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Personal Stock Technician Version 1.01 ( Copyright (c) 1991, 1992 by RazorLogic Systems ) A Stock Market Technical Analysis and Tracking Program. USER'S GUIDE Document Revision : 1.00 November 1, 1991 1.01 April 30, 1992 March 17, 1993 Preface This document is Copyright (C) 1991, 1992 by RazorLogic Systems, An Operating Division of Lynn-Western. All rights reserved. The Personal Stock Technician (PST) package is protected by both United States copyright law and international treaty provisions. Personal Stock Technician is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. We only guarantee that it will occupy disk space. In no event shall RazorLogic or any of its personnel or associate be liable for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use this program. All RazorLogic products and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of RazorLogic Systems. Other brand and product names mentioned throughout this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. The owners of theses trademarks have never expressed any approval or disapproval of RazorLogic products. The compression software used is LHA2.11, copyright (c) 1991 by Yoshi. This is version 1.01 of Personal Stock Technician. If you do not have a registered copy, some features are not available. See Appendix C for complete ordering, pricing and support information. --------------------------------------------------------------- Users are strictly cautioned not to construe the use of this program or any accompanying material as constituting investment advise. The author and RazorLogic Systems do not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, sufficiency, suitability or merchantability of the raw information presented, or any indicator, trend or theory in this program or supplemental material. --------------------------------------------------------------- - ii - License Personal Stock Technician (PST) is not a Public Domain program and is not free. Personal Stock Technician is copyright (C) 1991, 1992 by RazorLogic Systems. PST may not be modified in any respect, for any reason, including but not limited to, de-compiling, disassembling, or reverse engineering of the program. The opening title screen, help screens, and all other proprietary program output must never be altered, removed, bypassed or modified by any means. You are free to distribute the publicly available distribution (demonstration) version of PST to others subject to the above restrictions and also the following: 1. No fee is charged for its use. 2. No remuneration may be accepted for PST. This does not apply to computer access charges the system operators (Sysops) of (or organizations owning) bulletin board systems, online services, etc., may charge subscribers. 3. PST must be copied in unaltered form, complete with all license information, the full documentation and all accompanying files. The distribution package distributed by RazorLogic Systems must not be altered in any way. 4. All shareware houses and/or distribution firms must make explicitly clear that the diskette purchase containing any shareware program has not registered the shareware with RazorLogic Systems. System Operators may make distribution copy of PST Technician available for download only if the above conditions are met. The distribution package distributed by RazorLogic Logic or an equivalent archive may be made available only in complete form. Refer to Section 2.3 (Files) to verify complete package contents. If the contents appear altered or incomplete, you may obtain the latest release of the distribution copy of PST directly from RazorLogic Systems at the address listed in Appendix C. Please use the order form and include $15 for handling. Commercial distributors of "Public Domain", "Shareware", and/or User Supported software may distribute the distribution copy of PST subject to the above conditions only after obtaining written permission from RazorLogic Systems. This condition statement supersedes all previous agreements. - iii - Please refer to the Appendix C for additional information on registration, site-licensing and related topics. *** The above license statement does not apply to the registered version of PST. The registered software of RazorLogic Systems is protected under United States Copyright and Trademark Laws. It must be treated just like a book with certain exceptions as follows: 1. RazorLogic Systems authorizes the making of archival copies of the registered version of PST for the sole purpose of backing-up your software and protecting your investment from possible loss. 2. The medium on which the registered software is recorded is transferred to the customer, but not the title to the software. 3. The customer may resell or distribute unmodified copies of the registered software provided the customer has purchased from RazorLogic one copy of the registered software for each one sold or distributed. The provisions of this software license shall also be applicable to third parties receiving copies of the registered software from the customer. 4. By saying, "just like a book", RazorLogic means that the registered software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another so long as there is absolutely no possibility of it being used at one location while being used at another. Just like a book that cannot be read by two different people in two different locations at the same time. - iv - Contents Preface ii License iii Contents v Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.3 Input Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.4 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 2 Installation 4 2.1 Hard Drive Installation . