FW Editor: Financial-Math Calculator is an interesting application as there aren't many other similar calculators. Can you tell us how is Financial-Math Calculator different from a basic calculator?
Stratos Goumas: First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Stratos Goumas and I am from Greece. I am an economist-financial analyst. Programming and games are mostly my hobbies, however due to my work I use a few programming softwares to estimate and analyze some economic, financial and corporation variables/ indices. Financial Calculator is not a calculator like those we know. It’s a small program with all basic economic functions (Present Value, Future Value, Rate, Payment, Number of Periods etc). Τhe program is freeware and very easy to handle. It can be used by economic college students, managers, professors as well as by any ordinary user you wants to manage his budget.

FW Editor: Maybe one of the most interesting features available in Financial-Math Calculator is the 'Sensitivity Analysis' option. How does that work?
Stratos Goumas: Well, this toolkit is very useful because user can calculate his payment when rate or number of periods change. Let’s assume that you receive a loan of $30.000, interest rate=3.5% and you have to pay it off within 6 years. In that long-term period many things can change (i.e bank changes the interest rate). Sensitivity Analysis option has the ability to estimate the payment when rate changes with just one click. User just gives the input variables (rate, number of periods), program processes the data and gives the output (payment), thus he can settle down his financial budget.

FW Editor: It is true that Financial-Math Calculator can be used as a portable application? It doesn’t require installation.
Stratos Goumas: That’s true. It doesn’t require installation and can be used as a portable application too. Program is too small and there are no requirements. Anyone can use it. I have also included an important .dll file (tabctl32.ocx), in case someone doesn’t have it.

FW Editor: Beside software development you also have some trainers (some for free, some for sale). Can you tell us a bit more about these trainers?
Stratos Goumas: A trainer is a small program written to intercept and alter the memory addresses of a game that are running in the background. They usually have to be running in memory the entire time the game is loaded. Trainers often contain such features as god mod, unlimited money/ ammo etc. Trainer maker has to search almost the whole code of the game using a suitable programming package, find the correct addresses/ operation codes, alter them, design the tools and cheat the game. Many games either they have no cheats or in some cases ,gamers may need a cheat that it hasn’t been created by the game developer. Therefore, someone has to do the ‘cheating’ to please them. What you need is to use your brain, read a couple of tutorials, know a little programming and have a lot of patient! We could say that trainers are a kind of advanced game hacks.

FW Editor: What are your plans for the future with Financial-Math Calculator? Do you have any intentions to improve this application?
Stratos Goumas: Yes, I do. Application has already the Sensitivity Analysis toolkit. Using this option, user can change one input each time so far (either rate or number of periods). Right now, I am planning to add a couple more features: 1) Sensitivity Analysis toolkit with two inputs simultaneously, so user can change both variables (rate and number of periods too) and also 2) Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo is a method for iteratively evaluating a deterministic model using sets of random numbers as inputs. This method is often used when the model is complex, nonlinear, or involves more than just a couple uncertain parameters. I believe that this features is very useful because it is possible to change all inputs and estimate the confidence interval (CI) of the dependent variable (in our case dependent variable is periodic payment).