Magazine, online, and broadcast summary recommendation reporting system to aid in decision making

• US 6,236,980 B1
• Filed: 04/09/1998
• Issued: 05/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: John P. Reese
• Original Assignee: John P. Reese
• Inventors: Reese, John P
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber, Eric W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US09/057,823
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: 705/36, 705/26, 705/27, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/36.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

The invention utilizes a computer apparatus to automatically generate displays or reports containing investment security or element recommendations (FIG. 4, box 133) along with an optional summarization of the reasons (FIG. 4, box 134) for the recommendation from magazines, online sources, and broadcast programs for one specific security or element (FIG. 4, box 132) at a time or one specific recommendation source (FIG. 7, box 184) at a time. The aforementioned reports could additionally include the performance of the recommendors (FIG. 5, box 156). A report could also be provided to show the performance statistics (FIG. 8b, box 196, box 204, box 206, box 208, box 210, box 212, box 214) of a recommendation source (FIG. 8b, box 194) for predetermined date ranges (FIG. 8b, box 216) either in an aggregated and averaged format (FIG. 8b) or for each recommendation (FIG. 8c) made by the recommendation source. Additionally, a report could be provided to show the performance of elements or securities that were mentioned (FIG. 51), not just recommended, in magazines, online sources, and broadcast programs.

Claims

1. A semi-automated data processing system to report multiple summary recommendations about an item from multiple media sources as an aid in decision-making, comprising:

a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program,

b) at least one data storing means accessible by said computer program,

c) a recommendation data set stored in said data storage means, said recommendation data set comprised of a plurality of recommendation capsules from a plurality of sources, each said recommendation capsule comprised of;

i) an item identification,corresponding to an item;

ii) a summary of an original recommendation about the item;

(1) wherein the original recommendation includes advice, suggestion, endorsement, approval, caution, or implied recommendation, about the item;

(2) where the original recommendation, before being summarized, was originally present in an issue of a media source that is selected from the group consisting of

(a) magazines and newsletters,

(b) online sources, and

(c) broadcast programs,

(3) wherein a summary of the original recommendation is a conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code or symbol that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative, or neutral action toward the item, and

iii) a hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item, where said hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item is comprised of;

(1) a name of a publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(2) a date identification associated with the issue of the publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(3) a title of an article in said issue, in which the recommendation about an item was present, and

(4) a name of a recommender associated with the recommendation about the item in said article,

d) item selecting means controllable by a user, and

e) a report generating means controlled by said computer program to generate a report of summary recommendations for an item selected by the item selecting means, where the report of summary recommendations for said item selected by the selecting means is comprised of;

i) an identification of the selected item,

ii) a section for recommendation capsules about the selected item, where associated with a recommendation capsule about the selected item, there is at least a

(1) summary recommendation,

(2) date identification associated with the original recommendation'"'"'s hierarchy of sources, and

(3) an identification of at least one other source from the original recommendation'"'"'s hierarchy of sources,

whereby, without any further user action, a selection by a user of an item in which the user wants to make an investment or purchase decision, results in a summary report or display that lets the user instantly both see and compare the collected recommendations about the selected item from multiple magazines, web sites or broadcast program sources with all the information in one report.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the report is presented in a computer environment selected from the group consisting of the World Wide Web, a local area network, an intranet and a standalone PC.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the item selection means selects a product, recommendation source, recommender, article, issue, date, periodical, on-line source, or broadcast program.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein item selection means is a member of the group consisting of a hyperlink, text box, combo box, and list box.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein item identification is a security identification.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein item identification is selected from the group consisting of computer product identification, sports team identification, betting element identification, college identification, consumer product identification, car make identification, car model identification, vacation destination identification, toy identification, building material products identification, water vehicle identification, brokerage identification, restaurant identification, and companies to work for identification.

7. The system of claim 1, that further includes, for a recommendation capsule on a report, a ranking of a track record of any layer of a hierarchy of a recommendation source for the recommendation capsule.

8. The system of claim 1, that further includes, for a recommendation capsule on a report, an article summarization of reasons supporting the recommendation.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a recommendor is at least one named entity selected from the group consisting of:

(1) authors of the article the recommendation is found within,

(2) an editor of the publication the article was found in,

(3) an analyst,

(4) a broker,

(5) a trader,

(6) a strategist,

(7) a money manager,

(8) an editor,

(9) a consultant,

(10) an expert in a subject,

(11) a knowledgeable business person,

(12) a reviewer,

(13) a digest,

(14) an issue, and

(15) a newsletter.

