Each month in this Journal, our technical support staff addresses issues of interest to many CSI subscribers in a question-and-answer format. 

Notice:
  The views and information expressed in this document reflect the opinions and experience of the author Robert C. Pelletier.  Neither CSI nor the author undertake or intend to provide tax advice or trading advice in any market or endorse any outside individual or firm.  All recommendations are provided for their informational value only.  Readers should consult competent financial advisors or outside counsel before making any software purchase or investment decision.  CSI does not stand behind or endorse the products of any outside firms.

Copyright (c) 2001 Commodity Systems Inc. (CSI).  All rights are reserved.

Q.
    I noticed several new indexes in the CSI data feed recently. How many are there and what types of indexes are included?

A.
    You must have come across the 350 Dow Jones Indexes(SM) we added in May. Our data now includes much more than the famous Dow Jones Industrials, Transportation, Utilities and Composite. Also included are REITs (real estate investment trusts), broad market, small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap stock indices and market sectors, such as energy, consumer products, basic materials, health care, technology, telecommunications, and utilities. Forty industrial groups, including food, chemicals, medical products, mining, oil and gas, and textiles are also provided. World and regional stock indices, including the American stock indices, European stock indices, internet indices, indices for tobacco, alcohol and gambling, etc., etc. are all present in this new data set. Many of these are stock price related, with some being a compilation of various world or domestic stock prices. 

Q.
    Is there a simple way to view a list of the new Dow Jones Indexes in Unfair Advantage?

A.
    Yes. UA's enhanced data manager allows you to choose very specific market types for charting or inclusion in your portfolio. Any series that is stock related is held in the stock database, so it would be found under "Market Type - Stocks." From the stock selection screen, you can display a sublisting of market types, which includes stock indices, along with 14 other choices. Choose "Stock Indices," and then scroll to or search for the symbol "DJ," which represents the first two characters of the symbol for each of these indices.

Q.
    How can the new Dow Jones Index data help me in my trading?

A.
    There are many ways that such information may be valuable to the user. For example, if prices at the gas pump (as reported by the DJ US Oil and Gas Index) are going up faster than the cost of crude oil futures, perhaps an investment in Crude oil futures or an oil company might be appropriate. This is so because oil company earnings may increase due to the added revenue without a corresponding increase in costs. 

    Of course, other factors such as labor and transportation costs, interest rates, management, etc. may also influence stock prices. Don't forget about all of the readily available support offered through UA in the area of economic and government statistics. Important areas like the US outstanding national debt, Producer Price Indices (PPI) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for various products and categories, statistics on hourly wages, Employment statistics, days of idleness, industrial production, prices for wood and oil, and statistics on fatalities and accidents, etc., etc. are all readily available for the trader to view through UA for decision-making purposes. 

    This type of data is updated and brought current monthly for users to study and enjoy. The ability to view all of these economic areas through Unfair Advantage should add substantial value to anyone who wishes to make an economic market laboratory out of a home computer.

Q.
    Sometimes the data I get from CSI doesn't match what I see in the newspaper. How can I know which is accurate?

A.
    Users can count on CSI for accurate data that is based on at least five independent data sources of market information (inclusive of the originating exchanges themselves). While newspapers typically rely on one source, we jointly compare data from our multiple sources before release. You might be surprised at how frequently discrepancies occur. We spare no expense in vendor fees and effort to consistently supply the most accurate data possible; however, errors do occasionally occur. If you have doubts about a particular quote received from CSI, please call or e-mail us at techsupport@csidata.com with the details. Substantiated error reports supplied by customers are always rewarded with a free CSI 30th Anniversary pen.

Q.
    I have been developing a trading approach for some time that uses UA's standard back-adjuster software for my custom studies. After my last UA upgrade, the results of backtesting on Natural Gas futures changed from previous results. Please explain the difference and confirm that the program is functioning properly.

A.
    We appreciate your concern for accuracy when analysis results differ from one version to the next. We made a deliberate change to our algorithm affecting UA's roll date selection, and it revealed an existing failure to accurately calculate price differentials in rare cases of consecutive monthly contract differences when contracts roll forward in time. The only affected commodities where we found the errors to surface are NYMEX Natural Gas and London Potatoes, both of which share an unusual trading pattern.

    We are working on correcting this problem and hope to have it resolved by the time you receive this Journal. All affected UA subscribers are urged to contact our Technical Support staff so that we can transmit a revised executable file (a new copy of "adjust.exe") to you as soon as possible. We regret this error in processing these two commodities, and thank you for bringing this example to our attention.