BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Preview of our new website is now live

Latest Release
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16

So P123 has officially transitioned to an RIA?

Is the goal to charge people .35% per annum to use a P123 strategy or a designer model that routes to a broker? The payment is really for the routing? i.e. people could see p123 strategies and enter orders themselves for free?

Will ‘Researched’ strategies also have to pay .35% per annum to route to a broker?

I’d like to play with routing to a broker for free on personally designed strategies - though I realize free is an awfully good deal.
Currently, I do not route to brokers because I just have troubling letting computers move money when I’m not around :slight_smile:

I know ‘trade’ order types were recently improved, but they are still not good enough to let P123 route automatically. In particular, routing directly to the Investor’s Exchange (IEX) is not yet available. I would love to see that.

I think the thrust of the change is very good. It’s almost like you looked at the way I actually use P123 (managing different strategies in different accounts) and adjusted to that.

Perhaps Port sim and Book Sim should be moved to research. While Live Port and Live Book should stay under ‘Your Investments’ not ‘You Invest’.

Merryl Lynch won’t be happy about that spelling.

You probably need someone who hasn’t been coding for 10 hours to write the copy :slight_smile:

European data is the big missing feature at this point.

Everyone I mention “P123” to says it’s a bad name. Sorry. It is a little childish, while investing is usually a very serious matter in people’s minds. i.e. They WANT to take it seriously. It also suggests it’s easy, which it is with respect to all it allows users to do. But P123 is very precise.

“AlphaFolio” might be a good name. Though it lends credence to the very wrong alpha beta theory.
“Capital Folio” playing off Cap IQ.
“Factor Folio”
“Smart Folio”
“iPortfolio”. Something to pick up the customization aspect.

I think there is going to be some confusion between the coming P123 Advisor and the fact that P123 models are under Invest–>Models.
Perhaps it would be better to put all P123 Model info under P123 advisor.

The live chat box really needs to have not just a minimize option but a close option.

The box logo is cool. I hate to see that go.

Thanks for all you fellas do in Chicago!

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A new entity, Portfolio123 Securities, is an SEC registered adviser under the robo category. It han’t yet commenced opening accounts and is registered in what is colloquially known as the robo category, which means it is not subject to an AUM threshold.The Series 65 “Investment Adviser Rep” and “Chief Compliance Officer” is me.

The rest of Portfolio123 remains the same entity you know and love.

Interesting proposed names, but trademark lawyers at Capital IQ (and if there is one company on this or any other planet we do not wish to irritate, Capital iQ and its parent wouldrnk inthe top 1) and Folio Investing might not share our feelings. Naming a business can be a delicate activity. It can be even more deicate with RIA organizations.

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EbenezerScrooge ,

The RIA venture is just another product. We have lots of traffic right now that we don’t convert to pay membership (no time, big learning curve, etc) but most likely wants to own stocks, not ETFs. Our RIA will do that at around 0.35%, but we’ll try to do it for less.

Routing orders to your broker, from your strategies , designer models, or p123 models will never be a % fee. It will be free with a Research membership and free or almost free if you have no premium membership. We’ll see what deals we can strike with brokers. BTW: if anyone has contacts with the big ones let me know (etrade,robinhood,tdameritrade,etc). I’m talking about decision makers in those firms that agree to let us send orders via API or FIX.

Yes, improvements on routing orders is in the works. It’s key component if we want to be the “guy in the middle” making it all work: getting more people buying stocks, making it easy to DIY manage multiple accounts, etc.

Thanks for pointing out the bad editing. Where’s “Merryl Lynch” ?

We’ll pick up Europe again with S&P next year. The entire thing came to a grinding halt due to misuderstandings, but I think we can restart it.

P123 is not the greatest name, but it’s easy to remember and was available at the time. AlphaFolio is worse! I think P123 is like hearing your own voice. First time you hear it you hate it, but then it gets better.

Ditto for logo.

Thanks !

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Just read the help section: “What’s up with that name?”

