Stormchaser Technologies – Automated Trading Systems

Stormchaser Technologies offers an automated trading system that uses algorithms to make day trades. The user loads in a select basket of stocks, and the software determines what trades to make. If the user wishes, there’s an automation features that takes complete control of the trading process. Robin Abraham, the CEO, calls it the “black box” technique in which the software does everything. There’s also the “grey box” mode in which the software offers trading advice, but the user determines what trades to make and enters them manually.

Robin spent several years consulting for IBM and even dabbled in real estate for awhile. He found dissatisfaction with trading systems because they couldn’t be automated nor could you use different platforms. He started in 2000 and came out with the first version that was a simple trading system. Over time he grew the tool into an automated trading system.

His philosophy on trading is that everyone has their own philosophy and that’s what makes a market – everyone has their own view. He wants to cater to those with unique ideas about trading. His trading system pulls from several different philosophies on money management, trading schemes, and portfolio management.

Robin indicated that one advantage of automated trading is that it forces discipline on taking exits and stops. The emotion factor in manual trading sometimes overtakes one’s better judgment. Automated trading helps with that. His other philosophy is the user should be able to develop once and implement many times. So the user could develop a trading strategy and then implement it on numerous platforms without the cost of redevelopment.

Stormchaser is targeted at the active trader with special tools for the swing trader. You can go to the Stormchaser web site to download a seven day free trial.

For next steps, Robin is developing new trading systems that leverage 3rd party developers into the process such as the Aurora and STXtreme systems.

Best regards,
Hall T.

Video Leverage – Professional Video Generation

I work at a large company in Austin and for many years our sales team would video tape sales conference presentations so others could check out the tapes and review the materials. Essentially, one of the salesmen would setup a camcorder on a tripod in the back of the room (about 100 feet from the presenter) and hit “record.” He later transferred it to a VHS tape. The image of the speaker was almost imperceptible, the voice inaudible, and in general the quality low.

An administrator kept track of the tapes for checkout and had a bookshelf full of them, all carefully labeled and archived for several years. One day, in passing, I asked, “So how many tapes have been checked out?” She replied, “Oh, no one’s ever checked out a tape. “ From that experience it became clear that viewing a video tape of a presenting person is a different experience from viewing a live presentation. The video viewer can check out of the session by simply hitting a button. Five minutes of viewing a video is equivalent to an hour of viewing a live presentation, which is why just taping a presentation and then transferring the raw footage onto a tape does not translate well.

I met with Andy Choquette from Video Leverage in Austin to plan a video shoot to be shown at the upcoming Open4Business conference event. Andy brought up several of the production quality issues one needs to keep in mind for shooting, producing, and displaying video footage. With video coming to the internet, the need for quality video grows dramatically. As Director for the Central Texas Angel Network I’m seeing more and more emails with links to a video pitch from the entrepreneur. I also find some entrepreneurs communicate their business proposition better in a pitch than in writing. Since it’s much easier for an investor to watch a ten minute video pitch than to read a lengthy business plan, it won’t be long before this is the standard in the industry.

Best regards,
Hall T.