Our answer to retail investors with minimal capital to invest:
One important topic was to repeat an answer to a question posed by a potential retail investor client.
Myron asked: "Can I get some good tips for free? What should a little guy like me invest in?" By way of background, Myron was on a job interview and had some investments he made this year in stocks. He did not remember all the tickers, did not know what the companies did, and did double his money on one trade, but not sure about the others. He bought them on a whim.
For a retail investor with limited capital, what I suggest is to take money that you can afford to put to work for five years. Money you won't need for five years for living expenses. In Myron's case, that was $25,000.
For the first $10,000 (he is a US citizen), I suggest going to Treasury.gov, or Treasury Direct, and buying I-Series US Savings Bonds directly from the US Treasury. You can lock in a 9.62% interest rate for the first six months. They promise to pay a little 'real' interest after making up for inflation. This is awesome for investors, and there are even some potential tax benefits. We recommend the first $10,000 go into I-Series US Savings Bonds.
The next $15,000 goes into a low cost, passive, index equity mutual fund. We like the ones that track the S&P 500 Index although it is 100% ok if you want to put some into a passive index equity mutual fund that mirrors the Nasdaq Composite 100 (although there is significant overlap), and some into the Russell 2000 (small caps). The S&P 500 is our favorite, and provides the best risk-return tradeoff for a retail investor that cannot do the due diligence or run the quantitative models required to find an edge.
The fund manager we use personally is Vanguard and have invested in their S&P 500 Admiral Class index fund since the 1990s. Fidelity also has a low-cost fund that should be fine. Also, we are setting up a relationship with The Charles Schwab to be our custodian for client funds. It is likely they have a comparable product as well. The key is to find a very low cost mutual fund (maybe pay 6 or 9 basis points per year in expenses) and to reinvest dividends.
In year two, rinse and repeat. Put another $10k into US Savings Bonds and another $15k into US equities and watch your money grow. As your retirement nest-egg grows, and your wage income grows, there are other types of investments to consider.
Myron asked: "Can I get some good tips for free? What should a little guy like me invest in?" By way of background, Myron was on a job interview and had some investments he made this year in stocks. He did not remember all the tickers, did not know what the companies did, and did double his money on one trade, but not sure about the others. He bought them on a whim.
For a retail investor with limited capital, what I suggest is to take money that you can afford to put to work for five years. Money you won't need for five years for living expenses. In Myron's case, that was $25,000.
For the first $10,000 (he is a US citizen), I suggest going to Treasury.gov, or Treasury Direct, and buying I-Series US Savings Bonds directly from the US Treasury. You can lock in a 9.62% interest rate for the first six months. They promise to pay a little 'real' interest after making up for inflation. This is awesome for investors, and there are even some potential tax benefits. We recommend the first $10,000 go into I-Series US Savings Bonds.
The next $15,000 goes into a low cost, passive, index equity mutual fund. We like the ones that track the S&P 500 Index although it is 100% ok if you want to put some into a passive index equity mutual fund that mirrors the Nasdaq Composite 100 (although there is significant overlap), and some into the Russell 2000 (small caps). The S&P 500 is our favorite, and provides the best risk-return tradeoff for a retail investor that cannot do the due diligence or run the quantitative models required to find an edge.
The fund manager we use personally is Vanguard and have invested in their S&P 500 Admiral Class index fund since the 1990s. Fidelity also has a low-cost fund that should be fine. Also, we are setting up a relationship with The Charles Schwab to be our custodian for client funds. It is likely they have a comparable product as well. The key is to find a very low cost mutual fund (maybe pay 6 or 9 basis points per year in expenses) and to reinvest dividends.
In year two, rinse and repeat. Put another $10k into US Savings Bonds and another $15k into US equities and watch your money grow. As your retirement nest-egg grows, and your wage income grows, there are other types of investments to consider.
We continue to research quantum & investment topics
Insights from our analysis
Insights from our Chicago Quantum Net Score Data Analysis
Sunday, April 3, 2022
By: Jeffrey Cohen, Investment Advisor Representative & President
US Advanced Computing Infrastructure Inc.
jeffrey@quantum-usaci.com
https://www.chicagoquantum.com
+1.312.515.7333
PART 1: SHOULD INVESTORS INVEST IN STOCKS OF MONEY LOSING COMPANIES?
Should investors invest in validated, US listed stocks that lose money, or more precisely have negative net income. The simple answer is that our model found only 8 stocks out of 1,157 that would be more efficient (higher expected returns vs. stock price variance) than buying a broadly diversified portfolio.
