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8/30/04:
Layers by Victor Niederhoffer and Dr. Alex Castaldo

The layers of the S&P 100 classified by price remind me of a forest with different layers. The canopy. An understory, and the brush vertically, and horizontal layers relating to their performance. Classifying them by first digit of their price: (thanks to Mr. Higgs)

Digit (#) Tickers
90's (3) gd, gs, utx
80's (3) fdx, mmm, ibm
70's (2) aig, leh
60's (5) bdk, ci, wy, slb, hig
50's (13) etr, amgn, wfc, jnj, pg, cl, wmt,
bud, ba, mwd, mer, mdt, axp
40's (16) pep, mo, het, all, csc, c, xom,
mrk, avp, ko, bac, dow, dd, g, gm, ip
30's (23) s, jpm, bhi, rok, vz, hca, hnz, hd, hon,
exc, bni, dell, ccu, rtn, via.b, aa, ge,
pfe, aep, tyc, bcc, bax, so
20's (18) ek, usb, hal, nsc, rsh, msft, mcd, cpb,
sbc, may, medi, bmy, nxtl, dis, sle, intc,
txn, ltd
10's (14) csco, ati, hpq, twx, toy, t, f, nsm, xrx,
wmb, emc, uis, orcl, aes
one digit (3) ep, dal, lu
TOTAL 100

The source data (source: Standard and Poors):

Symbol	Company	Sector	Price 8/27
GD	General Dynamics	Industri	98.39
UTX	United Technologies	Industri	93.41
GS	Goldman Sachs Group	Financia	90.48
IBM	International Bus. Machi	Informat	84.94
MMM	3M Company	Industri	81.48
FDX	FedEx Corporation	Industri	81.33
LEH	Lehman Bros.	Financia	74.51
AIG	American Int'l. Group	Financia	70.92
BDK	Black & Decker Corp.	Consumer	69.64
CI	CIGNA Corp.	Health C	66.3
WY	Weyerhaeuser Corp.	Material	62.64
SLB	Schlumberger Ltd.	Energy	62.27
HIG	Hartford Financial Svc.G	Financia	61.33
ETR	Entergy Corp.	Utilitie	59.79
AMGN	Amgen	Health C	59.68
WFC	Wells Fargo	Financia	58.66
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	Health C	57.71
PG	Procter & Gamble	Consumer	55.98
CL	Colgate-Palmolive	Consumer	53.95
WMT	Wal-Mart Stores	Consumer	53.56
BUD	Anheuser-Busch	Consumer	52.47
BA	Boeing Company	Industri	51.99
MWD	Morgan Stanley	Financia	51.57
MER	Merrill Lynch	Financia	51.46
MDT	Medtronic Inc.	Health C	50.12
AXP	American Express	Financia	50
PEP	PepsiCo Inc.	Consumer	49.27
MO	Altria Group, Inc.	Consumer	49.13
HET	Harrah's Entertainment	Consumer	47.78
ALL	Allstate Corp.	Financia	47.69
CSC	Computer Sciences Corp.	Informat	46.79
C	Citigroup Inc.	Financia	46.72
XOM	Exxon Mobil Corp.	Energy	45.44
MRK	Merck & Co.	Health C	45.15
AVP	Avon Products	Consumer	44.75
KO	Coca Cola Co.	Consumer	44.72
BAC	Bank of America Corp.	Financia	44.51
DOW	Dow Chemical	Material	42.69
DD	Du Pont (E.I.)	Material	42.55
G	Gillette Co.	Consumer	42.15
GM	General Motors	Consumer	41.75
IP	International Paper	Material	41.15
S	Sears, Roebuck & Co.	Consumer	39.78
JPM	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	Financia	39.72
BHI	Baker Hughes	Energy	39.58
ROK	Rockwell Automation, Inc	Industri	39.26
VZ	Verizon Communications	Telecomm	38.96
HCA	HCA Inc.	Health C	38.3
HNZ	Heinz (H.J.)	Consumer	38.19
HD	Home Depot	Consumer	36.59
HON	Honeywell Int'l Inc.	Industri	36.46
EXC	Exelon Corp.	Utilitie	36.03
BNI	Burlington Northern Sant	Industri	35.61
DELL	Dell Inc.	Informat	35.2
CCU	Clear Channel Communicat	Consumer	35.17
RTN	Raytheon Co. (New)	Industri	34.4
VIA.B	Viacom Inc.	Consumer	34.32
AA	Alcoa Inc	Material	32.85
GE	General Electric	Industri	32.77
PFE	Pfizer, Inc.	Health C	32.65
AEP	American Electric Power	Utilitie	32.33
TYC	Tyco International	Industri	31.84
BCC	Boise Cascade	Consumer	31.5
BAX	Baxter International Inc	Health C	30.61
SO	Southern Co.	Utilitie	30.01
EK	Eastman Kodak	Consumer	29.38
USB	U.S. Bancorp	Financia	29.32
HAL	Halliburton Co.	Energy	28.95
NSC	Norfolk Southern Corp.	Industri	27.92
RSH	RadioShack Corp	Consumer	27.59
MSFT	Microsoft Corp.	Informat	27.46
MCD	McDonald's Corp.	Consumer	27.17
CPB	Campbell Soup	Consumer	26.33
SBC	SBC Communications Inc.	Telecomm	25.84
MAY	May Dept. Stores	Consumer	25.01
MEDI	MedImmune Inc.	Health C	24.49
BMY	Bristol-Myers Squibb	Health C	24.23
NXTL	Nextel Communications	Telecomm	23.29
DIS	Walt Disney Co.	Consumer	22.66
SLE	Sara Lee Corp.	Consumer	22.47
INTC	Intel Corp.	Informat	22.03
TXN	Texas Instruments	Informat	20.34
LTD	Limited Brands, Inc.	Consumer	20.2
CSCO	Cisco Systems	Informat	19.47
ATI	Allegheny Technologies I	Material	18.75
HPQ	Hewlett-Packard	Informat	18.26
TWX	Time Warner Inc.	Consumer	16.71
TOY	Toys R Us, Inc.	Consumer	16.38
T	AT&T Corp. (New)	Telecomm	14.78
F	Ford Motor	Consumer	14.12
NSM	National Semiconductor	Informat	13.94
XRX	Xerox Corp.	Informat	13.55
WMB	Williams Cos.	Energy	11.78
EMC	EMC Corp.	Informat	10.75
UIS	Unisys Corp.	Informat	10.39
ORCL	Oracle Corp.	Informat	10.29
AES	AES Corp.	Utilitie	10
EP	El Paso Corp.	Energy	7.91
DAL	Delta Air Lines	Industri	4.07
LU	Lucent Technologies	Informat	3.14

8/30/04:
Kim Zussman Comments:

Could the distribution be explained by company's propensity to split when near or past triple digits (to interest retail investors) and S&P ejecting single digiters? Some were >100 at prior market highs. So the trees grow to about this height and not much more, which suggests currently growth remains. If they are all attracted to 100, it would follow (neglecting idiosyncratic volatility) that more of the current highest should make it before the lowest as a result of tracking the market. Does the round number act as attractor, the effect of which falls off with distance (from 100)? If so there should be a countable pull on the top (10?) which is greater than the pull on other deciles.