Frequently Asked Questions

• How can I decide if the software is right for me?

  Our software is not for everyone, so we'd like to give you some help with that decision. If you are looking for software that will build you a winning system automatically, or that has winning systems already included, our software is not for you. If you are looking to make money with very little effort, our software is not for you.

  To be successful with NeuroShell, you DO NOT need to know advanced math, neural nets, statistics, or programming. The whole idea of our software is that you can use advanced techniques without advanced knowledge of them. However, you do need to be somewhat analytic and know your way around a PC. You don't have to be an experienced trader.

  What you DO need most is patience, persistence, and a willingness to experiment. Making big money in the market is not like falling off a log or everyone would be rich by now. There are no magic bullets or Holy Grail trading systems. Great systems only work for a while before the market adapts to make that system obsolete. We can provide you with advanced power tools, but YOU have to start with your own ideas and build winning systems using those power tools. YOU have to use our adaptive tools to adapt your systems as the market adapts. If you think some other company can sell you something that makes money right out of the box, please buy their software first!

• But doesn’t advanced knowledge of neural nets, math, and statistics help you become more successful?

  No, quite the contrary. In our experience, people with that knowledge never get around to trading because they keep looking for a level of perfection that doesn’t exist, or they get wrapped around the proverbial axle worrying about algorithms, statistical significance, and long term performance. Our most successful users have enough trading experience already to know that no good system is perfect or lasts forever, and they are willing to take an occasional loss.

• What if I know how to program, will that help?

  We reiterate that programming knowledge is not required, because our Indicator Wizard can build some pretty complicated indicators just by pointing and clicking. However, if you want to build more sophisticated things, you can use your programming skills and program indicators and systems in C, C++, Basic, and Pascal.

• If this thing predicts stocks as well as you indicate, why are you wasting time selling software?
  You could be making your millions in the stock market!

  Several of our employees do, in fact, trade with the NeuroShell DayTrader Professional, because in our company, personal trading during work hours is allowed with limits. However, the company itself doesn't trade because our corporate charter is to make artificial intelligence software.

  Also, we don't really claim that everyone will have great predictions or trading systems (see the next question and answer). There's an analogy we used when Newsweek Magazine asked us that same question: If your company makes great tractors, you don't have to be in farming to make money. If your tractors are really great, you'll make lots of money building and selling them! Then you can take your company public and make even more money. On top of all that, you get to do what you love to do the most: design and build tractors.

• Is the NeuroShell Trader designed to scan a database of stocks looking for the ones that work best with a set of indicators?

  It will scan a group of stocks that you select, but NeuroShell was really designed for much, much more than that. There are many cheaper programs which will show you all the stocks that currently show a high on a certain indicator, or which have risen in price x%, etc., but very few which do what NeuroShell does. In addition to scanning to find the stocks that happen to fit your indicator today, it scans to find the rules and indicators that fit your stocks in the past, now, and into the future. It builds a custom timing model for each stock, group of stocks, or other issues to tell you when to buy and when to sell.

• Can I load the NeuroShell Trader on multiple computers?

  Yes. The NeuroShell Trader comes equipped with an activation/deactivation system that works through the Internet. Therefore we have no objection and we even encourage you to install it on two or more of your machines. For example, install it at home and at work and simply deactivate the software when you leave home and activate at work and vice versa

• Can I do intraday trading with the Trader?

  Yes, using the NeuroShell® DayTrader Professional.

• What data feeds do you support?

  Click here for a complete list of both end of day and intraday data feeds we support. Our Data Pump will allow you to program many other data feeds to work with our software.

• Do you have a demo version so I can try it before I buy it?

  No, but we do have a 30 day money back guarantee. If you aren’t satisfied with our software, return it within 30 days and get your money back (except for shipping/handling charges, which includes debit/credit card processing fees, if applicable). Why don’t we have a demo? NeuroShell is such an extensive and comprehensive tool, most people need some help understanding it during their first 30 days. Very frankly, we don’t want to spend time and effort helping people understand our software unless we know they are serious and can afford the purchase price. Appreciation of the power of NeuroShell is not something you’ll gain by a casual test drive. So we provide that support freely after you purchase.

• How long does your technical support last and what does it cost?

  We have never placed any limits on how long we provide support, and we have never charged for it. There are no plans to do either. In fact, we consider our support more like assistance, and we consider our assistance to be part and parcel of our software.

• How much time, on average, would it take for a novice to understand and operate the program with confidence?

  This depends upon two things:

  1. What you mean by "operate", and
  2. How analytic you are.
  
  

  Let us explain. Many people think that because we have such advanced tools, that they can just learn our software and start making money right away. However, our software is not a turnkey money maker - it is a comprehensive toolkit that allows you to turn your ideas or those of others into successful trading systems, but that may take time, especially for a beginning trader.

  So if by "operate" you mean "make continuously profitable systems" then the answer depends upon you, but it is usually a couple of months.

  If by "operate" you mean "understand and be able to use the mechanics the software to make systems, whether profitable or not", then the answer is that highly analytic people will probably only take a day or two, and others could take as long as a week or more. To speed up this process, we train by videos instead of forcing you to read a manual.

• If you don't have a demo, do you at least have free copies for academic research?

  We appreciate academic interest in neural networks and genetic algorithms. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an exciting field, and we frequently get student and faculty requests to use our trading software for "research". However, we do not have academic or limited versions of NeuroShell Trader. The reason we do not is in fact to discourage people from believing that any sort of casual or even scientific test use of artificial intelligence will make big gains in the stock market. Although the technology is powerful, there is substantial evidence that market prices are not normally distributed, so that solutions rarely meet statistical standards typical in science. It also takes a great deal of learning and experience to use the technology properly. We are unwilling to assist with this learning for free users, but we are also unwilling to take a chance that someone doing "research" will fail to learn on their own. Add to that the fact that markets are constantly adapting and changing to news that cannot be foreseen, and we think you can see how we prefer to establish only relationships that are long term and based on a real desire to trade and make money. We prefer to skip promotional opportunities and even sales that we feel might jeopardize long term acceptance of artificial intelligence in the financial markets. Through the years we have found that, although highly analytic people have the easiest time learning our software, they sometimes make the worst traders because they are waiting for statistical perfection to trade! Trading is not a science, it is an art, even with AI.