Methods and Systems for Analyzing Attributes of Investments and Other Assets

• US 20060277132A1
• Filed: 08/17/2006
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kent F. Brooks
• Original Assignee: Kent F. Brooks
• Inventors: Brooks, Kent F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

Investors find assistance with determining and/or evaluating relative positions of investments with respect to a variety of evaluation parameters and attributes obtained from a number of data sources. In one embodiment, this involves graphically displaying the relative positions (or locations) of investments with respect to one another and with respect to selectable evaluation parameters and benchmarks for such assets. In some cases, the graphical displays are accompanied by analytical comments that further explain or amplify the information being conveyed graphically.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

defining data dimensions by which locations of investments will be analyzed and presented in graphical fashion;

defining data sources from which attributes of the investments will be selected, the attributes being parameters by which the investments are compared with one another; and

presenting, in a graphical framework, the investments as functions of the defined dimensions according to locations defined by each investment'"'"'s respective attributes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, within the graphical framework with the locations of the investments, one or more comparative benchmarks for said attributes of the investments at locations determined by characteristics of the benchmarks and the data dimensions of the graphical framework.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data dimensions include some or all of investment momentum, investment valuation, investment type, investment style, and investment category.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein investment momentum includes some or all of historic price changes, expected price changes, investment ratings, comparative momentum parameters, historic growth rate parameters, or expected growth rate parameters.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein investment valuation includes some or all of historic or expected valuation according to prices, comparative valuations, historic or expected valuation growth rates, and estimated or modeled fair or discounted cash flow valuations.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data dimensions are expressed as axes of the graphical framework within which investment positions are plotted according to their respective attributes.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein some of the data dimensions are expressed as one or more of investment symbol types, shapes, colors, patterns, or sizes.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting additional comments associated with relative positions of one or more of the investments.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional comments are automatically generated according to rules and criteria defining said additional comments and correlations between the locations of the investments with said rules and criteria.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the additional comments are presented as one or more of text or audible comments.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting comprises including location information for one or more of the investments for more than one time period according to the defined data dimensions.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the location information for the one or more of the investments is presented as a series of two or more locations within a common graphical framework.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein presenting the location information comprises presenting locations of the investments according to the defined data dimensions and according to user selectable time periods.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting comprises displaying the investment locations under multiple sets of criteria conditions.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein for each criteria condition respective dimensions are defined so that similar areas in each of a set of graphical frameworks are semantically similar and meaningful to investors.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining and displaying areas within the graphical framework which have general meanings for investments independent of presenting the locations of the investments in graphical fashion.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting comments identifying areas of the graphical framework within which the locations of the investments are presented that have investment meaning and identifying those of the investments in those of the areas to which said comments apply.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising presenting, in a graphical framework defined by dimensions associated with attributes of investments and selected by investment professionals, locations of investments and benchmarks for said investments, said locations being determined by values of said attributes of said investments obtained from data sources selected by said investment professionals.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising presenting comments concerning one or more of said investments according to correlations between said locations of said investments and rules defining selection and generation of said comments.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said presenting is performed in response to a cursor control operation performed by a user.