Gummy-stuff

Peter Ponzo ("Pietro"), also known as "gummy", created a large number of tutorials after his retirement from the University of Waterloo. It is an honour to provide an archive of that body of work, which is known as "gummy-stuff", and comprises a total of 466 tutorials on a variety of financial and non-financial topics. This article provides links to those archived tutorials for greater ease of access.

Peter Ponzo passed away peacefully on July 5, 2020.

The tutorials

The tutorials table below contains all the original gummy'isms, i.e. spelling and grammar mistakes are gummy's.

Tip: Your browser search function (press Ctrl+F ) can be used to find specific topics of interest.

gummy's original disclaimer still applies.

EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE [the gummy-stuff tutorials] MAY BE COPIED, CIRCULATED, DISTRIBUTED, IGNORED, RIDICULED, etc. without seeking my approval but please indicate the source (that's me)

— Peter Ponzo, aka Gummy

Tutorial	Comments
about these TUTORIALS	Just some explanatory notes ...
the spreadsheets	Where you can find them ...
Ichimoku	Ichi-who?
Mortgages	in Lower Slobbovia
MIRR	That's IRR, fiddled.
IRR	... revisited
from Open to High	How High, eh?
Flight Levels	Calculating altitude from air pressure
the Blake Ritual	Price Persistence, eh?
Bit Torrent	Huh?
Drops: Close to Open	Then what?
Stock Tracking	Watch prices changes
Darvas boxes	... or gummy boxes?
Back to the Future	Comparing to the past
Pillow Stock	Put your $$ under a pillow (?)
Monthly Returns	How'd they go?
Mutual Funds	Canadian, eh?
OLED	Organic LEDs
Milankovitch	... and his cycles.
a Time Machine	Huh?
VDX	Remember this guy?
moving CAGR	How they change, eh?
Earthquakes	How to measure 'em
BIG gains?	When were they?
Searching for stock patterns	Find your favourite!
Stock down, then up, then ...	... time to buy?
January predicts	... maybe
Jensen's alpha	Best (?) performers
Avatar	... the movie
A stock screener	... sorta
Computers	What I larned
S&P500	Average daily volume (?)
Fund Data	Download interesting stuff
Investors ...	... how do they think?
Stock Indexes	yet another one (or two?)
Photons	Huh?
Halloween	Scary ... or what?
Irrationality	... in decision-making
Lithium	Huh?
Monthly returns	Distributed ... how?
Central Limit Theorem	A classy result!
Levy	Another distribution.
a Coal Index	Make your own Index
Guess!	Guess the stock price.
Stocks & Ellipses	Interesting containment, eh?
Correlation between 2 stocks	Useful ... maybe?
Buying Strategies	Invent your own!
Percentages	Huh?
Gain-Loss Spread	Another risk measure
Candlestick Combos	Find 'em!
a coin flippin strategy	Buy on Heads, Sell on Tails
Following the Trend	a Buy & Sell ritual
Which Price to use?	Open? Close? (1/3)Open + (2/3)Close?
Another candlestick	a la Heikin-Ashi
Poker Odds	Texas Hold'em, eh?
Standard Error(s)	Trying to understand the K-Ratio
CORDIC stuff	How do computers calculate?
some Calculators	How long to double? Triple?
the High/Low Oscillator	... fiddled.
a Quiz	to see if'n you been listening.
Dividends	... historical.
Musings	(Brought on by old age?)
Exchange Rate	... historical.
200-day MA	Simplest Moving Average
Turtle Trading	What is it?
DOW futures	What are they?
Smile!	Do volatilities smile?
Volatilities	... for 30 stocks (or more).
Selling Calls	Covered ... and out-of-the-money
Go to sleep	... and wake up to a profit.
Financial meltdown	... and what to buy?
Portfolio Evolution	Random and Actual: compared
Missing the best days	... or the worst
Buy & Sell	Do it yourself calculations
Option things	Necessary CAGR to make money?
Safe Withdrawal Rates	Quick & Dirty
Stock Attractor	regression line as a magnet
More on Correlations	Correlation Babel ...
Market Musings	a look at the past (and future?)
Candlesticks and Crashes	Can you find a pattern?
Mkt Crashes	... a la Sornette
gEMA Moving Average	Another moving average ???
Monte Carlo	... while you're investing
Gains & Losses	The bestest and worstest.
the DOW vs the World	Does the DOW influence world markets?
a Duffing oscillator	Market waves ... and chaos.
