Minsky

Although it might not have been your favorite subject in school, math is behind a lot of things. Its operations, and operators even serve in building applications, but it can also help you run simulations to determine the outcome of specific plans, with Minsky being an application which uses such operations for financial analysis.

In terms of visuals, the application can look a little confusing at first, with a variety of buttons, menus, and no explanation, unless hovering the cursor over them for name tags. Colors may not impress either, but there’s the possibility to slightly change them from the settings panel.

Spending a bit of time to get to know the application reveals its interesting approach on financial analysis. Sure enough, you get to work with an abundance of different mathematical equations, but the way this is done makes thing a bit easier. In other words, there’s little writing involved, and you get to interact with operators like you would with objects in a paint program.

Each object you place on the canvas represents a function, which can be simple operators like adding and subtracting, and evolving into more complex functions such as sin, cos, tan, sums, and more. What’s more, numerical values are added in a similar manner, with the possibility to add, and configure variables, and constants.

You’re free to arrange operators as you see fit. However, in order for them to work, you need to properly connect them, and each objects is fitted with one or more input and output ports, depending on the type. What’s more, results can end up in a Godley table, which functions in a similar manner, as well as a real time updating plotter, given the simulation is initiated.

Bottom line is that math has a large variety of branches, and Minsky wants to help you use them in order to perform financial analysis. The visual design may not be the center of attention, but nor does it need to, with the workspace letting you neatly create expressions and use operators in a fun, but practical manner.