Welcome to The Stock Analyst, the program that gives you complete control over your stocks and helps you make important investment decisions. T
Unfortunately, there is no context sensitive help available for the selected item. >
NAVIGATING AROUND THE PROGRAM -----------------------------
The Stock Analyst essentially contains three visible components: the Menu bar at the top, the desktop, and the status line at the bottom.
The Menu bar is your primary access to all the menu commands. When the Menu bar is active, you will see a highlighted menu title; this is the currently selected menu.
The status line displays the most commonly used keys within the program. This is useful to refresh your memory on the keys to use.
The desktop is the portion of the screen between the Menu bar and the status line. This is where all dialog boxes and other information is displayed for you. The desktop is often referred to as the 'workspace'.
MENU BAR AND MENUS k
All commands that may be used in The Stock Analyst may be selected with either the keyboard or the mouse. (
To choose commands using the keyboard: .
1. Press F10. This activates the menu bar. `
2. Use the arrow keys to select the menu that you wish to display. Then press the ENTER key.
As a shortcut for this step, you can press the highlighted letter of the menu title. For example, from the Menu bar, press S to quickly display the Stock menu.
3. Use the arrow keys again to choose the menu command you want. Then press the ENTER key. {
Again, as a shortcut, you can just press the highlighted letter of a command to choose it once the menu is displayed.
At this point, The Stock Analyst will perform the action that you selected.
To choose commands with a mouse, do this: 7
1. Click the desired menu title to display the menu.
2. Click the desired command.
You can also drag straight from the menu title down to the menu command. Release the mouse button on the command you want. If you change your mind, just drag off the menu; no command will be chosen.
SHORTCUTS j
From the keyboard, you can use a number of shortcuts (also called HOT KEYS) to access the Menu bar and choose commands. By the use of a hot key, you can select a particular item without having to display a menu first. To use a hot key, simply press the key or combination of keys as displayed next to the option you require (displayed on the drop-down menu).
The status line also contains hot keys. Press the hot key or click on the actual hot key representation on the status line to choose the associated command.
DIALOG BOXES
Dialog boxes are the pop-up windows that allow you to make selections and enter data into the program. These dialog boxes are displayed on the desktop (main portion of the screen). @
The dialog box has two standard action buttons: OK and Cancel.
- If you choose OK, the choices in the dialog box are accepted, the action will be performed, and the dialog box is put away.
- If you choose Cancel, nothing changes and no action is taken, but the dialog box is put away; the same thing happens if you click on the Close box, which is a small, filled rectangle in the top left-hand corner of the dialog box. Q
ESC is always a keyboard shortcut for Cancel even if no Cancel button appears.
If you're using a mouse, you can click the button you want. When you're using the keyboard, you can press the highlighted letter of an item to activate it. For example, pressing O selects the OK button. If you are in a field where you are entering text, you may select OK by pressing ALT + O. Press TAB or SHIFT + TAB to move forward or backward respectively from one group to another in a dialog box, then use the up and down arrow keys to select an item within the group. Each element is highlighted when it becomes active. When the button is selected, press ENTER to choose it. X
Any dialog box or window may be closed by holding the ALT key and pressing the F3 key.
CHECK BOXES
You can have any number of check boxes checked at any time. When you select a check box, an X appears in it to show you that it is on. An empty box indicates that it is off. ;
There are three ways to check a check box (set it to on):
- Click it or its text {
- Press TAB (and then the arrow keys if necessary) until the required check box is highlighted, then press the SPACE BAR. +
- Type the highlighted letter in its text
RADIO BUTTONS
Radio buttons are used in dialog boxes to give you a selection of two or more choices from which you may pick one. Radio buttons are distinguished by being in groups within a highlighed box. Each radio button will have its button displayed, followed by the action that it would take. Radio buttons are displayed with two brackets eg. ( ) <- Unselected button; (o) <- Selected Button.
To select a button, you may either click on the button required, or move to the buttons position and press the SPACE bar to select it.
Radio buttons act like the old-style station-selection buttons on a car radio. There is always one -and only one- button pushed in at a time. Push one in, and the one that was in pops out.
INPUT BOXES x
An input box is where you enter text into the application. Most basic text-editing keys such as arrow keys, HOME, END and INS work in the input box. If you continue to type once you reach the end of the box, the contents automatically scroll. If there's more text than what shows in the box, arrowheads appear at the end. You can click the arrowheads to scroll the text.
LIST BOXES
A final component of many dialog boxes is a list box. A list box lets you scroll through and select from variable-length lists without leaving a dialog box. 1
You make a list box active by clicking on it or by choosing the highlighted letter of the list title. You can also press TAB or the arrow keys until it is highlighted. Once a list box is displayed, you can use the scroll bar (the long vertical bar on the right hand side of the list box) with a mouse:
- To scroll one line at a time, click the arrow at either end. - To scroll continuously, keep the mouse button pressed. - To scroll one page at a time, click the shaded area to either side of the scroll box (small rectangular box within the scroll bar). - To quickly move to a spot in the window relative to the position of the scroll box, drag the scroll box to any spot on the scroll bar. For example, if you wished to move to the end of the list box, you would drag the 3
scroll box down to the bottom of the scroll bar.
