October TRADE NEWS
News Releases
& Products:
Mutual fund news offered over Internet
Add-on module adds compliance features
Data mining tools combines neural net and regression technology
Java-based investment products offered over Internet
Institutional decision-support platform accesses Internet
System makes market projections
Technical analysis with portfolio management
NEWS RELEASES
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Mutual fund news, analysis, commentary offered over 'Net
NEW-- Dow Jones & Co. has launched Money Management AlertNET on the Internet. The site is a source of news, analysis, commentary and performance data on the mutual fund and pension fund industries. Money Management AlertNET provides cost-effective information for the PC desktop. The subscription-based service provides current information from such fund-rating agencies as Morningstar, Lipper Analytical Services, Mutual Fund Trim Tabs and the Institute of Management and Administration. Money Management AlertNET also employs Dow Jones's news search engine, allowing investors to find articles from the past 180 days by keyword. A database from Proxy Monitor helps subscribers stay abreast of the coming week's shareholder meetings and proposed resolutions carrying voting recommendations. Money Management AlertNET is accessed through standard browser software, using personal identification codes and passwords.
Dow Jones Markets, Harborside Financial Center, 600 Plaza Two, Jersey City, NJ 07311. Phone 201 938-5500. Fax 201 938-5555. Internet https://www.dowjones.com, https://mma.dowjones.com.
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Add-on module for institutional portfolio management program adds compliance features
NEW--Capital Management Sciences has released an add-in tool for its BondEdge portfolio management program. The add-in tool incorporates into BondEdge some compliance features for pre-trade monitoring. The compliance system for BondEdge allows portfolio managers to specify investment guidelines for all types of fixed income products, down to the issuer level. Any transaction that would take the portfolio out of compliance is red-flagged before the trade takes place. For example, investment managers could specify that a portfolio's option-adjusted duration must remain within a specified range, or that mortgage-backed securities are limited to a certain percentage of the total portfolio. The pre-trade compliance feature sounds an alarm against completing prohibited transactions. The add-on module costs $300 a month.
Capital Management Sciences, 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Phone 310 479-9715. Fax 310 479-6333.
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Data mining tool combines best of neural nets and regression models
FYI--AbTech Corporation has released ModelQuest Prospector predictive data mining software. Prospector incorporates AbTech's Statistical Network mining technology and combines the advantages of neural networks and regression models.
ModelQuest Prospector models up to 75 inputs and 16,000 rows of examples. It imports data, extracts features and synthesizes a Statistical Network of polynomial functions to build a mathematical model of nonlinear relationships among variables. Once the model has been produced, Prospector analyzes the performance of the model against an independent database. A graphical display of summary data, evaluation statistics and a histogram of errors enables the user to determine quickly how well the model will perform on unseen data or with actual data in a real-world application.
Prospector predictive models may be encoded into C source code and embedded into other applications or implemented in Visual BASIC, Access or Excel. Users can split the data into training and evaluation subsets to evaluate its performance. Extraction algorithms include lead/lag, window average, window minimum, window standard deviation, window range, exponential, absolute value, natural logarithm, square root and bin ranges.
AbTech Corporation, 1575 State Farm Blvd., Charlottesville, VA 22911. Phone 804 977-0686. Fax 804 977-9615. Internet https://www.abtech.com.
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Java-based services are offered over Internet
NEW--Tech Hackers has begun offering a collection of Internet services at www.StreetMath.com. The new services cover a variety of investment products providing analysis, data and descriptive information.
StreetMath.com allows users to select and pay for only those services applicable to their specific markets. Users can utilize the analytics on a mixture of systems and platforms. The Web services can be used from any Java-enabled Web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer. The services introduced this year cover mortgage-backed pass-throughs, agency REMICs and strips and whole-loan CMOs. These services will include price/yield tables, regulatory tests, cash flows, total return calculations, and in-depth descriptive information for all CMO deal tranches including residuals, IOs, POs, floaters, inverse floaters, PACs, TACs, companions, senior/sub, etc.
In addition to using standard prepayment types such as CPR and PSA, users will be able to define and use their own monthly prepayment vectors. Separate services covering corporate bonds, agency bonds, government bonds and international bonds will be available later this summer. Longer-term plans for StreetMath.com include coverage for additional markets and hybrid products.
Tech Hackers is a financial software and consulting firm that builds securities trading and portfolio management systems. It also is a developer of financial models.
Tech Hackers Inc., 50 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004. Phone 212 344-9500. Fax 212 344-9519. Internet https://www.thi.com.
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New addition to decision-support platform allows direct access to Internet
NEW--Leading Market Technologies has released EXPO/Web, which allows clients to access market data directly from the Internet and from private intranets. EXPO/Web provides users of EXPO, Leading Market Technologies' decision support platform, with direct access to Internet/intranet-based market data sources through a transparent connection via Netscape Navigator.