Other Moving Averages	There are jillions of 'em !!
Bonds? Stocks?	Take your pick.
Predicting next month	Is there a "best" predictor?
Path Volatility	Different route, different volatility
the Chaikin Oscillator	... and Volume Flows
India Stocks	... an attempt to download from BSE or NSE.
ETFs	... and their Net Asset Value
Wavelets	Build a time series with wavelets
penny Stocks	They can be fun!!
DSO	Daily Stock Oscillation
Predicting Highs & Lows	The search for "cousins"
DSA#2	yet another Daily Stock Activity
Technical Analysis	... a few TA things, charted.
Historically Compare	... then predict the future.
ACB	an Adjusted Cost Base calculator
Download	Open, High, Low & Closing prices
ADX	Average Directional Movement thing
CAGR & Drawdown	Is there a relationship?
CAGR & Volatility	Is there a relationship?
Correlations, correlations ...	Which one to use?
DSA	Daily Stock Activity (?)
Buy & Sell	a Strategy that (sometimes) works
Volatility Pumping	... to Beat the Market, eh?
Portfolio Contests	This is great fun!
Rent?	... or keep the house?
Risk, eh?	What is this thing called "Risk"??
Drawdown	It was worser in the past
Historical Comparison	Does the present look like the past?
Rebalancing	Yes or No?
Return on Investments	IRR or XIRR or what?
a Modified Bollinger	Bollinger Bands revisited
Money Management	How much to Buy ... or Sell?
Donchian Channels	Identifying UP- and DOWN-trends
the Ulcer Index	An ulcer-generating risk measure
Market Crashes	Can they be predicted?
Fed Rates	... and the probability of a change
Expense Tracker	... might be a handy spreadsheet (?)
Multiple Downloads	Download a bunch of stock prices
the Stock and the Pillow	What allocation Pillow?
gDOW	another DOW Index
Black Swans	Huh?
DMA	Displaced Moving Average
Sectors	a la Fidelity
Kalman filter	linear estimation
Asset volatility	Good or Bad?
Stock Talk	Listen to stock info.
Contour plots	courtesy of FundTalker
Return Data	... to play with.
Backtesting	A neato spreadsheet!
a bug?	... in XIRR
Buy or Rent?	Take your pick!
downsideBeta	downside Who?
Regression stuff	Can you trust historical data?
R-squared	... and causal relationships.
Portfolio Tracker	A simple tracker.
Sister Stocks	Try to find 'em !
Correlations?	between Prices or Returns?
ATP	All Time Periods
Stock Charts	Stock Charts: a collection
Drawdown	... as a measure of risk.
Short Interest	Pretty selling-short pictures
Stochastic Dominance	What is it?
Serial Correlation	... and Monte Carlo
Capital Gains & Dividends	Tax considerations
Multiple download	Make your own calculations!
Ito & Options	What's a Call option worth ... in the future
Trade Log	Keep track of your trades
g-Risk	Another kind of "risk"
maxima	... for tougher Math !!
eigenMath	Let it do your Math !!
Your Portfolio	... versus an Index.
Five year analysis	Best days? Best months?
Correlations	... between 30 stocks.
What Returns?	There are SO many of 'em !
Net Present Value	What is it?
Multiple Returns	... and fictitious returns!
Toss 10,000 coins	just to see what happens
Sortino Ratio	versus Sharpe ratio
Trends	and when they Ends
Loans	and Newton's Method
Volatility	and correlation with the Market
Buy in the Fall	and Sell in the Spring
SAD	worst months - by country
Canadian Returns	and "safe" withdrawals.
Exchange Rates	a spreadsheet.
Noise in stock returns	How to measure it?
Stocks go Up & Down	... but how often?
DCA	... or all-at-once?
Predicting stock prices	... using the Laplace distribution.
30 stocks	Download and construct a portfolio
Buy & Sell signals	... using candlesticks.
Monte Carlo	Which returns to use?
TrafficLights	When to Buy, Sell or Hold
Predicting Prices	... and other stuff
Average Returns	Do you trust 'em?
Average True Range	... and a fiddled version
Moving Averages	a spreadsheet to play with
Gann charts	... or the Square of Nine
PCA	Perfectly Confusing Anal... Principal Component Analysis
Risk, eh?	What is it?
ODE	a differential equation (?!)
Making Money	(Just kidding!)
Market Down	Probability of price decreases, eh?
Momentum	An investment strategy (maybe)
MFI	Money Flow Index
