Signal Monster

Socially Responsible Investing Gains Ground as Investors Seek Societal Benefits as Well as Financial Returns

2007-04-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Faced with global problems like climate change and poverty, more investors are considering the social and environmental results of their investments. Socially responsible investing has become a fast-growing part of the investment industry. As of early 2007, over $2 trillion dollars were invested using socially responsible methods. This represents about 9% of all money invested by professional fund managers.

One of the easiest and most popular ways to invest is through socially responsible mutual funds. A mutual fund accepts from a large pool of investors to buy different securities. Mutual fund supervisors can use socially responsible methods to identify which investments to buy. Through a selection process known as screening, fund managers may buy only stocks of companies that meet the requirements set out by the fund.

The most commonly screened stocks are related to companies that make cigarettes, which cause many serious diseases and lead to billions of dollars in health costs. Or, a fund may choose to invest only in companies that adjust their business practices to help to protect the environment, for example by reducing their carbon emissions to help slow global warming.

Shareholder advocacy is another form of socially responsible investing. Shareholders may decide to sell the stocks of companies that do not share their social values. One of the best-known examples was the movement to divest, or stop investing, in companies that did business in South Africa under apartheid, a program of racial separation that has since been dismantled.

Community investing is the most direct and local form of social investing. This means providing credit or investing in businesses in a local community.

Today, about half of American families own stock in some form. And more people are considering the effect their investments have. This has caused some companies to consider social issues as well as business plans when formulating their corporate strategies.
Companies that pursue socially responsible practices can see a strong boost to their reputation and public image. For example, a recent public opinion study by Harris Interactive and the Wall Street Journal asked people what they thought were the best and worst American companies. The poll found that software maker Microsoft was ranked as the best company.

One of the main reasons for this high ranking was the charitable activity of the company's chairman, Bill Gates, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has given billions of dollars to organizations around the world to support health care and education, and in the process has helped improve Microsoft's corporate image as well.

Source:
VOA News

MSN Stock Price Add-In For Excel

2007-02-25T17:45:00.000-08:00

One of the handiest investing tools I've come across is a free download available from Microsoft that allows you to automatically update an Excel spreadsheet with stock prices from MSN Money. After installing the tool in Excel, an "Insert Stock Quotes" button will appear in the toolbar at the top of your spreadsheets. When clicked, the button opens a dialog box in which you specify the stock ticker you'd like to track, and a list of market data you can have imported into your spreadsheet. After you choose which ones you'd like to import and hit "OK," formulas like this will appear in whatever Excel cells you're working in: =MSNStockQuote($B25,"Ask Price","US")

You'll also see a button labelled "Update Quotes" in the Excel toolbar. When you click this, whatever stock quotes you've added to your spreadsheet will be updated automatically with the latest price data from MSN Money.

The quoting tool allows you to track information about your stocks including their:

52 Week High
52 Week Low
Day's High
Day's Low
Open Price
Last Price
Ask Price
Ask Size
Bid Price
Bid Size
Company Name
Quoted Currency
Date of Last Sale
Earnings Per Share
Market Capital
P/E Ratio
Percent Change
Previous Close
Shares Outstanding
Size of Last Sale
Time of Last Sale
Volume

I use this tool to quickly update historical price data about my portfolio of stocks, which I then run through various technical analysis equations to determine whether any of them have reached a good buying or selling point.

All in all, the MSN stock quote add-in can be a very convenient way to import key data about your stock portfolio directly into a spreadsheet. To get this free add-in, just download it from Microsoft's site and go through the quick installation process. Here's where to download the stock quote add-in.

Happy trading!

Current Stock Positions

2007-02-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

I'm currently holding positions in the following stocks based on their strong fundamentals and recent market performance. I'll be reviewing each position every month to assess whether it's still worth holding. At any one time I plan to hold a maximum of 10 stocks, and will be rotating old ones out and new ones into the list periodically.

Ticker	Company Name
AXR	AMREP Corporation
CPS	Cohen & Steers Inc
CPA	Copa Holdings Sa
EZPW	EZCORP Inc
GES	Guess?, Inc
HMIN	Home Inns & Hotels Mgmt Inc
HRT	Arrhythmia Research Technology, Inc
ICE	Intercontinentalexchange Inc
KNOT	Knot Inc
SYX	Systemax Inc

My Super-Duper-Cheap Broker: Sogo Invest

2007-02-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

I currently do all my stock trading with Sogo Invest, for the simple reason that they've got the lowest commissions of any broker I've found. How low? Well, right now they offer a 90 day trial period where you pay $1 per trade. After that, you have a choice of trading accounts that charge commissions ranging from $1.50 to $3 per trade.