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.2 Floppy Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.3 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chapter 3 Setup and Getting Started 6 3.1 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.2 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.3 Help Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.4 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 4 The Main Menu 8 4.1 Plot A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.2 Update A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.3 Create A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.4 Print A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.5 File Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.6 Configure Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.7 Multi-Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.8 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.9 Reserved for Future Use . . . . . . . . . . 10 Chapter 5 File Plotting and Technical Analysis . . 11 5.1 Description of Plot a File Menu Items . . . 11 5.2 Notes on File Plotting . . . . . . . . . . 18 Appendix A Support Systems 19 Appendix B Collected References 20 - v - Appendix C Registration Information 21 C.1 Pricing and Order Form . . . . . . . . . . 21 C.2 Purchase Order Terms and Requirements . . . 23 C.3 Site License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 C.4 Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Appendix D Downloading Data 25 D.1 HQCON.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 D.2 UPKEEP.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 D.3 SPLIT.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 D.4 STKCHECK.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 D.5 Notes on "Screen Dumps" . . . . . . . . . 28 Appendix E Acknowledgements 30 - vi - Chapter 1 Introduction Welcome to Personal Stock Technician (PST), the complete stock market tracking and analysis program from RazorLogic Systems. This manual contains a complete description of all the features of PST, including the mathematics and a description of the technical indicators used in the program. 1.1 Hardware Requirements PST has been tested at one time or another on the following systems: IBM PC-1 IBM PC-XT IBM PS/2 Model 60 HP Vectra DELL System 310 Heinz 57 turbo XT Strange 80386 based PC The graphics are written to EGA specifications, but will also accommodate CGA and Hercules mono-graphics cards. PST will run under MS or PC DOS versions 3.3 and above, however, it is unlikely that we will test future versions below DOS version 4.01. Although PST will run on most machines, there are a few restrictions and requirements: o IBM PC, AT or 100% BIOS compatible o Hard disk with at least one megabyte available (Floppy diskette operation not recommended) o Graphics monitor, preferably EGA or VGA o At least 512 KB of system memory 1.2 Software Requirements o MS or PC-DOS 3.30 or above - 1 - 1.3 Input Data Files All financial data used by PST are kept in ASCII text files and must have the filetype ".STK". PST has standard manual data file creation and update capabilities, but the ASCII text format allows for editing by any text editor. PST does not yet support automatic data acquisition from any financial database. However, this distribution package comes with several utilities that will import data from "screen capture" files generated during a Dow Jones News/Retrieval, Compuserve, or Prodigy session. Data import utilities will be added continuously; consequently, the newest one may not be covered in this revision of the User's Guide. Please see Appendix D (Downloading Data) for details. In addition, several data files are available for download by registered PST owners from RazorLogic's affiliated Bulletin Board System, the Lynn-Western Newswires BBS. Daily or weekly updates of data from your usual data sources (Wall Street Journal, etc.) can be entered from the keyboard. (Personal Stock Technician registration DOES NOT include Dow Jones News/Retrieval, Compuserve or Prodigy services - nor do we intend to imply otherwise.) PST's data file format allows for any time base you prefer (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) but each file should have all its entries dated the same way. Mixing daily data with monthly data will create confusing plots. Also, just like apples and apples, you can only compare two files that have the same date increments. PST won't let you try to match a file with weekly entries against a file with monthly entries. PST will position one file relative to the other so that the dates match up vertically, however, and will even do so if one file is larger or smaller than the other as long as the date spans overlap. For simplicity, we'll often use the word "period"' when describing a file's records, rather than saying "day", "week", or "month." Finally, each file has a header of five lines. Of these first five lines, PST currently only uses the first two, the remaining three lines are left blank. The data commences on the sixth line. The first line is the filename (without the ".STK"), and can be in upper, lower or mixed case. The second line, which must be in all capitals, tells PST if the data is to be plotted as High-Low-Close-Volume data (HILOCLOS), closing-only data (SING), or closing-only with volume (CLOS). Each data record has the format: mm dd yy high low close volume. A typical file looks like: - 2 - ibm