"… Our methods use simple ideas from signal processing and statistics, which are sometimes overlooked in the empirical financial literature. The two approaches are evaluated against benchmark allocation techniques using 4 real datasets. Our methods outperform the benchmark allocation techniques in these datasets, in terms of both computational demand and financial performance."

"In this case, the computers kicked in their sell programs and there were no buy programs engaged - and so there was no market - and stocks wound up selling for a penny a share.

Now already known as the “flash crash,” this remarkable event will almost surely put a whole generation of young math whizzes out of business as Congress and the SEC crawl all over these operations and limit this kind of insane action.

I’m all for it because, and you can call me old fashioned, I don’t think the global equities markets should be an online gambling casino which is what they’ve become with the rise of the “quants” and their hyperactive supercomputers."

"People forget what the markets were like in the late 1970's when the pits were dead and the average person wanted nothing to do with the US equity markets. The creation of 401k's and more gambling tables like the options exchanges helped to perk things up. This latest generation of jokers will not stop until they have trashed the markets once again."

"I got my data from Norgate Investor Services, (the same folks that provide my end-of-day feed). They only charge a one-time fee for the delisted data, while some of their competitors charge as much as 3x Norgate’s one time fee with the charge recurring annually!
Since adding the delisted database, I have not noted any great differences in the historical results of the systems I work with. I have stated a few times that it is my belief that short-term systems that hold stocks for a few days to a week are not likely to suffer greatly from survivorship bias. So far, this belief is proving to be true."

"We document widespread changes to the historical I/B/E/S analyst stock recommendations database. Across seven I/B/E/S downloads, obtained between 2000 and 2007, we find that between 6,580 (1.6%) and 97,582 (21.7%) of matched observations are different from one download to the next. The changes include alterations of recommendations, additions and deletions of records, and removal of analyst names. These changes are nonrandom, clustering by analyst reputation, broker size and status, and recommendation boldness, and affect trading signal classifications and back-tests of three stylized facts: profitability of trading signals, profitability of consensus recommendation changes, and persistence in individual analyst stock-picking ability."

"The companies I selected were foreign-based corporations, which have increased their dividends for at least five consecutive years. I tried creating a diversified list of foreign stocks, in order to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket. I also tried to select companies with reasonable dividend payouts, sustainable business models and companies showing earnings over the past year."

After hearing several testimonials recently.

"Refining a new mechanical trading system and ran a series of backtests with and without a profit stop. As the post title states, this system uses four degrees of freedom. "

"Before you buy any solar energy stock or fund, read this article carefully, thoughtfully, and also do a great deal of "due diligence" to try to determine the risk-versus-the-reward of it all."

"A warning from Sunpower (SPWRA) last week is a sign that big solar companies are in trouble. US solar demand will not catch up in 2 years, even with solar tax credits in place. Overall, the solar sector may have some weakness in the short term, though I remain bullish long term."

"Wind power generating capacity has been growing quickly in the U.S. In 2007, wind capacity grew by 46%, adding 16 million megawatt-hours of electricity to our annual production. The wind turbines were manufactured by seven companies."