Virtual Brain to predict stocks in English

i42-Press Release, 5th December 2001

Following its success in central Europe, the stock forecast system MoneyBee® is now available in English. Distributed by the Germany based company i42 GmbH, in Mannheim / Rhine, the acclaimed MoneyBee® software can now be downloaded for free at the MoneyBee® stock prediction website - www.moneybee.net. Once installed, the software connects via the Internet to create a vast virtual mainframe computer for stock forecasts. The system's predictions are based on Artificial intelligence (A.I.) and have so far proved incredibly accurate: two German sample portfolios easily predicted Dax and Nemax indices.

MoneyBee® is a distributed computing project similar to Seti@home: users donate their PC's computing capacity to calculate stock movements. These are compiled in a database known as the BienenStock® (German for “beehive”) that generates stock predictions. Because MoneyBee acts as a screensaver, the user hardly notices the program running on his PC. Since starting in September 2000, 12.000 users have downloaded the German version, generating 0,1 Teraflops of computing capacity – comparable to an average university mainframe computer.

MoneyBee works like a “virtual brain” on the Internet, using artificial intelligence and neural networks to provide pattern recognition of past stock market data. Genetic algorithms then optimise the input data.

Based on a thesis from nearby Heidelberg University, the MoneyBee system was developed by i42 GmbH, Mannheim, who added some innovative ideas. In Germany, Moneybee has won two prizes: the German Federal Ministry of Economy's Multimedia Award (Foerderpreis Gruendungswettbewerb Multimedia 1999), Berlin, and the Shortlist ("10 Best Ideas") at the innovations contest CyberOne 2000 in Stuttgart. MoneyBee® was also nominated for the Neo Online Awards.

For further information please contact:
Till Mansmann
i42 GmbH
Weinheimer Str. 68
D-68309 Mannheim, Germany
tel.: +49-621 / 328 99-27, fax –10
tm@i42.de