Velocity of Trades	Moving to a price target (maybe)
Price Probabilities	and related stuff
Pairs Trading	The long and short of it
A.I.M.	A Buy & Sell strategy
Linear Regression	... for umpteen variables
Pivot Points	and resistance and support levels
Time Weighted Returns	What are they?
Covariances	... a spreadsheet
an option problem	What's the annualized return?
Black-Litterman	a model for asset allocation
Yield stuff	Buy this ... or that?
MC stuff	Monte Carlo for a dozen stocks
very safe withdrawals	... guaranteed!
YTD	... and XIRR
DGIS	Dividend Growth Investment Strategy
IRR	... and NPV
Stock Splits	Then what?
re-Ordering annual returns	and then what?
Perfect Correlation	How to get it, eh?
Spearman Rank Correlation	again!
Copulas	... more of 'em
Correlations	and Copulas!
2 stocks	and Monte Carlo
Raff regression	to identify trends
Active or Passive	Which Fund is better?
Sam retires	... and plays with Monte Carlo
PV	a Present Value problem
Coin tossing	... and Reversion to the Mean
P&F charts	Huh? Whazzat?
CEFs	Closed End Funds
rMA	Another moving average
Stock Data	Download & Calculate
Returns formula	Test your formula(s) !
PE Ratios	and Bond Rates
Risk	... and volatility
Candlesticks	Fun stuff!!
Hikkake	and candlestick
Risk	≠ Standard Deviation !!
Deletions	Deleting the best and worst days
Hurst exponent	What is it?
Implied Volatility	versus Historical
RS indicator	... and other ratios
What's hot?	and what's Not?
EMA	... the magic formula (?)
Time Diversification	What is it?
reBalancing	... good or bad?
Aroon Indicator	When is the stock gonna go up (or down)?
Templeton	22 investment maxims
Doom & Gloom	Is it justified?
options	in the money
Volatility	and the square-root-of-time
gRANK	... revisited
Colouring	... financial things
hedging	to reduce volatility, eh?
Johnson curves	... and probability distributions
regret	What is it !&$%#@?
the Stutzer Index	to rank a portfolio
YTD	... and XIRR
Buy an annuity	A good idea ... or not.
Deja vu	... all over again
Coherent Risk	What is it!
Maximum Withdrawals	... more on this stuff
world's worst investor	... that's ME!
E10-P stuff	... more on this stuff
E10/P	E10/P and Safe Withdrawal Rate(s)
TV stuff	about them new fangled TVs
Seasonality	Do prices depend upon the season?
Nobel Prize	... for 2003
myPortfolio	Well ... your portfolio
a Contest	a Portfolio Contest spreadsheet
Weekly Stuff	stock stuff, weekly
Options	... and Volatility
Stock Stuff	stock ... stuff
PreMarket	... and predicting the opening price
Fat Tails	... and how to get 'em
Parabolas	fitting them to stock prices
Bonds	... and Interest Rates
Returns and Volatility	... the effect of volatility on CAGR
gRANK	... revisited
Asset Correlation	... and diversification
a Game	Play the Efficient Frontier game
reSampling Efficiency	reSampling the Efficient Frontier
Omega	... a characteristic of distributions: Gain / Loss
Pensions	... and Life Annuities
Liquidity	Amivest Liquidity Ratio
Put Options	What's the Break Even ?
XIRR	XIRR and ROR stuff
Approximation	approximation to Normal/Lognormal distributions
FOREX	Trading in Foreign Exchanges
Monte Carlo	Should we believe MC predictions?
forecasting	An attempt at forecasting
GMS	Geomagnetic Storms (and the markets)
sorta VA	Variations on Value Averaging and DCA
SWR	More on Safe Withdrawal Rates (!)
gDX	Variations on a theme
Constant Returns	When are they better?
Put/Call Ratios	Do they predict market movement?
Bayes' Theorem	... and (maybe) the Market
reordering	What happens when you reorder returns?
Covariance	... and Correlation and R-squared stuff
SWR	"Safe" withdrawal rates (again)
FOREX	Download Foreign Exchange Rates from Yahoo
Stock stuff	Get a bunch of data on a stock
beta	Don't trust it (?)
CAGR	Annualized Returns.
VDX	VDX ... and other stuff
Stocks and Bonds	What's the meaning of a "best" mix?
EPS	Forecasting EPS ... maybe
Another Distribution	... with fatter tails
Zweig's Rule	Zweig's 4% (and other) Rules
Return Distributions	Generating Return Distributions
WWW	A (wee) history of the World Wide Web
Future Prices	Predicting future prices :^)
