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Technical
Analysis
Scanner
TAS
FlexSoft
7172 Regional Street, #276
Dublin, CA 94568
U.S.A.
Voice 510-829-9733
FAX 510-829-9733
BBS 510-829-2293
This document and all accompanying written and disk based
notes and specifications are copyrighted by FlexSoft.
January 18, 1992
Introduction
"Technical Analysis Scanner" (TAS) is a software program that
lets you analyze your MetaStock, Computrac, Investograph Plus or
ChartPro data base using technical analysis indicators and
conditional relationships to "scan" all, or a portion, of your
data files. TAS also contains a Profit Testing Facility with
which you can "back test" your historical data using nearly any
trading strategy to see how profitable it would have been.
TAS is a generalized technical analysis "tool box". It is not a
"black box" system where you have no knowledge of the rules or
control over its decision making process. With TAS, you have
complete control over the indicators chosen, their
interpretation, and the output formatting of your reports.
With TAS, you can combine over 60 built-in technical indicators,
compare their values against other indicators or values, make
decisions based on the result of those comparisons, and
ultimately, create a report which shows you what you want to see.
TAS is designed to enable you to go beyond the MetaStock Pro
"Custom Formulas" by applying similar analysis to all, or any
part of, the data in your Metastock (or ChartPro) Data Base. If
you have a trading strategy that relies on technical indicators
or price action, but you do not have the time to chart all of
your stocks everyday, then TAS is the tool you need. It runs your
own customized formula on selected groups of your stocks, and can
notify you if your buy or sell condition is reached.
TAS can also be used to create custom reports on your stocks. For
example, you can use it to notify you when a particular stock has
reached a certain price, volume or technical indicator value.
And with the Profit Tester feature you can confirm the
profitability of your trading system. TAS goes back through your
historical data, a day at a time, applying your trading rules to
the indicators and conditions you specify. It keeps track of the
days you bought, sold or were stopped out of positions,
tabulating the results on a daily basis, or in a summary report
which tells you how your system performed.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 2
System Requirements
In order to use TAS, you should have the following software and
hardware configuration.
Hardware
Any IBM PC processor type (8088, 8086, 80x86)
A CGA, EGA, or VGA Monitor (EGA or VGA required for Charts)
Hard Disk (optional)
Microsoft or Logitech Mouse (optional)
512K minimum memory (640K better)
Expanded Memory (XMS) will be used on 286/386/486 class
machines if there is an Expanded Memory System (EMS) driver
or actual LIM 4.0 EMS memory installed.
Software
DOS 2.1 or later
"Computrac" Format historical data files used by Metastock,
Investograph Plus, and Computrac, among others
or
ChartPro or MegaTech data files
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 3
Support and Upgrades
Support
You can get support for TAS problems or questions by contacting
FlexSoft at its mailing address below:
FlexSoft
7172 Regional St, #276
Dublin, CA 94568
or by telephone at 510-829-9733
or by Email on the following services:
OnLine Service Userid
GEnie M.MOORE41
Prodigy JBMD65A
FlexSoft BBS (510-829-2293) SYSOP
Compuserve 76447,2367
Updates to TAS (Upgrades)
New releases of TAS may be defined as "upgrade releases". An
Upgrade Release will require a new Registration Code and an
Upgrade Registration Fee. When a major feature is added to TAS,
there will be a "Feature Upgrade" cost as well.
Update versions of TAS are available , on the FlexSoft BBS at
510-829-2293.
The FlexSoft BBS has an online order system which you can use to
purchase your new TAS update. You will need a VISA , Mastercard,
or American Express credit card number to order your update to
TAS when using the online order system. Once your order is
confirmed, you will be given access to the "area" of the BBS that
contains the TAS update version.
You can also obtain updates to TAS by U.S. Mail. If you need an
update by U.S. Mail, please send $5 for shipping and handling in
addition to the Update and/or Upgrade Registration Fee. Methods
of payment are by check, money order, or VISA, Mastercard, or
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 4
American Express credit card number (include expiration date).
Redistribution of TAS
You may not re-distribute TAS to BBS systems or other public
locations, nor may you copy it for other than your own use. You
may not redistribute your registration code , nor may you
transfer it or give it away to anyone else.
Other FlexSoft Products
FlexSoft also has two companion products for users who wish to
order them. The first product is called PML and the second is
called PDL. With the combination of TAS, PML and PDL, you have
"end to end" access to your stock market data. PDL downloads the
quotes, PML updates the database, and TAS allows you to search,
analyze, report, and chart the data. PML and PDL are described
below.
Each of these programs can be ordered from FlexSoft or downloaded
from GEnie or Compuserve.
PDL (Prodigy Down Loader)
PDL is a program that downloads, or captures, daily quote data
and market indices from the Prodigy Information Service. PDL can
download up to 1,000 daily quotes in a single run. If you need to
download more quotes, then you can run PDL several times. It uses
the Quote Check and Market Close features of Prodigy to obtain
the quotes, so there is no need to go into Prodigy and enter the
quotes by hand, as some systems require you do. The creation of
the ticker list of quotes to download can be done with a simple
TAS script.
PDL also has a "vacation mode" that will enable you to go on
vacation or leave town for extended periods and still gather
daily quote data.
PML (Prodigy Metastock Loader)
PML converts quotes from GEnie, DowJones, Prodigy and Compuserve
into MetaStock data files and an ASCII format for input to
spreadsheets. PML produces summary reports on all your Metastock
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 5
files whether you update the files with PML or not. Colors are
used to highlight those stocks which exceed either PRICE or
VOLUME limits you set in the installation procedure. PML also
creates a Summary Report file.
Credits
MetaStock Professional is a stock charting program from Equis
Inc.
ChartPro is a stock charting program written by David Rettger.
GEnie is a trademark of General Electric Co.
Prodigy is a trademark of Prodigy Services Co.
Disclaimers
The author claims no responsibility for any damages caused by the
use or misuse of this product. This product is distributed "as
is" with no warranty expressed or implied. The author will not
be responsible for any losses incurred, either directly or
indirectly, by the use of this product.
The author reserves the right to make modifications at any time.
Prices are subject to change without notice.
Technical Analysis References
The Encyclopedia of Technical Market Indicators, Colby & Meyers,
Dow Jones Irwin Press, 1988, ISBN 1-55623-049-4
New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems, J. Welles Wilder Jr.,
Trend Research, 1978, ISBN 0-89459-027-8
The New Commodity Trading Systems and Methods, Perry J. Kaufman,
John Wiley and Sons 1987, ISBN 0-471-87879-0
Metastock Professional Users Guide, Equis International
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 6
Installing TAS
TAS is distributed as an LHARC compressed collection of files.
The name of the .EXE file will be based on the version and
release level of TAS. For version 4, release 08, the name will be
'TAS408.EXE', and in general, the name will be 'TASvrr.EXE' where
'v' is the Version and 'r' is the Release.
Quick Start Installation
The following "quick start" documentation shows how to get TAS up
and running on your system initially. The file name for the TAS
file is referred to as "TASvrr.EXE".
In order to install TAS, you should perform the following steps
1. Create a directory to contain TAS software. It can be any
name you choose. The following instructions assume the
subdirectory name is "\TAS". To create a directory named
\TAS on your C: drive, type "MD C:\TAS"
2. If you received TAS on a floppy disk, copy TASvrr.EXE into
directory \TAS by typing
COPY A:\TAS\TASvrr.EXE C:\TAS
3. CD \TAS
4. Type TASvrr, e.g, if the file is TAS408.EXE, type 'TAS408'
5. Type TAS and press ENTER.
6. You will be presented with an initial screen which tells you
that you have not run TAS before. There are flashing areas
at the bottom to remind you that the F1-key is the Help key.
Hit the ESC key after reading the message. You will see
another message indicating you have a trial version of TAS.
Once again, hit the ESC key to move to the next screen.
7. You will now be placed in the "Configure TAS" menu screen.
Fill in the MetaStock or Chartpro directory names you want
to scan. You can enter up to 10 subdirectories and then hit
F3 to save the directories you named.
TAS is now installed . The following section shows how to do a
build and run a simple selection that will perform the same
function as the Metastock Utility Rank feature.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 7
Creating and Running a Sample Selection
1. Go to the Define Ticker List Menu by either typing "T" or
moving the cursor bar down to that selection and pressing
ENTER. If you have a mouse, you can click on the menu item.
2. Select New Ticker List from the next prompt.
3. Give the name "MYTICKS" . This will be the name of a ticker
list for testing.
4. After a moment, TAS will present you with a list of all the
tickers it found in the Data Directories you defined in the
Configure TAS screen. Move the cursor to each ticker symbol
you want to run a script against. Hit the SPACE bar on the
symbol. It should highlight (indicating it is selected).
Hit F3 when all desired symbols are selected. This will save
the ticker list you just created.
5. At the Main Menu, select Build or Run Selection by typing
"B"
6. Select Use Old from the Build or Run Selection Menu
7. Pick the selection MSURANK.SEL (by typing "M" or moving the
cursor to it) and hitting ENTER.
8. Hit the F4 function key to "RUN" the MSURANK selection
script. TAS will now display a screen containing all the
ticker lists available to use. You will be asked which
ticker list you wish to use when you run this script.
9. Pick the ticker list you just created "MYTICKS.TCK" by
moving the cursor or mouse to the file name and pressing
ENTER or clicking on the filename. This particular
selection will create a report like the one Metastock
Utility (MSU) creates when you select "Rank" using a 26 day
Rate of Change and a 10 day Moving Average.
10. Now TAS runs the script with the ticker symbols you put in
the ticker list. As each ticker is processed, you will see a
line in the "run" window. Once all tickers are processed,
the report will be presented on the screen, sorted by
ticker.
11. Hit F1 now to see the choices you have. By hitting F1, you
can read the help and see what you can do from here. You can
sort your tickers on the value of any column shown, either
ascending or descending order. To sort on the values in the
second column, press the key sequence Alt-2 (hold the ALT
key and hit the number 2).
12. To exit from the report screen, hit the ESC key.
The documentation for the system is in the online help file
available by hitting the F1 key at any time.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 8
Running TAS
In general, you can start TAS with the following format command:
TAS [switches] [scriptName] [tickerListName] [@parameters]
The options in brackets are optional and need not be specified.
You can start TAS in "MENU MODE" by simply typing "TAS" by
itself. TAS has switches available which you can specify on the
command line. They are:
-c Eliminate CGA "snow"
-b Use BIOS to write to video screen. This may be necessary on
some systems which are not 100% compatible.
-m Use Monochrome color scheme
If you are a registered user of TAS, you can also start TAS in
"batch mode" by specifying the name of a SCRIPT, the scriptName,
and the Ticker List, the tickerName, on the command line. So, if
you had a TAS script named "SELECT.TAS" and a Ticker List named
"MYSTOCK.TCK", you could run the SELECT script against the stocks
in the list MYSTOCK by typing:
TAS SELECT MYSTOCK
If you wanted TAS to process all of the stock symbols (Tickers)
in your data base, you can omit the Ticker List name.
You can also specify initial script statements to be executed at
the beginning of the script by specifying parameters on the
command line, preceded by the "@" sign. Each statement should be
terminated by a semi-colon, just as it would be if it were
inserted at the beginning of the script. See the section titled
"Syntax" beginning on page for a description of script
statements.
TAS Menus
The TAS Main Menu contains a screen which has all the options you
can choose when you work with TAS. The Main Menu looks like the
figure below.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 9
The following sections will describe each of the options
accessible from the Main Menu.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 10
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS v.rr) Copyright 1991,
Main Menu
Configure TAS
Define Ticker List
Build or Run Selection
Build or Run Profit Test
Edit A TAS Script
Run TAS Script
Quit
[F1]=Help Select Choice [ESC]=Quit
Special Keys within TAS
F1 The F1 key is the HELP Key. This key will cause a help
screen to be display when you press it. The help topic
will be for the current cursor location (i.e., "context
sensitive help").
ALT-X The ALT-X key will exit from TAS to DOS. This will
allow you to do a few things outside of TAS. Because
TAS is a large program, you won't have a a great deal
of storage left when you exit to DOS. To return to TAS
from DOS, type "EXIT".
ALT-M The ALT-M key will tell you how much memory is
available to TAS and the maximum size used of the
SYMBOL TABLE. This key will also display the amount of
EMS memory used by the program as well as the video
display parameters detected by the program.
ESC The ESC key will always leave the screen or prompt you
are in and immediately "pop" you back to the previous
menu.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 11
CTRL-BRK The CTRL-BRK key can be used to stop a TAS when it is
running. Any other key pressed during the execution of
a TAS script will cause the display to pause, awaiting
another key press.
Error Processing
When an error is detected in a TAS script, selection, or profit
test, TAS will attempt to isolate the cause of the error and
display an error message as well as an information screen that
describes the cause of the error and a recommendation for fixing
the error.
The script line number and column where the error was detected is
also given to you to further isolate the problem. Below is an
example of an error detected in a Selection Script. Note the
error message next to the line in error and the explanation at
the bottom of the page.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 12
#MAX_QUOTES 31
F1 : ARRAY;
F1 = MOV(c,10,'S')x; { <----- ERROR#60:Don't know what to do
with "X" }
F2 : ARRAY;
F2 = MOV(c,30,'S');
F3 : ARRAY;
F3 = f2-f1;
C1 = ISECT(f1,f2)=0;
+--------------------------TAS ERROR 60 Has Occurred----------
--------------------+
The following error has been detected around Line 3, Column 20
ERROR#60:Don't know what to do with "X"
Press ESC to continue
-----------------------Explanation for Error Number 60--------
------------------------+
Cause:
TAS syntax check has encountered a symbol or word that is
either
misplaced, mis-spelled, or preceded by a word that might be
mis-spelled.
Recommendation:
Check the spelling of the word pointed out and the previous
word.
Also, check that you are using it in accordance with the
description given in the User's Guide.
CONFIGURE TAS - Configuration and Setup
The Configuration Menu is used to tell TAS the location of your
Metastock or ChartPro Data Directory(ies). Up to ten directories
can be defined on the Configuration Menu, and up to twenty
directories can be processed at one time.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 13
The configuration menu looks like this:
TAS Configuration and Setup
1st Data DIRECTORY \MSPTEST\DATA_A_E
2nd Data DIRECTORY \MSPTEST\DATA_F_P
3rd Data DIRECTORY \MSPTEST\DATA_Q_Z
4th Data DIRECTORY
5th Data DIRECTORY
.
10th Data DIRECTORY
Include Ticker Period
Symbol Table Size 9000 Quotes per Symbol 50 Use EMS
Arrays Y
Your Name John Doe
Registration Code 02125F3012
DATA DIRECTORY(S)
You should fill in the names of your Metastock or ChartPro
Directories, one per line above. Be sure to include the full path
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 14
name, including the first backslash character. If you have more
than one directory of data files, you can enter the other
directory names on the second thru tenth lines.
You cannot intermix directories across products. In other
words, all 10 of your directories must be either Metastock
format or ChartPro format. TAS determines the type of
directory by first looking for a file named "MASTER" in the
first directory. If found, it assumes all directories are
Metastock format. If not found, it looks for files ending
with ".PRO". If these are found, it assumes that all
directories are ChartPro data. If neither search is
satisfied, TAS issues an error message and requests that you
change the directory name.
If you have more than 10 Metastock format directories, you can
add the 11th through the 20th directory names in the file TAS.CNF
manually with an editor by adding lines like the one below:.
MSP_DATA_DIRxx = \MSPTEST\DATA_A_E
where xx is 10 to 19 for the eleventh through the twentieth
directory.
INCLUDE TICKER PERIOD
This parameter should be set to "Y" if you have multiple tickers
with the same ticker symbol but different "periods". For example,
if you have a DAILY and a WEEKLY file for the symbol AAPL, you
will need to set this value to "Y" in order to distinguish
between the daily and weekly ticker files.
If you have TICKER LISTS created with this value set to "Y",
they will not work if you change this value to "N" (and vice
versa). You will have to re-select the tickers again. TAS is
distributed with this value unset (which means "No"). Note
also, that if you have this value set to "Y", you must include
the ticker file period in every reference to a ticker name,
including references on the #INDEX command.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 15
SYMBOL TABLE SIZE
The SYMBOL TABLE SIZE parameter is a "tuning" value which
determines the size of the internal tables for TAS. You may need
to increase the value if you write a particularly long or complex
selection script. If you specify any value less than 9000, TAS
will use 9000 as the value.
From time to time, as more functions are added to TAS, there is a
natural increase in the SYMBOL TABLE SIZE needed for TAS
functions. So, it may be the case that your symbol table is
adequate for an earlier release of TAS, but needs to be increased
for a new release. Try adding a couple of thousand to whatever
value you currently have until your script works.
If you want to see the amount of SYMBOL TABLE your TAS scripts
are using, you can type the ALT-M key to display the memory
usage of TAS. One of the values shown is the maximum SYMBOL
TABLE SIZE used so far.
QUOTES PER SYMBOL
The QUOTES PER SYMBOL parameter specifies how many quotes you
want TAS to read into memory when performing the selection. The
higher this number, the longer the selection will take.
See the section below under Use EMS Arrays for the effect of this
setting on the usage of EMS memory and processing time.
This parameter has a very significant impact on the processing
time that TAS uses for each symbol. It should be set to as low
a value as possible (based on the time periods you use in your
indicators) so that the TAS processing is minimized.
Use EMS Arrays
If you have EMS (Expanded Memory) or XMS (eXtended Memory)
installed with suitable driver software1, you can set this value
____________________
1 Most systems today do not actually have EMS memory., but
instead have Extended Memory (XMS), the kind that is built-in to
new 386 and 486 systems. The term EMS actually refers to a
software/hardware standard that is emulated by driver programs
from various vendors, such as QuarterDeck Office Systems (QEMM
and DesqView/386) as well as Microsoft's EMM386 program.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 16
to Y to take advantage of the extra memory you have above the
640K DOS limit.
