Unparalleled Market Data
You probably came to CSI for data, which is our specialty. You already know
that we provide summary end-of-day market data, but did you know how very broad
our offerings are?
CSI's Offerings:
There are over 80 commodity futures exchanges in the world and CSI's covers
them all.
Many thousands of futures contracts are reported each and every trading day.
All stocks traded in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. are reported.
Options on indices, and all futures options are included.
Single Stock Futures reflect current availability.
The full range of 15,000+ US mutual funds are provided, complete with
adjustments for capital gains and dividends.
All futures series can be transformed into a multitude of computed contracts.
Briese's Commitments of Traders (COT) data is included.
Ninety-nine percent of coverage reaches back to the first day of trading for
each respective market. "Personal and private" users can access up to ten years
of history, depending upon market category. Users can arrange to access more
history, if desired. Professional subscribers have no limits.
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Quick and Easy Updates
Downloading data is so simple! Just click the telephone icon on the UA toolbar,
or update automatically in an unattended mode. You can even visit our website
before you download to monitor CSI's internal posting status of your favorite
markets.
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Accuracy is Everything!
Data accuracy is assured with Unfair Advantage, and every customer enjoys the
same level of perfection. Errors do occur, but any suspicious data point
reported by a customer or discovered by our staff will be subject to careful
review and verification. If an error is confirmed, a correction will be
transmitted the following day. An independent study featured in Futures
Magazine found CSI's error and omission rate lower than all competing data
firms tested. (Futures, 9/99 - How Clean is your Data?) We publish monthly all
errors committed during the past 30 days.
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Snapshots Show Market Movement
The UA Snapshot is a great way to get an overview of daily closes, volume and
the net change for individual issues. Access by your private portfolio or all
futures markets at once.
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Revolutionary Compression Saves Disk Space
Unfair Advantage uses a proprietary serial compression (four times more
powerful than Microsoft's Double Space) to hold hundreds of thousands of time
series in a relatively small amount of disk space.
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More Price Manipulations
Under menu control or at the right-click of your mouse, UA can adjust the
presentation of data, such as:
Add a constant to move a given back-adjusted series out of negative territory
Detrend a series to analyze data resources in today's constant dollar terms.
When back testing a trading algorithm or procedure on extended historical
reserves, the detrend adjustment eliminates the tendency to treat past history
with less weight than it may deserve.
Data Splicing and Concatenation are options allowing you to join related data
series such as the Deutche Mark and the new Euro into one complete series for
analysis and charting purposes.
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Unfair Advantage
QuickStart Manual
Included with Unfair Advantage is a QuickStart Manual, a guide to using the CSI software. It also serves as a quick an easy reference to UA's main features. Click here to download the manual online, and get a feel of how UA really operates. (.PDF form, requires Adobe Acrobat to view).
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Portfolio Management
Unfair Advantage is designed around one or more user-defined portfolios
representing the various futures, stocks, funds, options, etc. you wish to
actively follow. The value of a portfolio to the UA user is that all of the
items in all portfolios are conveniently grouped and export files are
automatically updated at data distribution time. Your specifications for the
computed contracts are stored in your portfolios, along with format and
reporting frequency (daily, weekly or monthly) requirements for export files.
Portfolios are designed to facilitate file appendage whenever possible, but
will totally re-create files from scratch whenever necessary. Portfolios make
it easy to access charts and studies that may be important to your market
interests. Portfolios also make it easy to use UA as the data source for
multiple analysis products.
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Basic Charting Tools
Every user of Unfair Advantage can see not only
today's summary data reports, but may also review the extensive history of any
series in chart form or as a numerical table. Charting with UA is arranged to
assist the analyst in comparing one market with another, and lets you
simultaneously display studies superimposed over the data. There are many ways
in which one might present a chart: The bar frequency of any given time series
can range from daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly to annually. Lines may be
drawn in selected colors, and the charts may be annotated. Study curves may
accompany the pricing data, and can be color-coded as preferred. Use the "Study
Tools" menu or right-click your mouse to reach these features.
 
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Our lineup of standard study tools currently includes:
Candlestick Charts (a display option)
MAC/D
Moving Average Crossover
Wilder's Relative Strength Index
Spread Basis
Stochastic
Trend Lines, Ellipses and Rectangles
At The Money Study - A CSI exclusive
Seasonal Index - Another CSI innovation
Additional offerings are planned.