For their Platinum account, you pay a monthly subscription fee of $15 a month. This gets you an unlimited number of trades at $1.50 commission per trade.
For their Gold account, you pay a monthly subscription fee of $10 a month. This gets you an unlimited number of trades at $2.00 commission per trade. (This is the account I have.)
For their Bronze account, you pay no monthly fee, and are charged $3.00 commission per trade for an unlimited number of trades.

What account makes most sense for you depends on how many trades you make in a given month. If you make very few trades, Bronze is the best deal. But if you find yourself making a lot of trades - say over 10 a month - you'll definitely save on commissions by upgrading to a Gold or Bronze account.

So far I've been very satisfied with their service and execution - maybe you will be too. You can learn more about their trading features and tools at SogoInvest.com.

Featured Signal: Enterprise Financial Services Corp. (EFSC)

2007-01-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

Today's featured signal was generated by the GStock.com virtual supercomputer, a distributed network of computers working together to analyze thousands of stocks daily.

On January 4, 2007 GStock produced a Sell signal for Enterprise Financial Services Corp. (ticker: EFSC) which is still in effect. The Sell signal was generated at $30.17. EFSC is currently trading at $31.00. View signal details here.

This data is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not professional financial or investment advice, and is not a recommendation to purchase these stocks.

Brokerage Services

2007-01-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

The following companies provide discount and retail brokerage services to individual investors seeking to buy or sell stocks, options, mutual funds and ETFs:

Banc of America Investment Services

About Banc of America Investment Services:

Now offers no-commission online equity trades for customers maintaining $25,000 minimum Bank of America account balances (not yet available in all regions). Build and manage a diversified portfolio that could include mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and other investment products. Includes access to industry leading tools, news, and research to help manage your portfolio.

CyberTrader

About CyberTrader:

Active traders choose CyberTrader because they get: the ability to trade equities and derivatives in one platform, competitive commissions, Ken Tower research, a large selection of online education, and more. And they get it all with equity pricing as low as $.006 per share up to 2,000 shares.

E*TRADE Securities

About E*TRADE:

Whether you are an active trader, serious investor, or just getting started, E*TRADE Securities offers you a wide array of products and services with the power, price, and service you need to make the most of your investments. Choose from investments including stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, and IPOs (Initial Public Offerings).

Interactive Brokers

About Interactive Brokers:

Offers advanced trading tools including: integrated technical, fundamental and price/risk analysis tools, real-time margin and activity reporting, over forty order types, and a paper trading facility to test trading strategies. In 2006 Barron's awarded Interactive Brokers its top star ranking overall and for lowest cost broker.

Scottrade

About Scottrade:

Scottrade offers easy-to-use trading platforms and low transaction fees for Listed and Nasdaq Stocks, Bulletin Board Stocks, Pink Sheet, and Canadian Stocks. Investors may also request an options account, or choose from thousands of funds, both load and no-load, including more than 1,000 No-Load, No-Transaction Fee (NTF) mutual funds.

SogoInvest

About SogoInvest:

SogoInvest.com is an online brokerage that allows investors of any kind, beginner or expert, to buy and sell stocks in real-time for $3 or less. We offer sophisticated stock trading tools like our new search engine scanning software, free to customers with funded accounts, as well as some of the lowest commissions in the industry.

Do you have an additional brokerage service to suggest? Please feel free to post your recommendation in the comments below.

Financial News & Information Services

2007-01-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

The following news and information services provide updates on stocks, bonds, ETFs and mutual funds, commodities, options, futures and other financial markets:

Bloomberg.com

About Bloomberg:

Bloomberg's media services provide real-time and archived financial and market data, pricing, trading, news and communications tools in a single, integrated package to corporations, news organizations, financial and legal professionals and individuals around the world.

Investors.com: Investors Business Daily

About Investors.com:

Subscription services include market updates and commentary, stock analysis and rankings, lists of stocks posting dramatic gains and substantial institutional ownership, ETF research and analysis, and tutorials on Investors.com's proprietary CAN-SLIM investment philosophy.

MarketWatch

About MarketWatch:

Owned by Dow Jones & Company, MarketWatch is a leading provider of business news, financial information and analytical tools. MarketWatch also offers subscription products for individual investors, including the Hulbert Financial Digest suite of products, Retirement Weekly and ETF Trader.

Reuters Investing News

About Reuters:

Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information.

WSJ.com: The Wall Street Journal Online Edition

About The Wall Street Journal Online:

Subscription services include complete coverage of global financial markets, extensive research and charting capabilities, current and historical stock quotes, 90-day archived news, personalization features, and a variety of e-mail and alert services.

Yahoo! Finance

About Yahoo! Finance:

Provides new on recent market activity, stock screening and analysis tools, current and historical price data, investor education articles and tutorials, personal finance advice and commentary, and updates on stocks, industry sectors, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, options, and international markets.

Do you have an additional financial news or information service to suggest? Please free free to post your recommendation in the comments below.