TAS will automatically determine if you have EMS memory
installed, and if so, it will always use that memory for a
"swapping area", reducing the amount of disk reads required to
run the program.
In addition, if you set this parameter to Y, and you have
requested more arrays or set Quotes per Symbol high enough so
that product of all the array sizes times the number of arrays
needed is greater than the amount of memory available in the DOS
640K region, TAS will swap arrays into and out of EMS memory.
This swapping of arrays can slow TAS processing somewhat, but it
allows you to set Quotes per Symbol to a maximum value.
REGISTRATION CODE
When you register TAS , you will receive a REGISTRATION CODE
based on your Name. Whatever name you include in the file
REGISTER.DOC will be used to form an encrypted code. Use the same
name as sent in the REGISTER.DOC file. Place the REGISTRATION
CODE sent to you in the appropriate field.
DEFINE TICKER LIST
You can create "ticker lists" with TAS. A "ticker list" is a list
of stock or ticker symbols which you can name as a group. This
allows you to create individualized lists of symbols against
which you can run your TAS scripts. As an example, you could
create a ticker list containing the Dow Jones 30 Industrials, or
a list containing only stocks you hold.
When you choose the TICKER LIST menu, you are asked if you want
to create a New Ticker List or Modify an Old Ticker List.
If you request a new Ticker List, you will be prompted for the
Ticker List name. Enter only the filename portion, not the .TCK
extension. The file will be created in the \TAS directory.
If you want to Modify an Old Ticker List, a File Name Selection
Screen will appear which contains the names of all the files in
the current directory ending with ".TCK". Move the cursor or
mouse over to the correct file name and press Enter (or
double-click). Directories will also be displayed in this
screen, so if your ticker list is in another directory, you can
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 17
change to that directory by moving the cursor to the directory
name and pressing ENTER.
The Ticker List screen will then appear with all the ticker
symbols contained in the MetaStock directories you have
configured. Each symbol that is highlighted in YELLOW has been
"selected" for inclusion in the ticker list. To select or
unselect a symbol, move the cursor to the symbol and hit the
SPACE Bar. If the symbol is selected, it becomes unselected or
vice versa.
If you want to SELECT ALL TICKERS, hit the F9 (SELECT ALL) Key.
To UNSELECT ALL TICKERS, hit the F8 (UnSELECT ALL) Key.
Once you have created the ticker list, hit the F3 (Save) Key to
save it. If you do not want to save the list, hit the ESC (Abort)
Key.
If you want to run a TAS script against all of your data, create
a new Ticker List called "ALL". Hit the F9 Key to select all
symbols. Then hit the F3 Key to save the list.
If you have set the CONFIGURATION option INCLUDE TICKER PERIOD
to "Y", your ticker names will be followed by a slash and the
period of the file, e.g. "AAPL/D" for APPLE COMPUTER Daily
data. The period is not available with ChartPro data files.
BUILD OR RUN SELECTION
Using the BUILD SELECTION screen of TAS, you can create your own
report containing up to 7 columns of calculated formulas or data
values. In addition, you can use the Condition entry areas (below
the Formulas) to specify which conditions must be satisfied for a
ticker to be included in the report output.
The figure below shows the equivalent of the MetaStock Utility
"Rank" option where the first formula is the Current Price ("C"
is the Closing Price), the second formula is the 26 day Rate of
Change (ROC). The third formula is the 10 day Simple Moving
Average of the price. The fourth is the 10 day Simple Moving
Average of "F2", where "F2" is the 26 day ROC. Finally, the last
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 18
formula F5 is the percentage by which the Price is above or below
the moving average contained in F3.
TAS Selection Creation
Enter Formulas Below, e.g. CCI(14) Title
Formula F1 C CURR PRC
Formula F2 ROC(C,26,'%') %ROC/PRC
Formula F3 MOV(C,10,'S') MOV AVG
Formula F4 MOV(F2,10,'S') MA %ROC
Formula F5 (F1/F3-1)*100 %PRC MA
Formula F6
Formula F7
Enter Conditions Below, e.g. F1 > F2
Condition 1
Condition 2
Condition 3
Condition 4
Condition 5
Condition 6
F1]=Help [F3]=Save [F4]=Run [F5]=Options [F7]=Formula Builder
ESC]=Quit
You can place any formulas or data value in each of the Formula
areas. If you hit the F7 key, a list of functions included in TAS
will be shown on the screen and you will be prompted for the
parameters of the function.
The CONDITION entries are used to "select" only those tickers
that match all the conditions specified. The conditions are
specified in terms of the formulas given above. In the example
above, if you only wanted to see tickers whose ROC (Formula 'F2')
was greater than 50, then you could set
CONDITION 1 F2 > 50
Also, if you had another condition, for example the current price
of the ticker is greater than $5, you could place that condition
as follows
CONDITION 2 C > 5
and that would select only tickers whose ROC is greater than 50
and whose price is greater than 5.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 19
Selection Build Options
The OPTION Key (F5) allows you to set options for the SELECTION,
such as the MAXIMUM QUOTES to read, and any INDEX file you might
want to use. Be sure to use the F3 key (SAVE) if you are in the
OPTION screen to save your options.
Set Selection Options
INDEX Ticker SP-500 Maximum Quotes 200
Start Date / / End Date / /
Index Ticker
If you want to run a profit test that uses some index, such as
the SP-500, you can specify the ticker here. Then, in your profit
test, you refer to the index ticker's value with the INDEX array
name.
Maximum Quotes
You can specify the maximum number of quotes to load for the
profit test. This number should be less than or equal to the
Maximum Quotes per Symbol setting in your Configuration Menu.
Start Date
If you want to start your test on a specific date, specify that
date here. Make sure that the date is a date you have in the
file. If it is not, the test will begin on the first date prior
to that date.
End Date
If you want to end your test on a specific date, specify that
date here. Make sure that the date is one you have in the file.
If it is not, the test will end on the first date prior to the
end date.
Running Your Selection
Once your SELECTION is built, you can run it using the F4 Key.
You will be asked for a TICKER LIST against which to run the
SELECTION. Choose one.
Once the SELECTION starts running, there is no output to the main
part of the screen until the SELECTION completes. At that point,
a "report" will display on your screen with the TICKER in the
first column and the formula values you set up for F1 through F7
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 20
in each column.
Sorting on Selected Columns
You can SORT your report by the contents of any column by typing
the ALT key at the same time as you hold down the number over the
column you want to sort on.
For example, to sort on the contents of the column next to TICKER
(this would be column numbered "2"), you would type ALT-2 key
pair. If you want to change the order of the sorting from
ascending order to descending order, type ALT-D (for
"Descending"). To go back to ascending order, type ALT-A. Once
you have set the sorting direction, you can then resort using a
ALT-column_number again.
Printing Your Selection Report
To PRINT the contents of your report in the current sort order,
type ALT-P. If you want to print to a file, enter a file name.
To print to your PRINTER, type LPT1 or PRN (or whatever
address your printer is hooked up to) in the file name prompt.
Errors In Selection Formulas
If you have any errors in the SELECTION you have created, you
will be told about them when you try to run the SELECTION. An
error message will be displayed and then the TAS EDITOR will be
run with a dummy file called _RUNSEL.TAS. This file is the file
that is created from your SELECTION. It is a special form of a
TAS script. You should recognize the formulas though, since they
are the ones you entered in your SELECTION.
The EDIT screen will redisplay the error message and the
explanation of the error at the bottom of the screen. Hit the ESC
key and the cursor will be placed near the place where the error
was found. In addition, the error message will be placed in the
file to the right of the line in error. Look at the formula or
condition and try to figure out what the problem is.
You are only half done though. Now you have to go back to your
BUILD SELECTION screen (by typing ESC) and fix the formula(s) in
that screen. Do not try to fix the problem in the TAS Editor
screen, since this is just a temporary view of the actual
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 21
Selection file. Once you have corrected the error in the
Selection screen, be sure to save (by hitting F3) your file.
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BUILD OR RUN PROFIT TEST
The BUILD OR RUN PROFIT TEST screen is similar to the BUILD
SELECTION screen in appearance. Shown below is a sample of the
Build Profit Test screen.
TAS Build/Run Profit Test
Enter Plot Formulas Below, e.g. CCI(14)
Formula F1 RSI(14)
Formula F2
Formula F3
Formula F4
Formula F5
Formula F6
Formula F7
Enter Buy/Sell Conditions below e.g. F1 > F2
Cond C1 F1[-1] < 30 AND F1 > 30
Cond C2 F1[-1] > 70 AND F1 < 70
Cond C3
Cond C4
Cond C5
Cond C6
BUY WHEN SELL WHEN LONG STOP SHORT STOP
C1 C2
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 23
[F1]=Help [F3]=Save [F4]=Run [F5]=Options [F7]=Formula Builder
ESC=Quit
You can fill in the FORMULAs (F1 to F6) with indicators (or
combinations of indicators) you want to 'plot' for the profit
test. Then, in the CONDITION entry areas (COND C1 to C6), you
fill in conditions you would use in a BUY, SELL or STOP loss
signal.
Once you have entered your FORMULAS and the CONDitions, you can
choose which conditions you want to use for the BUY, SELL and
STOP signals.
In the example above, only RSI(14) is being plotted. The
condition C1 tests to see if the RSI has crossed from below 30 to
above 30 (Buy Signal). Condition C2 tests if the RSI has crossed
from above 70 to below 70 (Sell Signal). Notice how C1 is entered
below BUY WHEN, indicating the Profit Tester should buy if
condition C1 is true (and the stock is not already held). And,
then C2 is below SELL WHEN, indicating a similar SELL strategy.
Special Note for Metastock Users
If you are a Metastock user, you are probably used to being able
to enter custom formulas like,
(H+L)/2
however, with TAS, this calculation would not work. You must
reform the equation as follows
DIVBY(ADD(H,L),2)
which first adds the High and the Low arrays, and then divides
the resulting array by 2, thus creating a new array which is the
sum of the High and the Low divided by 2.
Whenever you want to add two arrays together, use the ADD
function, to subtract, use the SUB function, to multiply, use
the MUL function, and to divide, use the DIV function. Each of
these functions takes two arrays as arguments and returns a new
array as the result.
To add, subtract, multiply or divide an array by a number, you
would use the ADDTO, SUBFROM, MULBY, and DIVBY functions.
Profit Test Options
Profit Test has a number of options which are set by hitting the
F5 Function Key in this screen. You will see the following
screen. Each of the items in bold represent one of several
choices available for the option.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 24
Set TAS Profit Test Options
Initial Cash 5000 Test Type LONG Commissions NOCOMM
Share Purchases ONESHARE Price Slippage 0 -
TODAYS CLOSE
Output File Name Report Detail DETAIL
Maximum Quotes INDEX Ticker
Reinvest Profits N
Start Date / / End Date / /
When you bring up this screen, you can choose options by using
the TAB key to move to each field and selecting the appropriate
option. Type the HELP Key (F1) at each field to see the meaning
of the choices. When you are done with changes to this screen,
hit the F3 key to save the options. If you are in a "pop-up"
window, hit ENTER, then hit F3.
Profit Test Option Settings
Initial Cash
This is the amount of "money" the trading should start with. It
must be sufficient to buy the amount of shares specified by the
Share Purchase option below. For example, if you start with
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$1,000 and you are buying Round Lots (100 shares), your stock had
better not sell for more than $10 per share or you won't have
enough money to buy a round lot.
Test Type
There are 3 choices for this option. You can perform a LONG ,
SHORT or BOTH test.
A LONG test only takes long positions, that is, it only buys to
open a position and sells to close it.
A SHORT test only takes short positions, selling to open and
buying to close ("cover") the position.
A BOTH test opens a long or short position and reverses each time
a signal is generated to "go the other way". This is essentially
a "stop and reverse" system.
Commissions
You can use several commission structures for your simulated
trading. The commissions for Charles Schwab, OLDE Discount, and
PCFN brokerages are built into the profit tester. These
commissions are accurate as of 1/1/91. You can also specify a
percentage commission amount or a fixed dollar amount for each
trade. Finally, you can ignore commissions altogether.
Share Purchases
You can elect to purchase shares of the security in either Round
Lots or using all available cash. If you choose round lots, your
profit test will purchase or sell stocks in groups of 100. This
is important if you are using a real commission schedule, since
the commission per share is reduced when you trade in round lots.
Price Slippage
Price Slippage refers to the price at which you want to exercise
the trade. Generally, you cannot execute a trade at the exact
price you want, nor can you always trade at the previous day's
closing price. So, you have several options for choosing the
trade price.
Price Slippage Type Meaning
0 - TODAYS CLOSE Today's closing price
1 - NEXT AVERAGE Tomorrow's (High+Low+Close)/3
2 - NEXT OPEN Tomorrow's Open Price
3 - NEXT CLOSE Tomorrow's Close Price
4 - NEXT HIGH Tomorrow's High Price
5 - NEXT LOW Tomorrow's Low Price
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The prices at which the BUY, SELL and STOP transactions occur are
obtained from the choices given on the Profit Test Build Options
screen. There are several choices, one of which is to buy at the
close for the prior day. This is the default. If you have OPEN
data, you should choose the option to buy at the OPEN price. If
not, then you can choose an average of the price range, or
several other choices.
Just to elaborate on the profit testing, suppose on day 2/15/90,
your buy signal is reached..in other words, the BUY WHEN is true.
The price at which your buy is made is most accurately at the
OPEN of the next day (since you
are using CLOSING data for your test up to 2/15/90, you wouldn't
have been able to really buy at the CLOSE for 2/15/90). If you
don't have OPEN data, you can use some other choice from the
prices on 2/16, the following day.
But, in every case, the actual BUY takes place on 2/16/90, the
day following the date the signal was given (can't buy after the
close).
Output File Name
If you want the output report from the profit test to go to a
file, specify the name here.
Report Detail
There are three choices for this option: DETAIL, TICKERSUMMARY,
and TOTALSUMMARY.
DETAIL Show every trade
TICKERSUMMARY Show totals for each ticker
TOTALSUMMARY Show totals only for all tickers
Maximum Quotes
You can specify the maximum number of quotes to load for the
profit test. This number should be less than or equal to the
Maximum Quotes per Symbol setting in your Configuration Menu.
Index Ticker
If you want to run a profit test that uses some index, such as
the SP-500, you can specify the ticker here. Then, in your profit
test, you refer to the index ticker's value with the INDEX array
name.
Reinvest Profits
This option determines how much money you want the profit tester
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 27
to use for each trade.
If you specify "Y", the profit test will use your current cash
position, including profits, minus losses and commissions to
determine how much money you have available to trade.
If you specify "N", the profit tester will initiate each trade
with the same amount of cash, regardless of your prior profits,
losses or commissions.
Start Date
If you want to start your test on a specific date, specify that
date here. Make sure that the date is a date you have in the
file. If it is not, the test will begin on the first date prior
to that date.
End Date
If you want to end your test on a specific date, specify that
date here. Make sure that the date is a date you have in the
file. If it is not, the test will begin on the first date prior
to that date.
Running the Profit Test
To run the Profit Test hit the F4 key (once you leave the Options
screen). If you want to save the Profit Test formulas, save it
with the F3 key and then reselect it to run it.
Errors In Profit Test Formulas
If you have any errors in the Profit Test you have created, you
will be told about them when you try to run the PROFIT TEST. An
error message will be displayed and then the TAS EDITOR will be
run with a file called _RUNPT.TAS. This file is the file that is
created from your PROFIT TEST. It is a special form of a TAS
script. You should recognize the formulas though, since they are
the ones you entered in your PROFIT TEST.
The EDIT screen will redisplay the error message and the
explanation of the error at the bottom of the screen. Hit the ESC
key and the cursor will be placed near the place where the error
was found. In addition, the error message will be placed in the
file to the right of the line in error. Look at the formula or
condition and try to figure out what the problem is.
You are only half done though. Now you have to go back to your
BUILD PROFIT TEST screen (by typing ESC) and fix the formula(s)
in that screen. Do not try to fix the problem in the TAS Editor
screen, since this is just a temporary view of the actual
Selection file. Once you have corrected the error in the Profit
Test screen, be sure to save (by hitting F3) your file.
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The file that is built when you create (or modify) a Profit
Test has a special file extension ".PTS" (Profit Test Script).
This file has a special format that can be read by the
Build/Run Profit Test menu. If you go in with an editor and
change any part of the .PTS file, it is very likely that the
.PTS file WILL NO LONGER WORK when you pull it up into the
Profit Test screen. If you want to change a .PTS file, copy it
to a file .TAS file name and edit that file. Once you do that,
you have to run the file as a TAS SCRIPT, not a Profit Test.
EDIT TAS SCRIPT - Editing TAS Scripts
TAS has a built-in text editor which can be used to create and
modify TAS script files. All TAS script files end with the suffix
".TAS".
When you select this menu item, you will be asked if you want to
create a New Script or Modify an Old Script.
If you request a new script, you will be prompted for the script
name. Enter only the filename portion, not the .TAS extension.
The file will be created in the \TAS directory.
If you want to modify an old script, a File Name Selection Screen
will appear which contains the names of all the files in the
current directory ending with ".TAS". Move the cursor or mouse
over to the correct file name and press Enter (or double-click).
The editor screen will then appear with the contents of the file
displayed.
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The TAS editor cannot handle lines larger than 78 characters .
If the line is longer than that, it will be broken at column
78 and continued onto the next line. If the total length of
the line is more than 256 characters, the last part of the
line will be lost if the file is saved. You should be aware of
this when creating a script in another editor and then using
the TAS editor to modify it. An arbitrary "break" at column 76
might cause a word to be split in the middle, thus introducing
an error into the script.
