Q. Over a year ago I completed the development of a share-picking software application that uses a Warren Buffett-style approach to filtering out promising shares.
My philosophy was that if you could describe a repeatable technique for picking shares, then software could do this too and save you a lot of research. I know Warren does a lot more than just analytical analysis, but
Sunday, March 14th 2004, 12:45PM
by The Landlord
you have to start somewhere.
My application picked about 30 shares across the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges, and hence my paper trading began.
I paper traded the top five picks, which were all Australian shares.
What I have found is that my return on investment to date is 120 per cent (over 13.5 months), or 106 per cent annualised including exchange rate adjustments and brokerage fees...
A. Welcome to billionaire status - if you have, in fact, worked out how to pick shares. To my knowledge, it will be a world first.
I suggest, though, that if you are going to move from paper to real trading, you start out investing a fairly small amount. The last person I heard of who did brilliantly on paper trading and then moved to the real thing lost $30,000 in a year.
Warren Buffett has an extraordinarily good record at stock-picking. But even he has not always performed well.