Wilshire 5K / GDP	Yet another ratio to see if the market is overpriced.
Call Options	Which to buy ?
Bernoulli	Lift, on an airplane wing
download	download a webpage to Excel
Bachelier	the Father of Financial Stuff
to Mars	launch an Explorer to Mars :^)
forecasting	Predicting moving averages etc.
XIRR, not Dietz	Don't do the Dietz!
DCA vs LumpSum	DCA over 12 months, eh?
Williams %R	Buy & Sell a la Williams
Beta	Beta and the "Best line" fit to data
Spearman Correlation	Looking for common trends
Bollinger	About Bollinger Bands
Special Sum	Volatility of the sum of n stock prices
gRANK	Assorted PEG-type Ratios
Huh?	How many trades to win?
Gold!	Gold: is it cheeep?
RTM	Reversion to the Mean (?)
Oktoberfest	October ... again!
Another strategy	A withdrawal strategy.
Buying for less	Effect on your annual return.
Fractals	Fascinating stuff!
XIRR	Comments on calculating portfolio returns.
a Coverup?	... interesting questions ...
Cointegration	Identifying trends & stuff
Monte Carlo	... random musings
a Small World	... ain't it?
Relativity	Einstein says ...
the DOW goes up (down)	How often does the DOW go up N days-in-a-row?
Inflation	incorporating inflation
Monte Carlo	a simple-minded Monte Carlo spreadsheet
Cash in an Annuity	Converting (some) annuity to a lump sum payment?
CPI	Inflation and REAL returns
Bond Convexity	Whatzzat?
Standard Deviation	SD of Returns vs SD of Prices
Reordering Returns	... then what?
SWRs	Safe Withdrawal Rates (again!)
Portfolio	Track your portfolio investments
Sharpe Ratio	Maximize allocations a la Sharpe Ratio ... maybe!
Retiring?	List your expenses
Safe Withdrawals	This topic ... again!
Median Returns	Calculate the median return (maybe)
Sam and Sally	Die early ... and live it up!
VA	More Value Averaging (!)
Ito Calculus	Random stuff: stochastic processes, Brownian motion, Black-Scholes ...
Simple Download	Download data
Derivatives	What are they?
Withdrawals	Max Rate of Withdrawal ... and Life Expectancy
Miscellany	Some financial calculation rituals ...
Asset Allocation	... and John Nash
Sector Rotation	Is there a good strategy?
RESPs	Education Saving Plans
Value at Risk	Whatzzat?
Reincarnation	A strategy to make a killing ...
Do the Dietz	Modified Dietz Return calculations.
Asset Allocation	The "best" mix ... maybe.
Stock/Bond ratio	The "best" mix ... maybe.
PEG Ratios	What do they mean?
Elliott Waves	Ride the Waves !
Crashes	Market Waves ... and crashes !
Waves	Finding periodicity in stock prices ... or NOT
Kurtosis	Skew and Kurtosis - whattzat?
Rebalance-when?	Is there a best time?
Santa Claus	Does St. Nick have a rally?
Kelly Ratio	How much to invest in your next trade?
Moving Averages	Find the best (maybe :^)
ODEs	Differential Equations
Distribution	Stock Returns ... Normal? Lognormal? What?
Stock Prices	Distribution of Stock Prices (maybe)
Ratio Call Writing	Write Calls, Buy the Stock
a Magic Sum	It's magic, eh?
Approximations	Approximations to portfolio evolution.
Coin tossing	Toss a coin ... and get your return!
Return Predictor	Using historical returns as predictors
Rebalancing Bonus	The bonus in rebalancing (?)
Portfolio Blues	DOWN she goes, UP she goes ...
Bond Calculators	Play with a calculator or three
Allocations	Play with (historical) allocations
Download data	a neat way to get Yahoo data
Option stuff	... just a comment or two ...
Monte, again	Monte Carlo ... again!?
Bond Ladders	What kind of financial equipment is it?
DCA and VA	Dollar Cost and Value averaging
CAPM	a Capital Asset Pricing Model
Dividend Discount	What price, stock?
Asset Concentration	Should you concentrate on one Asset Class?
Utility Theory	Your personal optimization?
Option Strategies	What's the probability of losing?
Life Expectancy	... and Life Annuities
Latin Hypercube	another method to sample returns
Stock Evolution	the Binomial Distribution ... and stock growth
Black-Scholes	the Black-Scholes option pricing formula
Risks & Rewards	Another Risk / Reward Ratio
Risk/Reward Ratio(s)	How many are there?
Try an annuity	Should you buy an annuity?
Save for Retirement	Part II ... it ain't easy !!