We see four portfolios that are more efficient to hold than investing in individual money losing companies:
We answer this question during a time of moderating market returns. The ‘forward’ one-year expected market return is 8.13% for a balanced portfolio of $SPY, $IWM and $QQQ, using a risk-free rate of 1.00%.
Stock Price Volatility
Money losing companies stocks have a higher daily price variance than those that make money, often by a factor of 2:1 to 3:1. Today’s ratio is 3.42 x 10-4 / 1.18 x 10-4 = 2.89.
Expected Returns
Money losing companies stocks have a higher BETA and therefore a higher expected return in the coming year than money-losing company stocks. Expected Return = 11.84% / 9.14% = 1.295.
We believe the greater risk outweighs the greater expected returns during times of moderating market returns. Investors should avoid holding individual stocks in companies with negative net income. They should either focus on profitable companies, or in buying a broadly diversified portfolio such as $SPY, $QQQ or $IWM.
PART 2: HOW CAN WE PROFIT FROM STOCKS OF MONEY-LOSING COMPANIES?
We did find small portfolios that would be the most inefficient you could hold. We say small portfolios because diversification of risk increases efficiency, so these portfolios have between one and three stocks, held equally.
Inefficient portfolios have significantly more risk than expected return, when normalized against the ‘all stock’ portfolio above (#2), or the $SPY.
We call these our CQNS DOWN portfolios, because they are portfolios of stocks you should avoid holding, or can bet against after they move higher. They have seen significant daily price variance without significant BETA values.
Sometimes you cannot short these stocks because they are not available to be borrowed. In those cases, you may be able to buy puts or sell calls.
PART 3: HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FOR STOCKS OF MONEY MAKING COMPANIES?
Investors have a better chance investing in stocks of companies that make money. In contrast to the 8 / 1,157 stocks (0.0069) that were more efficient than $SPY, 124 individual stocks of money-making companies, or 124/2,399 stocks (0.052), were more efficient than the $SPY, $IWM or a broadly diversified portfolio.
We found larger portfolios (from 2 to 14 stocks) that are significantly more efficient than a fully diversified portfolio. Your choice of efficient investments is diverse and allows for different types of stocks to be held.
However, if you are not confident in picking individual stocks or stock portfolios, a broadly diversified portfolio is a very efficient and ‘safe’ choice.
Also, if you are not confident in the direction of the overall market, then just choosing portfolios on the basis of efficiency could leave you with a significant BETA value of your stocks, which will overstate market movements in your portfolio. You win in advancing US equity markets but you lose in declining US equity markets.
Sunday, April 3, 2022
By: Jeffrey Cohen, Investment Advisor Representative & President
US Advanced Computing Infrastructure Inc.
jeffrey@quantum-usaci.com
https://www.chicagoquantum.com
+1.312.515.7333
PART 1: SHOULD INVESTORS INVEST IN STOCKS OF MONEY LOSING COMPANIES?
Should investors invest in validated, US listed stocks that lose money, or more precisely have negative net income. The simple answer is that our model found only 8 stocks out of 1,157 that would be more efficient (higher expected returns vs. stock price variance) than buying a broadly diversified portfolio.
We see four portfolios that are more efficient to hold than investing in individual money losing companies:
- The $IWM, or the iShares Russell 2000 ETF
- A portfolio of all 1,157 common stocks of money-losing companies
- The $QQQ, or the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (ETF)
- The $SPY, or the S&P 500 ETF Trust ETF
We answer this question during a time of moderating market returns. The ‘forward’ one-year expected market return is 8.13% for a balanced portfolio of $SPY, $IWM and $QQQ, using a risk-free rate of 1.00%.
Stock Price Volatility
Money losing companies stocks have a higher daily price variance than those that make money, often by a factor of 2:1 to 3:1. Today’s ratio is 3.42 x 10-4 / 1.18 x 10-4 = 2.89.
Expected Returns
Money losing companies stocks have a higher BETA and therefore a higher expected return in the coming year than money-losing company stocks. Expected Return = 11.84% / 9.14% = 1.295.
We believe the greater risk outweighs the greater expected returns during times of moderating market returns. Investors should avoid holding individual stocks in companies with negative net income. They should either focus on profitable companies, or in buying a broadly diversified portfolio such as $SPY, $QQQ or $IWM.
PART 2: HOW CAN WE PROFIT FROM STOCKS OF MONEY-LOSING COMPANIES?
We did find small portfolios that would be the most inefficient you could hold. We say small portfolios because diversification of risk increases efficiency, so these portfolios have between one and three stocks, held equally.
Inefficient portfolios have significantly more risk than expected return, when normalized against the ‘all stock’ portfolio above (#2), or the $SPY.
We call these our CQNS DOWN portfolios, because they are portfolios of stocks you should avoid holding, or can bet against after they move higher. They have seen significant daily price variance without significant BETA values.
