The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by selecting Check for update on the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

Yield curve analysis

With the Yield curve analysis you can produce charts showing yield curves, where one axis shows the maturity length and the other the yield.

It works like this:

1. As input it takes a number of series with interest rates of different maturity lengths.
2. You input the maturity lengths and type of rate (simple or effective). For some series there might be information in the database about this and it will then be filled in automatically. Right now, very few series have this information, but we are working on that.
3. You input which date you want to look at.
4. The analysis will produce two time series for each yield curve: one series which contains the maturity lengths expressed as years and one series with the interest rate at the specified point in time for the corresponding maturity.
5. If you plot these two series in a scatter chart and combine the dots with lines, you will get a yield curve with “years” on one axis and “%” in the other.
6. In the analysis you can select to combine the lines with a natural cubic spline, which will give you a smooth yield curve. When this setting is turned on, a rate will be calculated for each month.

You can calculate several curves at the same time. Either at different dates or with different settings or selection of series. If you select the special date called “Latest”, the last date where there are observations for the majority of the series is used.

A tip is to add two curves, where one calculates splines and one does not. You can then configure the chart to draw one of them as lines, without labels and the other as just markers, but including labels. It will then look something like this:

Here is an example showing several yield curves at different points in time:

Frequency conversion analysis

The Frequency conversion analysis can perform the same frequency conversions as in the Series list, but since it is an analysis, the conversion can be done after other calculations.

The analysis also lets you specify a list of date ranges to include in the calendar. This can be used to include or exclude certain time periods from the series. In the chart below, 2006-2007 has been excluded.

Analysis comments

You can now enter a comment for each analysis in a document.

The comment field can be expanded/collapsed by the small arrow in the lower right corner. The arrow will be highlight in yellow if there is a comment in the field. There are some options for controlling when the comment field should be visible in the menu at “View|Analysis comment”.

Thumbnails and comments in File Open/Save dialog

When a document is saved to any of the accounts, a small-scale version of the current chart is saved together with the comment. You can view the thumbnail and comment in the dialog when opening a document. Currently this does not work with documents save to My computer.

The File Open/Save dialog now has three modes:

• Basic list – this shows a list of documents with the columns Title, Last modified and Modified by. The tooltip shows the thumbnail and comment.
• Thumbnails – Show the documents as thumbnails with a title below. The tooltip shows further details such as the comment.
• Details – Show the thumbnail and details of the selected document.

Bloomberg “overrides”

Bloomberg has a concept called “overrides” which is a parameter you can pass to data requests that influences the data. There is now support for specifying such “overrides” in Macrobond by adding a colon followed by “override=value” in the series name. For instance “ih:bl:nky Index:BEST_PE_RATIO:eqy_consolidated=N”.

Average correlation

There is a new method in the Cross section analysis called Average correlation. It calculates the average of the pairwise correlations between the series. It only includes the off-diagonal elements of the correlation matrix.

New formula functions

There are two new formula functions:

• PercentRank(series, value) – Returns the rank of a value in a series as a percentage (0..100) of the values in the series.
• Round(value, decimals) – The value is rounded to the closest value with the specified number of decimals. If the value is exactly in between two values, it is rounded to the value that ends with an even digit

SQL DB Connector with dynamic depth of trees

The SQL DB Connector now supports browse trees of varying depth. See the section “Trees of varying depths” in the documentation at https://redir.macrobond.com/go/technicalInfo.

Selection of new content

Colombia and Morocco

Two new countries have been added recently to Macrobond: Colombia and Morocco. The primary sourced data is available in the Economics view in Macrobond.

The Penn World Table

The Penn World Table (PWT) is a national accounts economic time series, with annual frequency, covering majority of countries. Its expenditure entries are denominated in a common set of prices and common currency so that real quantity comparisons can be made, both between countries and over time. The database also provides information on relative prices within and between countries, as well as demographic data and capital stock estimates.