To move around in a list box with the keyboard:
- To scroll one line at a time, depress the up or down arrow key. - To scroll continuously, keep the desired arrow key depressed. - To scroll one page at a time, depress the Page Up or Page Down key. - To scroll continuously by pages, keep the desired Page Up or Page Down key depressed. - To move to the start or end of the list box, press the CTRL and Page Up or the CTRL and Page Down keys respectively.
Once you have located the item that you wish to select, highlight the item and click on the OK button, or if using the keyboard, you may highlight the item and press ENTER, or highlight the item and TAB across and select the OK button.
SYSTEM MENU R
This menu contains all of the system functions that may be selected at any time.
ABOUT P
This option displays the copyright and version information for this program.
Through this option, you may change the colours used by the program. Also available is an option to use symbols. When using symbols, each item that is selected is not only highlighted, it also has a marker next to it to make it easier to see the selected item.
Through this option, you may change your computers date. This option is to be used if your computer's date is set incorrectly.
Through this option you may change the order in which the stocks are sorted. T
You may choose to sort either by the name of the stock or by it's ticker code.
To operate the calculator you can either use the keyboard or press the buttons on the calculator with the mouse.
The 'C' key clears the calculator, the <Backspace> key erases the last character typed, and the '
' key toggles the value from positive to negative (The keyboard equivalent of '
' is '_').
The calendar displays the current month, highlighting today's date.
The next and previous months can be viewed using the '+' or '-' keys respectively. The mouse can also be used to change the month by pressing the up or down arrow icons.
By the use of this option, you can temorarily exit to DOS to perform any DOS commands that are required. You may then return to this program by typing EXIT (then pressing ENTER).
When selected, this option will quit the program and return you to the operating system.
This menu contains all of the options required to add and delete stocks. It also includes the options to add or delete stock prices and update the market index.
This function will add a new stock to the database. >
Stock Name: The name of the stock to be added (company name) @
Ticker Code: The code given to the stock by the stock exchange
By selecting this option, you may delete a stock from the database. B
Please note that once deleted, the stock may not be recovered.
Through this option, you may add new prices to existing stock (ie. prices for the day).
By using this option, you may delete a price of an existing stock. S
Do do so, simply enter the trading date for the price(s) that you wish to delete.
This option is used to update the market index (ie. closing price for the day).
The amount entered will be stored under TODAY'S date. If you wish to enter the closing price for a different day, simply modify the system date (in the system '
' menu) to the required date, then return the date to normal after you have finished.
This menu contains all reports that can give details on your stock.
By selecting this option, you may get a complete history of the selected stock. This includes High, Low, Close and Volume for each day.
Through this option, you may get a complete analysis of every stock on the database. o
Once the program has analysed all stocks, it will display a list of all stocks with recommendations for each. d
These recommendations may be either: HOLD, BUY or SELL. Each recommendation is described below...
HOLD - This may be generated for one of two reasons. Firstly, the HOLD signal may be generated if the stock is not showing any particular signs in any direction, meaning that you should probably wait to see what happens. Secondly, this signal may also be generated if the program does not yet have enough information on the stock to make a decision yet. Usually, the program requires from thirty to sixty price entries before it can make a decision (although it depends on the price movements of the stock). `
BUY - The BUY signal is generated when the stock shows signs that the price is about to rise. a
SELL - The SELL signal is generated when the stock shows signs that the price is about to fall.
Please note that these signals are intended to be used only as a guide for you. There is still no substitute for common sense (and/or a good broker or investment advisor).
This menu contains the charts that may be displayed so that you may properly assess your stocks price movements.
By selecting this option, you may display a line chart of the price movements for a particular stock.
Once you have selected the required stock, simply enter the date to start graphing from and the date to graph to. To view ALL price movements, you may accept the default values given. B
The line represents the closing price for the stock on each day.
By selecting this option, you may display a bar chart of the price movements for a particular stock.
Once you have selected the required stock, simply enter the date to start graphing from and the date to graph to. To view ALL price movements, you may accept the default values given.
The structure of each bar is: 5
Highest point represents the high price for the day 3
Lowest point represents the low price for the day S
The small bar extending to the right of the bar is the closing price for the day.
By selecting this option, you may display a Point & Figure (P&F) Chart of the price movements for a particular stock.
The P&F chart will display a series of X's and O's to represent the price movements of the stock. An X represents an upward movement and an O represents a downward movement in price. 4
The P&F chart does not include any time dimension. I
Small price fluctuations are not taken into account on the P&F chart.
This menu contains all functions that relate to automatic entry of stock data.
This function will read stock information from a 'log' file that you have made of CompuServe's stock prices.
This MUST be saved from the information retrieved by the CompuServe Information Manager (Windows or DOS) - in the Stock Quotes (portfolio) option.
This function will read information from an ASCII text file that contains stock prices. j
You can read either standard ASCII text files with fields separated by spaces, or comma-delimited files.
The text file may not contain any extra lines of information, and each piece of stock data MUST be on a single line, although each file may contain any number of lines...
When using a comma-delimited file, the POSITION's relate to the field number, whereas with a spaced file the position number must be the exact starting position of each field.
(.txt)