February 11, 2019

A Fond Farewell for Tyler McCain

Tyler has worked with us for about 4 years: doing anything that needed doing. From testing (tedious but critical) to creating new strategies that manage risk and optimize returns, to writing articles (137 of them!), handling customer issues and more. He has also created much of the course work that students use to learn investing, including the Equities Lab 101 course on every account.…
October 5, 2018

Changing the Benchmark

Equities Lab

Learn how to benchmark your strategy versus various benchmarks, ranging from indexes, to stocks and other strategies.

Imagine you have a large cap screen

Imagine you have a large cap screen Cutting to the chase, imagine you have a simple screen that finds reasonable large cap companies.  That screen is literally

Cutting to the chase, imagine you have a simple screen that finds reasonable large cap companies.  That screen is literally “import ohlson_o_score < -3 and mc > 10b”

Click on “® B 9”

Click on ” src=”https://www.equitieslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/e59du_2.jpg” />

 

 

 

Click on “I Trading Rules”

Click on ” src=”https://www.equitieslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/e59du_5.jpg” />

 

Click on “S&P 500”

Click on ” src=”https://www.equitieslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/e59du_6.jpg” />

 

Add AAPL for a tough benchmark.

…
June 20, 2018
Why Death Crosses Don't Work

Death Crosses Don’t Work

OK, what is a death cross, and what do I mean by “it doesn’t work”? A death cross is a (very) vivid name for a short term moving average slipping below a longer term moving average.  Technical analysts love to sell when they see death crosses, and buy when they see golden crosses.…
March 26, 2018
Using Monte Carlo with Piotroski

How To Use Monte Carlo With The Piotroski Score

Henry CrutcherHow to analyze a factor without ranking in Equities LabCreate a screen

Everything starts with creating a screen.  So, onward!Name your screen

Screeners with names can be found later.  If you want to put your screens into categories, simply put MyCoolCategory: at the front.Limit your stocks

You can type “Market Cap > 500m” here.  …
March 2, 2018
This how-to shows how to create a strategy in Equities Lab, and how to do some basic analysis of it. For humor value, we take the point of view of a children's book character, named Amelia Bedelia, who has no common sense. We have all felt this way some times.

The Amelia Bedelia Mutual Fund

This how-to shows how to create a strategy in Equities Lab, and how to do some basic analysis of it. For humor value, we take the point of view of a children’s book character, named Amelia Bedelia, who has no common sense. We have all felt this way sometimes.

Create A Screener

A quantitative mutual fund is a screener.  

…
January 16, 2018
A lesson on absolute prices versus relative ones

Can’t Compare Close or EPS to a Number

A lesson on absolute prices versus relative ones

You’ve been referred to this page by something saying “You can’t (or shouldn’t) use Close > 5.00” in a stock screener. 

Imagine you are looking at a share of GoodStock (yeah, I know that’s a lame name for a fake stock!).  It goes up and up, and up! …

December 1, 2017
Is Apple a stock worth buying? Other people have discussed (at length) its "questionable" product decisions

An Educational Look at Apple (AAPL)

Analyzing Apple

An Apple by itself

Is Apple a stock worth buying? Other people have discussed (at length) its “questionable” product decisions, such as:

  • The touch bar
  • getting rid of Touch Id in favor of using facial recognition
  • Scrapping a whole ecosystem of connectors to push the “Lightning cable”
  • Eliminating the headphone jack from the newest generation of phones.
…
November 9, 2017
Investment Green Flag - Positive Operating Cash Flow over the Past Year

Investment Green Flag – Positive Operating Cash Flow over the Past Year

We’ve all heard the old trope that “Cash is King.” Well, in terms of a company it just might be. As part of our Green Flag score we have created a line that requires that a company have a positive operating cash flow over the past four quarters.If you are unfamiliar with what operating cash flow is, it is exactly what the name suggests – cash flow from operations.…
March 12, 2017

Investing is as american as apple pie

How are investments like apple pie?

Think back to the last slice of apple pie you have had. My last slice, eaten with my wife and two daughters, was delicious. It was out of this world. For me, it was the best apple pie. What makes it special? The recipe (passed down from my mother in law to my wife, Emily) is simple:

Ingredients:

6 Granny Smith Apples

1/2 cup of sugar

cinnamon

nutmeg

Four Pillsbury frozen pie crusts

First question: why are we using four pie crusts for one pie?!?…

February 27, 2017
See how XOM's price mostly follows its earnings

Exxon Mobil: Does a prolonged earnings slide mean anything?

Looking at XOM

Companies’ stock prices generally go up when earnings do.  So, when faced with a stalwart household name whose earnings have been steadily going down for two years, what should we do?   Consider Exxon Mobil.  Since it has some history (Rockerfeller founded Standard Oil in 1870), we can take the long view.  …

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