HILOCLOS 01 01 90 101.25 100.0 101.25 111543 01 02 90 102.00 101.25 101.5 214569 01 03 90 104.5 101.25 103.0 135444 . . . . (NOTE: PST stores it's data as decimals, NOT fractions.) If you decide to change a file's name remember to also change the name in the header, e.g. use the DOS Ren (Rename) command to change the filename and also use the text editor to change the first line in the file header to the same name. 1.4 Registration The un-registered version of Personal Stock Technician will do nearly everything that the Registered version can do except that a few features are not active and the data file size is limited to 50 entries. Registering PST will activate all features and allow data files as large as 600 entries, which is nearly 3 years worth of daily market data, 11.5 years of weekly data or 50 years of monthly data. Registration will also give you full privileges on the Lynn-Western Newswires BBS, where you can download market data and ask questions about PST. You may distribute the un-registered version, in the original compressed form, to anyone as long as the original compressed package is not altered in any way. You may NOT share or distribute the registered version! To register PST, please follow the instructions in Appendix C. - 3 - Chapter 2 Installation 2.1 Hard Drive Installation PST will run from any directory on any hard drive. We suggest creating a directory called PST on your C drive simply for consistency with the examples used in this manual. From the Root directory of your C drive create a directory called PST: e.g., C:> MD PST Copy all files on the distribution diskette (or the files extracted from the compressed distribution package) into the PST directory you created in section 2.1 above: e.g., C:> COPY A:*.* C:\PST. That's it. The program files are now installed. You must be in the PST subdirectory to run PST. Once you're there just type "PST" to run the program. 2.2 Floppy Drive We do not recommend running PST from a floppy but it can be done. Since storage space on a diskette would be the main difficulty, large amounts of data stored on secondary diskettes, would not be accessible by PST. PST will not request a floppy diskette if it can not find a data file, so you will have to anticipate which data you'll need on the program diskette. 2.3 Files The following files are in the distribution package: PST.EXE, PST.OVR --- The Executable file and its overlay. PSTCFG.EXE --- The Configuration program, executable from the Main Menu of PST or by itself. PSTCFG.HLP, PSTHELP.HLP --- Help Menus for PST and PSTCFG. - 4 - PST_101.DOC --- This file. PST.KEY --- Registration Key - Registered users only. FILES.LST --- List of files in the distribution package. KONPHIG.DEF --- Default Configuration file, only here as a back up. KONPHIG.SYS --- PSTCFG's configuration file. Do not edit this text file unless you know what each entry is for. Let PSTCFG do it for you. NYSE.STK, OEX. STK, SGI.STK --- Sample data files. TED.COM --- Freebie full screen editor by PC Magazine. Replace this with your own, if you prefer. READ.ME --- The usual Read.Me file 4X6.FON --- Font file needed for program execution. HQCON.EXE, UPKEEP.EXE --- Utility programs for converting Dow Jones or Compuserve "screen capture" files to PST data format. HQSTOCK.ASP, UPDATE.ASP --- Sample Procomm Plus (ver 2.0) Aspect Script Language procedures for automatically downloading stock market data from Dow Jones Information Services. STKCHECK.EXE --- Utility for comparing dates between two STK data files. Helpful in locating errors that cause plotting problems. SPLIT.EXE --- Utility for adjusting stock data for splits. - 5 - Chapter 3 Setup and Getting Started 3.1 Configuration The Configuration routine is run from PST's Main Menu and is self-explanatory. (Pressing F1 will produce a help screen, however.) A text editor is provided in the distribution package, but you can use your own. Be sure to use the entire file name for the editor you choose, i.e. "EDITOR.EXE", NOT "Editor". You will be able to alter the plotting colors by going to the Custom Color Menu. We suggest using the default colors until you've done some plotting, then return to the Configuration routine and experiment. Remember: After saving your configuration changes you must start the program over to activate them. 3.2 Menus There are only three menus in PST technician: the Main Menu, from which you go everywhere else, the Configuration Menu, and the File Plotting Menus. At the Main Menu simply move the highlight bar to your selection using the up/down arrow keys and press enter. The File Plotting menu is in the lower right hand corner of your graphics screen. There are over 20 different actions to choose from, lettered A through Z, spread over four separate menu pages. You select the pages you wish to view with the PgUp/PgDn keys and select the menu item by pressing the enter key. A full discussion of the File Plotting menu items will be found in Chapter 5, File Plotting and Technical Analysis. 