Background

Whats all the fluff about cloud computing? There are plenty of reasons its the most talked-about trend in technology. Starting with the fact that it helps reduce the up-front capital needed to build IT infrastructure and develop software. Cloud services are so appealing that the total market is expected to nearly triple from 2010 to 2016. (Yep, you read that right.)

Of course, technology companies have clamored to add cloud computing to their repertoires, leading to lots of M&A activity. Software and Internet deals represented 57% of transactions closed in 2012, a figure that has grown steadily over the last two years. All of which leaves the cloud looking like a lot more than a passing storm.

We identified US-listed stocks and American Depository Receipts of companies that are engaged in activities relevant to this watchlist's theme. We then filtered out companies that have a share price of less than .00 or a market capitalization less than 00 million, and excluded illiquid stocks by screening companies for liquidity i.e. average bid-ask spreads, dollar volume traded etc. Finally the proprietary Motif Optimization Engine determined the constituent stocks. Learn more about how we select our watchlists.

Motif is an online brokerage built on thematic portfolios of up to 30 stocks and ETFs. Founded in 2010 by Hardeep Walia, Motif combines complex proprietary algorithms with skilled advisers to develop these thematic portfolios. Learn more about our team.

First, we determined each company's percentage of total revenue derived from this watchlist's theme. Second, we applied a pure-play factor to give greater relative weight to companies that derive a higher percentage of their revenue from this theme. Finally, we weighted each company by its market capitalization adjusted for revenue exposure to the theme.

More details on how we build and weight watchlists are available here.

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Cloud Computing - Yahoo