The Penn World Table can be found directly in the Penn World Table view in Macrobond.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Market Surveys

Addition of Market Surveys published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors– RICS Rural Market, Commercial Market, Construction and Residential Market surveys so now Macrobond carries a complete RICS data suite. All the newly-added surveys together with UK Housing Market Survey analyze the UK economy whereas Portuguese Housing Market Survey, prepared in partnership with Confidencial Imobiliário (a Portuguese real estate information publisher), is Portugal oriented.

The series are available in the Economics – by country major > United Kingdom > Business Surveys > RICS, or Economics – by country major > Portugal > Business Surveys > RICS

Expansion of Eurostat data – MIP Scoreboard, Demography > Population projections

Macrobond continues to expand its data coverage from Eurostat. Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure Scoreboard, Demography > Population projections sections have been recently integrated with our database.

Data can be found under:

Eurostat > Select area > Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure Scoreboard

Eurostat > Select area > Population

Additional indices from EuroMTS

We have increased our coverage of Euro Area bond indices from EuroMTS.

The data is available under: Economics – by country major > Euro Area > Interest > Exchange Rates > Fixed Income Indices

The Conference Board U.S. Business Cycle indicators

Addition of the U.S. Business Cycle Indicators provided by the Conference Board. U.S. BCI database includes the full history for each series, including revisions, along with the latest data. The historical data series goes back as far as 1945, most start in the late 1950s.

These series are available in the Economics – by country major > United States > Leading Indicators > Conference Board

Canada – CANSIM

Major methodological change for Canadian index-based indicators within National Accounts and Balance of Payments, following recent switch to 2007 base year introduced by CANSIM. As a result approx. 1000 further new series will be introduced by the end of this week.

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by selecting Check for update on the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

Bloomberg connector

If you are running Bloomberg Terminal on the same computer as the Macrobond application, you can use historical time series from Bloomberg in the application.

You can find more information about this connector on the Getting started web page.

Formula analysis

The Formula analysis makes it possible to use the powerful formula language after some other analysis in the Analysis tree.

Locate series in tree

When you select a time series, there is now a group of actions in the Action bar called “Locate series in tree”.

Selecting one of the actions will open the location of the series in the time series tree in the Browse activity.

Regression coefficients as series

The Regression analysis now produces the estimated coefficients as a category series. This means that you can easily view them in a chart or export them to Excel.

Category series in the Arithmetic analysis

The Arithmetic analysis can now be used with category series. This means that it can, for example, be used after the Slice analysis.

Selection of new content

Increased coverage of European banks

Company report data for about 20 major European banks added.

Additional banking data from BIS

We have added more data on banking from BIS, foreign claims on an ultimate risk basis. The best way to access all the new data is through here, tables 9D to 9E:

Economics – by source > BIS (The Bank for International Settlements) > BIS Banking Statistics

Emerging Market data from IIF

Investment flows, current account items and some other interesting items for emerging markets added and available here:

Economics – by region > Emerging Markets > Forecasts > Institute of International Finance

The ONS database

Macrobond can now offer the complete ONS database which includes an extensive range of economic time series for the United Kingdom. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK Government’s main survey organisation and its main producer of official statistics.

The ONS is responsible for the production of a wide range of economic and social statistics, including:

• the UK’s National Accounts (such as Gross Domestic Product, National Income and Expenditure)
• the UK Balance of Payments
• government output and activity
• business output and activity
• prices (such as consumer and producer)
• the labour market (such as employment, unemployment and earnings)

The ONS database can be found directly in the ONS view. The time series are available at various frequencies, both in seasonally, calendar, trend adjusted and non-adjusted forms. The data can be browsed by publication with structure of components directly following the source’s pattern, which should make it easy to find and identify certain series. It is also possible to search for series by their ONS identifiers as they were incorporated into IDs of corresponding series in the Macrobond database. All ONS series previously available are still listed in the Economics view in Macrobond.

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by selecting Check for update on the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

Links to charts in Microsoft Office documents

You can now select to make charts that you copy to Microsoft Office documents to be a link to the source document instead of containing a copy of the document. The benefit is that you can make changes in one place and it will affect a number of Office documents.

