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The effort that many contributors have made to the Foolish Workshop and Mechanical Investing (MI) boards is truly amazing, so today I would like to use this final Workshop report of 1999 to recognize some of the outstanding contributors to our community of investors.
With so many people to choose from, I decided to let the boards help out. So I asked people to e-mail me their list of the top 10 contributors. From their picks, I will profile 12. Rather than trying to rank all of them, which gets rather meaningless at some point, the first seven are listed in alphabetical order followed by the top five in reverse order. Congratulations to all who made the list, and thanks to all the many others who have contributed to the finest community of investors in the world. (Not that I'm prejudiced!)
The sixth through twelfth most appreciated contributors:
Buckaroo -- Buckaroobonzai has contributed much to this board. His crowning achievement is the job he did organizing and running the Value Line Grave Diggers (VLGD) effort. The VLGD effort complied all the Value Line Timeliness 1 and 2 stocks from 1969 to 1986. This data has been put into a database that will soon allow us to have 30 years of backtested results for many of our screens.
RCarr -- RCarr is the person to look for on the MI board each Sunday to get the latest returns from all of the strategies and every variation and time frame we can imagine. (Well, nearly -- we do have some pretty imaginative people here!) He is the originator of the original scorecard.
FoolishlyFree -- FoolishlyFree is the organizer and the originator of the Mechanical Investing Message Board Convention (MICON 2000) that will be taking place in Las Vegas, March 31 to April 2. He has done everything from selecting the city to negotiating with hotels and airlines to organizing the registration process. By the way, if you are interested in joining the festivities, check out his website, which contains all the needed information (http://www.e-possibilities.com/TMF/).
GrandPoobah -- GrandPoobah did the first two monthly backtests ever done at the Workshop. His work backtesting the many variations of the Keystone and the RS screen was invaluable. It proved that a screen called KEV was not the gold mine some thought it was. He was also the fist to validate the fact that Relative Strength screens, re-evaluated every month, had fantastic returns.
Klouche -- Klouche is our resident "analyst." Whenever any new information comes out, you can expect some great statistical analysis from Klouche. His analysis has given members of the Workshop and Mechanical Investing boards much more information on analyzing mechanical strategies.
Sux2BeU -- Sux's big effort this year has been to collect all the Investor's Business Daily (IBD) data and all the Value Line data since IBD started publishing so that we can finally backtest all of the IBD screens. Anyone who has been following this effort on the boards knows what kind of monumental effort this is. It took at least two trips but Sux managed to get all of the publications needed for the effort, and he's currently working on prices. The final results should be ready in time for MICON 2000. In the meantime, you can check the boards or his website (http://www.fortunecity.com/business/stock/589/) for the latest results.
RayVT -- RayVT is one of the wise men of the workshop. He is the veteran that people constantly look to for valuable words of wisdom, which he gladly gives in a style all his own. If you check his profile you will find that 339 fools have listed him as one of their favorites -- that alone says much about him.
And now for the top five. While everyone mentioned in this article has been an invaluable contributor without whom this community would be far poorer, a few have been particularly outstanding. Here are the top five contributors as voted by the board readers:
5. JackCade -- Jack Cade is the man who will give you any information you need for any strategy. Each Friday he posts on the MI board the latest stock picks for all the screens. Jack's list isn't just the stocks you will find in the Current Rankings, but at last count his list consisted of the current stocks for 61 screens. He also posts weekly ledgers that provide statistics on many of those same strategies. The effort he must put into getting so much information posted in such a timely manner must be recognized even while we are in awe of his ability to do so much so fast.
4. Kuperman -- Kuperman has done what people once only thought was a dream. He put together a database of all the 1986 to 1998 Value Line data with pricing data for all the stocks so that all of the Value Line screens could be backtested and new screens could be tested. Thanks to Kuperman we now have monthly backtests of all the pure Value Line screens. Kuperman, however, has not stopped there: Thanks to the VLGD (see Buckaroo above), he now has 1969 to 1986 data for Value Line timeliness 1 and 2 stocks, which have been added to his database. The first results of a test from 1969 forward have just recently been released on the MI board, with much more to follow once Peter has all the pricing data complete. Thanks to Kuperman we have a much more thorough understanding of the Workshop strategies.
3. Gritton -- Gritton is a magic man with data. At Gritton's backtesting site (http://gritton.org/ws/) you can test any screen, using any combination of positions and time periods. You can see how different blends of screens would have worked as well as many other features. Not only does his site run backtests for you, but you can also see how taxes and fees would have effected your return. This is a must-see and must-use site for anyone investing in mechanical strategies.
2. BDFinney -- BDFinney is another contributor that has set up a great website (http://www.phillysites.com/screens/backtest.asp). His site not only has backtested results, it lists the current rankings updated on Fridays within a half hour of the data being released by Value Line (usually around Noon ET). While BDFinney's site doesn't cover all 61 screens posted by JackCade, at last count he was posting 32 screens.
And finally, the 1999 Workshop/Mechanical Investing Boards Contributor of the Year:
1. Sparfarkle -- Sparfarkle was a runaway winner. He received twice as many first-place votes as anyone else and was named on more ballots than anyone else. Sparfarkle's contributions to the Workshop have been too numerous to list, but some of the highlights have been: He was the first person to come to the board with a homemade screen (the Spark5). He was the one who told the board how to get historical Value Line data, which led to the tremendous backtesting effort that has gone on this year. He was the one who shared his ideas on using options to enhance returns from mechanical screens. But more than anything, Sparfarkle has been a father figure to this community. He is the one that even other veterans look to for advice. He is the one who generously shares not only his experience from years as a successful investor but the knowledge he has gained by reading almost every book on the subject. He is practical, fundamentally sound, and has enriched us all. Six hundred people list him as a favorite Fool. Congratulations, Sparfarkle; we would not be what we are today without you.
The Motley Fool will be sending each of the above a Fool ball cap or T-shirt as a token of appreciation, but nothing could ever really express how much these people have done for this community.
May everyone have a happy and safe New Year.
Until Y2K, Fool on!