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Editor Function Keys
F1 HELP Key
If you need help with the editor, hit the F1 (Help)
Key. You will see a list of editor commands.
F3 Save Script File Key
When you are done with your editing, you can save the
file by hitting the F3 (Save) Key. If you do not want
to save the file, hit the ESC (Abort) Key.
F4 Run Script Key
The Run Script key will run the script you are
currently editing without saving it back to its
original script file.
F5 Check Script Key
If you wish to check your script file for errors in
syntax, press the F5 key. If there are errors in the
script which can be detected by the Check Script
function, an error message showing the type of error
encountered and the line and column number on which the
error occurred will appear in a window at the bottom of
the screen. This window will disappear after a few
seconds or when you hit a key. Then the script file
will be positioned so that the cursor is on the line
where the error was detected. It is usually the case
that the error is somewhere either on that line or on
the previous line.
F7 Formula Builder Key-One key available in the editor is
the Formula Builder Key. This key will bring up a list
of Technical Indicator functions and Pre-defined Data
Arrays. If you select one of the functions or arrays,
the subsequent parameters of the function (e.g. MOV
"Moving Average" requires 3 additional parameters) will
be prompted. Enter each parameter. When you are done,
the formula and parameters will be placed into your
script file at the location of the cursor when you hit
F7.
Editor Control Keys
Alt-R Rename script file. You will be asked to provide a new
name for the script file. When you save the script, it
will be saved with the new name.
Alt-S Save script file. The script file will be saved to
disk under the name shown at the top of the edit
screen. You can continue editing the script after it is
saved.
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RUN TAS SCRIPT - Running TAS Scripts
If you have created a script (or are using one of the example
scripts) and you want to run it against a specific Ticker List,
you should choose the "RUN TAS Scripts" option from the Main
Menu. (You must have created at least one Ticker List before you
can run TAS)
When this option is chosen, you will be asked for the TAS script
name and the Ticker List name. Each choice will be from a list of
filenames ending with the appropriate extension (".TAS" or
".TCK"). Move the cursor to the correct file name for each choice
and hit ENTER.
QUIT
This option will exit from TAS. If you want to go to DOS and
return to what you were doing within TAS, use the ALT-X key.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 32
TAS Selection Scripts - Description
TAS reads each security name in the TICKER LIST from the
historical (MetaStock or Chartpro format) data file. It reads the
quotes for the file into the pre-defined data arrays up to the
lower of either (1) the number specified in the QUOTES PER SYMBOL
(in the Configure TAS Menu) (2) the number specified in
#MAX_QUOTES in the script file itself, (3) all the quotes in the
file, or (4), the number of quotes between the SCAN_DATE or Start
Date and End Date.
Once all the price history has been read into the data arrays,
TAS "executes" the statements in the TAS script file. Once all
statements in the file have been executed, TAS moves on to the
next security's symbol in the TICKER LIST.
This process continues until all the symbols in the TICKER LIST
have been read or until an error is encountered in the script
file.
The order in which TAS processes the securities in the ticker
list is in the order in which the security files are found in
the Metastock directories or in the Chartpro directories, not
the order of the ticker list.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 33
TAS Script Language
TAS Script Language is loosely based on the programming
language PASCAL. There has to be some way to tell TAS what you
want to look for, compute, print, etc., so the choices made in
the way you tell it to do something are what can be called the
"syntax". In a way, the language is similar to English, where you
would say "If a is greater than b then tell me about it". Except,
as you will see, TAS also has abbreviations for relationships
like "is greater than". Other than that, however, the language
can be read like English and algebraic notation combined. The
following topics will give an explanation of the TAS script
language.
The TAS package contains numerous examples of TAS Scripts. You
should print them and look at them while reading the next
section. The sample scripts contain "comments" which explain what
the script is doing at each point of the script.
Syntax
In the subsequent discussion, the word "statement" is used. A
"statement" is like a sentence in English. Like a sentence, it is
composed of "words".
A semi-colon (;) is used to tell TAS that the statement you just
entered is done. Every statement should be terminated by a semi-
colon.
In the syntax descriptions below, words you must use are in UPPER
CASE, and parts of the statement that are up to you are in lower
case.
Building Blocks
The "Building Blocks" of TAS scripts are the following types of
items:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 34
"VARIABLES".
Variables are where you put values or, in the case of
"pre-defined" variables, where you get them. The names
are anything you choose, but they have to start with a
letter of the alphabet and must consist of characters
from the following set {A to Z, 0 to 9, and
underscore}. Other characters are not allowed in the
variable name.
"ASSIGNMENT ".
The ASSIGNMENT statement (":=" or "=") is how you can
move a value from one place to another.
"ARITHMETIC Operators".
These are the usual ADD(+), SUBTRACT (-), MULTIPLY(*)
and DIVIDE(/) and EXPONENTIATION (^).
"FUNCTIONS".
A "function" is a built-in Technical Indicator , math
function, or "output" function which usually returns a
value.
IF statements
An "IF" statement is used to test a condition or value.
Once the condition is tested, you can perform certain
actions "if" it is TRUE or "if" it is false.
WHILE statement
The WHILE statement is used to control the execution of
a sequence of instructions that need to be repeated
until some condition is false.
FOR statement
The FOR statement is used to describe the values to be
used for a "loop" or sequence of statements that need
to be executed a certain number of times.
"BEGIN-END Blocks"
A "BEGIN-END" block is a way to "group" several
statements into one. For example, the IF statement only
allows you to execute the following "statement".
However, if you use a BEGIN followed by multiple
statements, followed by an END, the whole series of
statements from the BEGIN through the END is considered
to be ONE statement. It is similar to putting
parentheses around an arithmetic expression.
"Logical AND"
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The AND word takes a left-hand side and a right-hand
side. If both are TRUE, the whole is TRUE.
"Logical OR"
The OR word also has a left and right side. If either
is TRUE, the whole is TRUE.
"RELATIONAL Operators"
These are how you test the "relation" between two
values. The English language form of the operators and
the symbolic form for the operators are shown in the
table below. You may use either form for expressing an
equality or inequality relationship.
English Language Keyword form
Symbolic form
EQUAL
=
GREATER THAN
>
GREATER THAN OR EQUAL
>=
LESS THAN
<
LESS THAN OR EQUAL
<=
NOT EQUAL
<>
Comments
These are used to "document" the TAS script. They
perform no function, but only help to understand what
is going on in the general area of the script. They are
good to use and should be included in the script to
make it easier to understand.
Variables
The concept of a "variable" can be difficult to communicate to
anyone who hasn't programmed before. Loosely speaking, it is a
name given to a "place" to put a "value". Think of it as a "name
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 36
for a value"2.
Except for "pre-defined" variables (see below) you can make up
the names for the variables in your script.
A variable name must start with an alphabetic letter, contain
only letters, numbers and underscores ("_"). Some valid names
are:
my_stuff, my_122999, my999, m9, M32_togo, Beethoven, etc
Generally, you first use variables in "assignment statements",
that is, you first "put" something into them. Subsequently, you
can use them as values passed to functions or another statement
such as an IF statement or a WHILE statement.
Creation of Variables
TAS variables are created in one of two ways. You can "declare"
them before using them, as you must do with ARRAY's, or you can
just assign some value to them.
When a variable is created, it has a "scope" or area of the
script where it is guaranteed to be "known". The area of the
script where it is "known" (or "scope" of the variable) is
determined by the BEGIN..END block structure of the script. A
variable that is created within a BEGIN..END block is "known" to
all inner statements to that BEGIN..END block, but it will lose
its value once the BEGIN..END block is departed.
This may seem confusing at first, so here is an example:
if C > 25 THEN
BEGIN
price = price+c;
END;
WRITELN(price);
If the Closing price is greater than 25, then the BEGIN .. END
block is entered. Now, since this is the first assignment to
price, the variable price is created with a value of zero. The
Closing price for the last day is added to the variable price,
suppose it is 32. Now, price contains 32. Then, the END statement
is reached. At this point, price is freed, since its scope was
only within the BEGIN..END block in which it was first used. The
____________________
2 The variable names are anything you choose, but they have to
start with a letter of the alphabet and must consist of
characters from the following set {A to Z, 0 to 9, and
underscore}. Other characters are not allowed in the variable
name.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 37
subsequent WRITELN statement will write out price, but this time,
the variable price is used outside of the BEGIN..END block in
which it was previously created, it is a new variable. The value
of price at this point will be zero3!
TAS Variable Types
"String" Variables
These are variables to hold text information, like 'IBM', or
'THIS IS A STICK-UP'. String variables must be surrounded by
single-quote (') characters. String variables can be different
lengths, depending on what you put into them. They can contain
blanks at the end of the variable, which you may need to remove
with the TRIM function.
"Numeric" Variables
These are variables that hold numbers, like 32, or -75.69, or
10000034.
There are two types of numeric variables, INTEGERS and REAL
numbers. An INTEGER is a number which has no decimal point and
must be smaller than 32,767 in value.
An INTEGER can be NO LARGER THAN 32,767 in value. If you need
to use a number larger than 32,767 then you must include a
decimal point followed by at least one zero in the number. For
example, if you want to use the number 1 million in your
script, you cannot say 10000000 because the number is larger
than 32,767 and it does not contain a decimal point. In this
case, you must say 1000000.0 to tell TAS that the number is a
REAL number.
"Numeric Array" Variables
These are variables that hold many numbers in an "array" (or
collection of numbers). All of the numbers in the array have the
same variable name; however, you cannot "look" at them all at
once. You must pick out one of the numbers of the array by
specifying its "location" in the array.
____________________
3 Current versions of TAS allow you to create a variable within
a BEGIN..END block and use it outside of that block. However,
future versions of the program will not guarantee that such a
technique will work.
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Each array has exactly QUOTE_COUNT entries. The variable
QUOTE_COUNT is "filled in" by TAS when the script runs for the
ticker file. Given a ticker that has 100 quotes (or the maximum
number of quotes to load, MAX_QUOTES, set to 100) the following
indices are usable for any array in the ticker file:
English Language Index Index Relative to Today Index Relative to First Day
Today 0 100
Yesterday -1 99
2 Days Ago -2 98
3 Days Ago -3 97
.................... ..... .....
99 Days Ago -99 1
An example of an array that is always available when a ticker is
processed is the Closing Price array,"C". Obviously, there are
many Closing Prices (one for each quote, in fact), and in order
to refer to the Closing Price on a particular day, there must be
some way to reference it. In the absence of any explicit
reference to a particular day in an array, TAS will assume the
reference is for the last day for the ticker.
However, if you need to know what the value of the Closing Price
was two days before the last quote's day, you have to tell TAS
that you want the quote two days before. You can do this in one
of three ways. Suppose you have 100 days of data loaded. To get
the Closing Price quote from two days prior to the last day, you
could say:
1) C[-2]
2) C[98]
3) C 2 DAYS AGO
Methods (1) and (2) above use "subscript" notation to tell TAS
which number in the array is needed. In the first case, you are
saying "give me the Closing Price array entry 2 days backward
from the last entry". The negative number says to start
"counting" back days from the last day.
The second version, shown in (2), says "give me the Closing Price
array entry 98 days from the first day loaded". Since we had
stipulated 100 days were loaded, this is the same as the price
two days ago (100-98 = 2).
Finally, the last expression, shown in (3), says in English that
you want to retrieve the Closing Price 2 days ago. In the
interest of readability, this version is the best, but it is more
wordy and does incur a very slight performance penalty when you
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 39
run the script, since TAS has extra work to do in order to
interpret the English phrase.
In addition, you can also describe the current day's Closing
value by saying
CLOSE OF TODAY
and you can refer to yesterday's Closing price by saying
CLOSE OF YESTERDAY
Other pre-defined data arrays, like H, L, C, V (for High Price,
Low Price, Closing Price and Volume) are examples of arrays.
If you want to refer to a closing price 10 days ago (using our
earlier example of 100 days loaded), you can say
C[-10] or C[90] or CLOSE 10 DAYS AGO
Each time you refer to an "element" of an array, you need to
either provide the "subscript" in square brackets, e.g. [-10],
which means "subscript minus ten" or say "xx DAYS AGO".
You can define your own variable array by "declaring" it (prior
to first using it) as follows:
variable_name : ARRAY;
OR
variable_name IS AN ARRAY;
where 'variable_name' is the name by which you want to refer to
the array.
You might wonder "Why would I define my own array?". The answer
to that depends on what you are trying to do. Generally, you
define your own array because you want to put some indicator
value into it. Most indicators create arrays of numbers. When
using a charting program, you can see these numbers as a line on
a graph. Each of the points on the line are values of the
indicator for a particular day. Now, suppose you wanted to know
what the value of the indicator was two days ago.
Normally, when an indicator is computed, it returns (or creates)
an array. However, if you don't put the result of the indicator
function into an array (declared via the ARRAY declaration as
shown above), then the result stored is the indicator value for
the current day only. In order to "look" at the indicator value
for other than the last day loaded, you must place it into an
array that you have already declared. For more information on
placing the results of a function into an array or variable, see
the section that follows.
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Assignment Statement
The Assignment Statement is used to set the contents of a
variable or array to the result of an "expression". An
"expression" is a term, that means sequence of mathematical
operations, a logical relation and/or the result of a
"function".
It might help to give some examples of assignment operations:
a := b + 3 / 4;
The ":=" (colon-equal) is the operator that says "assign to"4.
So, reading the above assignment, in English, it says "add the
contents of variable 'b' to the result of dividing 3 by 4. Place
this result in variable 'a'". If variable 'b' contained 6 when
this statement was encountered, then variable 'a' would contain
6.75 (6 + 3/4).
Another example is:
a := (c[-1] + c[0]) / 2;
In this example, the array 'c' is pre-defined as the "closing
price array". So, the statement is adding the closing price
yesterday (c[-1]) to the closing price today (c[0]). It is then
dividing the total of this addition by 2 and placing the result
in variable 'a'. Note the use of the parentheses to "group" the
addition so that it would be done before the division by 2. If
there were no parentheses, the result would have been
considerably different. Instead, it would have divided today's
closing price by 2, added it to yesterday's closing price, and
placed the result in 'a'.
Another example of an assignment is the result of a "function"
call. All Technical Indicators available in TAS are created by
making a "function" call. In other words, the Technical Indicator
is referred to by its name (the "function"). So, for example,
a := mov(c,21,'E');
calculates the 21 day exponential moving average ("mov" function)
of the closing price array. If variable 'a' has been declared to
be an ARRAY prior to this point, then 'a' contains all the moving
average "points". If 'a' has not been declared as an ARRAY, then
'a' will contain the value of the moving average at the last
____________________
4 TAS will also accept a simple "equal" sign in lieu of the
"colon-equal" sequence of characters for an assignment statement.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 41
point of the range, i.e., today's value. See the section titled
"Numeric ArrayVariables for a description of arrays and
"subscripts".
Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic Operators are addition (plus sign '+'), subtraction
(minus sign '-'), multiplication (asterisk '*') , division (slash
'/') and "exponentiation" (caret "^"). When you write an
arithmetic expression, you should use parentheses to guarantee
the order in which the operations are performed. In general,
exponentiation is performed first, then division and
multiplication are performed, then lastly, addition and
subtraction.
The Arithmetic Operators do not apply to math operations on
arrays. If you want to add two arrays together, you cannot use
the "+" operator to add them. In this case, you must use the ADD
function. The same applies to the use of the other arithmetic
operators on arrays. As an example of what won't work, suppose
you told TAS to perform the following operation
A IS AN ARRAY;
A := CLOSE + HIGH
TAS would assume that by CLOSE, you meant the last day's Closing
Price and that by HIGH, you meant the last day's High Price. It
would then add the two last day's together and place the result
in the last day of array A. All prior days in the array A would
be left unchanged. This is obviously not what you would want to
happen, so the way to perform the addition of the Close and the
High price and place it in an array A would be to do the
following:
A := ADD(CLOSE,HIGH);
Now array A contains the sum of the Close and the High prices for
each day in the security file.
Functions
A "function" is a reference to a "built-in" Technical Indicator
function (like "MOV(...)"), an output function (like WRITE or
WRITELN), or an array manipulation function (like DIVBY). See the
individual descriptions of each function in the Metastock
Professional User's Guide for a more complete definition of the
meaning of the various Technical Indicators that are found in
that program.
IF Statement
The IF statement is perhaps the most powerful feature of TAS. It
enables you to create complex relationships between indicators
based on their relationship with other indicators and values.
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An IF statement is written as follows:
IF condition THEN
statement to execute if the condition is true
ELSE
statement to execute if the condition is false;
The ELSE part of the IF statement is optional, but sometimes it
is convenient to make a two way decision about something. You
could alternatively say:
IF condition THEN
statement to execute if the condition is true;
The TAS language does not require you to include the word THEN
after the IF part of the statement. You must terminate each IF
statement with a semi-colon. Note, however, that IF statements
containing an ELSE part are terminated after the ELSE part. For
example,
IF a GREATER THAN b THEN
WRITELN('a is greater than b, hurray!')
ELSE
WRITELN('a is not greater than b, sorry.');
Note how there is a semi-colon on the last line, but not after
the first WRITELN. However, if you wanted to print a message only
if "a" is greater than "b", then you would say
IF a GREATER THAN b THEN
WRITELN('a is greater than b, hurray!');
Note the semi-colon after the last line.
WHILE Statement
The WHILE statement executes a statement (or group of statements
surrounded by a BEGIN..END) as long as the condition given in the
WHILE statement is true.
A WHILE statement is written as follows:
WHILE condition
statement to execute "while" the condition is true
FOR Statement
The FOR statement executes a statement (or group of statements
surrounded by a BEGIN..END) a certain number of times, and while
a condition is true.