Trading Signal Services

2007-01-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

The following services provide trading signals recommending the purchase or sale of stocks, options, futures, commodities, ETFs and mutual funds:

Elliott Wave International: Specialty Services

Based on the Elliott Wave principle of market behavior, Elliott Wave International provides Intraday Forecasts, Opportunity Alerts, and On-Demand Forecasts for traders to use in identifying price targets and planning trades. Expert analysts are available for subscribers to contact for specific market predictions.

GStock.com

About Gstock:

GStock is a Virtual Supercomputer formed by many computers calculating a huge amount of investment stratagies with one goal - to pick the best profit making strategy for each stock.

Prosignal.com

About Prosignal:

Prosignal is a web site that provides professional trading signals for the financial markets. These markets currently include U.S. stocks, indices, mutual funds, and bonds. We provide a subscription service for the average investor, as well as premium products for investment firms which utilize our proprietary services for their clients.

StockSignals.com

About Stock Signals:

Stock Signals provides investors with technical analysis of global equity markets and has outperformed benchmark indexes with own portfolios. Currently Stock Signals covers the Scandinavian, US, UK and German equity markets.

Stock Signals Ltd.

About Stock Signals Ltd.:

Stock Signals is an innovative Canadian Company that publishes a daily Buy - Sell - Watch List for North American Equities that compose the major North American Indexes. These include the S&P TSX Composite, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq 100, and the S&P 500.

Timing Signals

About Timing Signals:

Market beating results trading QQQQ (Nasdaq index ETF) or Mutual Funds in minutes a day. Easy, powerful, and accurate market timing signals from a sophisticated computer program. Clear, unambiguous timing signals posted daily in the member area - updates posted online each market day. Since June 2004, the NASDAQ 100 timing signals are up 665% while buy and hold returned only 21%

Do you have an additional signal service to suggest? Please feel free to post your recommendation in the comments below.

The Signal Monster's Performance

2006-10-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

As of October 19, 2006, the accuracy of the Signal Monster's stock predictions was as follows:

Performance Metric	Positive Results	Negative Results
Total +/- Results	30	8
% Positive/Negative	78.95%	21.05%
Avg. % Gain/Loss Per Signal	+1.76%	-3.58%

Meet the Signal Monster

2006-09-20T15:07:00.002-07:00

Welcome to Signal Monster, a blog that will be devoted to the stock predictions of a statistical trading system of my devising. I call it the Signal Monster because (a) it lives on a monstrously large Excel file and has caused more than its share of system crashes as a result (b) it chews through vast reams of data, much as other monsters do cookies.

The Monster was created using trading principles I developed while trading the foreign currency markets, which are described on my other blog, Forex Forays. It relies heavily on technical analysis, including indicators like candlesticks, moving averages, Bollinger Bands, price breakouts, and highs and lows in multiple combinations to generate daily buy predictions for a selected menu of stocks.

All of the stocks on the Monster's menu have been chosen for their strong fundamentals, and would probably be excellent buy-and-hold investments as well; however, my goal is enter and exit positions quickly at optimal points in a stock's trajectory. I've also designed the Signal Monster system with extremely simple entry and exit rules: enter at the opening of the market, exit at the close of the market, and place a stop-loss at 8% below the entry price.

I am currently testing out the Monster's performance by trading daily on its predictions. On any given day it will usually generate signals for a few of the stocks being tracked. I will only be trading one of these stocks, and will keep that particular signal private. However, I'll post the rest of the predictions here on the blog as a way of (a) getting feedback from other traders on their accuracy (b) keeping an ongoing record of the Monster's performance and (c) providing ideas on how to design your own equity trading system.

All signals are provided for educational and informational purposes only. If you decide to trade on any of the Monster's signals, you do so at your own risk.

Here's how all the signals work:

Each signal has been tested on over 7 years of market data accessed through Yahoo! Finance.

The Monster digests the most recent market activity and price data for one of the stocks on its list.

If the data triggers any of the signals in its menu, the Monster spits out a Buy signal for that stock. (I have short-selling signals available as well, and may eventually be posting Sell predictions as well.)

A signal indicates that the stock is likely to post gains above the next opening price in one of the next four trading days. So if a Buy signal is triggered for a Monday, it predicts that by the close of market Thursday that stock will have risen above its Monday opening price on at least one of those four days.

The signals don't predict a percentage gain, and simply state that the stock is likely to go up within the next four days.

The Signal Monster's exit strategy is to sell at the close of trading on the first day in which this stock posts a gain.

The Signal Monster's stop-loss is triggered by an 8% decline.

I'll try to post the Monster's signals for the following day shortly after the close of trading on the current day. I'll also post regular updates on overall performance of its trading predictions.

Thanks for reading - this should be an interesting ride!