3.3 Help Screens PST is equipped with context sensitive help screens which are activated by pressing the F1 key. 3.4 Getting started The distribution package comes with two data files which you can use to try out PST. All you have to do to get started is go to the Main Menu, select Plot a File and enter the filename (either OEX or NYSE). - 6 - If you are using an un-registered copy, you'll have to edit the files so that there are no more than 50 data entries. (The Registered version will let you plot up to 600 entries.) Registered users receive a PST.KEY file which must be in the same directory as the PST program. (The PST.KEY file is unique to each individual registered user and accompanies the registered copy of PST.) - 7 - Chapter 4 The Main Menu 4.1 Plot A File After pressing the enter key, PST will ask you to enter the filename of the data you want to plot. Enter the name of a file which is stored on the disk and press enter. Enter only the filename, i.e type "OEX", not "OEX.STK." PST will then clear the screen and plot your choice. You will not need to return to the Main Menu to plot another file. 4.2 Update A File This feature allows you to quickly update a data file from the keyboard. As you did in Plot a File, press enter, type the file name, and press enter again. At the top of the ensuing screen you'll find the name of the file, its plot type (HILOCLOS, etc.), and the number of records currently in the file. You'll also find the values for the last record in the file, arranged below the column headings "Date" and so on. This is to aid you in keeping your place as well as remind you of the data format. Begin entering new data by entering the date first. You must use two digits for each field in the date, e.g. "01/02/90" not "1/2/90". The backspace key lets you correct an error until you move on to the next entry in the record. F5 lets you start the entire record entry over again. After entering all of each record press enter. When you are done, press F7 to record the updated file to disk. - 8 - 4.3 Create A File The only difference between "Create A File" and "Update A File" is the first screen you see after you have entered a new file name. The first screen asks you to choose what plot type you'll be using for the new file. Press the number next to the plot type you decide upon; the next screen will be an input screen identical to the one you found in Update a File. You can add as much data here as you want, but be sure to enter at least the first record. After saving to disk, any subsequent data is added using "Update A File." Caution: Do not use a filename which you have already used or "Create A File" will overwrite it! 4.4 Print A File This feature is supplied for quick browsing and printing purposes in the event that you do not have a text editor. Press enter, type the filename and press enter again. PST will then ask if you want the file to print to the screen or the printer. Press "S" if you want to scroll the file's data on the screen; "P" if you want to print it. 4.5 File Directory Pressing Enter produces a display of all the data files you have available on disk. 4.6 Configure Program You can run the Configure Program by pressing enter or by running it separately as PSTCFG. In either event, you will be able to decide to have PST beep at you or not beep at you, what plotting colors to use, and the text editor you want to use (among other things). We have supplied a text editor, but you can use any editor of your choice. Be sure to use the editor's full filename, i.e. "EDITOR.EXE" not EDITOR." Note: The actual text editor program must be either in the same directory as PST or in your path. If you are using the Configure Program from PST's main menu, you'll have to rerun PST to activate your changes. - 9 - 4.7 Multi-Plot Multi-Plot enables you to print all the data that you saved while you were in "Plot A File." When you were in "Plot A File", you selected Multi-Plot (U) from the Plot a File Menu and stored several screen images on disk. Now at the Main Menu, you select Multi-Plot and each of the screen images you saved will be plotted out one at a time. You can save up to ten screens for plotting. Be sure the printer is on and operating properly, then, while Multi-Plot is doing it's job, you can take a break. (Plotting EGA screens takes a little time.) For more information on Multi-Plot see section 5.1 U. 4.8 Editor Press "Enter" and enter the name of the file you want to edit, and press "Enter" again. PST will run the editor you chose in the Configuration. 4.9 Reserved for Future Use The last two menu items in PST's Main Menu are reserved for future features. - 10 - Chapter 5 File Plotting and Technical Analysis All technical analysis functions are performed by pressing any key from A-Z. Use the PgUp and PgDn keys to see each of the four small menus in the lower right portion of the screen. All keys are active, you do not have to select the menu first. 5.1 Description of Plot A File Menu Items. A - Get New File Enter the filename of the new file you want to plot. If you are in Split Screen mode, you will load the new file into the lower screen and it will be in exact date registry with the file in the upper screen. B - Change Plot Limits Enter new starting and final dates and new high and low Y values. To leave the entry the same just press enter. Invalid dates will not be accepted (Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays, for example) so just try the next date until you hit a valid one. While in Split Screen mode the date range cannot be changed. The new file will be plotted in the time frame of the upper file, aligned with the proper dates. C - Clear Active Plot Clears the active plotting screen. D - Split Screen Splits the screen into an upper and lower half and plots the current data in the upper half. If a moving average has been calculated it will be plotted also. The lower screen will - 11 - now be the active screen. This is useful for comparing calculated results with the original file, or for uploading another file for comparison with the first. The upper file can be restored to active status by using option E, Unsplit/Reset Screen. E - Unsplit/Reset Screen