If your document has been saved, you can select “Copy as a link” in the Copy special dialog for charts:

Please use this feature with care. It is easy to forget in what Office documents a chart is used and you might change it by accident. It also makes it more difficult to share Office documents since other users might not have access to the documents you have linked to.

Database browser and Analysis tree panes

You can now hide the Series browser and Analysis tree panes separately by using the Pin/Unpin buttons. There are also corresponding commands in the View menu.

When a pane is hidden, there will be a button to the left that you can use to slide it out.

Shared list of named chart sizes

Previously the list of favorite chart sizes was stored on your computer. Now you can store named sizes in your personal account and company store instead. In this way you will see the same list if you use Macrobond on several computers and you can easily share named sizes with other users within your organization.

Function suggestions in the Formula editor

It is now easier than ever to write formulas in the Formula editor. You will get suggestions of functions as you type and you can easily pick a suggestion by using the arrow keys and pressing Enter.

Selection of week days

We have added support for selecting the days of the week to use for daily series. New options have been added in a number of places:

• When you select the frequency Daily in the Series List, you can select what weekdays to use:

• There is a corresponding setting when downloading series by using the Excel add-in.
• When you create or edit a series in the Account in-house database there is a new option to select the weekdays.
• There is a corresponding setting when uploading series by using the Excel add-in.

Search by description

When you select a time series, there is a new action in the Action bar called “Search by description”. This action will use key words from the series description and search for them by using the Search activity. This can sometimes be a useful way of finding related information. In the Search activity you can then add or remove words to limit or widen the search.

Technical changes

Microsoft .NET Framework 4

The Macrobond application now uses Microsoft .NET Framework 4 instead of 3.5. This means that .NET 4 must be installed on your computer before you can install Macrobond 1.6 or later. You will get a message if it is not installed when you try to upgrade or install Macrobond.

In most cases .NET 4 is already installed. If it is not, you can find it as an optional component called “.NET Framework 4 Client Profile” in Windows Update. You can also find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/net/download.

Please note that .NET Framework 4 is not an upgrade or replacement of older version of .NET Framework. Any older versions will still be installed and other applications using those versions will continue to do so and will thus not be affected in any way.

The new framework does not come with any automatic benefits for the Macrobond application, but it has enabled us to improve the performance of many calculations by using some of the new features.

Upgrade always requires administrative rights

Most of the updates of Macrobond do not require administrative rights on Windows Vista and Windows 7, but the upgrade to version 1.6 does. Further upgrades from for 1.6 will once again use patches that do not require administrative rights.

HTTPS is used by default

Previously we used http as the default communication protocol, but you could switch to https manually. Now we have changed to use the https as the default. You can configure the protocol in Settings dialog found on the Edit menu.

SQL Database Connector

There have been a couple of enhancements to the SQL Database Connector.

You can now use any characters (except control characters) in series names. You might need to adjust your configuration file to enable this.

You can use null for metadata when using column mode. Previously you had no way to tell that a piece of metadata was not present.

For more details see the document about the SQL Database Connector at: https://redir.macrobond.com/go/technicalInfo.

Selection of new content

ONS

Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been added as a separate database. Due to the large amount of data we are releasing it category by category. Once we have added all the data we aim to add we will communicate this separately.

LME

Additions from the London Metal Exchange (LME). Over 8000 new series, covering for instance futures contracts in four different currencies, detailed warehouse stock data and additional official price fixings.

Sentix

Two surveys from sentix have been added. The monthly sentix Economic Indices and Asset Class Sentiment survey.

ECB

Additional data on assets and liabilities of MFIs and Investment funds from ECB added under Banking & Credit.

STEP Market

Data for the Short-Term European Paper (STEP) market has been added for Euro Area. Amounts outstanding under Banking & Credit – Debt Securities and yields for new issues under Interest & Exchange Rates.

Macrobond is proud to release the 1.5 version of the Macrobond Application. The release includes a range of new and powerful charting and analytics features as well as additional content sets. We consider this release to be the most modern and advanced data-charting and analytical application available. The next major release of Macrobond is planned to be released in Q2 2012.