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Unbeatable Features
Our decades of experience with international traders and investment firms give
us a unique knowledge of the tools that make a difference. Such as:
Displaying Charts in any Currency: Since UA can process market data from
over 80 international futures exchanges that involve multiple currencies; it
often becomes necessary to view multi-national products in regional terms. UA
can easily make the conversion by displaying market movement using currency
cross-rates.
Displaying Charts by Contract Value: A typical UA commodity price chart
is presented in price per pound, barrel, ounce, ton, bushel, etc. UA allows
such a chart to be presented in full contract value in any currency, which is
quite helpful in assessing risk and exposure.
Semi-Logarithmic Scale Presentation: A chart covering an extreme range
of values may sometimes benefit from a scale change. Convert from a Y-scale
linear presentation to a Y-scale logarithmic presentation with a few clicks of
the mouse.
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Advanced Chart Tools
UA offers an advanced analysis system that allows users to write and test
custom trading systems. This includes an optimization feature with graphic and
numerical results. Use VisualBasic or Perl to modify sample programs or write
your own trading systems. Sample studies provided in the Advanced Study Library
include:
ADX
Average True Range
Bollinger Bands
Volatility
Williams %R
Ultimate Oscillator
Emerging Market Study (a CSI exclusive)
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Unfair Advantage Trading Tools
UA is delivered with a number of innovative analytical tools that could be
quite helpful in protecting and expanding your trading assets.
Trading System Performance Evaluator (TSPE)T
Many Unfair Advantage users make trading decisions based upon customized
technical analysis. Others rely on technical trading systems they have
purchased to generate buy and sell signals. In either event, such systematic
procedures can now be investigated in advance of committing funds to the
market.
TSPE is a Monte Carlo Simulation that will interpret your actual, simulated or
projected track record and determine whether you have a chance to achieve a
pre-set monetary goal before exhausting your capital stake. Too often, the
success of a trading system depends heavily upon the experienced trading
sequence of profits and losses. Rare windfalls can make an otherwise poor
result appear to be a great trading system. Since TSPE randomizes the mix of
profits and loses under the assumption that each profit or loss is an
independent outcome, the result becomes much more believable. This tool is FREE
to all UA subscribers, and should be used before embracing any trading system.
By thoroughly examining your proposed trading approach, you will know how much
capital you must put at risk to accomplish a given likelihood of fulfilling
your goal.
TSPE is found on UA's Trading Tools menu and requires the following input:
1) the string of actual or paper profits and losses experienced over a
period of time,
2) your monetary goal and
3) the capital you are willing to place at risk. In cases where you may
have purchased a trading system, request the developer supply a trade-by-trade
record so that you can apply those facts in advance and determine what TSPE
says your capital stake and profit goal might be. TSPE will calculate and
quantify your chances of repeating that actual or simulated experience.
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MultiMarket Analyzer (MMA)T
This analysis product is designed to help you trade many markets as a
correlated group. It functions as a natural tool for evaluating market
dynamics. MMA statistically determines which markets are leaders, which are
followers, which are correlated and which are redundant. Then it lays out its
understanding of the current econometric picture with an emphasis on probable
direction. Access it through the Trading Tools menu and identify your desired
group of markets.
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MarketScannerT
This tool enables the trader to write custom indicators and studies to follow
and predict market action. The analyst can capture market statistics on stocks
by exchange identification (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, all mutual funds, etc.) to sort
and filter this data to reveal a list of stocks or commodities that meet a
particular criterion. For example, one might want to reduce a list of stocks
down to all stocks that are priced between $10 and $20 per share, or all stocks
which have just risen by over 25% in a single day, or all stocks that have just
broken out of a 5 or 10-day low or high. The Market Scanner offers a very
simple way to examine large volumes of data with relative ease. Your indicators
can be written in VisualBasic or Perl, both of which are built into the UA
product.