Unsplits the screen and returns the upper screen's data to the full screen. This will also plot the original data ("refresh") regardless of whether you are in split screen mode or not. After a few technical indicators have been plotted the screen tends to get crowded. Use this instead of reloading the data. F - Auto-Scale Y Rescales and replots the active data so that it is on scale. Use this if a calculation is off-scale, invisible, or if you want it to fill the entire plotting screen. This does not affect the date span. This may be one of the most frequently used options. G - Oscillator Calculates an oscillator by taking the difference between two moving averages. The longer average is subtracted from the shorter average. PST asks for the number of periods for the short term average and then the long term average. If you were charting the daily advance-decline line, for example, you could calculate the McClellan Oscillator by entering 20 and 40 for the short and long term moving averages, respectively. H - Moving Average Sometimes referred to as a smoothing device with a time lag, we will occasionally use the word "smooth" to describe the same calculation. A moving average is the average of the previous X periods plotted for each period. For example, if a ten day moving average of the - 12 - closing prices of a stock is desired, the prices for the last ten days are added up and divided by ten. It is a "moving" average, because only the last ten days are used in the calculation. I - Momentum Momentum measures the rate of change of prices as opposed to the actual prices themselves. PST requests a time interval over which the price momentum (or velocity) will be calculated. Then, in the event that you want a smoother looking result, PST also requests the number of periods you want to use in the smooth (moving average) of the momentum. Choose "0" for this input if you do not want to smooth the calculated momentum. J - Cursor Toggle Turns the cursor on and off. The cursor is moved from its initial position at the left by using the left and right arrow keys. To move faster use shift-left(right) arrow. The value of the curve you are plotting at the position of the cursor is presented in the bottom center window on your screen. If you perform a calculation, reactivate the cursor, and it will now follow along the calculated curve. K - Cumulative Plots a running cumulative total of all previous values. This option is especially useful for calculating Cumulative Breadth from the advance-decline line. L - General Calculator (Registered Version Only) Allows you to: Add two files; take the difference between two files; ratio two files; multiply one file by another. - 13 - PST first asks you for the name of the second file. The first file is the one you have just plotted. It then asks you what action to take (add, etc.). In the subtract (difference) case, the second file is sub- tracted from the first. In the Ratio (division) case, the second file is divided into the first. PST also asks if you want to smooth the result. (Enter "0" if you do not want to smooth.) The weighted ratio option is useful for calculating relative strengths. M - Support/Resistance (Registered Version Only) This calculates the volume density as a function of stock price and plots the result as cumulative volume per price interval (in the negative Y direction) vs price ( along the positive X direction). A vertical marker indicates location of last close. Use the cursor to obtain the values for support and resistance prices. In most instances a stock will produce a support/resistance chart with very well defined trading ranges, indicated by deep volume "wells"; the support and resistance prices (values) can be estimated from the location of low volume intervals between the trading ranges. N - On Balance Volume This is the original OBV developed and popularized by Joseph Granville in 1963. The curve produced here is used to either confirm the quality of a price trend or demonstrate divergence from the present trend. The total volume for each period (day) is assigned a plus or minus value depending on whether that period's (day's) close was higher or lower than the previous period (day). A running cumulative total of these positive and negative volumes is then calculated and plotted. - 14 - O - Stochastic Determines where the most recent closing price is in relation to the price range for a particular (chosen) period of time. For example, for a ten day period of time the formula is: Stochastic = 100{(close - low10)/(high10-low10)}, where "close" is the latest close, "low10" is the lowest low for the previous ten days, "high10" is the highest high for the previous ten days. Multiplying by 100 forms the percentage. This formula measures, on a percentage basis (from 0 to 100), where the closing price is in relation to the total price range for the previous ten days. PST lets you choose the number of periods over which you wish to measure this stochastic process. The data must be of the HILOCLOS plot type, of course. P - Ticker Keeps a running cumulative total of the number of "ups" versus "downs", i.e. if the close today is above yesterday's close, then the number one is added to the sum; the number one is subtracted if today closes below yesterday. Q - Moving RMS (Registered Version Only) Similar to a moving average only instead, the deviation from the mean for the last X periods is charted in units of standard deviation (sigma). Use this as an indication of "overbought" or "over- sold" where a deviation of 3 sigma is really "over!" R - Logarithm Plots the logarithm (base 10) of the Y value. Useful when the data spans orders of magnitude, like historical monthly Dow Jones Industrial Average data. - 15 - S - Wilder - RSI (Relative Strength Indicator) J. Welles Wilder, Jr. presented the RSI, Relative Strength Indicator in 1978. It doesn't really measure the relative strength between two different issues or things; rather, it attempts to remove erratic fluctuations found in momentum lines due to large changes being dropped off the "front end" of the time interval used. RSI removes the large effect that a sharp change in price "X" days ago can give to today's momentum, even though today's price change was small. PST uses your input, "X", for the number of periods in the following expression: RSI = 100 -[100/(1+N)], (Average of X period's up closes) where N = ----------------------------------- (Average of X period's down closes). (You do not need a HILOCLOS plot type to use this feature.) T - Save To Disk Use this option to create your own indicators! Saves the calculation to a disk file. PST asks you to name the file you want to create. This is especially useful if you want to do several subsequent operations on a data file. After each operation, save the result to disk. Then plot it again, using A (Get New File), and perform another calculation. CAUTION: Do not use the name of a file you already have on the disk or it will be overwritten. U - Multi-Plot Pressing "U" will store the current screen image to disk. You may store up to ten images, which can then be plotted later using the Multi-Plot - 16 - feature in PST's Main Menu. Use this option instead of X (Hardcopy) to avoid long interruptions in your graphics session. V - Forecast Estimator (Registered Version Only) CAUTION: Interpretation of the results of this tool is not obvious. Do not use the Forecast Estimator unless you understand its limitations as well as its strengths! The Forecast Estimator fits the last X data points of the data to a polynomial. You choose the number of data points, X (0 to 99) and the number of terms in the polynomial (up to 8). A Least Squares Fit is then performed and the result overlaid on the original data. You can save the result and extrapolate the fit into the future by entering the number of periods for extrapolation at the query. You must replot your extrapolated fit to compare it to the original data (using Split Screen). Using the Forecast Estimator involves some understanding of how polynomial fits behave. The polynomial that is used is of the form: Y = A(1) + A(2)*X + A(3)*X*X + A(4)*X*X*X + etc Your choice of the number of terms to use governs the degree of the polynomial that will be used in the fit, i.e. choosing two terms will give a fit to a straight line. (This is generally the best choice to make because the extrapolated data is a straight "trend line" into the future.) If you choose higher order polynomial fits, the extrapolations are generally less useful because they tend to continue in the direction the last portion of the curve was going in. Use higher order polynomials with caution - perhaps only to verify trading ranges or price channels. Experiment with this feature before considering adding it to your trading arsenal! Note: For PC/XT machines, the forecast estimator takes several minutes to compute. W - Reserved for Future Use - 17 - X - Hardcopy, EGA Plots the current screen to your graphics printer. 5.2 Notes on File Plotting For a detailed explanation of how to interpret each of the technical indicators described above, please refer to the reference list found in Appendix B. - 18 - Appendix A Support Systems Lynn-Western Newswires BBS is available for PST technical support. If you have a problem you can also write and describe the situation. The following systems and persons can be contacted if you have problems or questions regarding PST. Registered users, please include the serial number found on your diskette or at PST's opening screen. 1. The System Operator (Sysop) Lynn-Western Newswires BBS 707-668-4028 (1:125/43@fidonet.org) 1200/2400/9600 bps 8N1 24 hours per day 2. PST Technical Support RazorLogic Systems P.O. Box 112 Kneeland, CA 95549 Voice: 707-668-4054 Fax: 707-668-4055 - 19 - Appendix B Collected References 1. Martin J. Pring, Technical Analysis Explained, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY, 1985. 2. William F. Eng, The Technical Analysis of Stocks, Options & Futures, Probus Publishing, Chicago, Illinois, 1988. 3. Curtis M. Arnold & Dan Rahfeldt, Timing the Market, (ed. Martin D. Weiss), Probus Publishing, Chicago, Illinois, 1986. 4. Edward S. Jensen, Stock Market Blueprints, Strother & Co., Portland, Oregon, 1967. 5. Jeffrey B. Little & Lucien Rhodes, Understanding Wallstreet, Liberty Publishing Co., Cockeysville, Maryland, 1986. 6. Lawrence G. McMillan, Options as a Strategic Investment, 2nd Edition, New York Institute of Finance, NY, 1986. 7. Robert D. Edwards & John Magee, Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, 4th Edition, John Magee, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1966. 8. Frank J. Fabozzi & Gregory M. Kipnis, Eds., Stock Index Futures, Dow Jones-Irwin, 1984. 9. John J. Murphy, Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets, New York Institute of Finance, NY, 1986. 10. Howard Ruff, Making Money, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, NY, 1984. 11. David Dreman, The New Contrarian Investment Strategy, Random House, NY, 1982. 12. Joseph E. Granville, A Strategy of Daily Stock Market Timing for Maximum Profit, Prentice Hall, Inc., Engelwood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1960. 