Stay on topic in your discussions, and avoid making off-topic or irrelevant posts. If you want to discuss a different topic, it is okay provided you mark the subject starting 'OT:', and also consider posting on a different board.
- Manlobbi
Investment Strategies / Mechanical Investing
No. of Recommendations: 36
Mechanical investing (MI) is a type of investment strategy in which the investor relies on predetermined rules and algorithms to make investment decisions. This approach aims to remove emotion and subjectivity from the investment process, and to increase the consistency and efficiency of the portfolio management.
This board continues the history that started at TMF in the late 1990s with their 'Foolish Four', and then an extremely active Mechanical Investing board whilst the NASDAQ was skyrocketing and momentum based MI strategies were doing exceedingly well. Over time, MI has had given mixed results, but the concept is sound. After all, when you purchase the S&P500 index, in a sense you are investing mechanically - in this case by selecting large cap weighted stocks systematically over many years. You could switch strategy to an equal weighted S&P500 index, which through the whole 20th C outperformed the standard S&P500 by 1% or 2% a year after costs.
Mechanical investors may use a variety of tools, such as stock selection by filtering over a large population of stocks each month, or each year, backtesting, and tracking progress of post-discovery data. The MI approach can be useful in theory for investors who lack the time or expertise to manage their investments actively, however in practice it tends to involve time and attention for most investors engaged in it.
The goal is usually to have a higher long-term average return than the S&P500, but some investors aim for a similar return but with reduced losses during market downturns.
I encourage you to take the time to leave shrewd posts to this board to share you excellent ideas and research findings with others. Within the gates of Shrewdom, you'll observe a merry spirit, and many waiting for your most shrewd observations so that we can collectively grow and prosper.
- Manlobbi
No. of Recommendations: 4
Thank you!
Let's hope for the best!
John
No. of Recommendations: 4
Wait, what?
How is this even possible?
Elan
No. of Recommendations: 25
Wait, what?
How is this even possible?
Elan
A text editor, terminal compiler, and very old fashioned programming techniques. The entire programming was hand typed before a single compile, and then everything compiled at once. Frankly it is not possible for most of the world now. You would need a team of 10 programmers working for 6 months, lots of version controls, and even then typically the system would be filled with problems after these 6 months, have incoherencies and so on.
This is a fun hobby, my real job - which involves ludicrously more concentration - is composing classical music.
In the old days, programmers would write a complex computer game alone in far shorter time than what the Hollywood-like teams produce today. Some hardcore programmers reading this - not the ones taught at university but the ones who start coding aged 10-14 so that it becomes a second language - will understand this completely.
I will let everyone here in on a more pleasant secret. My very first post on the TMF boards was a question about Mechanical Investing in 1999, and I remember extremely clearly how helpful you were Elan. Back then it was TMFElan. I worked with Elan, Kuperman, MoeBruin, they were great guys and great days. You have really been so consistent and wonderful over all these years Elan.
So what I wanted to conclude sounds far fetched but it is perfectly realistic, if you get the epistemology right. Without Elan answering me so especially diligently back in 1999, I might not have been such frequently collaborator with our MI research in the late 90s and early 2000s. At least if the latter was true, then the result would be certain - this new shrewdom.com board would not exist.
So there you have it. This post is dedicated wholeheartedly to Elan.
- Manlobbi
No. of Recommendations: 6
I'm with Elan. This seems like magic to me.
Baltassar (who despises the new board so much the even lurking in painful)
No. of Recommendations: 5
A text editor, terminal compiler, and very old fashioned programming techniques. usw....
Maybe the Lead Programmer over at TMF could take lessons from you.
Maybe you could...compose...a lesson plan for them--for a suitable remuneration.
Maybe, already knowing all the answers, they wouldn't listen.
Eric Hines
No. of Recommendations: 2
Cool! Even the shortcut keys -- dot & comma (next and prev) work. How the heck did you even know about them? I only discovered them by accident a long time ago.
Wonder if you also duplicated the trick it sometimes had of clearing out your reply text when you hit Preview. Hope not.
Wouldn't it be funny if everybody drifted over here from the new TMF abomination?
No. of Recommendations: 3
How the heck did you even know about them? I only discovered them by accident a long time ago.I also didn't know about it. Earlier today Aguila suggested it at the Shrewdsmith board, and 10 minutes later I had the 'return' key programmed in, and then added the , and . after.
http://www.digitalscores.com/MB?pid=886264892&whol...Wonder if you also duplicated the trick it sometimes had of clearing out your reply text when you hit Preview. Hope not.I also hope not! I did try to make some decisions, and the way everything interacts, cleaner or more logical. That in itself is an aesthetic goal.
Wouldn't it be funny if everybody drifted over here from the new TMF abomination?It would not surprise me, given the passing of time. I wrote about the abomination here:
http://www.digitalscores.com/MB?pid=155167248- Manlobbi
No. of Recommendations: 2
THANK YOU - Manlobbi!
It is great to see old familiar names in this format. I was looking for this option to get my weekly fix :-)
I just found out about this with a low-key mention on one of the posts on the other SITE.
Thanks again,
Syvash
