Setting up a Chart
Select { File | New }
from the menu or select the New icon from the toolbar. This will
open a new chart with no symbol assigned. The default chart type
is "daily" , but this can be modified with { Chart | Properties }. Any time you enter
a new symbol in a chart, either in the chart properties dialog,
or using the shortcut of just typing a symbol in a selected chart,
the program will attempt to retrieve to the data requested. This
may cause it to connect to the internet site currently configured
for retrieving historic data for the selected time unit (days,
weeks, etc.). Depending upon your networking configuration this
may initiate dialing, if you are configured for dial-up networking
and have no current connection. If the connection can not be
made, it may take up to two minutes for the program to "time-out"
and give up trying. With your internet connection established,
type any stock symbol in the chart and hit <enter>,
at this point data will be downloaded and displayed.
Retrieving Data
Each time a new symbol is typed in a chart, the program first
checks for data previously downloaded and saved in the .\Data
directory. If there is any data for this symbol it is loaded.
If the { Data | Auto Update } menu
item is selected (checked) it will attempt to bring the data
up to date with the latest available.
You can also manually initiate the update with { Data | Update }, or {
<right click> | Update }.
The "update" operation attempts to retrieve data
from the last day you already have, forward to today or whatever
date is set in the {Chart | Properties
}.
The { Chart | Reload }
operation, discards previously retrieved data and attempts to
refetch the full range requested by {
Chart | Properties }.
About Retrieved Data
All data suppliers disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy
of the data. This includes the live data streams you pay for,
and even data feeds direct from the exchange. You should double
check any data with multiple sources before relying upon it to
make trading decisions. We do not offer trading advice, any decisions
you make in this regard are yours alone.
Setting up Studies
There are three available display panes to each chart. By
default, only the top pane is visible. The volume information
will display in the bottom pane, to make this visible select
{ View | Bottom Pane }. Other
Studies are selected with the {
Studies } menu. Each study has a default group it belongs
to for purposes of routing it to the desired pane for display.
Experiment with the pane selections under {
Chart | Properites } to get what you want. This area is
still undergoing further development so some changes may occur
between releases.
Setting Data Sources for Retrieval
The { Data | Data Sources }
menu item can be used to select from available data sources.
Note different sources may update their data at different times,
and at any given time there may be errors. We have noted missing
days on some sources, that get filled in after a few days, etc.
If you do not seem to be getting good results from one source,
try one of the others available. If you find additional web sites
offering historic stock price data in either HTML or download
format (usually denoted as spreadsheet download format), let
us know the URL and we will attempt to add configurations for
these sites to the program.
Setting Colors
The study colors are applied when the studies are created.
Other color selections are made under the {
Chart | Colors } menu. To change the background color
select { Chart | Colors },
highlight the Item "BackGround", and either
click the [Color] button
or double click the item name. All other items shown may have
their colors specified in a similar manner.
Once you have a chart setup to you liking, exit the SSChart
program so the setting will be saved. When you restart, the entire
layout with custom settings should be restored. This is the easiest
way to maintain your chart setup. Type a new symbol in the chart
to view a different stock. Another mechanism for saving your
settings and applying them to new charts is Chart Favorites.
Chart Favorites
You can now save your favorite chart layouts and save them
to a file. Once you have created a couple of favorite charts
it is easy to create as many charts with the saved characteristics
as you want. Create a chart to your liking and use the { Chart | Add to Favorites } menu
item to save the chart settings to a file. The filename you chose
will appear as a submenu item under the {
Chart } menu the next time you look there. You can now
create as many charts of that type as you want by selecting the
favorite name from the { Chart }
menu.
Printing
Some basic printing capabilites have been added. The chart
windows can be printed but they are currently not scaled. The
chart image is centered on the page and it's size is dependent
on the resolution of the printer and the size of the chart window
on the screen. For example, if your chart window on the screen
is about 500 x 300 pixels, a resolution of about 100 dpi (dots
per inch) on the printer should give a decent printed image.
If the image is large (1000 x 800) a resolution of 180 dpi should
work. You can view the chart window before you print it with
{ File | Print Preview }.
If it looks OK on the screen it should also look OK on the printer.
Note that the chart window is colored in the Print Preview
window. If you have a black and white printer and use candlesticks
in your charts, then the up candles will print with a black outline
and the down candles will print solid black. Also note that printing
is disabled if the background is any other color than
white.
Hints & Shortcuts
Use the favorites feature:
First and most important, after you configure a chart to look
the way you like it, save it as a named favorite by selection
{ Chart | Add to Favorties },
it will be saved as a named file with the .fav extension in the
FAVORITE directory and also
its name will appear under the {
Chart } menu. You will then save yourself the tedium of
setting everything up again for a new chart of this type.
You can set a favorite as the default chart that gets created
when you press the { File | New
} or { Chart | New }
button or the New icon from the toolbar. To do this, select
{ Edit | Favorites },
select the chart from the list you want to be the default, check
the Set as default box and press [OK].
Load new symbols into the same chart
Whenever any chart window is the current window, you can just
start typing a new stock symbol on the keyboard. The symbol appears
in the upper left corner of the window while you type. When you
hit the <enter> key, the program attempts to load data
for the new symbol. You can open as many windows as you like,
but each one takes up memory resources. Rather than opening 100
different charts for 100 different stocks, I tend to open 3 or
4 with different time frames, then type in new symbols in these.
Symbol List Files
An even better shortcut for scrolling through all the stocks
you are interested in has just been added to release 1.30. This
makes use of a symbol list file. A symbol list file is a simple
text file containing only stock symbols, one per line.
To create a symbol list file:
Use Notepad to create the file (or another text editor). The
file format needs to be plain text, do not use word doc format,
as this contains binary information. (You can use Word however
if you save the file as text with line breaks). Enter your symbols,
one on each line, and do not enter any other text. Everything
in the file will be treated as a stock symbol.
Save the file with the extension .slf (symbol list file) in
the DATA subdirectory under where you installed SSChart.
To use a symbol file:
Select { File | Open } and
set the Files of type field to .slf files. Find the file
you saved and open it. The main window status line at the bottom
of the main window should display a message indicating the file
was loaded. (You can also see this message in the status message
window, which will magically appear if you hit F4).
What it does for you:
Now for the neat part. Make any chart window your currently
selected chart (i.e.; click on one of your charts so it becomes
the active chart). You can now scroll through your list of stock
symbols you loaded by using the <Page
up>, <Page Down>,
< Home>, and
<End> keys on
the keyboard.
Page Down |
loads the next symbol from the list into the chart |
Page Up |
loads the previous |
Home |
loads the first |
End |
loads the last |
When you first open the symbol list file, it does not affect
the current chart. Start by hitting the [Home]
key to load the first symbol from the list, then scroll through
the rest with [Page Down].
Currently only one symbol list file at a time can be in use.
If you open a new list file, it replaces the one previously open
as the current list.
(We expect to be expanding on this feature in a later version
of SSChart.) |