Looking Back : Quantitative Analysis Before Computers

A few security analysts engaged in quantitative analysis long before computers became readily available. This study presents an example dating from 1972. An analyst examined the fixed cost-variable cost structure of General Motors by creating a nonlinear algebraic model, transforming the model into a two-variable linear form, and estimating the model by means of a scatter diagram. The analyst's conclusions stand up remarkably well according to regression analysis 30 years after the fact