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by selecting Check for update on the Help menu. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

SQL DB connector

With the Macrobond SQL DB Connector you can read time series data from most SQL databases. This can be useful if you already have data stored on such a server in your organization.

In this way, you can use the Macrobond application as a powerful tool to browse, analyze and present your internal data and mix it with any data from the Macrobond database.

There is a separate document that describes this connector here.

Excel add-in

• You can turn the result of any calculation made in a Macrobond document, including formulas and analyses, into a Macrobond Data set in Excel. The resulting Excel time series can be refreshed when the data contained in the underlying time series has been updated. You can do this by copying the result from the Macrobond application or by importing a Macrobond document in the Macrobond Excel add-in.

• Read more about this feature in the ”Getting started with Macrobond” document, which can be found here.
• You can select additional fields to include when importing series.

• You can select the order of imported series (oldest first or last).

• You can select what date should represent a time period (first or last).

• You can specify if a value is a forecast when uploading data from Excel.

New and enhanced Analyses

• The new Index builder analysis allows you to construct index values for financial securities as well as general weighted averages of series.

• You can read more about the Index builder in the “Macrobond index builder” document that can be found here.
• There is a new option for custom periods in the Slice analysis where you enter one date and a range of observations instead of two dates.

• There are a couple of new options in the Cross section analysis. We now offer an option to make a calculation even if some values are null as well as an option to include all series in the output.

• The method Percentile is now available in Scalar and Statistics.

Release activity

• You can search for releases by entering key words.

• You can select multiple releases from the list, and then select Copy.
• The date of the next scheduled event is displayed in the event details if it is known.
• You can export a release event as an iCal file which can be used to add a reminder to your calendar.

• You can view all series associated with a Release through an Action.

Other

• There is now a Chart ruler that you can use to view the values on the graphs. You turn the ruler on by selecting Ruler on the Chart menu, by pressing the ruler button on the toolbar or by pressing Ctrl+R.

• When the ruler is displayed, you can move it by clicking with the mouse, dragging the mouse or using the left and right arrow keys.
• You can dismiss the ruler by selecting any of the ruler commands again or by pressing the Esc key.
• You can select what fields to view in lists of series and also select the order. You can find the configuration dialog by using the context menu of the list header or through Select columns… on the Edit menu.

• The tooltip for series in lists of series contains information about the start date, frequency, source and name. To save some space on the screen you can select to show only the column for the Description and use the tooltip for additional information.

• The Search activity will show many more search results.
• New formula functions: EndOfMonth, EndOfMonthAhead, EndOfQuarter, EndOfQuarterAhead, EndOfYear, EndOfYearAhead, Trim, Years and Days30E.
  The function TimeSpan has been renamed to Days.

Selection of new content

Recession bands

Macrobond now calculates recession bands for more than 60 countries. These are suitable to use with the Fill range feature in the charts and are calculated on the standard definition of two quarters of negative growth. These can be accessed by right-clicking on a chart and selecting Fill Range | Import | Macrobond.

Debt maturity series

Debt maturities have added for around 20 countries, primarily from the euro area.

Detailed banking data from BIS and the ECB

Under Banking & Credit we have added country level data from the BIS and the ECB. We have added global consolidated and locational statistics from the BIS and Euro area MFI deposit and loan and balance sheet data for the Euro countries from the ECB.

Commodity indices and prices from HWWI

The HWWI Commodity Price Index is a broad indicator of price development in the global commodity market. The 34 underlying commodities with long history are also available and include items such as iron ore, scrap metals, wood and paper pulp.

EIU Country Data module now available for subscription

Covering 201 countries and 45 sub-regions, this database provides comparable historical data from 1980 onwards for all countries covered, as well as forecasts for 191 of them. Country Data gives access to over one million individual data points, distributed across up to 300 comparable economic series per country. The EIU Country Data database is a complementary database on the Macrobond Application and requires a separate subscription.

