simple charting package comes bundled with Trader's Companion, enabling the user to view individual futures contracts in bar chart format. It also provides several technical indicators that can be overlaid on the chart.
Trader's Companion costs $39.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling. It requires Windows 95 and Internet access.
FutureSoft
PO Box 389
Uniontown, PA 15401
E-mail: fsoft@hhs.net. Internet: https://www.hhs.net/fsoft.
Vulcan Communications provides market information to investors via E-mail and chat forums. A subscription to its Market News Online service ($99.95 per quarter) provides investors with news, earnings estimates, stock alerts, new issues coming to market and daily stock picks.CD-ROM ON STARTING YOUR OWN COMMODITY-TRADING BUSINESS
Vulcan also creates and posts home pages for clients, which are linked to the Market News Online Web site. The client supplies Vulcan with information to post on the Internet, and Vulcan creates and maintains the client's page. The cost of the home-page maintenance service is $49.95 per month.
Vulcan Communications
Box 133
Blakeslee, PA 18610
Phone: 717 646-9411. Internet: https://www.vlcn.com/
Strasser Futures has released an interactive, educational CD-ROM ($149.95) for the PC or Macintosh on how to start a commodities trading business. The course teaches you how to conduct your trading as a business, with emphasis on controlling risk. It's taught by Averill Strasser, who has 20 years of trading experience. Animated charts walk the student through the examples.COMPUTER ERGONOMICS
The program is broken down into four major sections: understanding the marketplace; tools and equipment for trading effectively; a workshop for developing trading systems; and running your own business. Designing and optimizing indicators and systems is covered. The CD comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Strasser Futures
505 S. Beverly Dr., #1177
Beverly Hills, CA 90212-4542
Order line: 800 304-5761. Phone/fax: 310 204-5551
E-mail: mail@strasser.com. Internet: https://www.strasser.com/
LB Innovators has announced a Web site that focuses on computer ergonomics, offering information on carpal tunnel syndrome and other computer-related injuries. Browsers can also purchase ergonomically correct products designed to help reduce the risk of being injured while working with computers.INTERNET STOCK SERVICE
LB Innovators, Inc.
5575 Magnatron Blvd., Suite F
San Diego, CA 92111
Phone: 619 560-2660, 888 ERGOWARE
Internet: https://www.nmia.com/ergoware.
E-mail: ergoware@nmia.com.
John Bollinger has launched the Group Power investment service on the Internet. Group Power is a market timing tool based on Bollinger's industry group analysis work. The service tracks more than 2,000 stocks, which have been broken down into 104 industry groups. In breaking stocks out into groups, Group Power not only considered the business category but also the stock's trading pattern, making the industry group breakdown more sensitive to market action. The service helps investors to profit by taking advantage of the trends in specific industry groups, regardless of the market environment.COMMODITIES COURSE
https://www.margin.com/bollinger
The Chicago Board of Trade's winter courses will cover options basics, technical analysis basics and agricultural basics.NEWSLETTER ON TRADING
The Introduction to Options course (February 11-March 6, $125 per person) will cover terminology, profit and loss diagrams, the concept of option value, using options in hedging, basic strategies for options trading and an introduction to volatility and delta.
The introductory technical analysis four-session course (March 10-13, $150 per person) will be led by Thomas Bierovic, covering bar charts, point and figure charts and moving averages to determine trend, support and resistance. The course will also show how to interpret ADX, parabolic, momentum oscillators (MACD, RSI, stochastics), on-balance volume, the Herrick payoff index and other popular technical indicators.
A three-day minicourse on agriculturals (March 5-7, $550 per person) introduces the basics of futures and options; presents the structure and principles of international cash grain markets; and applies futures and options tools to cash grain risk management.Mary Unger, Chicago Board of Trade
CBOT Market & Product Development Dept.
141 W. Jackson, Suite 2210
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: 312 435-7207. E-mail: mung50@cbot.com
Ruggiero Associates publishes a newsletter titled Inside Advantage, which includes articles and reports on predicting mutual funds, commodities and stocks. It includes interviews and articles contributed by traders and book authors on trading and system testing and development.VIDEO FINANCIAL NEWS SERVICE FOR PCs
Other products and services offered by Ruggiero include utilities for Omega Research's TradeStation and SuperCharts programs, a neural network system-building kit, a genetic algorithm system-building kit, and home-study courses on intermarket analysis.
The price of the newsletter is $75 for six issues, $120 for 12 issues. Add $10 per six issues for overseas subscriptions.Ruggiero Associates
18 Oregon Ave.
East Haven, CT 06512
Phone/fax: 203 469-0880
Dow Jones & Company has introduced a video financial news service called Dow Jones Investor Network/On-Demand. DJIN/On-Demand is the archival version of its DJIN/Live video service, which broadcasts financial news and events in real time. The DJIN/On-Demand service provides a library of recorded news and broadcasts that can be searched and called up when convenient for the subscriber.STOCK PORTFOLIO ANALYZER
DJIN/On-Demand also includes access to The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition's Money and Investing Update. It also has E-mail capability, allowing subscribers to feed back comments or questions directly to DJIN editors.Dow Jones Business Information Services, a division of Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
PO Box 300
Princeton, NJ 08543-0300
Phone: 800 522-3567
Aztec Trading Research has released PortfolioPro v1.1, a trading system tester/evaluator that supplies detailed profitability diagnostic reports. The program calculates statistics such as maximum drawdown, longest flat time, maximum adverse excursion, return on investment and more. It produces three equity curve charts, which can then be viewed and analyzed within Omega Research's SuperCharts or TradeStation. It also breaks down information by trade entry date and time. It accepts end-of-day or intraday data.CHARTBOOK ON FOREIGN STOCKS
The price is $249. It comes with unlimited technical support and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Aztec also offers SuperCharger 2.0 ($99), which enhances the capabilities of Omega Research's SuperCharts. More information about either product can be obtained by E-mailing the company with the word info in the subject field.Aztec Trading Research
E-mail: kevinh1@netcom.ca
Global Equity Monitor is a stock chartbook that covers 800 foreign stocks from 19 countries outside Canada and the US. The service began in January 1995. Each monthly stock chart encompasses up to 10 years and each weekly stock chart covers two years. The criteria used in choosing countries are size, maturity, accessibility by individual investors and consideration of foreign exchange and stock ownership controls. The criteria for the selection of stocks include size, ADR availability, activity and name recognition.NEW BOOKS
A series of national economic and financial indicators is also included, such as foreign exchange, interest rates, money supply, real GDP, unemployment, CPI and industrial indices.