10. The system of claim 1, which further includes in its hierarchy of sources of an original recommendation about the item, the identification of a column in which the original recommendation was present, when the recommendation is part of a column.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein notification means of the system notifies a user automatically when a recommendation is issued, about an item, pre-selected by the user, by a recommendation source or recommender, whereby the system offers a monitoring service to its users, notifying the users of recent recommendations made regarding items in which they have an ongoing interest.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein notification means of the system notifies a user automatically when a recommendation is issued by a recommendation source or recommender pre-selected by the user, whereby the system offers a monitoring service to its users, notifying the users of recent recommendations made by the recommendation sources and recommendors in which they have an ongoing interest.

13. A method of producing a report to aid in decision-making on one item at a time selected from a plurality of items, consisting of:

a) providing a general purpose computer system with data storage means structured to hold a plurality of summary recommendations and recommendation capsules about the subject matter,

b) capturing, via a manual or automated data entry means, summary recommendations and recommendation capsules, about the subject matter, from magazines, newsletters, on-line sources or broadcast programs, said recommendation capsules comprised of;

i) an item identification corresponding to an item

ii) a summary of an original recommendation about the item;

(1) wherein the original recommendation includes advice, suggestion, endorsement, approval, caution, or implied recommendation, about the item;

(2) where the original recommendation, before being summarized, was originally present in an issue of a media source that is selected from the group consisting of;

(a) magazines and newsletters,

(b) online sources, and

(c) broadcast programs, and

(3) wherein a summary of an original recommendation is a conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code or symbol that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative, or neutral action toward the item, and

iii) a hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item, where said hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item is comprised of;

(1) a name of a publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(2) a date identification associated with the issue of the publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(3) a title of an article in said issue, in which the recommendation about an item was present, and

(4) a name of a recommender associated with the recommendation about the item in said article,

c) obtaining summary recommendations or recommendation capsules about a subject matter using said consistent methodology and storing these capsules in said data storage means,

d) providing a second general purpose computer system with data storage means holding a plurality of recommendation capsules about the subject,

e) selecting an item about which to make a decision,

f) presenting a report of summary recommendations about the selected item, by said second computer, wherein the report is comprised of;

i) an identification of the selected item,

ii) a section for recommendation capsules about the selected item, where associated with a recommendation capsule about the selected item, there is at least a

(1) summary recommendation,

(2) date identification associated with the original recommendation'"'"'s hierarchy of sources, and

(3) an identification of at least one other source from the original recommendation'"'"'s hierarchy of sources,

whereby a report of summary recommendations about an item, including a date and source of each recommendation, from a multitude of magazine, on-line or broadcast sources, with all the information in one report.

14. A semi-automated data processing system to report the overall performance of a selected recommendation source or recommender as an aid in decision-making, comprising:

a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program,

b) at least one data storage means accessible by said computer program,

c) a recommendation data set stored in said data storage means, said recommendation data set comprised of a plurality of recommendation capsules from a plurality of sources, each said recommendation capsule comprised of;

i) an item identification, corresponding to an item;

ii) a summary of an original recommendation about the item;

(1) wherein the original recommendation includes advice, suggestion, endorsement, approval, caution, or implied recommendation, about the item;

(2) where the original recommendation, before being summarized, was originally present in an issue of a media source that is selected from the group consisting of

(a) magazines and newsletters,

(b) online sources,

(c) and broadcast programs, and

(3) wherein a summary recommendation is a conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code or symbol that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative, or neutral action toward the item, and

iii) a hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item, where said hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item is comprised of;

(1) a name of a publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(2) a date associated with the issue of the publication, online source, or broadcast program in which issue the recommendation was originally present, and from which the starting date of a performance calculation for this recommendation is derived,

(3) a title of an article in said issue, in which the recommendation about an item was present, and

(4) a name of a recommender associated with the recommendation about the item in said article,

(5) an identification of a column when the recommendation is part of a column,

d) recommendation source or recommender selection means controllable by a user, and

e) a report generation means controlled by said computer program to generate a report about historical performance of a recommendation source or recommender using a calculated aggregated performance of summary recommendations about an item attributed to the recommendation source or recommendor selected by the recommendation source or recommender selection means, where the report is comprised of;

i) an identification of the selected recommendation or recommender source, and

ii) at least one of the performance statistics for said recommendation or recommender source, for at least one predetermined time frame, said performance statistics selected from the group consisting of;

(a) an aggregated performance of items recommended by said recommendation source or recommender,

(b) an aggregated recommendation source or recommender benchmark performance,

(c) an aggregated recommendation source or recommendor Sharpe ratio,

(d) an aggregated recommendation source or recommender standard deviation,

(e) an aggregated recommendation source or recommendor benchmark standard deviation,

