

READ ME
THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE "FORECASTING CHALLENGE" FILES

"CAN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REALLY PREDICT? OR IS IT A QUEST 
ANOTHER HOLY GRAIL, AND A WASTE OF TIME?"

THERE ARE TWO DATA FILES IN THIS SET:
1) LEARN.DAT   file for learning/memorizing by the nueral network
               there are 324 rows
2) TESTING.DAT file to be used for forecasting by the nueral net
               there are only 20 rows

FILE STRUCTURES:
These files are space-delimited ASCII files, with numeric data 
only. There are several columns of numbers. Both files have the 
same number of columns. Only one column is to be forecasted; the 
rest are data variable. The last column in LEARN.DAT is the 
"desired respnse." The last column in TESTING.DAT has been 
replaced with a dummy number of 6. The job of the nueral network 
is to determine the correct values for the last column in the 
TESTING.DAT file.

PURPOSE OF THIS "FORECASTING CHALLENGE:"
To determine if an artificial intelligence program, such as aa     
nueral network, can actually be effective in predicting the 
future direction change of a stock. The data files are 
pre-processed, normalized, stock price and related factors (such 
as interest rates.) The last column of each file is the "desired 
response." (This is an "easy" stock to predict. We are already 
extremely successful in trading this stock without the aid of any 
number-crunching. For example, our trades on this stock are 86% 
profitable. However, we have been unable to find any artificial 
intelligence program that can provide any decent results.)

WHAT'S IN THE LAST COLUMN:
The last column in LEARN.DAT is either 1, 5, or 9. These numbers 
represent either, BUY, HOLD, or SELL decisions. The decisions are 
based on price, momentum, economic factors, production, cost of 
production, etc.

TEST PROCEDURE:
Load the LEARN.DAT and TEST.DAT files into your software. After 
learning from the LEARN.DAT file, run your predictions on the 
TESTING.DAT file. Replace the last column in TESTING.DAT with the 
correct values. Send us the output for the last column of 
TESTING.DAT file only.

WE WANT TO BUY YOUR A.I. PROGRAM IF:
We are willing to pay up to $2,000 for any artificial 
intelligence program that can correctly learn and predict on 
these files. We'll buy it, if your program can successfully 
predict the correct values for the last column of TESTING.DAT.

WHERE TO SEND YOUR RESULTS:
We are only interested in 20 predicted numbers.
You can send your 20 predicted numbers in either of two ways:
Mail:  STENMARK, 274-6-2400 Dundas, Mississauga, Ont, L5K2R8
E-mail: To E VOGEL thru NANET on the BBS.
E-mail: To E VOGEL thru CRS BBS in Toronto

There is no deadline to this competition.
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