The FOR statement has three parts to it. each part separated from
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the previous part by a semi-colon. The first part is done once,
before the statement following the FOR is executed. This part of
the FOR statement is called the initializer. The second part is
the test of the condition that controls the loop. This part is
called the condition. The third part is executed each time after
the statement following the FOR has been executed. This third
part is called the re-initialization step.
The format of the FOR statement is
FOR initializer; condition; re-initialization;
statement;
As an example, suppose you wanted to add the HIGH and the LOW for
each day of the security's loaded data and also get the
difference of the HIGH and the LOW. Also suppose you wanted to
place both of these values in their own array. You could put a
FOR loop "outside" of the actions you wanted to perform for each
day. Using the index variable i to refer to each day's array
entry, you would set it up as follows:
HIGHLOWSUM : ARRAY;
HIGHLOWDIFF : ARRAY;
FOR i = 1; i <= QUOTE_COUNT; i = i+1;
BEGIN
HIGHLOWSUM[i] = CLOSE[i] + HIGH[i];
HIGHLOWDIFF[i] = CLOSE[i] - HIGH[i];
END;
This statement is a very powerful and convenient way to "iterate"
or loop through some portion of the price or indicator data.
BREAK Statement
The BREAK statement can be used within either a FOR or WHILE loop
to "break" out of a loop before the terminating condition has
been reached.
BEGIN..END Statement
Suppose you want to do more than one thing if the condition "a is
greater than b" is true. In that case, you would need to use a
BEGIN .. END block.
A "BEGIN..END" block "groups" all statements between the BEGIN
and the END so that the entire "group" is treated as if it were
one statement.
This is useful in the case of the IF (or FOR and WHILE)
statement, because the action to be taken following the statement
THEN or ELSE part of the IF can only be one statement. But if you
use the BEGIN..END block to group several statements, the entire
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block is treated as a "single" statement. Think of BEGIN..END
blocks in the same way you would think of parenthesized
arithmetic expressions. You use parentheses to "group" some
operations so that they are treated as a group.
An example of the use of the BEGIN..END block in an IF statement
is shown below:
IF a GREATER THAN b THEN
BEGIN
a := a - 1;
b := mov(c,21,'E');
WRITELN('New values for a and b are:' ,a,' ',b);
END;
All three statements following the BEGIN will be executed (acted
upon) if the value of "a" is greater than the value of "b". If
you had left out the BEGIN..END section, only the first statement
("a := a - 1") would have been done if "a GREATER THAN b" was
true. The following two statements would have ALWAYS been done,
since they were not part of the IF.
GOTO Statement and LABELS
You can use the GOTO statement in a script to transfer control to
a LABEL you define in the script.
A LABEL is defined by a COLON (":") immediately followed by a
LABEL NAME. For example, in the script below, the third line has
the sequence ":AGAIN". This makes "AGAIN" the name of a LABEL. On
the tenth line of the script, there is a "GOTO AGAIN" which
transfers the "flow of control" of the script back to the
statement just following the label 'AGAIN'. The purpose of the
script below is to show an example of GOTO and LABEL's, but
incidentally, it also computes all the moving averages for
periods from 20 days to 40 days and prints them.
ma_array10 IS AN array;
n = 20;
:AGAIN
ma_array10 = mov(c,n,'e');
writeln(ticker,date,int(n),' day moving average is
',ma_array10);
n = n+1;
if n LESS THAN 40 then
GOTO AGAIN;
The following script is an example of using GOTO and LABEL's to
transfer control FORWARD in the script. Note the GOTO B in the
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first IF statement.
n = 1;
:a
if n GREATER THAN 30 then goto b;
{ DO SOME WORK HERE USING THE VALUE OF N}
n = n+1;
goto a;
:b
writeln('done...n is ',n);
When you use the GOTO within a BEGIN..END block, you must be
careful not to GOTO someplace outside of the block. Your script
must encounter the END statement which matches the previous BEGIN
statement.
GOSUB statement
The GOSUB statement is used to "go to a subroutine". This
statement can be used when you have the same section of script
code that you want to execute several times. Rather than
including the same lines in the script in each place you want to
use them, you can place them in one location in the script and
use GOSUB each place you want to execute them.
When you use GOSUB, you specify a label where the 'subroutine'
starts. When the subroutine is completed, it should have a RETURN
statement. The RETURN statement will return the script control
back to the statement FOLLOWING the GOSUB.
Here is a sample script using the GOSUB statement:
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a = 5;
gosub s1;
gosub s2;
return;
:s1
begin
writeln(ticker);
writeln('s1 entered, a = ',int(a));
return;
end;
:s2
a = a+1;
begin
writeln('s2 entered, a = ',int(a));
gosub s3;
return;
end;
:s3
a = a+1;
begin
writeln('s3 entered, a = ',int(a));
return;
end;
The output from this script is:
AMH
s1 entered, a = 5
s2 entered, a = 6
s3 entered, a = 7
RETURN statement
The RETURN statement in a script will stop processing the current
ticker or return from a GOSUB call. For example, if you want to
avoid computing several complex indicators if there are less than
100 quotes in the file or the price is less than $5, you could
put the following section of code BEFORE your calculations in the
script:
IF quote_count LESS THAN 100 OR close LESS THAN 5 THEN
RETURN;
Or, if you have a subroutine that you call with the GOSUB
statement, you need to return back to the place where the GOSUB
was made by using a RETURN statement at the end of the
subroutine.
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GOSUB SUB1; {Call subroutine 1}
RETURN; {Return to TAS and end script}
:SUB1 { BEGINNING OF SUB1}
{ DO WHATEVER SUB1 DOES HERE
......................}
RETURN; { RETURN FROM SUB1}
Logical Operators
You can combine relations by using the words "AND" and "OR". They
have the same sense as in English. Whenever you use AND and OR,
you can use parentheses to group your relations to be sure they
are computed the way you want them to be understood. For example:
IF a GREATER THAN b AND b EQUAL TO 1 THEN
WRITELN('a is greater than b and b is equal to 1');
This example compares "a" to "b". If "a" is greater than "b",
then it compares "b" to the number 1. If "b" is equal to 1, then
the message
a is greater than b and b is equal to 1
will be printed. If either of the "relations" (a in "relation" to
b AND b in "relation" to 1) is not true, then the WRITELN will
not be done.
On the other hand, suppose we want to print the message if either
of the conditions is true. Then we would say:
IF a > b OR b = 1 THEN
WRITELN('a is greater than b OR b is equal to 1');
In this case, it would print the message if "a" were greater than
"b" or if "b" were equal to 1.
Relational Operators
Relational Operators describe a "relationship" between the
expression on the left of the operator and the expression on the
right of the operator. For example, "a > b". 'a' is on the left
side, 'b' is on the right side, and the operator is '>' which
means "greater than". Relational operators can be expressed using
mathematical notation (">", "<", "<>", ">=") or by using English
forms of the same relation, such as "GREATER THAN", "LESS THAN",
etc).
Comments
Comments are surrounded on both sides by "curly braces". These
are the characters at the right of your keyboard. They look like
this:
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{ - Left "curly brace"
} - Right "curly brace"
You can place these "curly braces" around any thing in your
script file that you do not want TAS see. It is only for your
eyes and the eyes of other humans.
Pre-Defined Variables
Predefined Variables are variables that are "filled in" when each
MetaStock TICKER is processed or at specific times during the
processing of ticker files.
TICKER The 'ticker' symbol, e.g., AXP
FULLNAME The 'full name', e.g., AMERICAN EXPRESS
DATAPATH contains the DOS file name of the data
subdirectory currently being processed.
TICKER_PERIOD contains the periodicity of the ticker file. This
is taken from the Metastock PERIOD field.
QUOTE_COUNT The number of quotes in the file
QUOTE_RANGE Initially set to QUOTE_COUNT by TAS. This variable
can be modified by the script to set the index of
the last quote in the file for computation.
Somewhat similar to the Metastock REF function..
FIRST_TICKER Variable, which, if equal to 1 (one), indicates
this ticker is the first to be processed.
LAST_TICKER Variable, which, if equal to 1 (one), indicates
this ticker is the last to be processed.
DATE The date of the latest quote in the file in the
format MM/DD/YY.
P The "last computed" array. For example,
X := MOV(C,30,'E')
places the last day's 30day EMA in 'X' and the
entire EMA array is in 'P' until another function
is called.
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PLOT_PHASE Variable which is set to 1 when the Profit Test
Script is entered for the first time for a ticker.
TEST_PHASE Variable which is set to 1 when the Profit Test
Script is entered for the EACH quote for a ticker.
END_PHASE Variable which is set to 1 when the Profit Test
Script is entered for the last quote for a ticker.
Pre-Defined DATA Arrays
A pre-defined DATA Array contains one entry of one type of value
for each day in the ticker file. There are as many entries in
each array as there are days loaded for the ticker.
Unlike user-defined arrays, the pre-defined arrays should not be
defined within the script with the array declaration. Since they
are pre-defined, they are always available for use within the
script. There are two ways to refer to each of the pre-defined
arrays. There is an English language name, such as CLOSE and a
"short variable name", such as "C", for the Closing Price array.
The names for the pre-defined arrays are shown in the table that
follows:
English language name for array Short Variable Name Description
Pre-defined DATA Arrays
OPEN O The OPEN PRICE "data array"
HIGH H The HIGH "data array"
LOW L The LOW "data array"
CLOSE C The CLOSE "data array"
VOLUME V The VOLUME "data array"
OPEN_INTEREST OI The OPEN INTEREST "data array"
INDEX INDEX Array containing the CLOSE quotes for a
TICKER defined by an INDEX command.
DATES DATES Array of DATES associated with each of
the price entries. These dates are in
number format, not string format.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 50
Pre-defined Functions
TAS functions which are also available in MetaStock have the same
names and (nearly the same) parameters as those documented in the
MetaStock Custom Formulas Section of the MetaStock "User's
Manual".
Functions which are unique to TAS (not shared by MetaStock) are
described in detail in this document. The MetaStock functions are
only summarized. Please refer to the Metastock documentation or
the Encyclopedia of Technical Market Indicators for a complete
description of the functions and their parameters.
In some instances, the parameter to a MetaStock named function
has to have single quotes around it. This is the case with any
function that passes a single character as a parameter, such as
the last parameter in the "mov" (Moving Average) function.
Technical Indicators available in Metastock
ad() Accumulation/Distribution
The Accumulation/Distribution indicator, developed by Marc
Chaikin, calculates the percent range a stock moves in a given
day and multiplies this times the volume. The relationship of
the close is (Close - Low) - (High - Close). This is then divided
by the range (High - Low) and multiplied by the volume. The
result is added to the running total. The buying pressure is
compared to selling pressure for each day and like the OBV the
indicator is cumulative.
The A/D line is analyzed much like the OBV. If a stock is going
to rise then there should be volume behind it. This volume is
measured by the degree the close is closer to the high of the
day. If there is buying pressure then the percent of the close
times the volume will be greater. This adds more to the A/D line
and divergences may be detected before the price has actually
risen to a great extent.
Sample script: {A/D Volume Line for one year of data}
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 51
#max_quotes 265
opengraph(3,-264,0);
sizegraph(3,1,3);
graph(1,'PRICE');
graph(v,'VOLUME');
graph(ad(),'ACCUMULATION DISTRIBUTION
LINE',mov(ad(),30,'s'),'30
DMA');
closegraph();
References: Chaikin, Marc. 177 E. 77th Street, New York, NY
10021
adx(p) Average Directional Movement
adxr(p) Average Directional Movement Rating
add(a,b) Add two arrays
Add each element of array "a" to the corresponding element of
array "b".
cci(p) Commodity Channel Index Array
p = number of periods
co() Chaikin's Oscillator
cos(a) Trigonometric cosine
of each entry in array 'a'.
Use the _cos(n) function to compute the cosine of a single
number "n".
cum(a) Cumulative Sum of Array "a"
div(a,b) Divide two arrays
Divide each element of array "a" by an element of array "b".
dmi(p) Directional Movement Index
exp(a) Exponential Function
Computes the exponential value of each entry in array "a"
Use the _exp(n) function to compute the exponential of a
single number "n".
hhv(a,p) Highest High Value
Returns Highest High Value in the array 'a' over the period
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'p'
llv(a,p) Lowest Low Value
Returns Lowest Low Value in the array 'a' over the period 'p'
log(a) Exponential Logarithm
of each entry in array 'a'.
Use the _log(n) function to compute the exponential logarithm
of a single number "n".
macd() Moving Average Convergence/Divergence
Computes Gerald Appel's MACD indicator.
mdi(p) Minus Directional Movement (-DI)
mo(p) Momentum Array
p = number of periods
mov(d,p,t) Compute Moving Average
Moving Average Array
d = Data Array
p = number of periods
t = Moving Average Type
'E' - Exponential
'S' - Simple
'W' - Weighted
mul(a,b) Multiply two arrays
Multiply each element of array "a" by the corresponding
element of array "b".
neg(a) Negative of Array "a"
Computes the negative of an array "a".
nvi() Negative Volume Indicator
obv() On Balance Volume
On balance volume uses the change of the close plus volume to
determine how much buying or selling pressure there is in a
stock. If the close is higher than yesterday then the volume is
added to yesterdays OBV. If the stock closes lower than
yesterday the volume is subtracted from the OBV indicator.
Because this indicator keeps a running total it can reveal the
accumulation or distribution of a stock. This can show early
interest in a stock or an eventual sell off.
OBV can be analyzed several ways. A simple moving average of the
OBV can be used to watch for breakouts. For more intense study,
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 53
the patterns the indicator makes can be compared to the stock for
divergences, higher highs, or lower lows. These patterns may
suggest activity not seen in just in the price chart.
Sample script: {On Balance Volume for one year of data}
#max_quotes 265
opengraph(3,-264,0);
sizegraph(3,1,3);
graph(1,'PRICE');
graph(v,'VOLUME');
graph(obv(),'ON BALANCE VOLUME',mov(obv(),30,'s'),'30 DMA');
closegraph();
References: Granville, Joseph E. New Strategy of Daily Stock
Market Timing for Maximum Profit. Englewood Cliffs NJ:
Prentice_Hall, 1976.
oscp(p1,p2,t,r) Price Oscillator
Price Oscillator formed by subtracting a "t" type "p2" day
moving average of the Closing Price from a "t" type "p1" day
moving average of the Closing Price.
p1 = shorter moving average period
p2 = longer moving average period
t = Moving Average Type
'E' - Exponential
'S' - Simple
'W' - Weighted
r = ROC Type
'%' - percentage ROC
'$' - Unit ROC
oscv(p1,p2,t,r) Volume Oscillator
Volume Oscillator formed by subtracting a "t" type "p2" day
moving average of the Volume from a "t" type "p1" day moving
average of the Volume.
p1 = shorter moving average period
p2 = longer moving average period
t = Moving Average Type
'E' - Exponential
'S' - Simple
'W' - Weighted
r = ROC Type
'%' - percentage ROC
'$' - Unit ROC
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pdi(p) Positive Directional Movement (+DI)
per() Performance Indicator
Performance Indicator computed as follows:
pvi() Positive Volume Indicator
rsi(p) Wilder's Relative Strength Indicator
p = number of periods
roc(d,p,r) Rate Of Change Array
Computes the rate of change of the data array "D" over "p"
periods, using either a percentage basis or a dollar unit
basis.
d = Data Array
p = number of periods
r = ROC Type
'%' - percentage ROC
'$' - Unit ROC
sar(i,m) Wilder's Parabolic (SAR)
or Stop and Reverse indicator. Create a parabolic stop line
either over or under the price graph.
where
'i' = increment value and initial
'm' = maximum acceleration factor
Wilder's explanation uses the values of i = .02 and m= 0.20
In ChartPro, this indicator is referred to as Technical Study
'PTP'
sin(a) Trigonometric sine
of each entry in array 'a'
Use _sin(n) for the sine of a single number.
sqrt(a) Square root
of each entry in array 'a'.
Use the _sqrt(n) function to compute the square root of a
single number "n".
std(d,p) Statistical Standard Deviation.
Computes the standard deviation of the array 'd' using 'p'
data points. Defined as the square root of the variance (see
var below).
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stoch(p,s) Stochastic Oscillator
p = number of periods
s = k slowing periods
sub(a,b) Subtract one array from another
Subtract each element of array "b from the corresponding
element of array "a".
sum(a,p) Summation of array over period
Create a 'p' day summation of array 'a'.
tan(a) Trigonometric tangent
of each entry in array 'a'.
Use _tan(n) for the tangent of a single number.
trix(p) TRIX Function
Calculate a 1 day percent Rate of Change of a p day triple
exponential moving average of the closing price.
tsf(a,p) Time Series Forecast function.
This function computes a p day linear regression of the array
a for each day.
var(d,p) Statistical VARIANCE
of the array 'p' over the time period 'p'.
vol(pm,pr) Volatility Indicator.
This is the 'pr' day Rate Of Change Oscillator of a 'pm' day
exponential Moving Average of the difference between each
day's high and low price.
wc() Weighted Close
defined as (2 * CLOSE + HIGH + LOW)/4
willa() William's Accumulation/Distribution.
willr(p) William's %R
for 'p' periods. This is equivalent to a 'p' period stochastic
with 1 day smoothing. The result is then reduced by 100.
zig(a,r,t) Zig Zag Function
Compute a ZIG ZAG function for array 'a'. 'r' is the minimum
percentage or unit (dollar) change which must be made in order
to reflect a change in the Zig Zag line. The third parameter
't' is either '%' or '$'. If it is '%', then the 'r' value is
expressed as a percentage change, otherwise it is a unit (or
dollar) change.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 56
If you want to see what kind of profits you could make, run
the ZIG.PTS Profit Test file. According the Equis Metastock
User's Manual, "The Zig Zag indicator has 20/20
hindsight...Unfortunately, the Zig Zag's foresight is not as
profitable. This is because the last "leg" of the Zig Zag
indicator isn't fixed until future prices are known. If you
use the Zig Zag indicator to predict future prices, you are
probably fooling yourself." Sorry, but that's the way it
works. It is provided in TAS as a sort of "benchmark" to
judge how much the IDEAL strategy could SQUEEZE out of a
portfolio. It is nearly ideal, because it knows the future.
