- The application is inspired by SONAR, the financial search engine based on semantic technology created by the IT multinational in partnership with the University of Murcia, the Instituto de Empresa (IE) and the Carlos III University of Madrid.
- The system incorporates the latest artificial intelligence technologies to track and analyse information about prices, magnitudes and environment to generate recommendations.
- As an additional feature, a social network has been integrated so that users can share questions, comments and investment portfolios.
Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe, and the Information Technology departments of the University of Murcia and Carlos III university of Madrid have just concluded the development of a system designed to recommend and support decision making regarding the stock exchange. The application is based on semantic technology and can be accessed at http://innovation-labs.com/SocialSONAR. It is oriented at any user interested in creating a customised portfolio in the short, mid or long term. The application includes a cooperative system based on 2.0 technologies which allow users to create, modify or delete investment data in an easy, interactive and fast way.
SONAR, the name of the project, is within the framework of Avanza R&D programme by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade and is led by Indra’s Software Labs division located in Madrid. The software Lab network consists of 20 centres located in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The network employs over 4,000 professionals specialised in software development.
The SONAR platform was used to develop the prototype. It is a financial search engine based on semantic technology. The global investment was around 590,000 Euros of which 348,000 were subsidised.
SONAR 2 seeks to assist traders and analysts with technologies and systems which originate from artificial intelligence. It can also be used by individuals since its environment can be customised.
The platform includes a node which acts as a semantic knowledge server and obtains information from the internet to record it semantically in compliance with fundamental analysis precepts (valuation of securities according to the company's results as well as external data) and technical analysis (based on the history of the prices of assets). It also contains a neural network trainer -an artificial intelligence tool- so that the system can be accommodated to the changes of the market and upgrades of the parameters used to calculate predictions.
For a recommendation, the user must register at the SONAR platform and will then receive a password via email which could be changed. After authentication, the user should click on “Predicción SONAR” tab for recommendations classified into short, mid or long term. After choosing the company, the system will show updated recommendations. For the time being, the system compiles information of the companies quoting in IBEX-35, though other indexes could be included as well as new financial tools.
Semantics provide an open and homogenised environment for any user. It also facilitates inclusion of other features and tools in an easy way. For instance, the system could be easily customised to create personal portfolios in accordance with time horizon, capital or risk profile.
Recommendations 2.0
The platform also incorporates a social network so that users can share questions, comments and investment portfolios to support decision making and to be classified into groups.
The information can be shared (it can be made public or restricted to a group) for the rest of users to submit comments or evaluate it. This way they can comment on prices or read all opinions regarding the evolution of a company in the stock exchange or other users' experiences.
Some of its features improve user’s perception such as charts which show evolution of prices or the record of accuracy.
Financial search engine
SONAR 2 was preceded by SONAR, another R&D project finished at the end of 2009 which produced a prototype of a financial search engine based on semantic technology. The system is capable of incorporating a huge load of data. Then it will record them semantically and use the information to conduct a smart search. All this is possible thanks to inference mechanisms and reasoning applied to economic and financial information previously indexed.
Thanks to this instead of showing websites, the search engine supplies just the information requested. For example, if the system is requested to find the latest ten prices of a company's shares within Ibex 35, it will show those values within the span of time as desired.
Leadership in innovation
Indra is the first European company with major R&D investment in the Information Technologies (Computer Services) sector according to the Industrial R&D Scoreboard report released by the European commission in November last year. The company moved 13 places up since the previous year and has become the second Spanish company with major investment in this sector with a 7% over its revenue figure, well above the average of Spanish companies (0.8%), European companies (2.7%) and USA’s companies (4.5%).
According to the report (http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports.htm) Indra invested €166 M in R&D in 2008, 7.3% more than the previous year. With these figures, Indra ranks 103rd among European companies with more investment in this area.
Indra has agreements with more than 100 universities and research centres across the world with the objective of becoming an international reference in cooperation and in university-company technology transfer.
Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the first European company in its sector according to investment in R&D and is the second Spanish company in absolute value investments in R&D. In 2009 revenues reached € 2,513 M of which a 40% came from the international market. The company employs more than 29,000 professionals and has clients in more than 100 countries.