Exchange indices are ranked by their latest 12-month performance to help investors focus on the more active markets. Most of the data for the Global Equity Monitor chartbook is supplied by Reuters.
The chartbook is published bimonthly. The single issue price is $47 plus $2.95 for postage. An annual subscription is $245 plus postage.Global Equity Monitor Inc.
30 Duncan St.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2C3
Phone: 416 971-6543. Fax: 416 598-0049
Invest First, Investigate Later & 23 Other Trading Secrets of George Soros, the Legendary Investor (1996, 128 pages, $17.95 hardcover), by Robert Slater, published by Irwin Professional Publishing, was written to give investors a look at some of the more effective tricks of trading in today's markets, as practiced by Soros. His rise to the status of a legend began in 1969 when he started the Quantum Fund, a fund that averaged about 35 percent a year. Soros may be most remembered for making a billion dollars in just a few days by correctly forecasting the devaluation of the British pound in 1992.
The two dozen trading techniques outlined in this book have assisted Soros in a highly profitable career. They were of great value in his climb from his birthplace in Budapest to the financial halls of London and New York. The book contains many anecdotes that give insight into the thinking process of a highly successful investor.
Irwin Professional Publishing
1333 Burr Ridge Parkway
Burr Ridge, IL 60521-6489
Phone: 800 634-3966, 708 789-4000. Fax: 708 789-6933
Internet: https://www.Irwin.com/
The Four Cardinal Principles of Trading: How the World's Top Traders Identify Trends, Cut Losses, Maximize Profits and Manage Risk (1996, 218 pages, $40 hardcover), by Bruce Babcock, which is another book recently published by Irwin Professional Publishing, is an integrated series of interviews with top investors. The four principles treated in the book are those listed in the subtitle. Author Bruce Babcock took the results of a series of interviews and grouped the responses according to the four basic subjects.
For each trading rule, there are many subrules that can be handled as separate parts of the same whole. Trends can be short, long or intermediate, and some interviewees have better insight in different trend lengths. Interview subjects also share criteria and methods for stop placement to best protect principle and profit. Risk management is also touched upon. The book provides many techniques on which to build a trading platform.
The Financial Times Guide To Using The Financial Pages, 3rd edition (1996, 368 pages, softcover $15.95) by Romesh Vaitilingam and published by Pitman Publishing contains a foreword by Richard Lambert, editor of The Financial Times. This book takes the often confusing terminology used in the financial pages of major newspapers and translates it into plain and understandable English. This book also presents basic financial information for novice investors.
The third edition brings the text up to date with the world of electronic information, showing where the onramps are to the financial branch of the information superhighway. While the first 368 pages of the book are dedicated to thoroughly and clearly explaining the financial pages, the last section of the book, which deals with topics beyond the financial pages, includes electronic addresses for access to a wide variety of electronic information.
Pitman Publishing
4720 Boston Way
Lanham, MD 20706
Phone: 301 731-9516. Fax: 301 459-8528
Fixed Income Securities: Tools for Today's Markets, university edition (1996, 267 pages, $40.50 softcover), by Bruce Tuckman, is published by John Wiley with notes of praise from professors at some of the top schools for business and management. This book was written for an audience with a comprehension level comparable to that of someone working toward an advanced MBA. To read this book and follow the line of thought presented requires a fairly sophisticated math background.
The book points out that the term fixed income no longer has much meaning. Due to the changes brought about by the various derivatives that have been and continue to be created, the previously easy rewards have in many cases become dependent on interest rates. The four parts of the book cover the basic thinking needed to consider investing in fixed income securities; modern techniques for pricing such securities and their derivatives; the means for assessing the risk to one's portfolio; and an examination of several example securities and derivatives.
Wiley Book Order Dept.
1 Wiley Drive
Somerset, NJ 08875
Phone: 800 225-5945
Internet: https://www.wiley.com
Traders' Tales: A Chronicle of Wall Street Myths, Legends, and Outright Lies (1996, 210 pages, $24.95 hardcover), by Ron Insana, is also published by John Wiley & Sons. This collection of humor and insight by the senior anchor at CNBC contains stories that will bring at least a smile, maybe a chuckle and probably an outright laugh to even the most hardened of the world's financial crowd. Most of what is presented in this book is based on first-hand accounts. Some of what's given is simply historical, but all of it is interesting.
Insana has interviewed more than a few giants of Wall Street and the world markets. He has listened to many more tales than those which eventually found their way to these pages. The list of those who contributed stories that weren't included is as impressive as the list of sources for the anecdotes that made the cut.
Wall Street is a magnet for bright and oftentimes devious minds. The stories created when these minds are guided by greed, alcohol or stress make for quite a collection of humor.