13. Edward N. Dubois, Essential Statistical Methods for Business, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY, 1979. 14. John Downes & Jordon Elliot Goodman, Eds., Barron's Finance & Investment Handbook, 2nd Edition, Barron's, New York, NY, 1987. - 20 - Appendix C Registration Information USA RazorLogic Systems P.O. Box 112 Kneeland, CA 95549 USA C.1 Pricing and Order Form Please use the form below when placing an order. Non-U.S. Residents: Please send checks drawn on U.S. funds and add $7 overseas shipping/handling. (All prices as of April 30, 1992. Prices subject to change without notification.) Personal Stock Technician: Suggested retail price (single copy): USD $99.50 NOTE!!!! Limited time offer: 30% DISCOUNT off Regular Price of $99.50..............USD $69.00 Registered owners of Personal Stock Technician will be notified by mail when significant enhancements have been made to the program. Once registered, all minor upgrades are available for a $15 upgrade fee (please include registration number in your order). You can receive the latest distribution copy (un-registered) version of Personal Stock Technician for evaluation by writing, enclosing $15 for handling. - 21 - Please Remit To: RazorLogic Systems P.O.Box 112 Kneeland, CA 95549 Qty. Description Each Total ____ Personal Stock Technician Demonstration Diskette, (Applied to Purchase Price of Registered Version) $15.00 ________ ____ Personal Stock Technician, Registered Version. (30% DISCOUNT Off Regular Price of $99.50 = $69.00!) $69.00 ________ Specify Disk Size: ____ 5 1/4 _____ 3 1/2 Subtotal ________ (Site License Discount - see below) Discount [-________] (U.S. orders add $4 shipping & handling) Shipping ________ (Foreign orders add $7 shipping) (CA residents please add 8.25% sales tax) Tax ________ TOTAL $________ Name: ________________________________________________________ Company: ________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Telephone: _________________________ FAX:__________________________ CHECK MADE PAYABLE TO RAZORLOGIC SYSTEMS FOR: $________________ OR, CREDIT CARD ORDERS: Charge to my Credit Card: ___ MasterCard ___ VISA Expiration Date: ____/____ Card Number: ______________________________________________ All checks must be drawn on U.S. Funds in U.S. Dollars. Sorry, no C.O.D. orders will be accepted. All prices and discounts subject to change without notice. - 22 - C.2 Purchase Order Terms and Requirements Purchase Orders less than $100 must be pre-paid. Terms are net 30 days. Freight is prepaid by RazorLogic. Lead time: Stock items. C.3 Site License If you plan on using Personal Stock Technician in a corporate or government office, or in any business environment whatsoever, registration of the commercial version is mandatory. For such users, quantity discounts are available under a Site License agreement. One Master Copy of Personal Stock Technician (with documentation) will be provided on diskette. The site is responsible for printing the documentation and copying the diskettes for distribution. Backups of the Master disks do not count towards the total copies of the license. With all site licenses, the site will supply one contact person with whom all correspondence will be made. If a problem should arise, the contact person will interact with RazorLogic during problem resolution. Updates to Personal Stock Technician will be forwarded to the contact person. When filling out the order form, use the contact persons name to avoid confusion at a later date. The following table lists the current site license discount rates: TOTAL COPIES DISCOUNT 1 - 4 none 5 - 10 10% 11 - 20 20% 21 - 30 30% 31+ 40% NOTE: All prices and discounts are subject to change without notice. Also note that discounts are not cumulative and apply to separate orders only. - 23 - C.4 Warranty Personal Stock Technician is provided as is without any warranty, expressed or implied. This includes without limitation the fitfulness to a particular purpose or application and any warranties of merchantability. While RazorLogic attempted to be as through as possible while debugging Personal Stock Technician, RazorLogic shall not be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special, or consequential arising from a failure of this program or accompanying files to operate in a manner desired by the user. RazorLogic shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by use of this program. In no event will RazorLogic Systems be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability to use the program, or for any claim by any other party. To those people who have registered with diskette, the physical diskette is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 30 days from date of shipment by RazorLogic. Any returned disks found damaged or bad will be replaced at no charge. - 24 - Appendix D Downloading Data Personal Stock Technician currently comes with two utilities that are useful for converting data obtained from Dow Jones News/Retrieval or Compuserve to PST data format. The data can be obtained with Procomm Plus by Datastorm Technologies, but any communications software capable of capturing the data to file on disk will work. ( Dow Jones News/Retrieval, Compuserve and Procomm Plus are NOT part of the Personal Stock Technician package and we do not intend to imply that they are.) You should be familiar with the use of the Dow Jones News/ Retrieval Service, Compuserve, Procomm Plus and the Aspect Script Language before attempting to use the utilities described here. There is a fee associated with obtaining data from Dow