2.xx Version Modification List

Version

Modification

12/10/2004
v2.24.0

Maintenance Release:

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Improved support for operating behind a proxy server
Batch files tab remembers column location and width now
Resolved problem with online information retrieval causing ANNI to lockup for slow connections
Decreased file loading time caused by excessive auto-update attempts
Resolved problem with Professional trial version not being accessible

8/7/2004
v2.23.0

Free Standard Version for paid Neural Science Prophet.Net users

ANNI Standard is now free* to paid Neural Science Prophet.Net subscribers. Simply sign up for Prophet.Net services through ANNI and have unlimited use of ANNI Standard version as long as ANNI can sign into your Prophet.Net account when starting.

* Free Standard version has ended. Prophet.Net has been replaced with IQFeed.

Enhancement Release:

Large Graph has capability to show volume trend by color coding the volume bars as follows

Green = Up Day

Red = Down Day

White = No Change

8/1/2004
v2.22.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Large Graph Enhancements:
- Capability to show the close values in line, bar or candlestick form
- Added ZigZag trend line to allow easy viewing of the current trend
- Ability to hide the predicted values to allow better viewing of the close and trend line lines

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Error could occur during new file creation
Volume wouldn't always show in large graph
Retrieval of Business or Financial summaries were not always successful. Now ANNI will do multiple requests of the summaries until successful.

3/15/2004
v2.20.0

ANNI Professional Version Released

v2.20 signifies the first Professional release of ANNI. Read about the differences between the standard and the professional versions.

9/15/2003
v2.19.0

Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Added more detailed message on Configurations and Utilities that are not available during training or when a file is not open to prevent confusion
Added first time user wizard to assist in getting started

9/14/2003
v2.18.0

Maintenance Release:

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Yahoo Finance recently went through a website change. In doing so, several web integration components broke. This update fixes all of the links and integration with Yahoo Finance.

9/8/2003
v2.17.0

Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

New toolbar button that allows reloading of the data. If you use another program to update your data, you no longer have to exit and reopen the ANNI file in order for it to reload the data file. Now by selecting this button (which is disabled during training, etc.) ANNI will force a data reload in order to pull in the updated data.

8/26/2003
v2.16.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

The Buy Sell Signals module has been completely rebuilt. The new systems design is superior to the old improving real world performance considerably. In addition a detailed report is available right on the Signals tab for easier analysis of the signals performance. An improved export of the signals results allows easy detailed analysis trade by trade.
ANNI has full direct MetaStock Data Support* for all versions of MetaStock Data (v7.0 and v8.0). This includes the newer XMASTER format that can hold more than 256 files using the .MWD data format.
Note: Although MetaStock Intraday data can be loaded into ANNI, the date display will not show the time intervals. In addition future predictions will be shown in daily intervals but technically represent whatever the time interval is in the data file.

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

All reported bugs in v2.15

6/26/2003
v2.15.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Improved support for custom files that have reversed data entries
Log Scaling capability for Large Graph

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Fixed problem with Switching Files While Viewing Large Graph
Fixed problem that could occur if a files data samples exceeded aprox 2000 entries and the maximum available entries where selected in the "Data Processing" view

6/8/2003
v2.14.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Balanced thread priority's in Buy/Sell Signals vs. Nets

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Fixed problem with "Runtime Error" message occurring if using Auto-Run or Auto-Load features and if opening a file from within explorer (by double clicking a ANNI .nni file)

6/8/2003
v2.13.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Fundamental Data updates have been separated into their own thread to prevent long file load times when updating Fundamental Data. This would cause ANNI to temporarily appear frozen. This no longer occurs now.

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Fixed "Moving Average Indicators Do Not Stay Selected" issue
Fixed Dates not syncing with Buy Sell Signal Export vs. Graph
Added Additional Support for Foreign Yahoo Finance Integration

5/31/2003
v2.12.0

Biggest Improvements ANNI has Ever Made!

New Learning Algorithm

ANNI's core learning algorithm has been a compromise between speed and precision. With the new custom designed Learning Algorithm developed, this is no longer the case (see Learning Algorithm for more information). This new Learning Algorithm is considerably faster and better than the previous one making it capable of learning more diverse problems which results in more accurate and robust outputs.

