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.

A.
    As we go to press, the NYSE's conversion to decimalization is scheduled to have been completed by the end of January 2001. As the trading increments for this last batch of NYSE stocks were switched from fractions to decimals, we changed their price format code in Unfair Advantage from -4 to +2, just as we have done since the conversion began. QuickTrieve® conversion factors were not changed (like before). NASDAQ will follow with a March 12 pilot of 15 securities converting to decimal trading. Full decimalization is slated for April 9.

    See the September 2000 CSI Technical Journal (Tech Talk) for more information on how we're handling decimalization. 

Q.
    I'm a stock trader and am considering a venture into the commodity markets. I am confused by the pricing units and their relationship to the total value of a contract. Can you help?

A.
    Although these questions may be more appropriately answered by your broker, we will try to address them as they pertain to the data supplied by CSI. The information needed to understand any given futures market can be found in the CSI Commodity Database Factsheets. QuickTrieve users receive printed factsheets upon subscription, and Unfair Advantage users can access the factsheets through the UA toolbar. The important factsheet columns for your purposes include: units, contract size and point value. 

    The "units" column tells you what the market price represents. The "contract size" column tells you the multiple of the price that applies to your contract, and the "point value" tells you how much each incremental price move is worth to the trader. 

    For example, if you were to look at the Lean Hog market on the U.S. Chicago Mercantile Exchange, you would see that hogs' trading units are "cents per pound." The "contract size" for CSI commodity #4 is listed as 40,000 pounds and, since the point value represents hundredths of a cent, a one-point move would be worth $4.00 ($.0001 times 40,000 pounds). Should you take a position in this market, a full cent move from your entry price will earn you a gain or loss of $400 ($0.01 times 40,000 pounds). To graphically demonstrate this relationship, Unfair Advantage gives you the option of displaying prices on a per-unit or per-contract basis in any currency.

    This little overview is in no way sufficient to prepare you for trading commodities. Check your local library or bookstore for a variety of books and discuss your potential investments with a qualified investment professional to assess your risks. Always double-check current contract specifications with the exchange.

Q.
    What is involved in changing my Unfair Advantage daily updates to include commodities in addition to the stocks and mutual funds I'm now receiving?

A.
    Unless you subscribed within the last few weeks, the upgrade to a new market category will require ordering a new CD-ROM from CSI. Either way, the cost of your upgrade will depend upon your initial subscription category and the scope of markets (North American or World). You'll pay only the incremental difference between the two license fees and the balance of the annual prepayment for your new updates. You'll receive a CD with updated history on all the markets. Contact a CSI marketing representative to make the arrangements.

Q.
    Can I manually edit the prices in the UA database?

A.
    The UA database itself cannot be edited by the user. Error corrections made to the CSI host computer are transmitted along with daily updates to each UA subscriber. This assures that each user has an identical database of the most accurate data possible. 

    UA does allow you to create an exception file of price and/or volume and open interest revisions to meet your individual needs. This might be handy to correct an error before CSI has a chance or to do what-if studies. Your revisions can be incorporated in all charts and export format files, but will only be effective after these files have been re-written. Since your edits are stored separately and do not affect the compressed UA database itself, it is possible (and easy) to remove edits or to ignore them in any application.

    If you suspect an error in your CSI data, please report it to CSI so that the questioned values can be researched and appropriate corrections made to all UA installations. We reward the first person reporting an error with a CSI pen. Suspected errors should be reported via e-mail to techsuport@csidata.com.
 

Q.
    It seems that CSI changed the commodity symbol for day-only Ten-Year T-Notes from TT to TY2. It took me a while to recognize the switch with UA. Why did you do this, and was there a way for me to have known about the change immediately?

A.
    Since this day-only series doesn't have an exchange symbol, we devised one of our own at the beginning of evening trading. TY2 is and has been the QuickTrieve-format standard for day-session T-Notes that is used by many compatible software vendors. Through simple oversight, we did not follow our own convention in Unfair Advantage, leaving us with one symbol for QuickTrieve users (TY2) and another for UA users (TT). We changed the symbol in UA to restore consistency.

    All UA users were notified of the change through the display following completion of the daily data distribution. The report shows all such changes, deletions, corrections, etc. each day. This change was listed on our website as well. We manage 100,000 symbols in the CSI database and changes sometimes occur. We do our best to notify users through the means listed above. If you feel your data has been affected by a change you may have missed, feel free to contact our Technical Support representatives for clarification.

Q.
    How does UA handle factsheet changes such as the symbol change for day session T-Notes?

A.
    Ideally, UA will handle these changes automatically. To see if your software is configured to automatically update your factsheets, check the "Updating Control Files" tab of UA's Data Options screen. You'll see that you have the choice of handling factsheet changes automatically, of being warned first, or of skipping all factsheet revisions. When you receive automatic factsheet changes, your factsheets stay as updated as possible with no action taken on your part. If you opt to skip any factsheet versions, you can still get updated versions online from the CSI website. They are found at http://www.csidata.com/UA/uax.html. Look under "Unfair Advantage Headlines" to see if a new factsheet file is available.  Simply follow the on-screen directions to download and save the file.