Macrobond 1.4.1 – the latest version of the leading research solution – brings a range of new and powerful charting & analytics features and content. Our aim is to keep a very high pace of product development and we make a point of working very closely with our clients and partners. The next major release of Macrobond is planned to be released in Q1 2012.

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by going to Help > Check for Update. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

Enhanced formula editor

The formula editor has been greatly enhanced and it is now easier to write complex formulas.

• You can filter the list of functions by typing a text in the box above the list of functions. Only functions that contain the text in the function name or description will be included in the list.
• The tooltip of a function in the list or in an expression will show details about the function:

• The tooltip of a series will show the title of the series:

• Numerical constants are dark red. Series, parameters and variables are blue. Comments are green.
• When the caret is just before a left parenthesis or directly after a right parenthesis, a blue shade on the background will show the area between the matching parentheses:

• When the caret is within or next to an identifier, all instances of that identifier in the expression are shaded:

• The editor will check the syntax as you write and show a red squiggle if there is an error. You can see the error text at the bottom of the editor or as a tooltip:

User defined formula functions

You can define your own formula functions that can be used in formulas just like the built in functions. Functions can be shared with other users, or be available only to you.

You can read more about user defined functions in the Macrobond formula language document.

Observation labels

Observation labels are labels that you can connect to a point in time on a graph. The label will be drawn relative the value. There are different styles to choose from.

Release calendar

The new Release activity shows a calendar of scheduled data updates of economic data that is updated on a regular basis. You can filter on regions and define your own favorites.

For the important releases we show a list of the main time series updated by the release. You can select one of the series and then use the Action bar to show the series.

Other

• More texts in charts can be localized. You can define the prefix to use for quarters and weeks and you can change the texts for scaling, such as million, thousand etc.
• New formula functions: Mod, COP, FMACD, SMACD, BollingerBandUpper, BollingerBandLower, Now, NormDist, NormDistInv, TDist, TDistInv, LogNormDist, LogNormDistInv, TwoPieceNormDist, TwoPieceNormDistInv, ChiDist and ChiDistInvLinear
• You can delete more than one series at a time in My Series. Select multiple series in the list and press Delete.
• In the list of news items in the Start activity there is now a button to mark all items as read.

Selection of new content

Complementary database additions

• Markit PMIs – Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMIs), produced by Markit are available for 26 countries and key regions including the Eurozone and BRIC as well as by detailed sector.
• CBRE Commercial Property Data – The CB Richard Ellis Monthly Index is a leading barometer and market benchmark for U.K. commercial property performance. The Rent and Yield Monitor data contains Prime Rent and Average Prime Yields.
• GFI Company CDS – Global Corporate CDS (incl. Corporates & Supranational) includes credit curves for various maturities for companies worldwide.

Core Macrobond additions

• OECD Main Economic Indicators – The Main Economic Indicators (MEI) present comparative statistics that provide an overview of recent international economic developments through the presentation of a wide range of short-term economic indicators for the OECD member countries, five area totals and selected non-member countries.
• Bundesbank – First of two parts of the complete Bundesbank database. Economic data compiled by the Deutsche Bundesbank has been added as a separate node in the tree. The database includes detailed data for a variety of categories such as banking, national accounts, labour market and prices. The data is in English for major items and in German for items not translated by Buba.
• Citi Economic Surprise Indices
• Additional FTSE U.K. Equity Indices
• Balance sheet and flows of MFIs for individual countries from the ECB

Macrobond has today released a new version of its research solution – the Macrobond Application. The new release includes further enhanced functionality and new and unique sources and time series. The next release of Macrobond is planned to be released in Q3 2011.

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by going to Help > Check for Update. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

Forecasted values

In Macrobond 1.3 we have introduced a flag for each value in the time series that tells if the value is a forecast or not. When graphed, these values can be distinguished by a separate style to the historical values.

A value can be flagged as a forecast in several different ways: by values entered by the user and that are appended to the series, by using the formula language or by using the Regression analysis.

When a value flagged as a forecast is used in calculations, the calculated value will also be flagged as a forecast.