(f) an aggregated recommendation source or recommendor variance,

(g) an aggregated recommendation source or recommendor benchmark variance,

(h) an aggregated recommendation source or recommender smile index,

(i) an aggregated recommendation source or recommender benchmark smile index,

(j) an aggregated recommendation source or recommender pain index, and

(k) an aggregated recommendation source or recommendor benchmark pain index,

whereby the user sees the averaged performance of all the recorded recommendations of a selected recommendation source or recommendor.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said item is a security.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein a performance statistic is evaluated using an action date for an original recommendation selected from the group consisting of:

a) a date recorded or calculated in the system as the earliest date that the original recommendation could have been acted upon,

b) a date identifying an issue of the original recommendation,

c) a date of the broadcast of the original recommendation,

d) a date of the posting on-line of the original recommendation,

e) a date used for pricing items mentioned within an article when available in the recommendation source, and

f) a date that the recommendation was made available to the public.

17. A semi-automated data processing system to report the performance of each recommendation of a selected recommendation source or recommender, as an aid in decision-making, comprising:

a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program,

b) at least one data storage means accessible by said computer program,

c) a recommendation data set stored in said data storage means, said recommendation data set comprised of a plurality of recommendation capsules from a plurality of sources, each said recommendation capsule comprised of;

i) an item identification corresponding to item

ii) a summary of an original recommendation about the item;

(1) wherein the original recommendation includes advice, suggestion, endorsement, approval, caution, or implied recommendation, about the item;

(2) where the original recommendation, before being summarized, was originally present in an issue of a media source that is selected from the group consisting of

(a) magazines and newsletters,

(b) online sources,

(c) and broadcast programs, and

(3) wherein a summary recommendation is a conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code or symbol that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative, or neutral action toward the item, and

iii) a hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item, where said hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item is comprised of;

(1) a name of a publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(2) a date associated with the issue of the publication, online source, or broadcast program in which issue the recommendation was originally present, and from which the starting date of a performance calculation for this recommendation is derived,

(3) a title of an article in said issue, in which the recommendation about an item was present, and

(4) a name of a recommender associated with the recommendation about the item in said article,

(5) an identification of a column when the recommendation is part of a column,

d) recommendation source or recommendor selection means controllable by a user, and

e) a report generation means controlled by said computer program to generate a report about historical performance of each recommendation of a selected recommendation source or recommender, calculated from an action date, where the report is comprised of;

i) an identification of the selected recommendation or recommendor source, and

ii) at least one of the performance statistics for a recommendation capsule, for at least one predetermined time frame, said performance statistics selected from the group consisting of;

(1) the gain or loss of the recommendation capsule from the action date to the end of the predetermined timeframe,

(2) the gain or loss of a benchmark for the recommendation capsule from the action date to the end of the predetermined time frame,

whereby the user sees the performance, over predetermined timeframes, of all the recorded recommendations of a selected recommendation source or recommender.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said item is a security.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein a performance statistic is evaluated using an action date for an original recommendation selected from the group consisting of:

a) a date recorded or calculated in the system as the earliest date that the original recommendation could have been acted upon,

b) a date identifying an issue of the original recommendation,

c) a date of the broadcast of the original recommendation,

d) a date of the posting on-line of the original recommendation,

e) a date used for pricing items mentioned within an article when available in the recommendation source, and

f) a date that the recommendation was made available to the public.

20. A semi-automated data processing system to enter and store a set of recommendation capsules for future processing and analysis, comprising:

a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program,

b) at least one data storing means accessible by said computer program,

c) a list comprising a plurality of mass media recommendation sources that are known for their expertise in covering a subject area common to those sources, where said list is stored in said data storing means,

d) a list comprising a plurality of similar items, where said similar items are a part of said subject area, and where said list is stored in said data storing means,

e) a data entry means to allow entry of information about an item from said list comprising similar items, into said data storing means, where said information is a plurality of variables which are components of a recommendation capsule, said recommendation capsule comprising;

i) a recommendation source identification corresponding to a mass media recommendation source from the list comprising mass media recommendation sources,

ii) an item identification corresponding to one item out of the list comprising similar items,

iii) an independent summary recommendation of original content about the item appearing in an issue of said recommendation source, where said independent summary recommendation is an independent conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code, or symbol that suggests a sentiment or degree of positive, negative or neutral action toward the item, and

iv) a date corresponding to when the original content about the item became public and could have first been reasonably acted on by a subscriber to said recommendation source,

whereby actionable summary data about a set of items favorably and unfavorably mentioned publicly within a focused set of mass media recommendation sources is accumulated for future analysis and used in the generation of quick research reports of recommendations about items found in respected mass media sources.

