Options Laboratory Strategist and Reeally! are no longer offered for sale.

The first version of Options Laboratory was written in 1973. The program went through many incarnations, but times have changed.

• The current versions of Options Lab and Reeally! are written in Borland's Delphi programming language. Borland recently announced their intention to dispose of their software development tools business, creating a fatal issue for developers like myself who have large programs written in Delphi. (It's not hard to sympathize with Borland. Microsoft is presently giving away - literally free to everyone - their excellent C#, Java, and C++ programming environments, and some web development tools.)

• Today, most people get their option models and information via their brokers' web sites. There is more money to be made by providing services for a monthly fee,

• Web services also eliminate the problem of software piracy, which has long been an issue for stand-alone, PC based software, including Mantic's products.

Reeally! and Options Laboratory remain indispensable for a certain circle of people. I intend to continue making them available to existing, registered customers, and to provide support on a personal basis, especially to people with customized versions. These two programs are likely to continue working for years, but I don't anticipate further development of them.

I haven't removed all links to Options Lab from this page, because I'm considering distributing it as a free, educational package. But neither program is presently available unless you already have a copy. Email sales_support@manticsoft.com.

Roger Ison

1 March 2006 - A new commentary on Joel Greenblatt's pop-hit, The Little Book That Beats The Market.