Until now I just assumed that “Portfolio” was already taken and you added a number (like people do all the time for usernames). Probably some truth to that, I would think.

Probably just me but I would stop being defensive about the name and even remove “What’s up with that name?” from the help section.

Personally, if never gave it a moment’s thought. On reflection, I have a mild positive feeling about the name. And it feels professional enough.

It is easy to remember and a short internet name these days.

Just my take.

-Jim

21

Marco,

Would the RIA venture consider licensing Designer Models? Since you have full visibility into them (i.e. they’re not black boxes), they could be prevalidated for soundness and appropriateness. That business model would be somewhat like what Quantopian is doing.

And I’m not sure what a proper fee would be, but 0.35% sounds too low. Is that sufficient for sustaining a business? When it comes to investing I don’t believe that low fees signal credibility.

Walter

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Merryl Edge was in a drop down menu for linking brokers, I believe.

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Alphafolio might run into some performance guarantee legal issues, though Alpha Architect seems to have avoided lawsuits so far.

Maybe y’all should just be “Salerno & Gerstein”. Sounds like a vicious investment bank that would have a logo of snakes wrapped around gold coins. I’ll keep brainstorming for ya! :sunglasses:

I’m telling you, every time I tell people I use P123 they look at me like I must be using something cheap-ish, childish, or dangerously naive, and basically not ‘the best’. Pretty much the opposite of P123 - expensive ultra high quality quant capabilities built on the most expensive data.

When I think of firms managing billions or trillions (like P123 Advisor obviously should be), their name is an idea that people associate with solidity, power, and seriousness or simply names of people. Definitley, not children’s toy blocks. Maybe you should go with something having to do with Chicago.

I think the marketing angle of bringing lay people up to the highest quality, as opposed to bringing the highest quality down to their ‘123’ level, would be a better stratagem.

-Ebenezer

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Walter - models can’t be validated for soundness, and if P123 thought they could, they would be opening themselves up for liability if/when they lose money.

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EbenezerScrooge → I second that strongly, P123 Needs a better Name, whenever I talk to People they stop listening at “I am using a quant platform portfolio123” whatever I say afterwards is overheard. I sounds like a Portfolio tracker (the once that we used in 2000 to track Performance)…

My firm I will found in a year will be called QuantScale, I am ready to give that Name up and “give” it to p123 :wink:
or

Salerno & Gerstein QuantScale Inc. :wink:

Regards
Andreas

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by the way, I still can not logg into the new Website…

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Amazon.com? Yahoo! BlackBerry: a fruit. Really?

Even International Business Machines. That’s pretty lame for computers if you think about it. Big Blue is better—for UK basketball.

I DO LIKE VIRGIN AIRLINES. But what does that have to do with airplanes? Still: VirginQuant? Hmmm… Probably too close to home for the best quants.

Facebook, Twitter……

There is a lesson to be learned about what people pick out to be critical-of and what is given a pass. It is a big part of the reason objective investing works, I think. But that is another story.

I honestly do not care either way. But even now Portfolio123 is above the median (good) of the lesser-lame names.

Ebenezer Scrooge. Now that is a good name.

If you do change your name, I like Abacus (okay, taken), then NanoAbacus (or some such modification). Mostly I just liked Abacus, however.

-Jim

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The worst ever ? How about using words like “micro” (small, tiny) and “soft” (limp, flaccid) ?

I’ve disliked that name for a long time. But my real problem was that windows was just terrible until windows 7.

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judgetrade

We’re trying to see exactly what the problem is with a couple users not being able to log in.

Can you tell us exactly what page you get the error on and what the exact error is?

Are you using a password manager? If so, can you try opening an private/incognito window and try logging in without the manager enabled?

thanks
ted

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QuantScale is pretty good. Or perhaps “Inefficient Markets.com” or “Weighing Machine”.