TAS Functions
addto(a,n) Add number to array
Adds the number "n" to each entry of array "a" and returns the
result in an array.
angle(a) Angle of a line
returns the angle in degrees of the line described by the
array 'a'. This function is only usable on an array that has
been created by either linreg or linreg2.
alpha() Alpha function
The alpha function is a "sister" function of the beta
function. This function describes how much the stock's price
would have moved on average on a yearly basis assuming the
INDEX did not change. An alpha of .20 means that the stock
would have increased 20% more than the INDEX during the year.
In terms of a two way linear regression (performed by the beta
function), the alpha is related to the y-intercept of the
linear regression line.
It is important to note that the alpha function must be called
immediately after the beta function. At any other time, the
results of the alpha function are undefined.
avgprc() Average Price
Creates an array where each entry is that day's
(HIGH+LOW+CLOSE)/3
bbandt(p,s) Top Bollinger Band
Bollinger Band upper (top) indicator for "p" periods with "s"
standard deviations added to the p-day simple moving average.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 57
bbandb(p,s) Bottom Bollinger Band
Bollinger Band lower (bottom) indicator for "p" periods with
"s" standard deviations subtracted from the p-day simple
moving average.
beta(r) "Beta" function
The beta function calculates the linear regression of the
percentage rate of change of the closing price (of the current
ticker being processed) to the percentage rate of change of
the INDEX.
Values of r, the rate of change period, are
'D' Daily rate of change
'W' Weekly rate of change
'M' Monthly rate of change
The weekly rate of change calculates the rate of change from
Friday to Friday and the monthly rate of change calculates the
rate of change from the first of each month.
The actual value returned by the beta function is the slope of
the line created by this two way linear regression.
The purpose of the beta function is to measure the stock's
sensitivity to movement in the general market over the period
of time chosen. A beta value of 2.00 means that the stock
tends to move with the market, but 2 times as far (percentage
change is twice as much). A beta of -.5 means that the stock
moves in the opposite direction of the market, but only one
half as far.
corrcoef() Correlation Coefficient
returns the "correlation coefficient" of the last linear
regression performed. This value ranges from -100 to +100. If
the data points match the points in the linear regression
approximation, the correlation coefficient will be 100. If the
points show no correlation with the approximation, the
correlation coefficient will be zero.
datestr(d) Create a formatted date
Create a "date string" in the form MM/DD/YY from the DATES
array entry 'd'.
daymon(d) Day of Month function
Returns the "DAY OF THE MONTH" of the DATE contained in
variable "d". The value returned is the day of the month. For
example, daymon(910204) will return 4.
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daywk(d) Day of Week function
Returns the "DAY OF THE WEEK" of the DATE contained in
variable "d". The value returned is a number from 0 to 6,
where 0 is Sunday, 1 is Monday, 2 is Tuesday, 3 is Wednesday,
4 is Thursday, 5 is Friday and 6 is Saturday.
divby(a,x) Divide array by number
Divide each element of array "a" by the value of "x". In this
case, "x" is a single number.
dump_array Dump Array Contents
dump_array(a1,a2...aN)
Dump the contents of arrays"a1" to "aN" to the screen or a
file. Each entry in the array is shown as a decimal number
with the entry number in square brackets to the left, followed
by the date. DUMP_ARRAY can be called with up to 12 array
names. They will be printed side-by-side on the display.
This function is useful for checking out the contents of an
array...in other words, it is a debugging tool, not a report
generating tool.
int(x) Create Integer
Turns the number "x" into an "integer" by dropping any part of
the number to the right of the decimal point. An integer is a
number without a fractional part (the part after the decimal).
The maximum number that you can turn into an integer is
32,767.
isect(a,b) Find array intersection
Find the latest intersecting point of the two arrays "a" and
"b". Returns the number of days since the two arrays
intersected (as a negative number) or 1 (positive one) if they
have never intersected.
NOTE:
Since the graph of the two arrays actually crosses BETWEEN two
days, the value returned will be the later day AFTER the
crossing. For example, if the arrays crossed between yesterday
and today, the value returned will be zero. If they crossed
between two days ago and yesterday, the value returned will be
-1, and so forth.
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linreg Linear Regression over time
linreg(a,s,e) Create a linear regression line using
"least-squares" method to find the mathematical average of the
values in the array "a" starting at entry "s" and ending at
entry "e". If "s" is zero, it refers to the first value in the
array. If "e" is zero, it refers to the last value in the
array. Positive values for "s" or "e" refer to the appropriate
array entries (counting from 0).
A negative number in the "s" or "e" index is subtracted from
the total number of entries in the array to get the
appropriate positive array index. For example,
x : array;
x := linreg(c,-50,-10);
will find the line passing most closely through the closing
prices from 50 days before the last day in the file to 10 days
before the last day in the file.
linreg2 Linear Regression of two variables
linreg2(y,x,s,e)
Create a linear regression line using "least-squares" method
to find the mathematical average of the values in the array y
over the array x starting at entry "s" and ending at entry
"e". If "s" is zero, it refers to the first value in the
array. If "e" is zero, it refers to the last value in the
array. Positive values for "s" or "e" refer to the appropriate
array entries (counting from 0).
A negative number in the "s" or "e" index is subtracted from
the total number of entries in the array to get the
appropriate positive array index. For example,
x : array;
x := linreg2(c,v,-50,-10);
will find the line passing most closely through the closing
prices and volume from 50 days before the last day in the file
to 10 days before the last day in the file.
load(t,f) Load a data array
The load function will retrieve the first occurrence of a ticker
from the Metastock directory. The ticker is specified as the
first parameter to the load function.
The second parameter of the load function is the field to be
loaded from the ticker file. The name of the field must be
surrounded by single quotes or it must be a string variable
containing the name of the field. The field names are the same as
the pre-defined data array names, that is, C for closing price, H
for high price, etc.
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The value returned from the load function is an array containing
the portion of the ticker file requested by the field name.
macdx(s,l,t) "MACD Extended"
Compute an MACD indicator using a short term EMA of "s"
periods, a long term EMA of "l" periods, and a trigger line of
"t" periods.
mfi(p) "Money Flow Index"
as described in Equis "The Pointer" Volume 5, Number 4 and
corrected in Vol 6, Number 1.
month(d) Month function
Returns the Month (1-12) of the date value contained in the
parameter.
mulby(a,x) Multiply by number
Multiply each element of array "a" by the value of "x". In
this case, "x" is a single number.
over(a,b) Over function
If array "a" is "over" array "b", this function returns the
number of days since array "a" crossed above(or over) array
"b". See the description of the isect function page for the
values returned when the arrays cross.
peak(a,n) Find Peak in Array
returns the index of the 'n'-th peak value in array 'a'. A
'peak' is defined as a high value surrounded by lower values.
The value returned from this function is the array index to
the peak value.
In the figure above, the peak(C,2) call would return the index
of the point marked P2. If you consider the volume vertical
bars a day, then the value returned in this example would be
'-13', or 13 days prior to the last day.
per1(a) Performance using Array
Computes the "performance indicator" for an array a. The
performance indicator is computed as
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set(a,v) Set Array to Value
Sets all entries in array 'a' to the value 'v'. For example,
you could use this function to create an array where each
entry is 22.5.
slope(a) Slope of Line
will return the mathematical "slope" of the line whose points
are contained in array "a". This array must have been created
with the linreg function.
strlen(s) String Length
The strlen function will return the length of the string
variable "s" as an integer. For example,
X = strlen('IBM');
will set X to 3.
subfrom(a,n) Subtract number from array
Subtract the number "n" from each entry in array "a" returning
the result in an array.
substr(s,b,l) Substring function
The substr function takes a string "s" as the first argument
and extracts the substring starting at character position 'b"
for the length "l". For example,
X = substr('ABCDEF', 2,4)
will create set the variable X to the string 'BCDE'.
trough(a,n) Find Trough in Array
returns the index of the 'n'-th "trough" value in array 'a'. A
'trough' is defined as a low value surrounded by higher
values. The value returned from this function is the array
index to the trough value.
In the figure shown with the peak function above, the
trough(C,2) call would return the index of the point marked
'T2'. Based on the volume bars shown, the value returned in
this example would be '-11', or 11 days prior to the last day.
tr() Wilder's True Range
This function creates an array containing for each day, the
higher of the following differences :
Between today's high and today's low.
Between today's high and yesterday's close.
Between today's low and yesterday's close.
The value of tr() for any day is always positive or zero.
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trim() Trim blanks from a string
This function takes a string variable as input and returns a
string variable as the return value. The returned string
variable has all spaces removed from the right hand portion.
year(d) Year function
Returns the Year (0-99) of the date value contained in the
parameter.
zero(a) Zero Array
Sets each entry of array 'a' to zero.
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Output Functions
WRITE and WRITELN Functions
There are two direct output functions, WRITE and WRITELN. The
WRITELN function is identical to the WRITE function, except that
WRITELN causes a NEW LINE to be added at the end of the last
field.
The parameters to WRITE (and WRITELN) are either text strings,
like 'this is a text string', surrounded by single quotes ('), or
"variable values". A variable value is a value that you have
assigned to a name by use of a formula or constant setting. There
are "pre-defined" variables, such as H, L, C, V, O, TICKER,
FULLNAME. These pre-defined variables are "filled in" when TAS
reads the data values for each symbol.
You can control the formatting of your output to some extent by
using the characters sequence "\t" (backslash tee) in your text
string. This will place a "tab" character in the output. TAS
places "tab stops" every 4 columns of the output line.
You can cause a new page to be printed by placing a "\f"
(formfeed) in your WRITELN string.
In addition, the sizes of the two types of "numbers", are
constant. If you are printing an INTEGER value, it is five
characters wide, left-justified. If you are printing a number
with a decimal point, it is eight characters wide (99999.999).
This will allow you to line up the output with column headings.
FORMAT Function
The FORMAT function can be used to precisely control the way
numbers print. This function takes two arguments. The first
argument is the number to be formatted. The second argument is a
"format specifier" string. A format specifier string is is
formed as follows:
% [width] [.prec] [type]
The [width] is the minimum number of characters to print.
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The [.prec] is the maximum number of characters to print or the
minimum number of digits to print.
[type] for the FORMAT function can only be
'f' for REAL numbers
For example, to print the closing price without the decimal point
normally printed with the WRITELN fucntion, you could say
writeln('Closing price is ',format(c of today,'%4.0f'));
This would print the closing price in a field that is 4
characters wide with zero decimal places. Note also that the
closing price printed would be rounded to the nearest integer.
SORT Functions
TAS contains functions which can be used to sort your report
output. Rather than doing WRITE and WRITELN, you can call the
SORTOUT function to place the report data in a "sort buffer".
Once all the tickers have been processed (when LAST_TICKER is 1),
you can then sort the data using the SORTON function. Finally,
you can retrieve the sorted "lines" with the SORTGET function or
print them with the SORTPRINT function.
If you want to experiment with the SORT commands, you should
start out simply and then work toward more complex combinations.
These are advanced functions and are not necessarily appropriate
for the person who doesn't want to plan their requirements.
In order to understand how the sort commands work, you need to
understand some terms. The first term is a "line". Each time
you use the SORTOUT function, you give it a "line" of data which
is placed in the "sort buffer". Each "line" is composed of
'columns". A "column" is a group of data values that are repeated
for each SORTOUT function. So, for example, if you wanted to
create a list of TICKERs and their Closing Prices, you would have
two "columns", the TICKER and the Closing Price for the ticker.
The "line" would consist of the combination of the TICKER and
Closing Price.
SORTOUT
The SORTOUT function takes up to 40 parameters which are fields
to be placed in the 'sort buffer'. As each ticker is processed,
you can place the computed results in the 'sort buffer'.
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For example, suppose you wanted to create a report of tickers in
order by their volume. You wanted the report to contain the
TICKER, the High, Low and Closing prices as well. For each ticker
you would say
SORTOUT(TICKER,H,L,C,V);
SORTON
Once all tickers have been processed, and their lines of data
have been placed in the sort buffer using the SORTOUT function,
you can sort the lines of data with the SORTON function. The
SORTON function requires pairs of two parameters as follows:
SORTON(column_number_1, direction_1,column_number_2,
direction_2,....,column_number_N,direction_N)
where:
column_number_* is the parameter position of the data
field (column) in the SORTOUT command that placed
the data in the sort buffer.
direction_* is either 'a' for ASCENDING or 'd' for
DESCENDING sort.
The SORTON function will sort first on column_number_1 in
direction_1, then on the next column/direction pair, etc.
Using the example given in the SORTOUT description above, since
the report was to be sorted by VOLUME, that is the 5th parameter
position ("column") in the SORTOUT function shown.
The SORTON function returns as its value the number of records in
the sort buffer.
SORTGET
After a SORTON function is called, the data in the sort array is
in some particular sorting order. If you want to retrieve each
"line" from the sort array, one at a time, you can use the
SORTGET function. When you use the SORTGET function, you are
asking TAS to "retrieve" the columns of data in the next line
from the sort buffer and to place those data values in the
variables you specify as parameters to the SORTGET function.
After the SORTGET function returns, the variables you named in
the SORTGET function call will be "filled in" with the values
from the next line (in sequence) of the sort buffer.
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SORTGET(v1,v2,v3,....,vN)
where
v1 is the first variable to be filled in by SORTGET
v2 is the second variable to be filled in by SORTGET,
and
vN is the last variable to be filled in by SORTGET. The
number "N" must be exactly equal to the number of
parameters used in the SORTOUT command that filled in
the sort buffer.
The SORTGET function returns as its value a 1 (one) if the
variables were "filled in" by a record from the sort buffer and 0
(zero) if not. This returned value can be used in a WHILE loop
to determine when the last sort record has been obtained.
SORTPRINT
The trickiest part of using the SORT feature is the specification
of the 'format string' used by the SORTPRINT function. If you
have access to a C Programming book, you will find the format
specifications under the PRINTF() function description. Short of
that, a summary of the types of format specifiers follows:
A format specifier is formed as follows:
% [width] [.prec] [type]
The [width] is the minimum number of characters to print.
The [.prec] is the maximum number of characters to print or the
minimum number of digits to print.
[type] is one of three values:
'ld' for INTEGER values (result of INT() function)
'f' for REAL numbers (most results)
's' for a STRING CONSTANT (like TICKER or DATE)
So, to print the results of the SORTOUT request given above,
there must be five format specifiers (since there are five
parameters to SORTOUT). The first parameter is the TICKER (which
is a 'string') so its format specifier would simply be '%s'.
The next three fields are all 'real' numbers (that is, they have
decimal points), so their format could be '%7.3f' which would
say, make the field 7 characters wide, and include three decimal
places, like this '999.999', so this will work fine unless the
price is greater than 1000. If it were, you could make the field
'%8.3f' to add more room at the left.
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Finally, the last field, V (VOLUME) does not contain any portion
beyond the decimal point. That is, shares are reported in whole
numbers. But, because Volume is typically larger than the maximum
value of an "integer" field (32,767) , it is also a 'REAL'
number. To make the volume field report in whole units, without a
decimal point, you would say '%8.0f' which would place volume in
an eight character field with no decimal.
So, the format string for the SORTPRINT would be:
SORTPRINT('%s %7.2f %7.2f %7.2f %8.0f\n');
The '\n' at the end of the SORTPRINT format string is to start a
NEW LINE after printing this line.
Column Headings
For an example of controlling the printing of 'headings' in your
TAS output, go to the section describing the pre-defined variable
FIRST_TICKER. Using this variable, you can determine when to
print a heading initially in your report.
In addition, since all variables are initially set to zero before
the first TICKER file is processed, you can use a variable to
accumulate a "line count". You can test this variable and
generate a new heading each time it is greater than the number of
lines on your page (e.g. 66). An example of how to place a
heading on each page of the report follows:
IF FIRST_TICKER OR (LINE_COUNT > 65) THEN
BEGIN
LINE_COUNT := 0;
WRITELN('YOUR REPORT HEADING WOULD GO HERE');
END;
Then, each time you wrote a line in your script you would execute
the statement: LINE_COUNT := LINE_COUNT + 1;
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Profit Test Statements
Profit Test Statements are used to:
Define which Technical Indicators are to be computed.
Define BUY conditions
Define SELL conditions
Define STOP conditions
See Page for an explanation of how the price at which a
transaction is executed is determined.
The statements used to describe the situations above are
described in the next 4 sections.
PLOT statement: Define Technical Indicators
The PLOT statement is used to create the formulas or indicators
which will be used in the subsequent profit test. The PLOT
statement is executed once per ticker symbol, and must be placed
prior to any of the BUY/SELL/STOP WHEN conditions.
The format of the PLOT statement is:
PLOT stmt;
where 'stmt' can be a single statement or a BEGIN..END block. For
example, if your profit test is to test the Commodity Channel
Index (CCI) for 14 days, you could say:
CCI_ARRAY : ARRAY; { Define the cci array}
PLOT CCI_ARRAY := CCI(14);
In the example, only one indicator is computed, so there was no
need to use the BEGIN..END block. Suppose, however, that we want
to incorporate Wilder's RSI in the profit test as well. Then we
would say:
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CCI_ARRAY : ARRAY; { Define the cci array}
RSI_ARRAY : ARRAY; { Define the rsi array}
PLOT BEGIN
CCI_ARRAY := CCI(14);
RSI_ARRAY := RSI(14);
END; { of PLOT statement}
BUY WHEN - Define BUY Conditions
The BUY WHEN condition causes the profit tester to 'buy' the
stock if the condition is true.