Adding forecasts to series in the Series list

You can enter your own forecasts as values that will be appended to the series used in the Series list. There is a new tab in the Series list called Forecast where you will see a list of all series used in the document. The Edit button will open a dialog where you can enter your forecasts.

In the dialog you can select if you want to enter your forecasts as absolute values, relative values or percentage changes.

You can also select if you want to enter the forecast as absolute dates or as a relative point in the future.

The forecasts are appended to the original series. The next step in the process is to fill in missing values. This will also fill in missing values between your forecasted values. This process will then be followed by currency conversion, frequency conversion and finally evaluation of formulas.

Adding forecasts by using the Forecast analysis

The Forecast analysis works in a similar way to the forecast functionality in the Series list. The difference is that you add the forecasted values to the time series already processed by some analyses.

New formula functions

There are two new formula functions related to forecasts: FlagForecast and IsForecast.

FlagForecast is used to flag a value as a forecast and IsForecast can be used to determine if a value is flagged.

Here is an example that will extend a series by four new forecasted values. The new values are 2% higher than the last value of the series.

ExtendLinear(uscons2259, End(uscons2259) + 4, FlagForecast(Last(uscons2259)*1.02))

Forecasted values in charts

The graph style for forecast values can be set separately from the ordinary values. This can be done in the chart or in a style sheet. When there are forecasted values in the data used by a graph, the legend will show both styles. The default style sheet will use the same color of the graph, but with some transparency.

Here is an example where another style sheet has been applied:

Enhancements to the Regression analysis

The Regression analysis has been enhanced with calculation of forecasts and some additional statistics.

Forecasts can be calculated as long as there are values in the dependent series. This can be the case if you have lagged the series or have specified an estimation sample range that ends in the past.

The new statistics are:

• Uncertainty band for the estimated series
• Probability values for the estimated parameters
• The information criteria AIC, HQ and Schwarz

Import/export of Fill range sets

You can now export and import lists of dates used in the Fill range chart feature. There is also a selection of predefined range sets provided by Macrobond, such as US recessions.

Search results are sorted according to relevance

The result when you search for time series is now sorted according to relevance. You can still show the result in alphabetical order by clicking on the Title header.

Selection of new content

• Detailed Consumer Confidence Surveys from the Conference Board. The Surveys provide monthly information about the various business indicators like: Business Conditions, Employment and Consumer Confidence in the United States. Besides the present situation, the data describes future expectations concerning interest rates, stock prices and buying plans across the economy. The surveys are available in the Economics – by country major > United States > Surveys > Consumer Surveys > Conference Board
• Flow of Funds for Japan. Flow of Funds is quarterly detailed data sourced from the Bank of Japan showing financial transactions among various economic instruments. It records movements of financial assets and liabilities among units, such as financial institutions, corporations and households for each financial instrument entitled transactions. The data is available under: Economics – by country major > Japan > Flow of Funds
• Continued expansion of the Eurostat database. Macrobond continues to expand its data coverage from Eurostat’s principal database New Cronos. The Eurostat database contains macroeconomic and social statistics data covering European Union (EU) Member states and many of the central European countries, Japan, the United States and the main economic partners of the EU. Macrobond has recently added the following categories: Balance of Payments, Construction, Building and Civil Engineering, Labour Market, Production, Retail Trade & Services and expanded the National Accounts category. The database also includes Foreign Finance, Government & Public Finance, Monetary Statistics and Prices and is being continuously being expanded.
• UK Real Estate Prices from Nationwide. Increased depth of the coverage. The indices are available under Economics – by country major > United Kingdom > Construction & Real Estate > Real Estate > Real Estate Prices > Nationwide

Macrobond will very soon also offer Markit PMI, OECD MEI, GFI Global Single Name (incl. Corporates & Supranational) Credit Default Swaps Market Data and fixed income and index derivatives from OMX Nasdaq. Further information will follow.

Macrobond 1.2 – the latest version of the leading research solution – brings a range of new and powerful charting & analytics features and content. New features include correlation analysis, scatter charts, scalar (yield curves), covariance, a multiple Excel up-loader and much much more. The new version also includes large new content sets and sources such as IMF Dots, individual bonds, Sovereign CDS data, BofA Merrill Lynch Fixed Income Indices and many more.

