I have spent the last three/maybe four hours fiddling-around with WolframAlpha, a knowledge based computational engine.
After this experience, I can simply assert that I am more than dazzled by the expert-level capabilities of this computational tool.
After this experience, I can simply assert that I am more than dazzled by the expert-level capabilities of this computational tool.
Furthermore, after I used the tool, I came to the conclusion that it is going to have a disruptive effect across a wide range of fields. I speculate that Wolfram Alpha's disruptive effects will particularly be felt most in the realm of investments; where it will grant unsophisticated investors instant (user-friendly and almost free) access to sophisticated quantitative metrics, that have the potential to enhance the quality of their investment/asset allocation decisions.
It is my conjecture, that regular usage of Wolfram Alpha - assuming that Wolfram Alpha increasingly becomes more robust, in an ad infinitum fashion - will give unsophisticated investors more confidence in their investment skills, and because of this, an increasing proportion of them may actually decide to manage their own wealth. Obviously, this may adversely affect the vitality of the wealth management industry if it fails to evolve in response to this new development.
To illuminate on the investor-empowering features of Wolfram Alpha, an illustration may be in order:
If you want to do a comparison of stocks, say a comparison of Google, Microsoft and Apple, you simply enter their stock tickers into the user-interface as follows: MSFT, AAPL, GOOG.
After you do that, you get:
(Note To Reader: Click on images for enlarged views)
1) The latest trading prices of the three stocks, categorized in an ascending hierarchical order (i.e. from the cheapest to the most expensive).
2) A table with distilled fundamentals of the companies, like this:
3) A table of returns you would get over time by going long on each of the three respective stocks, like this:
4) A line graph with the relative price history of all three stocks, like this:
5) A performance comparison table that pits the three stocks against the SP500, bonds and T-bills. From the comparison in this particular case, we can deduce that a portfolio that was short on the three respective stocks and the SP500 index, and held T-bills and bonds would have yielded positive returns:
6) A graphical projection of the future price movements of all three stocks, based on a random walk model, like this:
7) And lots more, e.g.; tabulated correlation matrices, and the current mean-variance optimal portfolio structure comprising of the three stocks.
I am sure that it is now evident that, Wolfram Alpha is also, among a wide variety of other things, a personal-instant-quantitative-investment analyst!
I love it. Wolfram Alpha is Splendiferous.
Power to the masses!
For more details on the example in this post, visit:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=MSFT%2C+AAPL%2C+GOOG
2) A table with distilled fundamentals of the companies, like this:
3) A table of returns you would get over time by going long on each of the three respective stocks, like this:
4) A line graph with the relative price history of all three stocks, like this:
5) A performance comparison table that pits the three stocks against the SP500, bonds and T-bills. From the comparison in this particular case, we can deduce that a portfolio that was short on the three respective stocks and the SP500 index, and held T-bills and bonds would have yielded positive returns:
6) A graphical projection of the future price movements of all three stocks, based on a random walk model, like this:
7) And lots more, e.g.; tabulated correlation matrices, and the current mean-variance optimal portfolio structure comprising of the three stocks.
I am sure that it is now evident that, Wolfram Alpha is also, among a wide variety of other things, a personal-instant-quantitat
I love it. Wolfram Alpha is Splendiferous.
Power to the masses!
For more details on the example in this post, visit:
http://www.wolframalpha.co