Maximum Withdrawals	the Maximum Rate of Withdrawal is ... what?
Sensible Withdrawals	Safer withdrawals ... and more Monte Carlo.
Asset Correlation	Is correlation good or bad?
P/E & Bond Rates?	Is the market over-priced?
Growth vs Value	Optimal (golden) Ratios
Growth vs Value	Slice and Dice ...
Bonds	Some stuff on Bonds
another Frontier	... to minimize Risk
Efficient Frontier	... to minimize Volatility
Passive or Active MFs	Take your pick!
Another distribution	Take your pick!
Equal-weighted Indices	Better or worser?
Monte Carlo simulation	a spreadsheet by the Count of Monte Carlo
Normal/Lognormal	Which is the better fit to market returns?
Random?	Are the markets random?
Volume weighting	include VOLUME in Moving Averages: ADX=>VDX
R-squared and Best Fit	Covariance, Correlations and Beta.
Mutual Fund figures	How does YOUR gain compare to the Mutual Fund - or The DARK SIDE of DCA
Rotation	Rotating Portfolio components.
Life Expectancy	Drop dead ... when?
a Strategy	a Strategy to avoid big losses ... maybe.
Invest Early	Start investing early ... for your retirement.
Bond Yields	an Inverted Yield curve predicts a recession?
Re-Balancing	Sell the good stuff to buy the bad.
the Rule of 72	How long to double, triple?
Reversion/Regression	Does Reversion to the Mean apply to the market?
P/E ratio	What's P/E ... and how to get one for an Index?
Stocks & Bonds	Is there a "best" mix?
Annualized Return	How to calculate it.
Rate of Return	How to calculate it accurately ... and Dietzly.
Mean, Annualized & SD	What's the relation?
Average Gains	Think "Annualized", not "Average".
a Random Walk	What is it?
Save for Retirement?	What fraction of your salary should you save?
Safe(?) Withdrawals	You're retired: What's a Safe Withdrawal rate?
about Risk?	Risk, Volatility and Standard Deviation.
What's RISK?	Risk Measures ... or "A Mathematician's Folly"
a Break Even Strategy	Trying to Break Even in the market :^)
Market Indexes	How to calculate 'em.
Best and Worst Months	The effect of missing the "best" or "worst" months? OR     Market Timing: good or evil?
Portfolio Growth/Decay	How does your Portfolio grow: Constant & Random gains.
Value Averaging	How does it compare to DCA: Dollar Cost Averaging?
Excel charting	A spreadsheet: how I chart.
HTML Praxis	Hyper Text Markup Language: The language of the Net.
HTML overview	The language of the Net: a summary
Technical Analysis	Investing ... by the charts.
Lessons in C	What I larned about this $!@*&% computer language.
Years to Zero	How long will your portfolio last? (the MATH)
Mortgages	How much do you pay? (the MATH)
Life Annuities	How much do you get? (Approximately!)
Volume-weighted Averaging	The average price paid for a stock.
a Wave Theory	Do stock prices have periodicity?
Adjusted Cost Base	How to calculate this guy.
LIF Maxima	How to calculate this guy.
Leveraging	Borrow to invest? How much does it cost? (the MATH)
Bond Duration	What is it?! (the MATH)
Invest inside or outside an RRSP	(the MATH)
Biotech Stock Valuation	How much is a biotech stock worth?
Best Fit	Fitting "the best" straight line to some data.
DCA Part 1	Dollar Cost Averaging.
DCA Part 2	Dollar Cost Averaging ... for masochists.
Geosynchronous satellites	Where are they?
the DOW index	How now?
Computers	a (wee) History of Computers
the Mathies	hardly a tutorial ... but wee bios of famous mathematicians.
Calculus	a course.
about Call Options	What I larned 'bout trading in Options.
Vedic math	A fascinating way to do math

Buying a CD

It's been several years since Gummy mailed the first gummy-stuff CD. Because the website has changed dramatically since then, he has had a few requests for the latest version, from previous buyers. Some fella said "he'd like to buy a CD when I'm finished". To which Gummy replied "I said I'd be finished when I drop dead ... but then, so would gummy-stuff."

Gummy's decided that the easiest way to provide the latest version of the site to interested parties is to have his friends at the Financial Wisdom Forum host an archive of the site. If you want the whole thing in compressed form, look at gummy-stuff zip file.