BUY WHEN expression;
where 'expression' can be any combination of logical or
relational operators.
For example, using the last PLOT statement in the previous
example, we will issue a BUY signal when the CCI rises above -100
and the RSI is less than 40:
BUY WHEN cci_array OF YESTERDAY IS LESS THAN < -100
AND cci_array OF TODAY IS GREATER THAN -100
AND rsi_array IS LESS THAN 40;
SELL WHEN - Define SELL Conditions
The SELL WHEN condition causes the profit tester to 'sell' the
stock if the condition is true.
SELL WHEN expression;
where 'expression' can be any combination of logical or
relational operators.
For example, using the last PLOT statement in the previous
example, we will issue a SELL signal when the CCI drops below 100
and the RSI is greater than 60:
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SELL WHEN cci_array OF YESTERDAY > 100
AND cci_array OF TODAY < 100
AND rsi_array OF TODAY IS GREATER THAN 60;
STOP (LONG or SHORT) Condition
The STOP LONG and STOP SHORT statements close a "long" position
or a "short" position, respectively, by either selling or buying
to cover an open position.
To close out a long position (by selling), the statement is:
STOP LONG WHEN expression;
where 'expression' can be any combination of logical or
relational operators.
To close out a short position (by buying), the statement is:
STOP SHORT WHEN expression;
where 'expression' can be any combination of logical or
relational operators.
Adding a long stop to the example built in the prior sections, we
could say that we want to issue a stop if, after having gone
long, the CCI drops below -100 again. In that case, we could say:
STOP LONG WHEN cci_array < -100;
TAS Profit Tester Functions
The Profit Tester feature of TAS uses the following functions to
indicate the buy/sell transactions controlled by a Profit Testing
script.
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pt_buy() Buy the stock at the current closing price if not
already held. If testing Short positions, buy to
'cover' the short sale.
pt_sell() Sell the stock at the current closing price if it
has been bought. If testing Short positions, sell
the stock short.
pt_stop(t) Issue either a Long Stop or a Short Stop. The
parameter 't' is either 'L' for a Long Stop, or 'S'
for a Short Stop.
pt_price(t) Returns the share price at which the last OPEN
transaction was executed. If there is currently no
position held, then the value returned depends on
the value of the parameter t. If t' is 'L', the
value returned is 0. If t is 'S', the value
returned is 9999999.0.
The function is useful if you want to set a STOP
based on the change in price. The parameter t is
either 'L' for a Long Position, or 'S' for a Short
Position.
pt_setprice(p) Sets the price at which the next transaction
will take place, where p is the price.
Profit Test Phases - Advanced Use Only
TAS runs the profit test in two phases. The first phase, called
PLOT PHASE is when the script should compute the arrays to be
tested during the next phase. This next phase is the TEST PHASE.
This phase is entered for the data points of the ticker file.
After all data points have been processed, the END PHASE
indicator is set. Each 'phase' of the Profit Test process is
indicated by a variable being equal to 1.
The two phases are analogous to the steps you might run in
Metastock to do the Profitability Test. First, you would plot an
indicator, moving average, or custom formula. This is similar to
the 'PLOT PHASE' in TAS. Next, you would run the Profit Tester
specifying your Buy/Sell conditions. Metastock then applies your
Buy/Sell signals to each plotted point on the graph, proceeding
left to right until it reaches the last day loaded. This is the
'TEST PHASE' in TAS.
When the TEST PHASE is entered with the last day of the ticker
file, a variable, called 'END_PHASE' is set to 1. Testing this
variable will allow you to print out the results for the Profit
Test.
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For each ticker, the script is entered once for the PLOT Phase,
and then as many times as there are data points for the TEST
Phase.
If you use the PT_BUY, PT_SELL, PT_STOP, PT_PRICE functions,
you will need to understand the different phases for the
Profit Tester. However, if you use the BUY WHEN, SELL WHEN,
STOP ... WHEN and PLOT forms of the Profit Test, you do not
need to be concerned about the different Profit Tester phases,
since the script generates the appropriate phase testing
automatically. You should use the BUY, SELL and STOP WHEN
statements to do your PROFIT TESTING. See RSIPT.TAS for an
example.
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GRAPH Functions
The TAS GRAPH functions increase the power of TAS by making it
possible to display the contents of any indicator, either
builtin, or created by the user, in a graphical display. You can
write a script that selects only those tickers with the
conditions you are looking for, and when one of them is found,
display a graph of the indicators and the stock price action. Up
to 10 individual graphs with up to 10 indicators on each graph
can be displayed at once with the GRAPH feature. Individual
graphs can be assigned their own sizes relative to the other
graphs on the screen, or each graph can be the same size as the
other graphs.
OPENGRAPH
OPENGRAPH(numgraphs[,start,end])
This function prepares for numgraph graph windows to be
displayed. The dates displayed are from quote start to quote
number end. For example, to prepare to display 3 graphs of the
last 50 days, you would say:
OPENGRAPH(3,-50,0);
The start and end values are optional, so you don't have to
specify them. If they are not specified, the default is to
display from the first to the last quote.
SIZEGRAPH
SIZEGRAPH(S1, S2,...Sn)
where S1..Sn are the number of 'shares' of the display area each
graph prepared by the OPENGRAPH function will get when shown. For
example, as above, with 3 graphs to be displayed, if you want the
first graph to have 2 times as much space as the second or third,
you would say
SIZEGRAPH(2,1,1);
Note that there must be as many parameters to the SIZEGRAPH
function as the number in the first parameter of the OPENGRAPH
function (numgraphs above).
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GRAPH
GRAPH(a1,l1,a2,l2...,aN,lN)
where a1 is the first array to be graphed, l1 is the legend (name
to be displayed with) the graph of a1, a2 is the second array
and l2 is the second legend. Each of the arrays and legends
specified in the GRAPH command are graphed in the same window,
one on top of the other. For example, to graph +DI, -DI and ADX
on the same graph, you would say
GRAPH(PDI(14),'+DI',MDI(14),'-DI',ADX(14),'ADX 14');
Simple as that.
There is a special 'array' named '1' which represents the Price
Bar Chart normally seen in charts. So, to plot the price bar
chart, you could say
GRAPH(1);
DRAWLINE
DRAWLINE(color,x1,y1,x2,y2,start,end)
This function will draw a line from the point (x1,y1) to (x2,y2)
starting at point start and ending at point end. The color
parameter can be in the range from 0 (black) to 15 (white).
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The following table lists the color codes that can be used with
the DRAWLINE function.
Color # Color Generated
0 BLACK
1 BLUE
2 GREEN
3 CYAN
4 RED
5 MAGENTA
6 BROWN
7 LIGHTGRAY
8 DARKGRAY
9 LIGHTBLUE
10 LIGHTGREEN
11 LIGHTCYAN
12 LIGHTRED
13 LIGHTMAGENTA
14 YELLOW
15 WHITE
CLOSEGRAPH
CLOSEGRAPH()
The CLOSEGRAPH() function waits for you to hit any key. If you
hit an ESC or CTRL-C the graphing (and the script) stop
completely. Any other key will close the graph and go back to the
regular TAS output display.
GRAPH EXAMPLES
Here is an example of a graph that shows how to draw a price
graph with Bollinger Bands around it in the first (top) graph and
the MACD indicator and its trigger in the bottom graph.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 76
opengraph(2);
graph(bband_top,bband_bot,1);
graph(macd(),'Macd',macdtrigger(),'Trigger');
closegraph();
The next figure shows a graph created by TAS using the following
GRAPH commands:
opengraph(2);
sizegraph(2,1);
graph(1,'PRICE',
bbandt(20,2),'BBAND TOP',
bbandb(20,2),'BBAND BOT',
mov(c,21,'e'),'21DAY EMA',
mov(c,200,'e'),'200DAY EMA');
graph(rsi(14),'RSI 14'); { show RSI }
drawline(3,0,20,0,20);
drawline(3,0,80,0,80);
closegraph();
The first statement above, opengraph(2), tells TAS to create
space on the screen for 2 graph areas. The second statement,
sizegraph(2,1), says to give the top graph 2 "shares" of space
and the bottom graph 1 share of space. This effectively gives the
top graph 2/3 of the screen and the bottom graph the remaining
1/3 of the screen.
The third statement
graph(1,'PRICE',
bbandt(20,2),'BBAND TOP', bbandb(20,2),'BBAND
BOT', mov(c,21,'e'),'21DAY EMA',
mov(c,200,'e'),'200DAY EMA')
defines the values to be graphed in the first (top) graph. The
first value to graph is the "price bar chart" which has a special
indicator name of "1". Then, two Bollinger Bands, top and bottom,
are graphed . Finally, a 21 day Exponential Moving Average and a
200 day Exponential Moving Average are graphed. Each of these
items to be graphed can be followed by a "legend" or title to be
displayed on the graph in the color chosen for the line.
The statement
graph(rsi(14),'RSI 14')
tells TAS to place a graph of Wilder's Relative Strength Index
in the second (bottom) graph.
The next two statements,
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 77
drawline(3,0,20,0,20);
drawline(3,0,80,0,80);
tell TAS to draw a line in blue from the left of the graph (just
drawn) to the right of the graph at height 20 and 80. This is
just adding the 20/80 lines to the RSI graph for ease of
recognition of crossings to overbought/oversold conditions.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 78
TAS "POUND" (#) Commands
TAS "POUND" commands are used to control special script
processing. They must begin with a "pound sign" ('#') in the
first column of the line, and they must be completed on the same
line.
DO NOT USE A SEMI-COLON to terminate a POUND command, since they
are not TAS script language statements, but are TAS run settings.
You should not put comments at the end of a POUND command either.
"POUND" commands are executed by TAS only one time during the
life of the script, as contrasted with other TAS script
statements which are executed once for every ticker.
OUTPUT_FILE Command
You can direct the output of a script to a file by placing an
#OUTPUT_FILE command in the script file. The #OUTPUT_FILE command
must start in the first column of the line. It should be followed
by the output file name surrounded by single quotes.
If you want to direct your output to a PRINTER, for example,
LPT1, you can use the #OUTPUT_FILE command, #OUTPUT_FILE 'LPT1'
For example,
#OUTPUT_FILE 'select.lst'
would place the output text of the script into the file
'select.lst'.
Appending to Output File
If you want to APPEND, or add to, the end of the output file, you
can do so by placing a plus (+) character at the end of the
output file name. From the example above,
#OUTPUT_FILE 'select.lst+'
would place the output of the script at the end of file
"select.lst". This feature will be most useful if you are running
several scripts in succession and want to place the output from
different scripts into one output file.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 79
Suppressing TAS Report Heading
In addition, if you want to suppress the headings that TAS
normally puts out on its reports, you can do this with the
OUTPUT_FILE command by placing the letter "N" after the file name
(preceded by a space).
MAX_QUOTES Command
You can use the #MAX_QUOTES command to limit the number of quotes
read into a script. This value must be less than the MAXIMUM
QUOTES you specified in the TAS Configuration Menu. If it is less
than the TAS Configuration Menu MAXIMUM QUOTES, it will override
the quote count to read for the script in which it is contained
only.
The format of the #MAX_QUOTES command is:
#MAX_QUOTES nnn
where "nnn" is the number of quotes to read into TAS when this
script is processed.
SCAN_DATE Command
You can use the #SCAN_DATE command to define the time frame you
want to process. You can specify a beginning date, an ending date
or both.
The SCAN_DATE command enables you to start loading quotes from a
specific date (the start date) and to stop loading quotes after
a specific date (the end date).
The format of the #SCAN_DATE command is:
#SCAN_DATE start_date end_date
or
#SCAN_DATE end_date
Both start_date and end_date can be in the following format
where yy is the year, mm is the month, and dd is the day :
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 80
yymmdd ,e.g. 910302 for March 2, 1991
'mm/dd/yy'
mm/dd/yy
Some examples of the use of #SCAN_DATE are:
#SCAN_DATE 910102 0
will start loading data on Jan 2, 1991 and load up to the last
day in the file.
#SCAN_DATE 910102 910915
will start on Jan 2, 1991 and load up to Sept 15, 1991.
If there is no quote in the file for the start_date, the first
date prior to the start_date will be loaded.
If there is no quote in the file for the end_date,the first date
prior to the end_date will be used.
Either the start_date or the end_date may be zero, in which case,
it means to load from the beginning or the end of the file
without regard to date, but taking into account the MAX_QUOTES
range.
PROFIT_TEST Command
The #PROFIT_TEST command informs TAS of the type of profit test
you want to run, whether you want to test "LONG", "SHORT" or
"BOTH" long and short positions, and the amount of "money" you
want your position to start with. This command must be placed in
the front of the TAS script, prior to any statements which do not
begin with a # sign.
The format of the #PROFIT_TEST command is:
#PROFIT_TEST type money
where 'type' is either LONG, SHORT or BOTH (for a "long" position
test or a "short" position test, or a test of both Long and Short
positions) and "money" is the amount of money with which to start
the test for each symbol.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 81
INDEX Command
The #INDEX command can be used to load an "index" data array,
such as the SP500, DJIA or another stock. It tells TAS to access
the ticker symbol contained in the command and place its CLOSING
PRICES into a Pre-defined Data Array named "INDEX".
The format of the INDEX Command is:
#INDEX 'ticker'
where 'ticker' is the TICKER SYMBOL of the Index quote file. For
example, if you had the SP 500 quotes in a file with a ticker
name of "SP500", and you wanted to load it as the INDEX array,
you would say
#INDEX 'SP500'
Later in the script, you could reference the array by the name of
INDEX.
This command must be placed in the front of the TAS script,
prior to any statements which do not begin with a # sign. It
also should follow any #MAX_QUOTES statement that is in the
script.
INCLUDE Command
The #INCLUDE command will "include" another file into the
current script as if that file were part of the script . Once the
included file is read into TAS, the original script is
continued. You can include up to 8 levels of includes, that is,
the included file can contain a #include and that file can
contain one, etc., up to 8 levels.
The format of the #include command is
#INCLUDE filename
where filename is the name of a file in the current directory.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 82
TAS Script Examples
Included with the TAS package are several sample .TAS script
files. Check your directory after you install TAS to see the
samples included.
Putting Them Together
If the script has the statements:
todays_ma := mov(c,21,'E');
diff := CLOSE OF TODAY- todays_ma;
if diff IS GREATER THAN 0 then
writeln(TICKER, ' IS ABOVE 21 DAY EMA BY ',diff);
else
writeln(TICKER, ' IS BELOW 21 DAY EMA BY ',diff);
The script will print out the ticker name followed by the message
indicating whether the latest close is above or below the 21 day
EMA, and by how much.
In this particular example, let's take a closer look at what is
going on. In the first line,
todays_ma := mov(c,21,'E');
we are computing the 21 day Exponential Moving Average of the
Closing Price Array. Once computed, we are assigning the latest
value of this moving average to the "variable" named 'todays_ma'.
You could call it anything you want, but giving it a name that
reminds you of what it contains is useful.
If you wanted to keep the 21-day EMA in its own array. You could
declare the variable as follows (before using it the first time):
big_ma_array : ARRAY;
This tells TAS that "big_ma_array" is an array of values, not
just one value. So, if you now said:
big_ma_array := mov(c,21,'E');
the contents of big_ma_array would be ALL of the Moving Average
values up to the latest day. To refer to the value of the 21 day
EMA yesterday, we would write "big_ma_array[-1]" where the "[-1]"
refers to the contents of the array "-1" days from now (in other
words, one day ago). If you wanted to refer to the 21 day EMA 10
days ago, it would be "big_ma_array[-10]". If you wanted to refer
to the latest day's 21 day EMA, it would be "big_ma_array[0]"
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 83
(zero days ago).
The next statement in the example is:
diff := c[0] - todays_ma;
which assigns to the variable "diff" the value of the latest
closing price, "c[0]", minus the latest 21 day EMA as computed
and assigned to the variable "todays_ma" in the previous
statement.
New High/New Low Example
The following script is contained in file "NHNL.TAS".
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 84
Script Contents
{ NHNL.TAS-
This script example will show the 52 week high and low for each
ticker. If the current day's high is equal to the highest high
or the current low is equal to the lowest low, then we have a
probable new high or new low. It might also be the case that
today's
high or low is just equal to the previous high or low.
Just to make the script slightly more interesting, we will also
compute the "percentage off from high", a frequently used metric
seen in financial tables.
}
if first_ticker then
begin
writeln(' - CURRENT - - 52 WEEK - OFF');
writeln('TICKER HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH');
end;
high_value := HHV(h,52*5); { compute high over 52 weeks }
low_value := LLV(L,52*5); { compute low over 52 weeks }
off_high_value := ((high_value - c) / high_value) * 100;
write(TICKER,' ',h,' ',l,' ',high_value,' ',low_value,
'\t',INT(off_high_value),'%');
if (high_value <= h) then { today's high is new high }
write(' New High ');
if (low_value >= l) then { today's low is new low }
write(' New Low ');
write('\n'); { end the line with a 'newline'}
Script Output
- CURRENT - - 52 WEEK - OFF
TICKER HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
ABX 21.875 21.375 24.750 15.875 13%
AAPL 28.000 26.000 50.375 26.000 47% New Low
ARIX 1.062 0.938 5.625 0.875 81%
BP% 12.500 11.125 14.500 6.000 17%
CMNT 2.312 2.188 3.500 2.063 33%
GR 32.125 31.875 57.500 29.500 44%
SWZ 12.125 11.750 17.500 10.875 32%
LA 11.625 10.375 50.375 9.750 77%
MXTR 5.625 5.250 16.500 5.250 66% New Low
PCG 22.375 22.000 23.500 18.750 4%
TX 61.625 60.125 68.500 49.875 12%
UAL 110.000 99.000 286.750 87.250 64%
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 85
TICKER Symbol Processing
The following example shows how you could create a special script
to notify you when certain stocks had reached prices you had set.
