Notice:
  The views and information expressed in this document reflect the opinions and experience of the author Robert C. Pelletier.  Neither CSI nor the author undertake or intend to provide tax advice or trading advice in any market or endorse any outside individual or firm.  All recommendations are provided for their informational value only.  Readers should consult competent financial advisors or outside counsel before making any software purchase or investment decision.  CSI does not stand behind or endorse the products of any outside firms.

Copyright (c) 1999 Commodity Systems Inc. (CSI).  All rights are reserved.

Unfair Advantage Update Advice for Business partners CSI's Data Services Recognizing Formula Research

    UA version 2.1.0 has been released with 32 bit code. This significant upgrade features new TSPE system certification software, a new charting module and much more.

    UA's stock data will no longer be free upon annual renewal.  Please see CSI's UA Product Summary for pricing.
 

    This journal story is more about substantive customer support, compatibility and capability than higher level partnering and management relationships. However, the way a firm treats a partner could shed light on how that firm might regard its customers. We are all in this together, folks. We pay, we want to prosper, and we all want respect, fair treatment and good service in return. 

    Although each of us can control our own actions in this formula, we are part of a tightly interconnected industry. Unfortunately, there has been some misinformation going around our little industry about CSI's compatibility with a popular analysis program. We've heard that at least one CSI customer was informed by an Omega Research employee that Unfair Advantage® is not compatible with TradeStation®. We're hoping this was an honest mistake, as opposed to intentional disinformation. The whole situation leaves us with many questions, and this issue of the CSI Technical Journal aims to set the record straight. 

    The truth is that CSI's Unfair Advantage's database is totally compatible with both TradeStation and MetaStock®. Full compatibility is a given when using CSI as your data vendor. Users of virtually all market analysis software, including MetaStock and TradeStation, have found Unfair Advantage's flexible data export and import features to be compatible, capable and economical. Truth be told, fully one-fourth of CSI customers are also TradeStation users. Roughly 10% of CSI customers export CSI data to MetaStock software. Formats supported by CSI include the CSI format, the CSIM format, the MS format and the all-inclusive last resort--ASCII. 

    The thing that makes CSI data so desirable to analysts is the fact that our data feed is easier to manage and many times more accurate and comprehensive than Reuters®, Omega's HistoryBank.com, Genesis, Dial Data®, Glance®, and others. MetaStock uses Reuters and some or all others mentioned, and Omega recommends all but Reuters as compatible data suppliers. Because CSI is totally compatible with the MetaStock format, any customer using MetaStock could easily switch to CSI from Reuters and obtain cleaner data and save considerably on monthly fees. 

    CSI's pristine data products were compared to Omega's in a recent study published by Futures Magazine*. The study found Bill Cruz' Omega committed 485% as many errors and omissions as the nominal set attributed to CSI in a six-year test. That study, conducted by an independent research analyst (Sheldon Knight of K-Data), compared CSI data and Omega data with official exchange information from two different exchanges. The software used to conduct the test was, - you guessed it. - Omega's TradeStation. Dial Data committed 1,190% as many errors as CSI in that independent test, yet just before Omega's HistoryBank.com emerged from seemingly nowhere, Omega was prominently recommending Dial Data as the premiere choice on their downloading software. Go figure.

    The process of discerning fact from fiction can be very onerous when the information source is a company you thought you could trust. This brings us to the question, "Why would a software vendor mislead a CSI customer about data compatibility?

    Perhaps the employee turnover at Omega is too great to provide knowledgeable help. Or was it something we said? We demonstrated in this Journal (01/2000 edition) how various statistics from Omega's Strategy Performance report could lead to a critical deficiency in the capital required to fund a given TradeStation derived system. Our advice concerned CSI's Trading System Performance Evaluator (TSPE), a module within the UA system designed to protect one from entering a trading situation with inadequate capital. TSPE not only reports on realistic capital requirements, but it provides a reliable estimate on your chances of reaching a modest goal. To react with a false assertion about UA's compatibility with TradeStation is not a positive sign.

    Another question that arises is, "Why would a company want to push their customers to a firm with such dismal performance? Surely customers' trading success could be compromised through the use of quotations which are likely to be wrong?" CSI has not been bashful about reporting on the superiority of CSI data over that which is provided by Omega. Could this also explain the misunderstanding about compatibility?

    Call it what you will: misinformation, disinformation or just plain hogwash, don't believe it if someone tells you that CSI data can't be used with TradeStation. CSI is now and will continue to be fully compatibility with all popular analysis programs.

     Independence and FREEDOM are what CSI is all about. Omega, on the other hand, recently announced merging with an on-line brokerage firm, and, of course, the "Omega Research Magazine" is named for them.  Not so long ago, they moved into the data business, much to the chagrin of several data firms who thought they had an unending supply of new customers. Omega is now trying to get that business for themselves. Why not? Their competitor, MetaStock, has been teaming up with Reuters as their data vendor for years now. Both firms compared unfavorably to CSI in that independent test. And both firms have been in contact with CSI at one time or another about the acquisition of certain data. Independent and FREE is what we are, and we haven't succumbed to any competitive disadvantages.

    We invite everyone to get involved with CSI. We definitely have no reason to be influenced or compromised. We are proud to say we are not in Omega's pocket, and we share no revenue with them. We want only success for our customers. Our products are designed with you, not us, in mind. We know that if our customers don't regularly turn a profit, we won't be here. We know we have to work for our business, and I believe it shows. A data firm that gets your business for reasons other than performance has no incentive to perform.

CSI's Data Services

    CSI compiles daily and historical data on 25,000 U.S., U.K., and Canadian stocks, U.S. mutual funds, world indices, all world commodity markets for over 70 world exchanges, Steve Briese's Commitments of Trader data, world commodity options, world market alerts, daily news headlines, and much more. More than 500,000 years of daily history is at the fingertips of every CSI customer. Data reserves reach back in time before the middle of the 20th century, and all of it is virtually perfect.

    Customers can screen and filter all stocks, funds and index opportunities with CSI's stock scanner, and build any form or variety of back adjusted, perpetual, or nearest future continuous contract in almost any conceivable way for market study purposes. Never before has so much pristine data been made available to world traders in minimal space for such low fees.
 

    As a vendor of market data to parties who purchase and make use of various methods of technical analysis, I can't help but be seriously impressed with the insightful wisdom provided by Mr. Nelson Freeburg's periodical, Formula Research. Every month Nelson comes up with an analytical method for tracking and trading the markets.

    His documented systems have turned profits. Everyone, including developers who want to improve their performance, should pay attention to what quiet, capable, thoughtful and brilliant Nelson Freeburg has to say. I have been following his work for years. At less than $25 per month, his publication is among the best bargains in the industry.

    He has systems for trading T-Bonds, currencies, sector funds, precious metals, mutual funds, the S&P 500, and more. He also has several models that feature the works of others which he finds to be profitable. Nelson delivers incredible substance for practically nothing. At less than $25 per month, his publication is among the best bargains in the industry.

    He has been a devoted user of world CSI stock and futures data services for many more years than I care to add up. Call him at Formula Research: (800) 720-1080 or (901) 756-8607.