With EXPO/Web, users enter into EXPO the Web address of the data they want. EXPO/Web's proprietary Co-Browser technology accesses the data, interprets its layout and makes it available for use with all of EXPO's array of analytics and decision support tools. EXPO currently provides open access to such data sources as FAME, LIM, Reuters, Open Bloomberg and Bridge IDF. EXPO/Web is now available as a standard feature of Leading Market Technologies' EXPO, EXPO/ATA and BasketTrader products on UNIX and Windows platforms. EXPO is priced at $2,995 for Windows and $3,995 for UNIX platforms.
Leading Market Technologies, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139. Phone 617 494-4747. Internet https://www.LMT-EXPO.com.
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System makes market projections
NEW--Exeter Holding Group has released The Streamlined Market Optimizer III: The Master Key, Where Price/Time Are Equalized. The system software makes market projections. Main features of the program for Windows include automatic charting with full-color graphics on all markets; projected highs and lows on monthly and yearly charts; automatic buy and sell signals; and four free months of data from Financial Data Net. The program comes with a money-back guarantee.
Exeter Holding Group, 7325 Quivira Rd., #184, Shawnee, KS 66216. Phone/fax 913 262-8227. Internet https://www.cscdata.net/network.
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Technical analysis with portfolio management
NEW--Comstar Concepts has released a Windows 95 version of Wall Street Investor. New features include automated news service with alarms; limit alerts with alarms; Internet access to data; professional reports; a portfolio manager; and online help. Wall Street Investor is also available for the Macintosh computer. The price is $150, or $100 for competitive upgrades. A fully functioning demo may be downloaded from the company's Web site.
Comstar Concepts Inc., 30 Columbia Turnpike, Florham Park, NJ 07932. Phone 973 660-9336. Internet https://www.ComstarConcepts.com
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Commodities trading system for use with TradeStation or SuperCharts
NEW--S&P Safe has released Trend Reflection, a mechanical commodities trading system, coded for use with Omega Research's TradeStation or SuperCharts, using end-of-day data (or real-time data for users with a live feed). The Trend Reflection system determines price direction and market structure, identifies support and resistance, and when all requirements are met, signals an entry. While in a trade, the system monitors end-of-day prices and adjusts the exit for the next day. The system has been tested and evaluated by Rina Systems' Performance Summary Plus/Portfolio Evaluator. An informational packet is available.
S&P Safe, 4123, Xavier St., Denver, CO 80401. Phone 303 964-8417. Fax 303 433-8672.
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NEWS RELEASES
ANNUAL TECHNICAL ANALYSIS CONFERENCE
Dow Jones Seminars will hold its nineteenth annual technical analysis conference (TAG XIX) in Las Vegas, October 17-19, 1997. In addition, preconference sessions will take place on October 16. The conference will encompass 31 two-hour workshops, each given twice over the course of three days. Many aspects of technical analysis will be covered, as well as money management and the psychology of trading, for investors and traders of all levels. Speakers each year are selected for both technical and teaching ability. The October 16th preconference session is an eight-hour class providing an introduction and overview of technical analysis. A free 32-page conference guidebook is available upon request. It details the conference, the speakers and the topics to be covered.
Dow Jones Seminars, 701 Poydras Street, One Shell Square, Suite 3900, New Orleans, LA 70139-9998. Phone 800 535-7990 (from US and Canada, 24 hrs.) or 504 592-4550. Fax 504 592-4553. E-mail taginfo@communique.net. Internet https://www.SeminarsDowJones.com
18th SEMIANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Society of Asset Allocators and Fund Timers (SAAFTI) will hold its fall 1997 semiannual conference November 14-15, 1997, in San Francisco. The conference will focus on management, marketing and trading tools and techniques for successful registered investment advisors. Nonmembers of SAAFTI are welcome. SAAFTI is a nonprofit association or registered investment advisors who use market timing, dynamic asset allocation, sector timing and/or tactical asset allocation strategies to manage assets invested in mutual funds. Currently, SAAFTI includes more than 140 member firms, managing an estimated $10-$12 billion.
SAAFTI, 303 948-9926
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Technical Securities Analysts Association (TSAA) will hold its annual conference on October 15 in San Francisco. The master of ceremonies will be John Bollinger. Other speakers will include trader and author David Caplan; trader, author and systems researcher Nelson Freeburg; author and psychologist Richard McCall; trader and author Linda Bradford Raschke; and Alan Shaw. The conference fee is $99 before September 15 for TSAA members, $125 for nonmembers. TSAA is an organization of money managers, brokers and traders. Anyone interested in exhibiting at the conference should contact Charlie Bolton 415 248-4127 before October 3.
TSAA, 415 957-1202. Internet https://www.teleport.com/~ifta/TSAA/tsaahome.html
TRADING COMPETITION
FutureCom will hold a trading competition over the Internet October 14-17. FutureCom Trading Days will allow commodity traders to compete for prizes. Participants sign up for the competition via E-mail, after which a user ID and password will be returned via E-mail. Details are posted at FutureCom's Web site. FutureCom has applied to the CFTC for a contract market to carry an electronic commodities exchange over the Internet.
FutureCom, E-mail: trade@futurecom.org. Internet https://www.futurecom.org.