Jones and Compuserve. D.1 HQCON.EXE This utility is used to parse Historical Quotes data obtained using the Procomm Aspect file HQSTOCK.ASP (supplied for the Dow Jones News/Retrieval logon format only). After logging on to the Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service using Procomm Plus, invoking HQSTOCK.ASP will download Historical Quotes data on the stock you choose. The disk file you produce will then be parsed and sorted by HQCON.EXE into PST format data. You can design a similar Aspect file for downloading Historical Quotes from Compuserve via Compuserves "Go Prices" command. Step by Step: 1. Log onto Dow Jones and execute HQSTOCK.ASP to produce a data file, let's call it "data.txt." "Data.txt" should look something like this: ;1xyz P1 DOW JONES HISTORICAL STOCK QUOTE REPORTER SERVICE STOCK 1xyz - 25 - DATE HIGH LOW CLOSE VOL(100/S) 04/11/91 39 3/8 38 5/8 39 1/8 3170 04/12/91 39 1/4 38 3/8 38 3/4 2029 04/15/91 39 37 1/4 38 1/8 1232 04/16/91 38 3/4 37 3/4 38 3/4 1261 04/17/91 39 3/4 39 1/8 39 1/2 2758 04/18/91 40 5/8 39 1/4 39 1/4 2015 04/19/91 39 5/8 38 3/4 39 3/8 3085 etc........ The comparable result obtained from Compuserve should look like: go prices One moment please... ISSUE PRICING HISTORY PRICES Enter ticker symbols (i.e. HRB,SP 500), an asterisk followed by beginning of a company name (i.e. *BLOCK), /H for HELP or EXIT. Issue: IBM (D)aily, (W)eekly, (M)onthly? : d Starting date or number of periods from last pricing date? 20 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHS COM Cusip: 45920010 EXCHANGE: N Ticker: IBM Date Volume High/Ask Low/Bid Close/Avg --------- ---------- ----------- ---------- ---------- 8/21/91 2,828,000 96 3/8 94 95 5/8 8/22/91 2,166,000 96 3/8 94 1/8 94 3/8 8/23/91 1,701,000 96 1/8 94 3/8 94 7/8 8/26/91 895,000 95 5/8 94 3/4 95 1/8 8/27/91 1,259,000 95 5/8 94 5/8 95 1/4 8/28/91 1.617,000 95 1/4 94 1/4 94 1/2 Press <CR> for more ! etc............. - 26 - 2. Now, from the DOS prompt type: HQCON data.txt data /d and press "Enter". That's it! You have just created a PST file called "data" from an input file obtained from Dow Jones News/Retrieval named "data.txt." For Compuserve data, just replace the "/d" with "/c." Now you can chart the data with PST. (Typing HQCON alone and pressing enter will supply a help screen.) D.2 UPKEEP.EXE This utility is used to update a selection of stocks you wish to track on a regular basis. By editing the Aspect Script file called UPDATE.ASP you can download the latest 12 days of trading information on any number of stocks you wish (from Dow Jones News/Retrieval). From this screen dump you update your PST portfolio with UPKEEP.EXE. The procedure is similar to that in D.1: 1. Execute UPDATE.ASP to produce a file, which we'll call "Port.txt" . 2. Run UPKEEP.EXE by typing: UPKEEP Port.txt /d and pressing "Enter". (Typing UPKEEP alone followed by "Enter" will supply help.) Note: The stock files must already exist! (For Compuserve, simply adapt the Update.asp file to fit Compuserve's protocols and run UPKEEP with the /c switch rather than the /d.) D.3 SPLIT.EXE Use this utility to adjust the data in a stock file for stock splits. The format is SPLIT oldfile newfile mm dd yy x y where "oldfile" is the STK file with the "unsplit" and split prices, - 27 - "newfile" is the STK file that will be created, "mm dd yy" is the date the split took effect ( be sure to use two characters for each part of the date; e.g. "02" NOT just "2", "x y" is the split ratio, for example, a two for one split is "2 1" and a three for two split is "3 2". The PST package comes with an STK file for Silicon Graphics (SGI) which split two for one on February 24, 1992 that you can use for practice. To adjust the data in this file to the new split values type the following at the DOS prompt: SPLIT sgi sginew 02 24 92 2 1 This will create a new data file called SGINEW which will have all prices adjusted for the split. As with all PST's utilities, typing just the utility name without any input parameters will print help instructions to the screen. D.4 STKCHECK.EXE This utility is used to compare the dates in two STK files for discrepancies. The usage is: STKCHECK FileA FileB, where FileA and FileB are the two STK files that you wish to compare. D.5 Notes on "Screen Dumps" Most communication software will let you save the screen data you see during a Dow Jones News/Retrieval or Compuserve session to a file on disk. Procomm Plus calls this "logging" while other names are "screen capture", "screen dump" etc. Be aware that if the utilities supplied here do not work, the first thing to suspect is the integrity of the screen capture file. Often, line noise and other minor mishaps, will add random characters to the file as it is being recorded. Since HQCON and UPKEEP are strict parsing programs, any displacement in characters from the positions they normally occupy will - 28 - cause unpredictable results. Also, there is no guarantee that Dow Jones News/Retrieval or Compuserve will not change their data format at any time. In any event, check the screen capture file carefully before running HQCON or UPKEEP and repair any discrepancies with your text editor. - 29 - Appendix E Acknowledgements The following individuals, organizations and entities have contributed significantly to the creation and development of Personal Stock Technician: Barron's Borland International The Chicago Board of Exchange Dow Jones Information Services Wendy C. Golden Stuart James Norman Lynn Shirley Lynn Michael Pine The New York Stock Exchange The Wall Street Journal Five Years of Trading - eof - - 30 -