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Emerging Market Study
To familiarize the user with this the custom programming offered within both
the Advanced Studies in the UA charting module and MarketScannerT, several
sample Perl program codes are included. These guide the user through the
initial learning experience. The Emerging Markets Study is an exclusive CSI
product and a promising trading tool, for which the complete code is supplied
to every subscriber. With this sample study, one can quickly review the history
of many thousands of stocks and identify every stock that meets the condition
of
1) flat market behavior, followed by
2) accelerating upward or downward market movement. There is much that
the UA analyst can do to expand on this capability to identify potentially
profitable opportunities, or one can simply use the tools supplied to create
useful original studies.
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Position ManagerT
This Internet-linked capability prices open holdings throughout the day using
the following update schedule:
Stock positions: almost real-time
Futures positions: (coming soon) 20-minute delay
Mutual funds: from last day end
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Stay on top of your investments with intraday updates showing you both
individual market performance and ongoing account progress. This trader's
"accountant" shows the then-current net change from yesterday's close and
reports an ongoing equity value for all stocks and futures and funds throughout
the trading day.
Part of CSI's Unfair Advantage® (UA) software, this program was engineered to
accommodate multi-national investments. Values can be seamlessly calculated in
the currency of choice, regardless of the currencies used for by world
exchanges for reporting your various positions. Position Manager processes data
in Euros, Pounds, Dollars, Rubles and more without missing a beat.
Enter or import your portfolio, then automatically keep track of winning and
losing trades, open and closed account equity, current positions and more.
Records export to a spreadsheet or to UA's Trading System Performance
EvaluatorT where they can help you make better trading decisions.
Unfair Advantage customers of record before January 1, 2003 will have access to
this service at no extra charge. The software is included in UA versions 2.5.2
and higher.
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Special Features
Unfair Advantage is unlike any other market data and analysis system because it
does much, much more. Here are a few of the special features you'll find only
at CSI, and only as an Unfair Advantage subscriber.
Application Programming Interface (API)
UA comes complete with an API to assist developers who may wish to access the
massive CSI Database with customized software written and owned by the
customer. The instructions for making an API project work for you are clearly
presented in the UA Programmer's document, which is supplied with the software.
Programmers are invited to become API developers and write your own indicators
and systems for public distribution. CSI has a Marketing Assistance Program
that offers incentives to developers who refer their customers to CSI.
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Intermarket Correlation Studies
This is an impressive set of information that will be useful to anyone looking
for low-risk intermarket-spread opportunities. The CSI host computer looks at
some 320,000 pairs involving the 800 futures markets that UA follows daily. It
then computes correlation coefficients based upon twelve years of data on each
of the markets. The resulting 320,000 correlations are sorted from most to
least correlated. The most positively correlated and the most negatively
correlated markets are identified in a table for review, showing their
coincident movement. The difference, measured in standard deviations, is also
shown so that the user can identify market entry points (for example, where
market "A" diverges from market "B.") The trading suggestion for the user is to
sell the higher member of the correlated pair and buy the lower member of the
highly correlated pair. Perpetual Contract® data is used to feed the system.
This study is unique, original, and unbiased. All students of the market should
consider it as a source of direction. We suggest simultaneously considering the
results of the seasonal study when making trades in correlated markets.
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Power Through Knowledge
Load up on important facts - both widely reported news stories, and those
important tidbits that are known only by a few. CSI keeps you in-the-know with
these Free services:
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News Headlines
Stay informed about today's important news events that are reported by major
news agencies. At your option, UA will display the day's news headlines with
URL links to relevant stories that may affect your trading plans. These stories
are displayed during the distribution phase of each daily download session.
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Tomorrow's Newspaper Today
A new addition to UA is a comprehensive display of charts and data. View online
from CSI's website:
Major indexes and market movers;
Closing price and fundamental information that shows the progress of both stock
and futures markets by category and class;
Up-to-date charts of price movement for nearly any time series that let you
readily identify the markets that are moving into new ground, and
Intermarket Correlation studies.
Click here to view newspaper
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Market Facts, Alert & Event Calendar
A highly informative set of documents is provided within UA, including the
Online Factsheet, the Alert Calendar and the Event Calendar. Each of these is
accessible through UA's Database menu. Rare, but important historical facts
concerning particular markets are readily available for students of the
markets.
View the online factsheet for a full census of all possible choices that CSI
reports. Sort by exchange, CSI number, symbol, name, trading units, trading
currency, etc. to uncover important details about the inventory of markets.