This script is in "LIMIT.TAS".
Script Contents
{ limit.tas
This is an example of using a TAS script to watch your
stocks.
It checks the ticker symbol against one of several
which you might (and I do) own. If the current close
(shown as 'c[0]' is greater than the limit for profit
or less than the stop loss, a message is generated.
}
stop_loss := 0;
sell_profit := 0;
if ticker = 'aapl' then
if c > 47 then
sell_profit := 1;
else
if c < 41 then
stop_loss := 1;
if ticker = 'gr' then
if c > 43 then
sell_profit := 1;
else
if c < 38 then
stop_loss := 1;
if ticker = 'la' then
if c > 27 then
sell_profit := 1;
else
if c < 10 then
stop_loss := 1;
if stop_loss = 1 then
writeln(ticker, ' has reached your STOP LOSS limit. SELL');
if sell_profit = 1 then
writeln(ticker, ' has reached your Profit target. SELL');
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 86
Directional Movement Example
The following script is contained in file "DM.TAS".
NOTE : This script will only work with the REGISTERED VERSION
of TAS.
Script Contents
#output_file 'dm.lst'
{ DM.TAS
Wilder's Directional Movement Trading Example
This script will indicate
a BUY signal
if the +DI(14) crosses above -DI(14) and ADXR > 25
a SELL signal
if the -DI(14) crosses above +DI(14) and ADXR > 25
}
{ declare the +DI (Positive Directional Movement array}
pdi_array : array;
{ declare the -DI (Negative Directional Movement array}
mdi_array : array;
pdi_array := pdi(14); { calculate +DI}
mdi_array := mdi(14); { calculate -DI}
adxr_14 := adxr(14);
adx_14 = adx(14);
dx_14 = dx(14);
if first_ticker then
writeln('TICKER ADXR DX ADX +DI -DI ACTION');
write(ticker,' ',int(adxr_14),
int(dx_14),
int(adx_14),
int(pdi_array[0]),
int(mdi_array[0]));
action = '';
if (adxr_14 > 25) then { AVG DX Rate of Change > 25 }
begin
if (over(pdi_array,mdi_array) = 0) then
action = '** BUY SIGNAL';
else
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 87
if (over(mdi_array,pdi_array) = 0) then
action = '** SELL SIGNAL';
end;
writeln(action);
Script Output
TICKER ADXR DX ADX +DI -DI ACTION
AA 33 28 33 25 14
ALD 22 15 22 30 22
AXP 34 59 34 39 10
T 30 41 30 29 12
BS 26 42 26 32 13
BA 22 8 22 27 23
CHV 17 4 17 27 29
KO 27 49 27 32 11
DD 21 23 21 29 18
Modified "Binary Wave"
The file "SELCT.TAS" contains a rather lengthy script which
contains the logic for computing a 6 point "binary wave". The
first 4 "points" of the wave are those described in the
"MetaStock User's Manual" in Chapter 7, section 7.7.2 "Example
Binary Waves".
The final 2 points of the "binary wave" are included to show how
you can extend the original example to compute additional
indicators (Chaikin's Oscillator and Commodity Channel Index)
which are used to further refine the selection.
Since the file is large, it is not included in this
documentation, but the file is included in the TAS package.
Profit Test Example Using RSI(14)
The TAS Script file 'RSIPT.TAS' shows a Profit Test using the
14-day RSI. It serves as a simple example of the kind of profit
testing available with TAS.
Script Contents (RSIPT.TAS)
{
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 88
RSIPT.TAS
RSI PROFIT TEST SCRIPT EXAMPLE
This script will signal a SELL when the
RSI(14) crosses under 'rsi_upper' and a BUY when
RSI(14) crosses above 'rsi_lower'.
}
#PROFIT_TEST LONG 1000 { long positions with $1000}
#MAX_QUOTES 300 { only read in 300 quotes }
#OUTPUT_FILE 'RSIPT.LST' { assign output listing to
rsipt.lst}
RSI_VALUES : ARRAY; { array containing plotted
points }
RSI_UPPER := 75; { Upper range of RSI - point to
SELL
Change this if
you want to test different value}
RSI_LOWER := 50; { Lower range of RSI - point to
BUY
Change this if you want to test different value}
PLOT BEGIN { This begins the "plot" of the RSI }
RSI_VALUES := RSI(14); { COMPUTE THE RSI(14) PLOT }
END;
BUY WHEN RSI_VALUES[-1] < RSI_LOWER AND RSI_VALUES > RSI_LOWER;
SELL WHEN RSI_VALUES[-1] > RSI_UPPER AND RSI_VALUES <
RSI_UPPER;
Script Output
The following report shows the output of the Profit Tester for a
single stock.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 89
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS 3.64)
File Date : 05/08/90
Run Date : Wed May 29 22:28:00 1991
Script Name: RSIPT
Ticker Name: T
Amdahl (AMH) From 03/20/90 To 05/29/91
Initial Cash $ 1000.00. (Long Positions Only)
Share Purchases use All Available Cash with NO
Commissions
|-----Current Trade-------| |--
Cumulative--|
Date Action Shrs Price Points Cash Comm Profit
Points Profit
-------- ----- ----- -------- ------ ------ ----- ------- ------
- -------
05/09/90 Buy 70 14.250 0.000 2 0 0
0.000 0
05/22/90 Sell 70 15.625 1.375 1096 0 96
1.375 96
06/12/90 Buy 69 15.750 0.000 10 0 0
1.375 96
07/18/90 Sell 69 18.250 2.500 1269 0 172
3.875 269
09/07/90 Buy 97 13.000 0.000 8 0 0
3.875 269
Summary for AMH
|--Trades-----| |-Runs-| Percent |---Maximum--|
Total %
Tot Win Los Stp Win Los Win Los Profit Loss Commn
Profit Gain
Long 2 2 0 0 2 0 100% 0% 269 0 0
269 27%
Short 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0% 0 0 0
0 0%
Closed 2 2 0 0 2 0 100% 0% 269 0 0
269 27%
Open 1 1 0 0 1 0 100% 0% 315 0 0
315 32%
Total 3 3 0 0 2 0 100% 0% 315 0 0
584 58%
Summary for ALL SYMBOLS
|--Trades-----| |-Runs-| Percent |---Maximum--|
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 90
Total %
Tot Win Los Stp Win Los Win Los Profit Loss Commn
Profit Gain
Long 2 2 0 0 2 0 100% 0% 269 0 0
269 27%
Short 0 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0% 0 0 0
0 0%
Closed 2 2 0 0 2 0 100% 0% 269 0 0
269 27%
Open 1 1 0 0 1 0 100% 0% 315 0 0
315 32%
Total 3 3 0 0 2 0 100% 0% 315 0 0
584 58%
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 91
TAS Error Message
TAS has extensive error checking features that attempt to detect
and isolate errors as close to the source as possible. The
following section is a list of the error messages that can be
exhibited by TAS.
The Error Message list is in alphabetic sequence, so you can look
up the message by the first letter of the first word of the
message. Most messages have an error number associated with them
as well. This number should be used when communicating the
problem to FlexSoft.
For each error message, there are three sections, The first
section is the actual text of the message including an error
number (Ennn) , the second section is the cause of the message,
and the third section is the recommendation, or action to resolve
the error.
At the end of the list of error messages is a list of Diagnostic
Actions. These are described in the error message recommendation
as Action Dx, where the x is a diagnostic action number. A
Diagnostic Action is a sequence of steps necessary to resolve the
problem or to gather and provide enough information for
resolution by FlexSoft Technical Support.
Error Messages
E72,'(', number value or variable expected.
Cause:
In trying to decipher an arithmetic expression, TAS found a
sequence where it expected to find either an expression in
parentheses, a number or a variable. It found nothing it could
make sense of.
Recommendation:
Examine the line where the error was flagged and correct the
mistake.
E68,')' expected.
Cause:
In trying to decipher an arithmetic expression, TAS found a
sequence that is missing a right parenthesis.
Recommendation:
Examine the line where the error was flagged and correct the
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 92
mistake.
A <tttt> Math Error (code <cc>) has occurred
while processing symbol <ticker>
in TAS Script File <script>, line <ll>.
TAS cannot continue. Fix the problem and try again.
Cause:
The TAS script has encountered a "math" error of the type shown
in the message text as <tttt> while processing ticker name
<ticker> at line <ll>.
Recommendation:
This may be the result of faulty data in your ticker file. Verify
that the ticker data is valid (high >= close >= low), then note
the script line where the error occurred.
Try another function on that ticker to see if the problem
persists.
Action D1
E101,ALPHA requires 'D','W' or 'M'
Cause:
An incorrect parameter was given to the ALPHA function. It must
be one of the ones shown in the message.
Recommendation:
Fix the function parameter list.
E140,Argument <aa> is the wrong type for <ff>
function. Should be <tt>
Cause:
The <aa>th argument to the function named <ff> in the message
was the wrong type of argument. If should have been an argument
type as shown in <tt>. For example, this message would occur if
you tried to do a moving average (mov) of a number, rather than
an array.
Recommendation:
Look at the argument number shown by the <aa> part of the
message. Then check the function description. Make sure that the
value passed in that argument is of the correct type.
E3,Badly formed number
Cause:
An invalid number expression was found.
Recommendation:
Fix the number in the script
E102,BETA argument error
Cause:
An incorrect parameter was given to the BETA function. It must be
'D','W' or 'M' or no parameter at all.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 93
Recommendation:
Fix the function parameter list.
E104,BETA requires an INDEX file
Cause:
The BETA function requires an INDEX ticker file to be specified
by a #INDEX command or in the OPTIONS MENU of SELECTION or PROFIT
TEST BUILD.
Recommendation:
Specify an INDEX ticker.
E230,BREAK hit
Cause:
While a script was executing, you hit the CTRL-BREAK or CTRL-C
key. The script terminates and TAS attempts to continue.
Note that hitting the BREAK key is not a graceful way to stop a
running script and you may have to restart TAS afterwards.
Recommendation:
Wait until the script finishes or use a smaller ticker list.
E223,Cannot sort on type given
Cause:
A SORTOUT function was called, but one of the parameters is not
'sortable'. For example, you cannot sort on a variable into which
you have not assigned a value. Until you assign a value to it,
TAS does not know what kind of variable it is, number, string or
array.
Recommendation:
Examine your script to be sure you are assigning a value to the
argument you are passing to the SORTOUT function.
E2,Constant string too long
Cause:
You have a constant string (a literal value enclosed in single
quotes) that is longer than 128 characters. This may be caused by
forgetting to terminate a quoted string on a prior line.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and add any missing single quotes. Break up
the constant into two or more pieces if necessary.
EXXX,Could not create window. Error <e>
Cause:
TAS internal window error.
Recommendation:
Action D2
E127,Not enough storage. Decrease MAX_QUOTES
Cause:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 94
You have specified too high a value for MAXIMUM QUOTES in the TAS
CONFIGURATION screen. Reduce this value so that TAS can load all
the necessary data for a ticker.
Recommendation:
If you are doing a profit test, you can use the START DATE and
END DATE options to reduce the number of quotes TAS reads for
each ticker.
E243,EMS Memory overflow
Cause:
Not applicable to TAS at this time.
Recommendation:
None.
Error creating ticker file :
Cause:
TAS could not create the ticker file.
Recommendation:
Check that the directory in which you are writing the ticker file
exists and that the file, if it exists, is not READ ONLY.
Error occurred during process of <ssss>
Cause:
An error occurred while running SELECTION <ssss>. There might be
a message to explain it prior to this point.
Recommendation:
Run the .SEL file again and watch for any other error messages.
E59,expected assignment ':='
Cause:
The script has a syntax error in it. Probably there is a sequence
like
A B
where A and B are variables. TAS expects an assignment to
variable A.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E52,Expected LONG or SHORT
Cause:
A Profit Test STOP statement was found but it was not followed by
the type of stop, either LONG or SHORT.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E62,Expected WHEN
Cause:
A Profit Test BUY, SELL or STOP statement was found but it was ot
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 95
followed by the word WHEN.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E119,GOTO LABEL not defined
Cause:
A GOTO statement names a label that is not defined in the script.
For example, it says GOTO ABC, but there is no label ":ABC" in
the script.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E152,GRAPHS not registered
Cause:
An OPENGRAPH function was called for the third time when the
GRAPH feature is not registered. No more graphs can be run until
TAS is restarted.
Recommendation:
Register the GRAPH feature.
E122,Heap Corrupted
Cause:
TAS internal error. The TAS memory 'heap' structure has become
unusable.
Recommendation:
Restart TAS.
Action D2
E131,Incorrect argument count to <ff> function
Cause:
The function <ff> was called with more or less arguments than it
requires.
Recommendation:
Refer to the function description for the correct number and type
of arguments (parameters).
E224,Incorrect # of parameters for SORTGET
Cause:
The number of parameters to the SORTGET function does not match
the number of arguments passed to the SORTOUT function. There
must be a one for one relationship between the argument counts
for both functions.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E150,Incorrect SIZEGRAPH
Cause:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 96
The number of parameters to the SIZEGRAPH function must be equal
to the number of graphs specified in the preceding OPENGRAPH
function.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E250,Incorrect ZigZag type
Cause:
The third parameter to the ZIG function must be either '%' or
'$'.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E175,Incorrect 'type' parameter to pt_init
Cause:
The PT_INIT function was called with an incorrect 'type' field.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
EXXX,Incorrect Graph Type
Cause:
The GRAPH function was called with an incorrect type of item to
graph. See the graph function for the valid types of graph. .
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E150,Incorrect Start/End
Cause:
An OPENGRAPH function was called with the start and end array
indices specified, but 1) the start was later than the end or
(2)one of the specifications was not a number.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E150,Incorrect OPENGRAPH
Cause:
The OPENGRAPH function was called with an incorrect number of
parameters.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E150,Incorrect DRAWLINE parameters
Cause:
The DRAWLINE function was called with an incorrect number of
parameters.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 97
E51,Incorrect placement of # command
Cause:
A # symbol was found in some column other than the first column
of a line.
The # symbol is used to distinguish "Pound" commands from other
parts of the script. It cannot be used in any other context
(except as part of a string).
Recommendation:
Check that the "Pound" Command begins in the first column of the
line.
E123,Intermediate operand stack overflow
Cause:
This can be caused by a TAS internal error or a very complex
expression in a script.
Recommendation:
If the error occurs in a statement containing a complex algebraic
expression, try breaking the expression into smaller pieces. For
example, if the statement is
A = (B+5)*(C+2/(1+C))
you might break it into
A1 = B + 5
A2 = C+2/(1+C)
A = A1 * A2
If the problem does not occur on a complex statement, then
see ACTION D2.
E129,Intermediate array stack underflow
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
E124,Intermediate operand stack underflow
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
E138,internal flag error in check_types
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
E100,Invalid 3rd parameter to mov()
Cause:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 98
An incorrect third parameter was given in a MOV function call.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E176,Invalid argument to pt_price
Cause:
An incorrect parameter was given in a PT_PRICE function call.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E116,Invalid array subscript
Cause:
A reference was made to an array element that is outside the
range of quotes in the ticker file. For example, if 200 days were
loaded, and a reference is made to C[202] or C[-301].
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E01,Invalid character
Cause:
Some character not in the TAS character set was encountered
outside of a string constant (anything between single quotes is
allowed).
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
EXXX,INVALID KEYWORD 'wwww'
Cause:
A keyword in the TAS.CNF file was not recognized.
Recommendation:
Remove the line with the word 'wwww' from the TAS.CNF file.
E121,Invalid operator
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
E231,Invalid option to LOAD
Cause:
A LOAD function was given an invalid data array name in the
second parameter.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E200,Invalid SEL file
Cause:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 99
In the SELECTION BUILD section, a .SEL file was loaded, but TAS
was not able to recognize it as a valid .SEL file.
Recommendation:
Make sure that the .SEL file has not been modified by some means
other than TAS SELECTION BUILD.
E141,Invalid string function
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
EXXX,INVALID VALUE for <vvvv>
Cause:
A keyword in the TAS.CNF file has an invalid value.
Recommendation:
Remove the line with the word 'vvvv' from the TAS.CNF file and
reconfigure TAS.
EXXX,KEYWORD '<vvvv>' HAS NO VALUE
Cause:
A keyword in the TAS.CNF file has an no value.
Recommendation:
Remove the line with the word 'vvvv' from the TAS.CNF file
and reconfigure TAS.
E55,LABEL name expected
Cause:
A GOTO statement was not followed by the LABEL to 'go to'
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E235,LOAD not supported for CHARTPRO
Cause:
The LOAD function is not supported for the ChartPro data format.
Recommendation:
None.
E65,Missing function argument list
Cause:
A function name was not immediately followed by a left
parenthesis, an optional argument list, and then a right
parenthesis. Even a function that has no arguments must be
followed by at least '()'.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error. Make sure there are no
blanks or other characters between the function name and the left
parenthesis.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 100
If you have inadvertantly used the name of a function for a
variable name, then you should change the name of the variable.
EXXX,MSP_FILE_SEEK - error in direction
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
EXXX,MSP_FILE_SEEK
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
EXXX,MSP_MASTER_SEEK - error in direction
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
E20,Nesting level too deep
Cause:
This message occurs when 20 BEGIN statements occur without an
intervening END statement.
Recommendation:
Look for missing END statements or simplify the nesting structure
of the statements leading up to the error.
E242,No more internal array storage
Cause:
TAS is out of memory and cannot perform any more calculations.
