Steve Ward asserts in the May-June 2006 issue of CFA Magazine that neural networks can assist in making profitable trading decisions as long as the user carefully considers which variables to feed the model. The article quotes Ward as saying, “It’s garbage in and garbage out. This (NeuroShell Trader) isn’t a turnkey system. A lot of people think that neural nets are a magic bullet. Someone will turn it on and throw a couple of variables in, and then it doesn’t work. If you do that, you’re wasting your money.”

Ward’s comments appear in article by Stephen Brown entitled “Baby Steps – Can Artificial Intelligence Really Improve the Investment Decision-Making Process?” CFA Magazine is published by the CFA Institute, a worldwide organization whose exams certify investment professionals as Chartered Financial Analysts.

Brown says that it’s no longer necessary to have a staff of programmers, mathematicians, servers and terabytes of computer storage to develop neural network models. He describes the NeuroShell Trader as “desktop software starting for less than $1,000 that enables analysts to develop predictive models without needing to understand the software’s ‘black box’”.

Two NeuroShell “Real Traders” are also quoted in the story.

Shashi Mehrotra, the Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President of the Legend Group, says “at times we change what AI is telling us. I’m looking for different correlations that are predictive. We combine the variables. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out which variables the program should work with.”

Andre Archambault, the Director of Quantitative Strategies at Standard and Poor’s Investment Services, explains “If you have variables that have predictive value, you can get a good combination to get even better predictive value in the future. Artificial intelligence can help find those variables that have better predictive value.”

For more information about Real Traders Shashi Mehrotra and Andre Archambault and how they use the NeuroShell Trader, visit www.neuroshell.com or call 301 662 7950.