Sometimes you cannot short these stocks because they are not available to be borrowed. In those cases, you may be able to buy puts or sell calls.
PART 3: HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FOR STOCKS OF MONEY MAKING COMPANIES?
Investors have a better chance investing in stocks of companies that make money. In contrast to the 8 / 1,157 stocks (0.0069) that were more efficient than $SPY, 124 individual stocks of money-making companies, or 124/2,399 stocks (0.052), were more efficient than the $SPY, $IWM or a broadly diversified portfolio.
We found larger portfolios (from 2 to 14 stocks) that are significantly more efficient than a fully diversified portfolio. Your choice of efficient investments is diverse and allows for different types of stocks to be held.
However, if you are not confident in picking individual stocks or stock portfolios, a broadly diversified portfolio is a very efficient and ‘safe’ choice.
Also, if you are not confident in the direction of the overall market, then just choosing portfolios on the basis of efficiency could leave you with a significant BETA value of your stocks, which will overstate market movements in your portfolio. You win in advancing US equity markets but you lose in declining US equity markets.
| findings_on_whether_investors_should_hold_money_losing_stocks_in_their_portfolios.pdf |
Insights from our CQNS model:
Jan 31, 2022: Buy stocks with positive net income. They have lower price volatility relative to expected returns.
Feb 2, 2022: Stocks volatility follows an ARCH distribution, and stocks with higher volatility have lower liquidity (all else being equal). During times of market stress, liquidity providers have less liquidity, which creates a synergistic 'do loop of pain' on highly volatile stocks. We saw that today on February 2, 2022 when the indices did well but individual stocks we follow were punished almost universally. The top 65 stocks picked in our CQNS "DOWN" runs from January 5 through February 1 2022 had 59 down and 8 up today.
Feb 25, 2022: Positive net income stocks (which pass our data validation) have lower price variance and lower expected returns than unprofitable ones. In other words, CQNS UP run stocks are expected to be less risky, and less profitable to own, on average. However, once you optimize these stocks, you can pick better combinations to increase expected returns and/or decrease variance than compared to the average. Mathematically, we set the CQNS score for all stocks to ~zero, and portfolios with negative CQNS scores are better than that average.
* CQNS Down Run: 1,140 stocks through Feb 23, 2022 variance 3.2 x 10-4, expected return 8.4%
* CQNS Down Run: 2,366 stocks through Feb 23, 2022 variance 1.2 x 10-4, expected return 6.5%
Feb 18, 2022: Re-coding our quantum annealer version of CQNS
Dramatic improvements in the results.
July 11, 2021 - Top 20 CQNS most inefficient, 'down' picks & results
Medium Post (click to read)
May 25, 2021 - Top 10 CQNS 'up' picks & results
(We created > 13% alpha in 24 trading days)
Medium post (click to read)
Quick update (September 9, 2021) new
We have made some recent strides:
1. We passed the Series 65 exam and are in the process of being registered with FINRA and the State of Illinois as a Registered Investment Advisor firm. We continue to advance our knowledge on investment management topics.
2. We are considering to start two funds that leverage our Chicago Quantum Net Score methodology.
1. We passed the Series 65 exam and are in the process of being registered with FINRA and the State of Illinois as a Registered Investment Advisor firm. We continue to advance our knowledge on investment management topics.
2. We are considering to start two funds that leverage our Chicago Quantum Net Score methodology.
Our latest paper (3 of 3): Portfolio Optimization of 3,171 Stocks
Authors: Jeffrey Cohen & Clark Alexander
Date: October 30, 2020
Date: October 30, 2020
Abstract: We analyze 3,171 US common stocks to create an efficient portfolio based on the Chicago Quantum Net Score (CQNS) and portfolio optimization. We begin with classical solvers and incorporate quantum annealing. We add a simulated bifurcator as a new classical solver and the new D-Wave Advantage(TM) quantum annealing computer as our new quantum solver.
15 pages, 9 figures.
Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Portfolio Management (q-fin.PM)
Cite as: arXiv:2011.01308 [quant-ph]
15 pages, 9 figures.
Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Portfolio Management (q-fin.PM)
Cite as: arXiv:2011.01308 [quant-ph]
Article 3 walk through & Nov 14, 2020 research update
Recent presentations of our work
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Washington DC Quantum Computing Meetup: Sept 9 {completed}
"The race is on...Quantum Annealing vs. other methods we learned". A successful, 2-hour discussion. Zen4Quantum Meetup: Sept 18 {completed} "Quantum Stock Portfolios - Chicago Quantum Talk Series Part 2". An enjoyable 2-hour discussion where we discuss our goals, accomplishments, challenges, and newest methods. Recording here FS Club (London): Sept 21 {completed] "The Right Balance? Using a Quantum Annealing Computer for your Portfolio". A fast-paced 45 minute discussion on the the performance of published portfolios, the 'rig' we use, and our thoughts on scaling up further. Recording here Qubits 2020: Sept 28 {Completed} https://www.qubits.com/ Recording here IQT Europe: Oct 28 (Financial Services Panel Discussion) https://europe.iqtevent.com/ Recording here
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Our 2nd paper (2 of 3): Portfolio Optimization of 60 Stocks
Authors: Jeffrey Cohen, Alex Khan, Clark Alexander
Date: August 19, 2020
Abstract: We continue to investigate the use of quantum computers for building an optimal portfolio out of a universe of 60 U.S. listed, liquid equities. Starting from historical market data, we apply our unique problem formulation on the D-Wave Systems Inc. D-Wave 2000Q (TM) quantum annealing system (hereafter called D-Wave) to find the optimal risk vs return portfolio. We approach this first classically, then using the D-Wave, to select efficient buy and hold portfolios. Our results show that practitioners can use either classical or quantum annealing methods to select attractive portfolios. This builds upon our prior work on optimization of 40 stocks.
Comments:19 pages, 15 figures, 21 references
Subjects:General Finance (q-fin.GN); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Cite as:arXiv:2008.08669 [q-fin.GN]
Date: August 19, 2020
Abstract: We continue to investigate the use of quantum computers for building an optimal portfolio out of a universe of 60 U.S. listed, liquid equities. Starting from historical market data, we apply our unique problem formulation on the D-Wave Systems Inc. D-Wave 2000Q (TM) quantum annealing system (hereafter called D-Wave) to find the optimal risk vs return portfolio. We approach this first classically, then using the D-Wave, to select efficient buy and hold portfolios. Our results show that practitioners can use either classical or quantum annealing methods to select attractive portfolios. This builds upon our prior work on optimization of 40 stocks.
Comments:19 pages, 15 figures, 21 references
Subjects:General Finance (q-fin.GN); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Cite as:arXiv:2008.08669 [q-fin.GN]
Our 1st paper (1 of 3): Portfolio Optimization of 40 Stocks
Authors: Jeffrey Cohen, Alex Khan, Clark Alexander
Date: July 6, 2020
Abstract: We investigate the use of quantum computers for building a portfolio out of a universe of U.S. listed, liquid equities that contains an optimal set of stocks. Starting from historical market data, we look at various problem formulations on the D-Wave Systems Inc. D-Wave 2000Q(TM) System (hereafter called D-Wave) to find the optimal risk vs return portfolio; an optimized portfolio based on the Markowitz formulation and the Sharpe ratio, a simplified Chicago Quantum Ratio (CQR), then a new Chicago Quantum Net Score (CQNS). We approach this first classically, then by our new method on D-Wave. Our results show that practitioners can use a D-Wave to select attractive portfolios out of 40 U.S. liquid equities.
Comments:15 pages, 8 figures
Subjects:General Finance (q-fin.GN); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Cite as:arXiv:2007.01430 [q-fin.GN]
Date: July 6, 2020
Abstract: We investigate the use of quantum computers for building a portfolio out of a universe of U.S. listed, liquid equities that contains an optimal set of stocks. Starting from historical market data, we look at various problem formulations on the D-Wave Systems Inc. D-Wave 2000Q(TM) System (hereafter called D-Wave) to find the optimal risk vs return portfolio; an optimized portfolio based on the Markowitz formulation and the Sharpe ratio, a simplified Chicago Quantum Ratio (CQR), then a new Chicago Quantum Net Score (CQNS). We approach this first classically, then by our new method on D-Wave. Our results show that practitioners can use a D-Wave to select attractive portfolios out of 40 U.S. liquid equities.
Comments:15 pages, 8 figures
Subjects:General Finance (q-fin.GN); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Cite as:arXiv:2007.01430 [q-fin.GN]
February 18, 2022: Our client has been presenting their work for the past few weeks. Virtual Reality NPC Possibilion and Songstress in NEOS VR, using quantum computing (quantum annealer by D-Wave Systems). It is a very cool use case for quantum computing in Media/Entertainment.
My friend is live on Twitch TV:https://t.co/ZO4dJShWJD
— Chicago Quantum: Jeff (@chicago_quantum) February 18, 2022
Ideatron
ontodistro
I exist in several different social VR platforms. I create NPCs within NEOS VR as "Ideatron". I also used to teach COGS 100 (Simon Fraser University) in Tivoli cloud VR as "Ontodistro"...