UA's Alert Calendar gives information such as the last trading day, first
notice day and pertinent market details to keep you informed of market details
such as the risk of delivery, etc.
The Event Calendar tracks world holidays that may affect any given market.
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CSI Technical Journal
Each month regular subscribers receive this thought-provoking newsletter. Chock
full of market and economic insights, views on analysis techniques and specific
information about CSI's services, this Journal is eagerly awaited by our
readers. A library of current and historical CSI Technical Journals is
available on the CSI website Here.
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Transformed Computed Data
Unfair Advantage comes with software that will transform raw futures contract
data for a given commodity into a single continuous series. This forces any
futures series comprised of many delivery months into a single series that can
be analyzed over an extended period. This type of data is suitable for
individual study or for simultaneous analysis of multiple continuous series.
The available options include:
A time-weighted Perpetual Contract® data series, which reduces a given futures
market into a single continuous series using a constant future-period-forward
perspective measured in days and months.
A back-adjusted series in which individual contracts are concatenated over time
and adjusted by a delta difference (to provide smooth continuity to the data)
as each contract rolls from the current month to a more distant month. Delivery
months visited may be dependant upon either a given calendar date relative to
the start or end of the month or the magnitude of volume, open interest, either
volume or open interest or both volume and open interest, etc. Precise roll
timing may be controlled according to the availability of delayed volume and/or
open interest reports relative to the current trading day.
A proportionally adjusted series, which is quite similar to the above
back-adjusted series, except that the delta adjustment is done in percentage
terms. This minor difference helps to avoid situations where a back-adjusted
series might move into negative territory. A proportionately adjusted series
cannot move into negative territory, but it can approach zero.
A Gann series, in which historical data is transformed into a series comprised
of successive historical segments of the same delivery month over successive
years. Using this algorithm, the output continuous series becomes a compilation
of all July deliveries, for example.
A Nearest Future series, which is an artificial contract representing a
concatenation of successive contracts over time, reflecting the price, volume,
and open interest of the Nth nearest future. In this option, there is no
attempt to account for step-size jumps or drops in price as contracts change
from one to another.
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Explanatory Essays
The online and printed UA reference manuals assist and instruct the user on the
merits of using each of the many computed contract series through essays by Bob
Pelletier. The methods used and the definitions of each are provided. These
essays explain the pros and cons of each of several alternatives that might be
helpful in choosing the best approach for your development efforts. For
example, the merits of using Perpetual Contract Data versus a back-adjusted
contract, versus. an Nth-Nearest future, or a Gann contract may be explored.
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Commitments of Traders (COT)
Steve Briese, editor of the Bullish Review, has compiled a unique database of
the weekly COT data. The CFTC reports on the open interest positions of large
and small traders for all regulated commodities, and this market sentiment is
known to be an indicator of future market movement that favors the larger
commercial interests. Also included are the COT indices Mr. Briese has created
for each market to simplify interpretation.
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Unique CSI Chart Studies:
At The Money Study
Available only to subscribers of CSI futures option data, this study
graphically presents a band around a price chart of any given market that
supports option trading. For each output, the put premium is added to the close
and the call premium is subtracted from the close. The study reveals expected
volatility limits for the underlying time series, which lie between the put and
call lines. An advantage of this presentation is the implication of knowing
whether buying an option may be less expensive than invoking a protective stop.
Seasonal Index
Unlike competitive seasonal tools, UA's Seasonal Index Study depicts seasonal
tendencies by employing forward-looking analysis for individual markets. It is
unbiased in that it does not use the future to force the index to appear like
the past. UA's Seasonal Index is cumulative - based upon daily increments of
data by adopting a 251-trading-day year. This unique formulation allows it to
learn over time. The statistical nature of this study makes it a helpful tool
in predicting future market movement.
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Help at Your Fingertips
At any time, press the
key for a popup help screen about the current feature. Everything mentioned here is explained fully in Unfair Advantage's online manual, which you can read and search from the on-line Help menu. Most of this information is also available in printed form in our 320-page, ever-growing reference manual. The manual is available for $15 to Trial Users. If you purchase a manual, the cost will be deducted from your CSI subscription fee.
Please call CSI's marketing staff to have all your questions answered and to start your subscription today.
800.274.4727
561.392.8663; Fax: 561.392.7761
E-mail: info@csidata.com.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
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