This web site is dedicated to all the investors and traders like myself who lost a lot of money last year. After enjoying a bull market year after year we finally saw the bubble burst. Although many sensed that it was coming, very few of us were able to gauge how severe it would be or determine when the market had finally reached the bottom. The popularity of online trading and the growing number of investors who now choose to manage their own portfolios have contributed greatly to the extreme volatility that we now see on a daily basis.

As I watched the market fall into a steady, relentless decline, it occured to me that although it might be painful, it was absolutely essential to know the level of return I was able to achieve across both open and closed positions. I also discovered that very few online portfolio tools would properly handle option trading. After looking at offerings from some of the more successful financial investment websites it became apparent that there just weren't many web based portfolio tracking systems that were easy to use, required a minimal amount of data entry, and provided all the information that I needed to monitor my return on investments.

Being a software developer by trade, I decided to create a web site that would replace the spreadsheets that I kept at home. It would have to be password protected and track percentage of return on investment. The return would include all transactions associated with a brokerage account such as deposits and withdrawals, dividends, interest credits, and margin interest. The interface for entering trades would have to be intuitive and option trading would have to be part of the implementation. It should be able to handle both equities and options trading. It had to be easy to use and intuitive.

Another idea that I wanted to pursue was the possibility of finding 'price divergence' via a database query. One of the books I read early on when learning about trading was Trading for a Living. Dr. Elder was primarily interested in technical analysis although he does very well at addressing various trading philosophies. He has a keen perception as to why traders often make mistakes when they let emotions interfere with trading trading decisions. He developed several new indicators that I thought were fairly simple, but could be useful if one could find stocks that were displaying those characteristics. The Trend Analysis Query has links to a synopsis of his recommendations for developing trading rules based on his new technical analysis indicators.

If you happen to be one of the multitude of traders and investors who are trying to establish a presence on the Internet in hopes of creating a pay site for your membership, you may find that having the type of functionality provided by this web site would allow you to focus more on trading rather than building a web site. Similarily, investment advisors may find this site to be useful as a 'value added' service that would attract new clients or provide you with a competitive advantage. In any case, if you're interested in making this web site your web site, it can be done quite easily. The menus, colors, and backgrounds are stored entirely in database tables which can be quickly modified to change the entire look and feel of the site. If further customization is required, I would definitely be interested in providing additional functionality at a reasonable rate.

Finally, if you have any concerns about privacy, I want to assure you that all information entered at InvestmentTeams will be kept completely confidential. In fact, we advocate total anonymity and the only information that you are asked to provide is a username or handle, a password, and a valid e-mail address. Your e-mail address will never be displayed on any portion of the website nor will it be relayed to other members. We will not sell your email address to companies that compile mailing lists. All e-mail correspondence will be couriered via the InvestmentTeams domain. Members who do not provide a valid, verifiable e-mail address will be automatically deleted.

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