In this issue:
I. NeuroShell 5.7 available
II. ChaosHunter 2.3 Beta version available
III. Commentary by Steve Ward, CEO
IV. Entry level version of NeuroShell Trader discontinued
V. ChaosHunter discount for NeuroShell Trader Pro users
VI. One way to stop this newsletter
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I. NeuroShell 5.7 has been available in beta form for a number of months, but not long ago we closed it out and made it our production version. There are no new features, but a number of bugs have been fixed since 5.6, and it is a much more stable release than 5.6. If you have 5.6 or below, or one of the 5.7 betas, you owe it to yourself to upgrade. The upgrade is free if you own any 5.x release; just log onto ward.net with your 5.x serial number and download it in the section called “Release news, upgrade information and beta tests”.
If you are on release 4.x or below, there are modest upgrade fees as follows, because, of course, each major release added much more functionality:
Trader 4.x to Trader 5.7 – $130
Trader 3.x and below to Trader 5.7 – $250
Trader Pro 4.x to Trader Pro 5.7 – $250
Trader Pro 3.x and below to Trader Pro 5.7 – $370
DayTrader Pro 4.x to DayTrader Pro 5.7 – $390
DayTrader Pro 3.x and below to DayTrader Pro 5.7 – $510
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II. ChaosHunter 2.3 Beta version available
Our programmers have released a Beta of ChaosHunter 2.3 for public testing by our existing users. This is a stable release that has been used in-house by us for many weeks now.
In addition to some 2.1 bug fixes, there are functional changes in this beta:
1. Changed how certain technical indicators behave when they cannot compute. The new feature is added to help ChaosHunter-created formulas be more compatible with TradeStation (and some other trading platforms).
We have provided a replacement for the original download of the TradeStation ELD on ward.net. This ELD fixes technical indicators so they output per the new behavior above.
2. We improved the behavior of the “Maximize %same sign” optimization goal.
3. We added the ability to run multiple ChaosHunter instances in parallel on the same machine. This allows users to optimize different files (or the same file but different optimization parameters) in parallel and take advantage of multiple CPUs in a way other than the usual distributed processing of one problem.
4. The Evolution Strategy optimization is modified to incorporate a newer technique for much faster processing of larger genetic pools.
5. The Cancel button is added to the dialog that prompts the user whether he/she wants to start optimization from scratch or continue optimizing the existing model in memory. The Cancel button allows the user to abort optimization and return to the parameter window.
You must log into ward.net with a ChaosHunter 2.1 serial number to access the download links and more details of the changes. If you do not own 2.1, you can upgrade as follows:
From 2.0 – $95
From below 2.0 – $395
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III. Commentary by Steve Ward, CEO
“Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets”. The book is by Edgar Peters, and even the second edition I am about to read is already 14 years old, but it comes highly recommended by some of our users, especially some of our ChaosHunter users. I have scanned it a little to see how the subject of chaotic markets is addressed. In Chapter 16 it was déjà vu for me as I read about companies which are successful applying chaos and non-linear methods to market trading.
The first company was LBS Capital Management, where we at Ward Systems got our feet wet with large scale neural network trading systems. Under contract around 1993, we built a huge neural network system for them running on big (at the time) workstations. The system was based around the then new NeuroShell 2 technology, but later they were one of the first users of NeuroShell Trader. Four of our employees still with us spent many days in Clearwater Florida or working on the contract. The technology was so good, State Street eventually purchased them, and it was later sold under a new name to a huge European fund for gobs of money.
The Prediction Company was described next, where the founders had been experts in chaos theory in graduate school. I read that in addition the chaotic techniques, the Prediction Company was also modeling with genetic algorithms and neural networks. We didn’t do any consulting there, but I like to think we were at least an inspiration, since the Prediction Company was founded in 1991, three years after we started selling neural network systems to traders.
Through the years we have helped a number of individuals and firms become very rich. One is a Dow 30 company our contract does not even allow me to brag about. Some of you met our contact from the company at a seminar (you never know who you will meet at one of our seminars!) Even though we haven’t charged much for our software or contracts that have made hundreds of $millions for others, we have found our reward building the algorithms.
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IV. Entry level version of NeuroShell Trader discontinued
About a month ago we stopped selling the $795 NeuroShell Trader entry version (i.e. the non-professional version without the optimizer). This was done for a number of reasons. First of all, most people purchased the Pro versions, so it accounts for only 5% or less of our Trader sales. We also felt that having the optimizer was really important in building sucessful models, and Trader users eventually upgraded to a Professional version anyway. Perhaps the most important reason, though, is that when release 6.0 finally arrives, there will be new more powerful versions, and keeping track of upgrade and update combinations will be a much more complicated process.
Until release 6.0 arrives (date still unspecified, but not too long from now we hope), users of the entry level Trader on releases 4.x or below will be able to update to release 5.7 (see article I above for pricing). After we begin selling 6.0, you will only be able to upgrade to release 6.0 Trader Pro or DayTrader Pro.
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V. ChaosHunter discount for NeuroShell Trader Pro users
If you are already an owner of NeuoShell Trader Professional or Daytrader Professional, we will give you a 20% discount on the purchase of a new ChaosHunter through October 15, 2010.
If you like neural nets, read this carefully:
www.chaoshunter.com/chnn.asp
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VI. One way to stop this newsletter
It is really easy. Just change your email address and don’t tell us.
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