This is pretty strong indictment of how bad it is. :slight_smile:

I have had the same experience as Judge Trade - I’ll be telling people I do ‘various strategies’ and I ‘mine the data’ and test it for ‘robustness’ and ‘figure out what worked in the past’ and they are fascinated and then I say “P123” and their face goes ‘limpid’, ‘flaccid’ and they seem to begin to think their guy at Stifel, or Morgan, or Merrill, of Fidelity must be up to the same thing when, in my experience, they are likely morons who used to sniff glue in grade school.

Abacus is a cool name. Nano Abacus… not so much.

I think most P123 users are highly technical people - and I think designing your own strategy even if it is simple would most appeal to micro manager types - the dentists, the doctors, the engineers. Perhaps, a name that references physics somehow would be good. I’m guessing a lot of users liked ‘the green box’. Something Physics -y or Geometry -y.

I couldn’t disagree with this more. I think the lesson to be learned is that P123 has a few hundred users or a few thousand, while Fidelity and Morgan Stanley are directing trillions of assets using inefficient, interest mis-aligned, cap weighting and the slickness of their brand - Not even bothering to screen out companies with enormous debt and no profits. I’ve never had a friend respond, “oh, I want to own companies with no profits and enormous debts”. Even friends who are doing the Bogle. Why is that not selling better for P123?

I focus on the name because I think P123 doesn’t much need improvement on the data side of things. Usability is good. I think it’s just about as easy as it can or should be. If you really want to lower the bar then gving the “one to five click user” what he wants is the way to go - that would be P123 Advisor (with a slicker name). Just do it all for them. That is the mass market.

The new pricing terms are very good. If you can get the watchlist crowd coming to P123 everyday because it’s free, then very gradually they will learn the research language. That, I think, is a stroke of genius. Be better than Yahoo finance and the new horrible google finance. Get people checking their watchlists and looking up PE ttm ratios for free and gradually they’ll get curious about doing things better.

P123 really needs cursors that move up and down charts and which read out the ratios and prices at the cursor. You need to catch yahoo finance, google finance, and y charts on that. CME has spectacular moving charts. Those might be a little overboard though.

https://www.cmegroup.com/apps/cmegroup/widgets/productLibs/esignal-charts.html?code=ES&title=DEC_2018_E-mini_S%26P_500_&type=p&venue=0&monthYear=Z8&year=2018&exchangeCode=XCME

A cursor that ‘rides’ the chart is best. The magnet cursor.
There has to be some javascript package for cursors following lines and reading out y values. The mass market loves little things that bounce and move. ‘Poofs’ when things are deleted from watchlists. The new backtest completion bar is good. More satisfying than %s.

“Scrooge and Marley” would be a great name, albeit a little playful.

-Ebenezer

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Ebenezer,

I was not really kidding about anything—just names after all.

Including I like Ebinezer Scrooge: unique and hard to forget. With a laughing picture (so meant to be light).

Not sure I wouldn’t laugh and say “pretty cool” if I heard about a site called VirginQuant either but I definitely have no complaints about the airline name.

And I took my own shot at another name suggestion in the unlikely event that Portfolio123 changes its name.

Best,

-Jim

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I echo the opinion of all other users, P123 is a terrible name that doesn’t fit with how amazing P123 is as a backtesting platform.

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I for one never though p123 is an inferior name/brand. I like the sound of it! Don’t change it.

Looking forward to European data :slight_smile:

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Really like the clean look of the new site.

But did the current Models>My Subscriptions view get dropped? I liked this view because one could list subscribed & watch models along with the Benchmarks (Dow; SP500; SP500w/Div; etc.) to see absolute performance over the 3Mo, 1Yr, 2Yr periods. I personally use that view as a quick comparison to my actual performance which I keep separate from P123.

I see the Invest>Models>Designer Models view which is good, but I get relative (excess) returns for 3Mo; 1Yr; 2Yr periods to their chosen benchmark. Not quite the same cut of data as the other view.

David

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Does anyone know why the new site is producing the following message when attempting to run the Optimizer?

Study Aborted! class base.ConStack accessed incorrectly

The old site does not produce this message.

Thank you.

Hugh