21. The system of claim 20 that further includes an article summarization whereby the user views the reasons supporting the recommendation.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein said item identification is a security identification.

23. The system of claim 20 that further includes at least one of the variables pertaining to the recommendation capsule selected from the group consisting of:

a) tone of article,

b) investment style,

c) article support data,

d) security support data,

e) bullish reasons cited,

f) bearish reasons cited,

g) target price of security being recommended,

h) target date of security being recommended,

i) target percentage of security being recommended,

j) buy below price,

k) sector,

l) exit strategy, and

m) currency.

24. The system of claim 20 that further includes at least one of the layers of a hierarchy from the group consisting of:

a) magazines,

b) on-line sources,

c) broadcast programs,

d) columns,

e) articles, and

f) recommendors.

25. A semi-automated data processing system to report mentions about a selected item from a plurality of mass media sources, as an aid in decision making, comprising:

a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program,

b) at least one data storing means accessible by said computer program,

c) a predetermined set of similar items,

d) a predetermined set of mass media sources known to regularly write about or cover a plurality of items from said predetermined set of similar items, said mass media sources selected from the group consisting of

i) magazines,

ii) newsletters,

iii) online sources, and

iv) broadcast programs,

e) a proprietary system of phrases, grades, codes or symbols used to suggest a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative or neutral action toward an item, said proprietary system completely independent of any ranking system belonging solely to one of the predetermined media sources,

f) a mention data set stored in said data storage means, said mention data set comprised of a plurality of mention capsules derived from the predetermined media sources, each said mention capsule comprised of;

i) an item identification corresponding to an item,

ii) a mention source identification corresponding to a mention source of said item,

iii) a date identification associated with an issue of said mention source in which said item is mentioned, and

iv) an independent summary of the mention of the item within the issue of the mention source, where said independent summary is a phrase, grade, code, or symbol from said proprietary system that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative or neutral action toward the item, and where said independent summary represents a proprietary interpretation of the original mention of the item,

v) an item selecting means controllable by a user, and

vi) a report generating means controlled by said computer program to generate a report of summary mentions for an item selected by the item selecting means, where the report of summary mentions for the selected item is comprised of;

(1) an item identification corresponding to the selected item,

(2) a section for mention capsules about the selected item, where associated with a mention capsule about the selected item, there is at least;

(a) an independent summary of the mention of the selected item,

(b) a date identification associated with the mention capsule, and

(c) a mention source identification corresponding to the mention source,

whereby after a user selects an item out of a predetermined set of similar items, the user will see a report, drawn from a plurality of mass media magazines, online sources or broadcast media sources, of mentions of that item, along with an independent summary of each mention of that item, thereby conveying more information in less time that it would have taken a user to read and summarize a conclusion about the item in just one article.

26. A semi-automated data processing system to report the overall performance of a selected recommendation source or recommendor as an aid in decision-making, comprising:

a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program to function in a particular fashion,

b) at least one data storage means accessible by said computer program,

c) a recommendation data set stored in said data storage means, said recommendation data set comprised of a plurality of recommendation capsules from a plurality of sources, each said recommendation capsule comprised of;

i) an item identification,

ii) a summary of an original recommendation about the item,

(1) wherein an original recommendation includes advice, suggestion, endorsement, approval, caution, or implied recommendation, about the item,

(2) where the original recommendation, before being summarized, was originally present in an issue of a media source that is selected from the group consisting of

(a) magazines and newsletters,

(b) online sources,

(c) and broadcast programs, and

(3) wherein a summary recommendation is a conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code or symbol that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative, or neutral action toward the item, and

iii) a hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item, where said hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item is comprised of;

(1) a name of a publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,

(2) a date associated with the issue of the publication, online source, or broadcast program in which issue the recommendation was originally present, and from which the starting date of a performance calculation for this recommendation is derived,

(3) a title of an article in said issue, in which the recommendation about an item was present, and

(4) a name of a recommender associated with the recommendation about the item in said article,

(5) an identification of a column when the recommendation is part of a column,

d) recommendation source or recommendor selection means controllable by a user, and

e) a report generation means controlled by said computer program to generate a report about historical performance of a recommendation source or recommender using a calculated aggregated performance of summary recommendations about an item attributed to the recommendation source or recommender selected by the recommendation source or recommender selection means, where the report is comprised of;

i) an identification of the selected recommendation or recommender source, and

ii) an aggregated recommendation source or recommender smile index for said recommendation or recommendor source, for at least one predetermined timeframe,

whereby the user can get a quantitative performance measurement of how pleasurably a selected recommendation source or recommender performed.