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) 2002 Commodity Systems Inc. (CSI).  All rights are reserved.

A.
    Any UA subscriber can download the latest version of Unfair Advantage (without the database) from our website at http://www.csidata.com/UA/uax.html. Scroll down to "Unfair Advantage Program and Data Updates" and then click on the version of interest. Before downloading, you can read about the enhancements and known limitations of each version, as well as any required prerequisites.

    There is no charge for acquiring upgrades from the web, but it can be time consuming. If you use a standard telephone line for your connection, it could take about an hour or more to download a full version. An upgrade CD (with database) can be purchased from CSI for $20.

    We have a new policy of providing a free current Unfair Advantage CD-ROM by mail to those customers initiating or renewing an annual subscription. The CD will include not only the latest upgrades, but also a refreshed database. This makes the annual subscription, which already provides a 20% discount, even more attractive.

    Very rarely, we produce a new feature or database change that requires a mandatory upgrade. When a mandatory upgrade is required, we send each user a new CD-ROM free of charge.

Q.
    On July 15, 2002, CSI shows the open price for Swiss Franc on the IMM (#127) as 6834, whereas another source quoted the opening as 6833. Although this may not seem significant, it is important for me to have consistent data, or at least understand why there is a difference. Please explain.

A.
    Futures exchanges report an "open1" and an "open2." CSI uses "open1." Prior to November 2, 2000, CSI used the average of "open1" and "open2." It looks as though your other source used the average on that day, since "open1" was 6834 and "open2" was 6832.

Q.
    I'm looking at a stock chart provided by a service that gets its data from CSI, but the prices don't match the ones I get directly from CSI. In fact, this third-party chart shows stock prices that dip below zero. What's the problem?

A.
    The stock charts you are viewing are probably back adjusted to reflect splits, dividends and/or capital gains. These are very relevant to the value of the stock, but would not be reflected in a raw price series. Long-term charting and analysis of the stock market can be greatly enhanced by adjusting historical data in this way. UA maintains statistics on all splits, capital gains and dividends so that adjustments can be made without affecting the raw price data in the database. Third-party charting services adjust prices as they deem appropriate for their purposes.

    When back adjusting for stock dividends and capital gains, the appropriate value is subtracted to compensate for the value removed from the stock price by the dividend or distribution. Due to the effects of inflation, this method can cause adjusted stock prices to fall below zero. Although negative values are not accepted by all trading systems, it is both possible and appropriate for back-adjusted prices to reach into negative values.

    Users of Unfair Advantage can set preferences for back-adjusting stock data through the "Historic Adjustments" tab of the Portfolio Settings screen. An option to adjust data proportionally (to avoid dips below zero) is included.