Rather than have a completely "faceless" web site, this page was added, to let you know some
things about the person behind the site. For now, I will try to keep the content focused
around the site's subject.
Genesis
With a prior interest in independent investing of stocks, and technical analysis (T/A) in
particular, I made the first big leap by registering AmiBroker, in early 1997. All of the other
Aminet programs that dealt with stocks were compared, but AmiBroker looked as if it was the most
advanced (and it was better looking, too), and I just had a feeling that it was going to survive
longer than the rest (at least AmiBroker had had recent updates, the others did not). Time has
proved me right, on all counts.
Around the time AmiBroker was registered, StockMaster's historical data went off-line, after its servers at
MIT were hit by lightening (no, I am not making this up...). When StockMaster came back on-line,
its supply of US and Canadian histories were gone. I quickly realised that, to make AmiBroker
work at all, new sources of data for my local (& maybe US) data had to be found and importers for
it had to be written - by me! Fortunately, the Amiga uses ARexx as a scripting language, and it
was perfect at doing the job. It took a few weeks of very late nights to learn enough about ARexx,
data, the WWW & HTML and AmiBroker itself, to make the first importer actually work, but a more
powerful version of it is still in use today, in both the Canadian & US DalleySuites.
Contests
(Update) The Torstar contest no longer exists and we are not currently participating in any
contests. This will change after we find the right one.
To help sharpen my T/A techniques and with participation by us all, my whole family regularly enters a
local, now semi-annual, newspaper stock picking contest - the largest of its kind (usually with
over 100,000 entrants) in North America. This also increases our chances of some-one having a good
portfolio. My daughter, Nyssa, has always picked her own stocks, usually by just glancing at
charts and giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. We gradually ween out the ones she doesn't want,
until the final choices are made. Then the final details, such as how to weight the imaginary
investments, are worked out according to what I know about our market in general. This is all
done in the last few days of the entry period, using the latest data, so it is quite rushed.
Depending upon her schedule, my wife, Nina, usually does her own entry; sometimes I have had to
do it for her. It all ends up being a team effort, of sorts.
Until the Fall/99 contest, Nyssa usually had the best performing portfolios. That was until my
wife's portfolio entered the reporting period in second place! The highest level any of us had
reached before was Nyssa almost getting one hers into the Top 100. Some day, one of my own
entries may do well, but with the way contests are designed, it is difficult to place well on
the final day - the only day that really counts.
Currently, there is only this rather large picture of me.
March, 2000
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