Macrobond’s aim is to keep the highest pace of product development in the industry, utilizing new technologies and by working in close cooperation with our users whilst developing Macrobond.

The new version can be installed directly via the Macrobond platform by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by going to Help > Check for Update. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

A new type of series: category series

In Macrobond 1.2 we have introduced a new type of data series. Previously there were only time series. The new type is called category series. It is a list of values where each value is not associated with a point in time, but rather with just an ordinal number. Each value can be assigned a category text.

The new category series are produced by some of the analyses.

An example of such a series:

Germany GDP3.99UK GDP1.66US GDP2.78

New presentation types

Category chart

Category charts are similar to Time charts, but they use category series. They show the categories on the x axis instead of time.

Scatter chart

A scatter charts has two values axes. You use two series for each graph. The values of the series are used as x and y coordinates in the chart. There are two variations of this chart type: Scatter chart, that takes time series as input, and Category scatter chart, that uses category series.

If the category series contains labels, these can automatically be placed close to the values in the chart as value labels.

Category table

A category table shows category series as a table.

Chart enhancements

Markers on line graphs

You can optionally select markers on line graphs.

Graph legend labels

You can show legend labels in charts. These are an alternative to the legend at the bottom of the chart.

Formatting of font etc. for axis text

A minor, but welcome, improvement is that you can now format font and color of the axis text separately. There is an example in the chart above: the % sign of the y axis is green.

New analyses

Correlation

With the correlation analysis you can compare two series and calculate the correlation at different lags. The result can then be presented in a category chart or table.

Slice

With the slice analysis you can cut a time series into smaller parts that can be compared side by side. This can be used to produce year-on-year charts like this:

Scalar

The scalar analysis calculates a number of values for each input series.

In this chart, the standard deviation is calculated for three input series. The result is then presented in a category chart.

Cross section

The cross section analysis looks at all input time series at each point in time and calculates one value. Examples of calculations are highest, lowest and mean value.

Covariation

By using the covariation you can calculate how the correlation, covariance, beta or alpha between two series has changed over time.

Enhancements in analyses

Seasonal analysis : The seasonal factors are available as an output series and you can view them in a category chart or table.

Regression analysis : You can now specify lags for input series. We calculate the “t” factor and present it in the report.

Smoothing : You can now select the type of parameter in HP smoothing.

User databases

There is a new type of in-house database called “Account database” where you can store your own time series. Series can be stored so that they are available only to you or to everyone in the company. The series are stored on the Macrobond servers and can be access on all computers you run Macrobond. You enter series in either the built-in series editor, or upload them from Excel sheets using our add-in.

Miscellaneous enhancements

“Fill down” on settings in analyses.

Filter on “discontinued” also in Browse, Companies.

Selection of new content

• The IMF Direction of Trade Statistics (IMF DOTS) provides critical data on the value of merchandise exports and imports between each country and all its trading partners. It reports total bilateral and multilateral exports and imports aggregated at national or regional group level
• Macrobond has extended its coverage of individual bonds. Additions include individual sovereign bonds for Euro countries and the U.S. – both nominal and inflation-linked ones for Eurozone and linkers for the U.S. Macrobond also offers individual bonds for Corporates, Mortgages and Supranationals
• The BofA Merrill Lynch fixed income indices track the performance of the global investment grade, high yield and emerging debt markets. In addition to the flagship global, regional and country specific indices, over 4,000 BofA Merrill Lynch indices divide the markets into smaller segments based on sector, rating, maturity, etc
• Global Sovereign CDS data- Credit curves for the following maturities: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10 year for more than 80 countries worldwide. The CDS data comes with extensive history going back as far as 10-15 years
• The BP Statistical Review of World Energy provide high-quality, objective and globally consistent data on world energy markets
• NASDAQ OMX Commodities (Nordpool) provides access to the world’s largest commodity derivatives exchange and one of Europe’s leading carbon markets
• The J.P. Morgan Fixed Income database has been extended with new indices such as ELMI+ and hedged EMBI Global indices in various currencies. Macrobond has also extended the historical depth across index families in the database
• The KOF business tendency survey is a monthly survey of participating Swiss industrial companies from a variety of industries. Macrobond has added the Industry surveys which include both monthly and quarterly time series, both unadjusted & seasonally adjusted