WEB SITE SPECIALIZING IN OPTIONS
The Investment Research Institute Web site (www.options-IRI.com) provides information on options trading, investment strategies and market timing. The site contains a daily market summary, including a list of movers and shakers in the high-tech sector; IRI's daily position on stocks, bonds and gold; educational articles on options investing; special reports on option strategies; information about IRI's specialized option services; and stock and option market data.
Equity options data at the site includes intraday bid, ask, last, volume and net change. The site also provides comprehensive stock quotes, including open, high, low previous day's close, 52-week high and low, P/E ratio, bid and ask figures and size, change in dollars, change in percent, daily trade count, volume of last trade, average volume per trade, number of common shares and percentage held by corporations. Historical open, high, low, close and volume figures are also posted, as well as quotes on mutual funds and currencies. An "Options made easy" section continually updates daily market commentaries, special reports and options-related links to other sites.
Investment Research Institute, Internet https://www.options-IRI.com
WEB SITE FOR RESEARCH
Elite Trader offers an online community for real-time stock traders (formerly the Net-Trader site). The Web site contains information on stock brokers, data vendors, trading books, desktop trading tools and more. In conjunction with Zacks Investment Research, it offers visitors company research capabilities. It also offers a NASDAQ Level II online tutorial. In addition, it offers "Elite Chat," a real-time chat room, and "Elite Forum," a community message board. The chat room even offers integrated Java charting capabilities. Using the chat room requires the chat plug-in for Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, which can be downloaded from https://www.ichat.com/download/index.html. The site is free.
Elite Trader, Internet https://www.elitetrader.com
REAL-TIME OPTIONS ANALYSIS
Xyris Software has released XyrisOption, a professional real-time options analytics package. Using XyrisOption, traders can monitor any number of options chains simultaneously, on any domestic or international options exchange in the equity, commodity, energy or money markets. XyrisOption provides fast and easy access to a complete range of pricing models and sensitivity analytics, with customizable displays. Trial copies of XyrisOption can be downloaded from Xyris Software's Web site. XyrisOption is a Windows application running on Windows 3.1x, 95 or NT, and connecting to any Reuter or Quotron datafeed, including Triarch/SSL. In the Americas, XyrisOption is available through Reuters. In the rest of the world, XyrisOption is available directly from Xyris Software.
Xyris Software has also released DataPump, an add-in to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software for quickly importing large amounts of real-time data into spreadsheets without affecting network stability. DataPump includes a field injector add-in for Excel, seeking to give the spreadsheet as much power and flexibility as a custom real-time quote terminal. DataPump runs on Windows NT and Triarch data distribution networks. It supports TS1, Reuter Graphics and all IDNDDE-compatible applications. DataPump costs $595 per workstation, with quantity discounts and site licenses available. Trial copies of DataPump can be downloaded from Xyris Software's Web site. Other products from Xyris include RTList, an ActiveX component used to bring large volumes of data into custom Windows applications, and XyrisOption, a professional options analytics application.
Xyris Software Inc., 584 Broadway Suite 1210, New York, NY 10012. Phone 212 925-4388. Fax 212 925-4929. Internet https://www.xyris.com
AN INTRODUCTION TO BOND FUNDS
All About Bond Funds: A Complete Guide for Today's Investors from Wiley by Werner Renberg is an introductory-level book for the individual investor on selecting bond funds (1995, 258 pages, $19.95, ISBN 0-471-31195-2). It covers the various types of bond funds, the debt securities in which they invest and the risks associated with them. Renberg also reviews the performance of various bond fund categories and explains why specific funds fared as well or as poorly as they did.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Professional, Reference and Trade Group, 605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158-0012. Phone 800 225-5945. Internet https://www.wiley.com
WEB SITE
TurtleTrader.com is a trading and investment Web site dedicated to training individual traders online. The site offers introductions in FIVE languages. TurtleTrader's mission is to teach the trading techniques of the Turtle trading group. The TurtleTrader Web site is both a commercial site and a free educational site. It offers detailed monthly charts, a currency converter, futures data and newsletters.
TurtleTrader, Hallam Group LLC, 1600 Ardmore Avenue, Suite 304, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. Phone 310 798-5701. Fax 310 734-1787. E-mail info@turtletrader.com. Internet https://www.turtletrader.com/index.html, https://www.turtletrader.net/index.html
NEW BOOKS
Who was Bernard Baruch? A self-made millionaire and legendary stock trader, perhaps best remembered as "the man who sold out before the crash of 1929" (which, by the way, wasn't exactly true). A biography by James Grant titled Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (John Wiley & Sons, 1997, $29.95 hardcover, ISBN 0-471-17075-5) explores the wheelings and dealings of the man, the prestigious company he kept, and the people he influenced.
John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158. Phone 212 850-6336, 800 CALL-WILEY
John Wiley and Reuters have jointly released The Reuters Guide to World Bond Markets, by Martin Essex and Ruth Pitchford (1997, 240 pages, $80 hardcover, ISBN 0-471-960462). This book provides an overview of the major government bond markets worldwide and looks ahead to how they may perform. The authors examine which bond markets are likely to outperform or underperform, and which areas of the yield curve may offer the best value to investors.
John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158. Phone 212 850-6336, 800 CALL-WILEY
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