Additional Learning Enhancements

The Momentum Algorithm was modified to assure the new learning algorithm does not stop at a local solution but continues until it comes as close as it can to a global solution. The Weight Decay Algorithm was also modified for the new learning algorithm in order to prevent excessively high weights (which tends to cause overtraining - or learning the data rather than learning the problem).

Enforced Diversity

ANNI had a tendency to converge on one single input period if that input period had very strong patterns. Changes have been put in place that assures a greater diversity without affecting convergence. With the new latest update, it is impossible for it to converge on one single input period (unless the user specifically sets ANNI to do so). This has improved ANNI's performance and generalization capabilities making the weighted average output even more robust.

Improved Data Preprocessing

ANNI version 1.0 had a basic input data scaling algorithm. Version 2.0 moved to a more dynamic version by analyzing the data and choosing the best scaling algorithm. This new version has added to that and allows combinations of scaling for each input used. So for example, volume can be logarithmically scaled while the close can be non-linear scaled. This has improved certain stocks performances considerably.

Professional Feature now In Standard

Prediction Range optimization has been moved out of the professional version and placed into the standard version. Now everyone will have the power of changing ANNI's prediction period (or allowing ANNI to optimize this for you). The prediction period is what ANNI trains towards (it's target value). So if the range was one day, then ANNI tries to predict tomorrows value. But if you change this to 5 days, then ANNI tries to predict 5 days from now. This sometimes helps ANNI find patterns easier and create systems that are more robust (i.e.. a mixed set of prediction ranges averaged together).

Many More Changes - Download Now and Enjoy the New Power and Performance ANNI has to Offer.

3/10/2003
v2.11.0

Maintenance Release:

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Updated file links to "Auto Update" feature
Fixed exiting problem with Win98 OS's
Added support for Data Retriever companion program

1/22/2003
v2.10.0

Maintenance Release:

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various fixes to improve functionality and support for Win98SE and WinNT OS's

1/12/2003
v2.09.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

The Output Tab now supports showing the Current Nets Output as before, or the Weighted Avg of the Best Nets. The settings are located in the Configurations/Program Settings dialog.

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.08.0

Maintenance Release:

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.07.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

New Data Preprocessing provides Improved Performance. With the current markets ups and downs, many stocks are reaching new lows (and some new highs). Previously ANNI has had trouble dealing with securities that are in this state since the values are in areas never seen or trained on before. With the new preprocessing of data, this problem has been severely reduced and in a lot of cases completely resolved. This new preprocessing technique also improves overall performance in correlation, value difference and training time by approximately 25%
New Web Browser Tab provides additional online integration. The moment you open a file you will see it's current online chart available within ANNI itself. In addition you can have the Web Page auto refresh for you so the online chart is always up-to-date.
Data Column Selection Capability allows selection of the columns you want to see in the Data tab. This includes any available indicator whether it is used in the neural nets or not. You can also set it to automatically select the columns the neural nets are training on. In addition ‘Daily Percent Change’, ‘Daily Price Change’ and the ‘Base Moving Average’ can be selected as well.
New Configuration Capabilities
- Online Settings: Options for the new Web Browser tab plus
- Advanced Training Options: Early Stopping Capability
Minor Feature Changes
- Auto updating feature while training for Advanced Views (Net's Weights, Input Period.)
- Charting capability of key performance values in the Genetic Info tab (values are remembered)
- Resizable graphs in tab views
- Graph Dialog, Error Correlation Chart and Advanced Views can be shown simultaneously while training or not (Modeless Dialog Boxes) in addition selection of a net within the main view will cause the related charts, views, etc. to change accordingly. This makes it much easier to navigate through the best nets via the main screen.

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.06.0

Maintenance Release:

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Updated Data Retrieval module to handle change in Yahoo Finance data server
Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.05.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Genetic Info tab now shows progress of end of Generation Evaluation

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.04.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Improved Training; slight changes to the learning algorithm to help speed up learning and improve performance
Input Analysis can now be broken down into each separate data block or all data blocks. The 3 data blocks are the Training Entries, the Testing Entries and the Evaluation Entries.
Improved file serialization (saving) to decrease total file size making it easier to exchange files with other ANNI users. File size has bee decreased from a few KB to several MB depending on parameters used and current training progress.