Macrobond has today released a new version of the Macrobond Application! Our ambition is to offer a new generation of charting and analytical application with global content. We will accomplish this by keeping the highest pace of product development, utilizing new technologies and by working in close cooperation with our users.

The new version of Macrobond can be installed directly in Macrobond by clicking the yellow line that appears on the screen or by going to Help > Check for Update. If you need assistance, a description of how to upgrade is provided by the IT-department, which may be found here. Simply click Upgrade for further instructions.

Selection of new functionality

Major new features

• With the new Regression analysis tool you can analyze the relationship between a dependent series and one or more independent series. The analysis produces the estimated series and optionally a series with the estimation error.

• There is also a report containing the estimated coefficients and some statistics.

• There is a new feature for charts called “Fill range”. You can select a set of date ranges and a color for each range. These ranges will be colored in the charts. The list of dates supports Copy/Paste.

• You can now do Copy/Cut/Paste in the Save/Open file dialog in order to copy files and directories.
• There are now three modes for the layout of the chart legend: Multiple columns (default), One column and Flow (the old behavior).
• For Table presentations, you can now select “Copy special…” and create your own settings defining your preferences on how data is copied, such as orientation and date format.
• New formula functions: Correlation, Pi, Rsi, AggregateSum, AggregateProduct.

Other changes

• If there is only one graph in a chart, the graph title will be used as the automatic Main title. Previously, there was a legend with just one entry in this case. If you want to retain the older format, you can hide the Main title and the text will be in the legend.
• Remembers the column width in the Series List.
• Prints messages to the status bar when performing potentially lengthy operations.
• Now includes the date of the rebase in the analysis description (the text in the legend).
• Tweaked the Metafile format to work better in Office 2007/2010 when saving as PDF. Among all the PDF converters we have tested, the one built in in Office 2007/2010 works best with Macrobond charts.
• Exponential moving average in Smoothing is now changed to use the Length parameter as number of observations using the formula alpha=2/(n+1).
• There is a context menu in the Series List with Copy/Cut/Paste.
• The Refresh button in the Excel add-in now works also if you have Excel chart sheets in you workbook.
• The list of currencies in the Series List and Excel add-in now shows a tooltip with a longer text for each currency.

Selection of new content

• The MSCI Enhanced Index module is now available in the Macrobond application. The MSCI Enhanced module includes market caps and ratios at the country and regional level. Ratios include P/E, Return on Equity, Dividend Yield, Price to Book among others and also estimate based items such as 12 month forward P/E. Regions covered include Developed Markets, Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific. The MSCI Enhanced Index module includes daily and monthly data with full access to the history since the index inception.
  Macrobond also provides the MSCI Index Module which covers MSCI’s global universe of equity indices. The MSCI Index Module is included with Macrobond’s core product offering meanwhile the MSCI Enhanced Index is subscribed to separately.
• Macrobond provide pricing data on a daily basis for more then 40 000 active companies worldwide. Price types include Close, High, Low, Open, Market Cap, Shares Outstanding and Volume. Macrobond has recently also added Total Return and Dividend Adjusted Return. The data can be found in the Equity Prices view. Users can also calculate Total Return and Dividend Adjusted Return by selecting the company and by using the Company Action in Browse.
• The Economics by Source view offers a unique way for searching data by source and release. For large releases Macrobond can now also offer its clients to access the data in the same order as within the actual release. An example of this is Economics – by source > National Association of Realtors (NAR) > Existing-Home Sales.
• Macrobond is continuously expanding its data coverage with new and relevant data sets and upon request. Currently we are extending our data with in-depth data for US, UK, Germany, France, Poland and China.