Benjamin

I make stuff

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

I'm building FastFS now, so we'll have an alternative to our soon-gone beloved QuickFS.

Play with it: https://t.co/uIO8L2NJJe

This is day 3 of building.

So far doing 10 years of filings data and derived ratios for US companies on NYSE and Nasdaq. All data coming from the SEC (which is a problem, kinda).

Next: quarterly data and price metrics.

Goal: by day 10 make it good enough to fill the QuickFS-shaped hole in your heart.

If you spot bad data or have ideas, hit me up.

PS: Complete Twitter greenhorn, so bear with me if things get weird.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@DrewCohenMoney I think the lesson is to stick to simple things you can understand. Six inch hurdles, like Buffett. Seems like that would prevent you from owning either. AVGO happened to succeed. TTD happened to face trouble. Both outcomes seem hard to predict even for an expert.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@crabcapitalist Yea.. it sucks. Still at it though whenever I can, will mention here if there’s a win

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

Day 72 building FastFS

Couple things:

- Added 11 new exchanges to the site: Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Austria. Now covering 24 exchanges and 40,000+ companies.
- Mobile experience improved: faster loads, search bar that stays where it should, modals you can close, back-to-search shortcut
- The usual pile of smaller fixes and polish.

Also: stopped the pipeline effort to source the data to power the API. Initial results were good but issues never stopped. Getting it to reliably do thousands of companies across countries and decades will take me until ripe old age. So no API, Excel add-in, bulk downloads for now. Apologies to those who expressed interest. GuruFocus is probably the best way to cover those use cases.

Next: implementing user feedback, fixing issues as they come up. Let me know what other countries you want to see.

Kinda wrapping up here with the regular tweeting. Hasn't been that regular lately anyway. I'll do occasional updates when there's something worth mentioning.

Thanks for following along guys <3

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@CompoundingLab Hi, thanks. Have to decline for now, too many things going already. Best of luck!

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@GoxhajShkelzen For now yes. It would need to be rebuilt on top of a new data provider who will differ in format, quality etc. Possible but a lot of work. Would be great to relaunch eventually but no plans at the moment. Can’t prioritize it now unfortunately.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@cobraale_ Thanks for the heads up! It’s true but programmatic redistribution via API, excel addin etc is still not covered as per the license agreement. That’s why I ended up dropping it

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@BestOfAllTylers Thanks, good ideas. Onto my list they go. I'll DM you on the referral to understand what you have in mind.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

Day 36 building FastFS

Bunch of things happened:

- Ted - Mr. QuickFS - Cooper gave a quote for the landing page! How cool is that. I placed it such that you will. not. miss it.
- Subscriptions kept losing money, so I flipped the model yet again. Now pay as you go. Casual use stays free. https://t.co/daatMHh95A. May finally start to sustain the site.
- ... and soon, hopefully, because quite a bunch of new users came on! I am happy.
- Building the pipeline to source data directly from SEC filings. Problem after problem after problem but that's what we signed up for. Think it's gonna work eventually. Another month or two for the first version.

If you want API, Excel add-in, or bulk downloads, please enlighten me:
- What data do you need. Any particular index / exchange / geography?
- Annual only, or quarterly too?
- 10, 20, 30 years of history?

Tell me: [email protected]

Next: Build a full 30-year sample dataset for one company, and put it on the site along with API docs, so you can play with it.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@PaAmstad GF is fine for the website so that stays, coverage unchanged. Just can't use it to source data for the API etc, due to license limitations. Tried to self-source but normalization is precisely what i couldn't crack reliably. So moving on for now.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@mark_aleks Thanks! I do plan on adding them, just didn’t get to it yet.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@GnanchandC Great suggestion, thanks

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@Speedwell_LLC which book is this?

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@tylerwhatsg00d Looks promising! Thanks for sharing, I’ll check it out

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

@sundaystockpick @jpauldaly @FocusedCompound Thanks for sharing! Still building, let me know if you face any issues.

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

Day 24 building FastFS

Done with the API! But things got derailed.

GuruFocus licensing forbids granting API access. It only allows for the data to be displayed on the website. Ted cleared that up for me, probably saving me a lot of pain. I should have known it, but I naively had assumed that it's alright since I had bought the proper license. So that sucks a little now.

But the mission isn't dead yet I think. It just means we need a new data source. And to avoid any similar issues in the future, I'm gonna source the data myself, from the original public filings, the actual PDFs. That's a big task and I probably wouldn't have started in the first place, had I known this was coming. But now here we are, there are users, there's an API fully built out, are we gonna stop now or what. No.

So that's the new focus now. The initial version won't have data as extensive as the website (which still uses GuruFocus), but it'll be enough to be useful, and expand over time.

People who need API: tell me how you're gonna use it, number of daily requests, how many tickers, single fields vs whole statements, usecase... info like that helps speed it up. Email me: [email protected]

[Benjamin @ebert_io]

Day 23 building FastFS

Changed the free tier's behavior. You now start with 20 Pro searches to explore everything. After that, it's 5 free normal searches per day. So no longer locked out after the initial 20. People kept asking for it, as QuickFS had free usage too. I agree it was one of the coolest things about it. So I think that's a better way now. Casual users probably don't need Pro, but you'll still want to look things up every now and then. I'll keep experimenting and flipflopping around, based on your feedback, to find the best approach. Likely enabling more free usage over time.

Also:

1. Historic valuation ratios are in. P/E, P/B, P/S now show year by year in Key Ratios, and in Excel and CSV exports too. You can now stare at how expensive MSFT has been for 20 years straight and wonder why that is. Let me know if you want more ratios to be added.

2. Dividend data were off for some companies, especially in quarterly view. Fixed.

https://t.co/uIO8L2NJJe

Next: wrap up the first version of the API, get it ready for you to test.