I came across an interesting stock screener/filter recently: Stockpickr.com
Its described by some of the creators as a "MySpace for stock picking" (but I’m not sure if thats a good thing). A better way to think about it is more like Amazon’s recommendation engine. If you put in a stock (or a full watchlist of stocks), the system’s algorithm or colloborative filters will spit out recomendations from hedge funds, mutual funds, and investors like Buffett, Soros, etc. who own similar stocks to yours.
You also can browse through these portfolios (hedge funds, mutual funds, Buffet, Soros, etc.)
James Altucher is involved, and even though we frequently disagree about macro-economics, he has a good history with both hedge funds and online stock analysis.
I guess the smart money has decided rate cuts are a certainty, so they have decided to front run the liquidity driven rally that always comes from rate cuts. It’s the only explanation I can come up with to justify this enduring rally in the wake of deteriorating economic fundamentals that are certain to result in a reduction in earnings estimates for 4Q and 2007. 8000 hedge funds gaming each other has apparently changed the playbook.
Add escalting job cuts to the long list of negative economic data points (link below).
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20061003-105801-6016r.htm
Those websites (gradr, stockpickr, etc…) are worthless.
It’s a bunch of college students gathering and playing trader.
I tried gradr and left after a week, some comments were just plain idiotic (I recommend MOT because the RAZR is the sexiest phone ever).
Even a rookie investor like myself find these absolutely useless
Ever fooled around with stockfetcher.com? Pretty cool.
One wonders how many of these sites are actually collecting portfolio data in an attempt to “front run” trends?
Suppose the same could be said of the rest of the sites that “maintain your portfolio for you,” and electronic brokers too.
10/04/2006 Market Update:
The Dow industrials soared today into record territory as investors were reassured by a much larger than expected contraction in the service sector, weak factory orders, and weaker than expected private sector job growth. In an uncharacteristic revision, Wal-Mart cut its already weak estimate for growth in U.S. same-store sales during September indicating weaker consumer spending and sparking a mid-afternoon rally that brought the Dow to a new record.
The rally faded in anticipation of a scheduled speech by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke but later revived as the Chairman warned of a “stark economic future” and “severe fiscal challenges” that could be brought on by a rapidly aging population.
I checked it out, and would have to agree with wcw, that site is slow like molasses. Its a great idea… a “myspace” for the market, but it needs some work on the back end to get my eyeballs.
A couple of responses:
– this is all based on software i wrote for myself to generate trading ideas from the best picks of the best hedge funds. just last week i decided to open it up to everyone else since i think, the more the merrier.
– we selected the best hedge funds, mutual funds, and super-investors based on several databases pluys our own internal database as a fund of funds.
– speed: we are definitely a victim of successhere but have programmers working 24/7 to make each page load no slower than 4-5 seconds.
– all feedback welcome. the key for the site is to continue improving the quality of the recommendations.
Came across that is quaint. Why don’t you tell everyone that this is James Altucher new site. You know, your point counter point buddy.
anderl:
Which part of “James Altucher is involved” do you find somehow ambiguous?
I don’t know how much clearer anyone can make it . . .
Both the 21-Day Breadth (16.42) and 21-Day Volume Ratio (7.03) indicator values are less than their respective values of 17.63 and 32.93 occurring on 5/10/2006, the date of the most recent DJIA high. This indicates that the markets are technically weaker and should soon reverse
The site is pretty good , but would love to see how portfolio risk as a weighted sum of covariation of all stocks in the portfolio is measured
I put in 3 dividend stocks: acas, gty and czn.
Got back half div and rest no yield. My picks were trending up. Half the site picks were not. Clicked on home, then another area at the site and back to home. Each time I got to home, received a new set of stocks.
What’s the critiera for those picks?
OT but noteworthy: Listening to the Intermec conference call tonight, where they discussed why they are revising their revenue guidance downward, it was interesting to note that they said the last time they had a fall-off this steep was at the “leading edge” of the last recession.
(Though they attribute their revenue shortfall this time to delay of orders due to introduction of new products and the “competitive environment” rather than to the state of the economy.)
For those who are interested, the conference call replay number is in the press release:
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/061004/20061004005910.html?.v=1
Robert, thanks for checking the site out. The algorithm is intended to give you recommendations based on the picks of pro and non-pro portfolios that are highly correlated to your portfolio. Some of the picks (the last two) are intended to be a bit more speculative and change more frequently but are still based on correlations.
Its interesting that you got back some picks that were non-yielding. Sometimes the best recommendations are ones for diversification. For instance, if someone puts in 8 biotech stocks they probably will get back some biotech stocks and they maybe an oil stock. How come? Because most hedge funds dont contain just one sector but are diversified and the algorithm reflects that.
All feedback is welcome and I appreciate the comments that are coming on this board. Maybe next Barry can finally put one of my worst-selling books on the right hand side here.
-James
Always amazed at the genorosity of people and – yes – large corporations, at making available for no charge, some very useful company analytical software.
And btw, providing the data to go with it.
It was so hard decades ago – there was no choice but to go through the reports and filings and keep a pencil written spreadsheet – and lots of erasers.
I do have one suggestion for Mr. Altucher.
Finding companies which are featuring in other people’s portfolios is one thing.
Would there not be some use in adding a company analytical feature which compared the defining characteristics of the companies being collected?
In other words, if one placed JNJ in a screen, it would probably be far more useful if the software threw up 3 companies which were similar to JNJ in terms of P&L, Balance sheet, ROIC – and so on.
Not necessarliy in the same industry either.
Then one would be able to get a fuller grasp of why investors who succeed over many decades seem to gravitate to companies with similar characteristics.
Btw, they dont all head for the same companies – we all have our quirks. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed out on over the decades because I thought auto, airline, housing, materials, technology,and mining companies were all too volatile for me.
Missed the lot – but managed to stay ahead.
In large part because – as the years went by – I realised that all the companies that succeded for me had certain common financial and operational qualities.
Such a screening might well enhance Mr. Altucher’s splendid site.
Barry-
As we transition into COOLER weather here, might certain product placement obligations of yours finally be met? Just a friendly reminder (although satisfying the notice requirements under Section III-B (1.2) of the legally binding contract between us).
Sincerely,
Mark McCormack, President
The Sweater Marketing Group LLC
Barry-
I’m I the only one not in on some inside joke with this Sweater group? A google search produces more than a few instances that these guys have been hounding you…
I’ve gotten some great stock picks from http://www.karibbeankid.com small/micro cap companies
I personally use and like Stockfetcher.com and
Stockalicious.com.
Stockalicious has a cool ‘Similar Stocks’ feature based on the past trading path. I always use it to find stocks that are similar to my favs. Eg. here are some stocks that are similar to my fav Cisco
http://www.stockalicious.com/stock/csco/similar
If anyone is interested, here’s my portfolio:
http://www.stockalicious.com/stock_journal/242
Stockfetcher’s new FLASH 2.0 version is damn cool too. I love their filters. Powerful! And i like the various chart types for their price charts.
I use both sites regularly. Stockfetcher to pick stocks, Stockalicious to log my portfolio transactions
Since this post we’ve had a lot of success with Stockpickr and Stockpickr.com.
1) we now have 65,000 portfolios entered into the system.
2) Stockpickr now has blog indexing and video indexing per portfolio
3) We added Stockpickr Answers
4) We joined forces with thestreet.com
5) Stockpickr’s blog has gotten a lot more active and also has guest bloggers.
-James
Stockpickr.com
Do any of these sites have a concept of usability? They are all horrible to use.