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.03.0

Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Improved Exporting Capabilities allows exporting any available indicators with or without the neural networks core output in standard csv (comma separated values) format. Now you can use this data to import into your favorite spreadsheet program to have direct access to the indicators.
Improved Input Analysis; Keeping with the latest technology advances, ANNI has developed a much more advanced analysis of the affects of each of the inputs used to develop a network. It now fully takes into account the non-linear relationships created within a networks weights. This new technology has improved the input analysis's accuracy 100% while decreasing total time to analyze. ANNI will even show if an indicator has negative affect on the nets performance. This puts a very powerful tool into the users hands allowing them to quickly assess the value of the indicators used. Improving performance has never been easier.
Improved ASCII Custom Data File Support; ANNI can import your own custom ASCII data files. With or without headers (ANNI will remember the custom format). Simply assign your data to a particular column (i.e. high, low, open or volume) then use that column as an input indicator. The column used for close is the target value.
Note: ASCII data file must have minimum a date and close column to work
Improved Utilities User Interface
Improved Software Update Capabilities; With ANNI's help file constantly increasing as more features are added, not everyone wants to download a large help file that they don't use. Now if a help update is available, you have the option of whether to download it now, or at a later time. If you find yourself needing an updated one, simply update at that time.

v2.02.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Improved Advanced Viewing Capabilities; All the Advanced Viewing Capabilities have been packaged up into one easy to use interface. In addition each has added functionality. This includes saving and printing of the graphs. And mouse position integration for specific data values in the graphs themselves.

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.01.0

Maintenance and Enhancement Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Added Zoom Capability to Large Graph; This gives the user the ability to Zoom in on a particular part of the Large Graph without having to enlarge the graph itself

The following bugs have been fixed in this version:

Various minor fixes to improve functionality

v2.00.0

Major Version Release:

The following enhancements have been made:

Optimized Buy Sell Signals; ANNI creates optimized buy sell signals based on your investing style. These signals are optimized entirely separate from ANNI's core Neural Net technology so each module can focus on what it does best. Both modules can be trained simultaneously. The results can then be overlaid onto the Neural Networks outputs to give you an idea of were your next trade will occur. Results can be exported into a standard text file also.
Easier to Use; ANNI's results and performance are easier to understand more than ever before. The main screen has been changed to allow a quick assessment as to whether ANNI has converged onto stable patterns or not. All the neural net's performance are now laid out in a single tab with sortable columns for easy comparison to each other.
Fundamental Information; ANNI pulls in current fundamental information from the Internet and lays it out in an easy to understand format giving you clear signs of danger. Now your no longer limited to just technical analysis.
Note: Fundamental information is only available for Stocks. Not Index's or Mutual Funds.
Common Configurations Dialog; All configuration options have been grouped into a common configurations dialog allowing easier modifications to ANNI's options.
Advanced Diagnostics; Now peer directly into the Neural Nets performance and statistics along with closing price statistics to better evaluate the security and the neural net's training progress using the following features
- Neural Net's Input Period Histogram
- Daily Price Difference Frequency Histogram
- Closing Price Auto Correlation Chart
- Neural Net's Weight Histogram
(ANNI's help contains detailed information on the benefits and usage of these features)
Added Program Options; More options to customize ANNI to suit your needs are now available. Have ANNI automatically start up and begin training on your favorite file or favorite Batch file when Windows starts. Have ANNI minimize to the icon tray so it's out of the way of your other work and hidden from the taskbar. Change the decimal place precision in ANNI's tab displays to suit the particular securities you work with most often.
Improved Training Speed; ANNI is faster than version 1.xx with improved training algorithms to give you quicker results. Improved feedback is given when setting up a file or modifying it to show you how the settings will affect your performance. If the settings exceed your processor or memory ANNI will show this with red text allowing you to modify it to suit your hardware limitations. In addition, when minimized, ANNI now has a silent training mode that disconnects all visual outputs allowing ANNI to focus only on training for even quicker performance than ever before.
Improved Online Integration; Links are now provided for Stock Screening, Sector Analysis and a plethora of directly related links to the current Stock. Now online research/information is even easier than ever.
Note: Certain links are only available for Stocks since this information does not apply to Index's or Mutual Funds.
Improved Support for Foreign Markets; Version 1.xx had limited support for Foreign Markets, at times not downloading sufficient information for ANNI to train on. This has been overcome in Version 2.0 allowing full downloading of Securities from Foreign Markets.
And More... These are just some of the changes made, but not all of them. Download a copy now to experience the power of 2.0 giving you the edge you need in today's stock market.