This can be caused by too high a value for MAXIMUM QUOTES PER
SYMBOL or by the use of too many permanent ARRAYS (those
variables declared with " : ARRAY" in a script).
Recommendation:
Action D4
No Syntax Errors in this script. Congratulations!
Cause:
This message is produced when a SYNTAX CHECK is done from within
the TAS Editor. The script has no errors that can be found by
examining the "syntax" of the script. In other words, there are
no invalid symbols, GOTO's without labels, bad characters, and
other errors that violate the syntax rules of a TAS script.
On the other hand, there may still be errors in the script that
can only be detected by actually running the script. These
errors might be logical errors, memory errors, math errors or
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 101
function parameter errors.
Recommendation:
Run the script, since it seems to be correct at this time.
E241,Not enough Data Arrays
Cause:
Internal Error. EMS version of TAS only
Recommendation:
Action D1
E127,Not enough storage. Decrease MAX_QUOTES
Cause:
TAS is out of memory and cannot perform any more calculations.
This can be caused by too high a value for MAXIMUM QUOTES PER
SYMBOL or by the use of too many permanent ARRAYS (those
variables declared with " : ARRAY" in a script).
Recommendation:
Action D4
E24,Not enough memory available for symbol table
Cause:
The script is too large to run with the current setting of SYMBOL
TABLE SIZE. The Symbol Table is used to keep the "run time
machine language" version of the script while it is executing. If
the CONFIGURATION SCREEN setting for SYMBOL TABLE SIZE is
too low, there is not enough room to build the run time script.
Recommendation:
Action D3
E154,not enough heap space in save_screen()
Cause:
TAS does not have enough memory available to save the screen
before saving a graph.
Recommendation:
Action D2
E155, not enough heap space in restore_screen()
Cause:
In attempting to restore a graph, TAS has detected that it is out
of memory.
Recommendation:
Action D2
Not supported in TRIAL version
Cause:
The script is using a function or feature that is not part of the
TRIAL (or evaluation) version of TAS. The function or feature is
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 102
enabled after TAS is registered. This error can occur if your
registration code is entered incorrectly.
Recommendation:
Register TAS and obtain a Registration Code.
E110,operand stack overflow
Cause:
This can be caused by a TAS internal error or a very complex
expression in a script.
Recommendation:
If the error occurs in a statement containing a complex algebraic
expression, try breaking the expression into smaller pieces. For
example, if the statement is
A = (B+5)*(C+2/(1+C))
you might break it into
A1 = B + 5
A2 = C+2/(1+C)
A = A1 * A2
If the problem does not occur on a complex statement, then
see ACTION D2.
E111,operand stack underflow
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D2
<filename> read error
Cause:
TAS could not read the Metastock or Chartpro file named
<filename>
Recommendation:
Verify that the data file is correct and readable. If not,
correct it.
If it is correctable, see Action D1
E69,Right Brace (]) missing
Cause:
A subscript after an array was not followed by a Right Brace ']'.
For example,
A = B[-3;
would produce this error.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E153,script terminated
Cause:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 103
The script has completed for some reason indicated in a prior
message, such as "BREAK HIT".
Recommendation:
None.
E58,semi-colon expected after ARRAY
Cause:
A script statement declaring an ARRAY was not terminated by a
semi-colon. For example,
B : ARRAY
would cause this error.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E58,semi-colon expected after NUMBER
Cause:
A script statement declaring a NUMBER was not terminated by a
semi-colon. For example,
B : NUMBER
would cause this error.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E226,sorton : Incorrect column number
Cause:
The SORTON function was called with a column number that is not
valid. The only valid column numbers are from 1 to the number of
parameters in the prior SORTOUT function(s).
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E225,sorton: Incorrect direction
Cause:
The SORTON function was called with a direction that was neither
'A' for ascending, or 'D' for descending.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E221,sortout : cannot allocate sort storage
Cause:
When a SORTOUT function was executed, there was not enough memory
left to create a sort buffer equal to F*T*4+(S*L),
where
F = number of fields in the SORTOUT function call
T = number of tickers in the ticker list
S = number of fields in the SORTOUT function call that are
strings
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 104
L = average length of the string constants
Recommendation:
Action D4
E22,Symbol Overflow. Increase SYMBOL TABLE SIZE
Cause:
The script is too large to run with the current setting of SYMBOL
TABLE SIZE. The Symbol Table is used to keep the "run time
machine language" version of the script while it is executing. If
the CONFIGURATION SCREEN setting for SYMBOL TABLE SIZE is
too low, there is not enough room to build the run time script.
Recommendation:
Action D3
TAS error code <ccc>
Cause:
TAS ended with an error. There was a prior message explaining the
type of error. The code <ccc> is a code internal to TAS.
Generally, it is -1.
Recommendation:
If the problem persists,record the code <ccc>.
Then perform Action D1
TAS Profit Test ended with error <ccc>
Cause:
TAS Profit Test ended with an error. There was a prior message
explaining the type of error. The code <ccc> is a code internal
to TAS.
Generally, it is -1.
Recommendation:
If the problem persists,record the code <ccc>.
Then perform Action D1
E125,Temporary result released out of order
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
E130,Temporary array released out of order
Cause:
TAS internal error.
Recommendation:
Action D1
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 105
E128,Too many arrays declared
Cause:
More than the maximum number of permanent arrays were declared
(with the ":ARRAY") declaration. The maximum number of permanent
arrays is 26.
Recommendation:
Reuse some of the permanent arrays for other uses. For example,
if you had an array that held a moving average and an array that
held a stochastic oscillator, you might use the same array for
both (at different times in the script, of course).
Alternatively, you could just recompute the value rather than
putting the result in an array.
E21,Too many END statements
Cause:
The number of END statements is greater than the number of BEGIN
statements.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E152,Too many GRAPHs requested
Cause:
An OPENGRAPH function specified less graphs than the number of
GRAPH functions which follow it.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E63,Too many IF-ELSE or GOTO statements.
Cause:
TAS has run out of room to hold all of the IF-ELSE and GOTO
labels.
Recommendation:
Simplify the script by removing or combining IF-ELSE statements.
E126,Too many intermediate arrays needed
Cause:
A "nested" function call is too complex for TAS to handle. This
type of call is a function that calls a function that calls a
function....etc.
For example,
A = MOV(MOV(MOV(ROC(C,12,'%'),21,'E'),21,'E'),21,'E')
is a "nested" function call. For each of the internal function
calls, TAS has to create an "intermediate" array. TAS has between
5 and 12 of these arrays available depending on the value of
MAXIMUM QUOTES PER SYMBOL.
Recommendation:
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 106
Use permanent arrays (named arrays declared with ":ARRAY") to
hold intermediate results.
or
Action D4
E133,Too many parameters for function WRITE
Cause:
The WRITE and WRITELN functions can accept up to 40 parameters.
This is caused by exceeding that number.
Recommendation:
Break the WRITELN into a WRITE followed by a WRITELN with half
the parameters in each function call.
E134.Too many parameters for DUMP_ARRAY
Cause:
The DUMP_ARRAY function can accept up to 12 parameters. This is
caused by exceeding that number.
Recommendation:
Use less parameters for DUMP_ARRAY.
E222,Too many parameters for function SORTOUT
Cause:
The SORTOUT function can accept up to 40 parameters. This is
caused by exceeding that number.
Recommendation:
Use less parameters for SORTOUT.
E115,Too many RETURN stmts
Cause:
TAS has encountered a RETURN statement for which there is no
GOSUB or script entry. Every script is run with an "implied"
GOSUB, so one RETURN can always be used.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E114,Too many subroutine calls
Cause:
The maximum number of GOSUB statements has been executed. If a
script does a GOSUB to a subroutine that does a GOSUB to another
subroutine, etc, the number of these GOSUBs without intervening
RETURN statements is 40.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
If the script is not in error, for example, subroutine A calling
subroutine B which calls subroutine A again, then simplify the
subroutine nesting.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 107
E73,Too many statements to compile procedure.
Cause:
The TAS script is too large for TAS to handle. The maximum sized
script can be over 1000 lines of instructions (comments not
included), so this script is "too large".
Recommendation:
Reduce the size of the script by breaking it into smaller
scripts.
E53,Unknown word or placement of word
Cause:
In the process of checking a script for syntax errors, TAS
encountered a word that it did not recognize in the location it
found it.
Recommendation:
Examine the script and fix the error.
E234, Unable to find ticker <tttttt>
Cause:
An INDEX command or a LOAD function requested a ticker name that
could not be found.
Recommendation:
Make sure that you have specified the correct ticker symbol for
your #INDEX command or your LOAD function. If the ticker name is
correctly spelled, check your TAS CONFIGURATION setting for the
INCLUDE TICKER PERIOD parameter. If this is set to "Y", then you
need to add the "period" to the end of the ticker symbol as shown
when you pull up a ticker list.
Diagnostic Actions
Action D1
1. Create a MetaStock or Chartpro directory containing the
ticker file in which the error was discovered (in the case
of Metastock, you can do this with the COPY SECURITY
command.
2. Copy the script in error to the directory you created in
step 1
3. Copy the ticker list used when the error occurred to the
directory created in step 1.
4. Use PKZIP or LHARC to compress the files in the directory
created in step 1.
5. Upload the file to the FlexSoft BBS AREA J
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 108
Action D2
Record the sequence of commands and actions performed up to the
point where the problem occurs as well as the script used.
Report the problem to FlexSoft.
Action D3
1. Increase SYMBOL TABLE SIZE setting in the CONFIGURATION
SCREEN. As a good start, double it.
2. Then run the script that caused the error.
3. After the script completes, type the ALT-M key while in a
TAS menu and record the value of Maximum Symbol Table Size.
This is the amount of Symbol Table the script actually used.
4. Go back to the CONFIGURATION SCREEN and lower the SYMBOL
TABLE SIZE to be a couple of thousand more than the maximum
value used.
Under no circumstances should you increase the Symbol Table size
above 32,000.
If increasing the SYMBOL TABLE SIZE leads to other out of memory
errors, you may have to reduce the MAXIMUM QUOTES PER SYMBOL
setting on the CONFIGURATION SCREEN.
Action D4
1. Remove any unneeded TSRs.
2. Reduce MAXIMUM QUOTES PER SYMBOL in the CONFIGURATION
SCREEN.
3. Reuse permanent arrays when they are no longer needed.
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 109
Index
".PRO" 13
"batch mode" 9
"MASTER" 13
"periods" 13
"tuning" 13
"upgrade releases" 4
ALT-M key 10
ALT-X key 10
Angle(a) 50
Argument 82, 83, 85, 87, 88
Array 17, 24, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50,
51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 58, 61, 63, 66, 67, 72, 74, 77, 79, 82,
83, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94
Array indices 34
Back test
see Profit Test 2
Bbandt(p,s) 51
BEGIN..END 39, 40, 61
Beta 51, 82
Black box" system 2
CASH 22, 23, 24, 79
ChartPro 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, 16, 48, 88
ChartPro.i.ChartPro 2, 6, 11, 12, 13
Color 9, 67, 68
Companion products 5
Compuserve 5
Computrac 3
Configuration and Setup 11
Configuration Menu 11
Configuring TAS 15
Context sensitive helpSee HELP Key 10
CTRL-BRK 10
DAILY data 13
DATA DIRECTORY(S) 12
DATAPATH 43
Date 17, 18, 22, 24, 29, 40, 43, 51, 52, 54, 55, 59, 71, 79, 83
Decimal point 34, 52, 56, 59
DEFINE TICKER LIST.i.TICKER LIST 15
Diagnostic 81, 95
DowJones 5
EMA 43, 74
EMS 3, 12, 14, 83, 90
END PHASE 64
ENTER 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27, 28
ESC key 7, 8, 10
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 110
Expanded Memory 3
Expanded Memory System 3
Expression 31, 36, 37, 38, 42, 62, 63, 81, 82, 86, 91
F1 key 10
FIRST_TICKER 43, 59, 60, 75, 77
FlexSoft BBS 4
FOR statement 39
FORMAT function 56
Format specifier 56
Format string 59
Formfeed 56
FULLNAME 43, 56
Function 7, 8, 17, 21, 27, 31, 32, 36, 37, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50,
51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 64, 66, 67, 68, 82, 83,
84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94
GEnie 5, 6
GOSUB 41, 42, 95
GOTO 40, 84, 88, 94
Graph 48, 52, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 84, 85, 94
Hardware configuration 3
Heap 85, 90
HELP Key 7, 10, 22, 27, 28
Historical data 2
INCLUDE TICKER PERIOD 13
INDEX 17, 43, 44
INDEX Command 72
Indices
See Array Indices 34
Installation of TAS 7
Sample Selection 8
Integer 34, 52, 56, 59
Intermixing directories 13
Investograph Plus 3
Iterate
see loop 39
LAST_TICKER 43, 57
Linear regression 49, 51, 52, 53
LONG 13, 20, 22, 23, 63, 64, 72, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84
Long or complex script 13
Loop 38, 39, 58
MAX_QUOTES 29, 34, 71, 72, 78, 83, 90
MAXIMUM QUOTES 17, 71, 83, 89, 90, 94, 96
Maximum value of an "integer" field 59
MegaTech 3
Memory 3, 10, 14, 83, 85, 89, 90, 92, 96
Memory - minimum 3
Metastock 3, 11, 12, 13
MetaStock data files 5
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 111
MetaStock Pro "Custom Formulas" 2
MetaStock Professional 6
Minumum Configuration 3
MONEY 22, 24, 53, 72
Monitor 3
Monochrome 9
More than 10 Metastock directories 13
Mouse 3, 8, 15, 26
Nested 94
New Line 56, 59
New page 56
New Ticker List See DEFINE TICKER LIST.i.TICKER LIST 15
New versions of TAS 4
Number 8, 14, 17, 18, 21, 24, 27, 29, 34, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47,
48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 66, 71, 81, 82, 83, 85,
86, 92, 93, 94, 95
Numeric array 34
Old Ticker List See DEFINE TICKER LIST.i.TICKER LIST 15
Online order system 4
OPTION SETTINGS 22
OUTPUT_FILE 70, 78
OUTPUT_FILE.i.OUTPUT_FILE 70, 78
P 18, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51, 53
Parameter 13, 14, 27, 45, 50, 53, 54, 55, 58, 59, 64, 66, 67,
82, 85, 87, 88, 89
PDL 5
Permanent arrays 93, 94, 96
PLOT 61
PLOT PHASE 64
PML 5
POUND 70
POUND commands 70
PRINTER
See OUTPUT_FILE 70
Prodigy 5, 6
Profit test 17, 20, 23, 24, 61, 64, 72, 83
PROFIT_TEST 72
Pt_buy 64
Pt_price 64
Pt_sell 64
Pt_setprice 64
Pt_stop 64
QUOTE_COUNT 34, 42, 43
QUOTE_RANGE 43
QUOTES PER SYMBOL 14
processing time 14
Rank 7, 8, 16
Real number 34
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 112
Redistribution of TAS 5
REGISTER.DOC 15
Registration Code 4, 15
encrypted code 15
Running TAS 10
SCAN_DATE 71
Semi-colon 30, 38, 70, 91, 92
SHORT 20, 22, 23, 59, 63, 64, 72, 80, 84
Software configuration 3
Sort buffer 57, 58, 92
Statement 30, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 60, 61, 62, 63,
68, 69, 72, 74, 75, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94
String constant 59, 87
Subroutine 41, 42, 95
Subscript 35, 87, 91
Support 4
Suppressing TAS Report Heading 70
Switches
See Starting TAS 9
SYMBOL TABLE SIZE 13, 14, 90, 92, 96
SYMBOL TABLE SIZE.i.SYMBOL TABLE SIZE 13
Syntax 27, 30, 84, 89, 95
SYNTAX CHECK 89
Tab 22, 56
Tab stops 56
TAS Editor 89
TAS Main Menu 9
TAS.CNF 13
Technical Analysis References 6
TEST PHASE 64
TICKER LIST 15, 18, 29
TICKER LISTS 13
Trading rules 2
TRIM function 33
TSRs 96
Updates to TASsee new version of TAS 4
Upgrade Registration Fee 4
Variable 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 59,
60, 64, 74, 75, 81, 83, 84, 89
Warranty 6
WEEKLY data 13
WHILE 58
WHILE statement 38
Wilder 6
XMS 3
Yesterday 36, 52, 74
Technical Analysis Scanner (TAS) Page 113
".PRO" 15
"batch mode" 9
"MASTER" 15
"periods" 15
"tuning" 16
"upgrade releases" 4
ALT-M key 11
ALT-X key 11
Angle(a) 57
Argument 93, 94, 96, 99, 100
Array 20, 27, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 45, 49, 50, 52, 53, 55,
56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 69, 71, 75, 82, 83,
87, 88, 89, 93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105,
106, 107
Array indices 39
Back test
see Profit Test 2
Bbandt(p,s) 57
BEGIN..END 44, 45, 46, 69
Beta 58, 93, 94
Black box" system 2
CASH 25, 26, 28, 90
ChartPro 2, 3, 6, 13, 14, 15, 18, 55, 100
ChartPro.i.ChartPro 2, 6, 13, 14, 15
Color 9, 75, 76, 77
Companion products 5
Compuserve 5
Computrac 3
Configuration and Setup 13
Configuration Menu 13
Configuring TAS 17
Context sensitive helpSee HELP Key 11
CTRL-BRK 12
DAILY data 15
DATA DIRECTORY(S) 14
DATAPATH 49
Date 20, 25, 28, 33, 45, 49, 58, 59, 61, 63, 67, 80, 90, 95
Decimal point 38, 59, 64, 68
DEFINE TICKER LIST.i.TICKER LIST 17
Diagnostic 92, 108
DowJones 5
EMA 49, 83, 84
EMS 3, 14, 16, 17, 95, 102
END PHASE 72
ENTER 5, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 29, 31, 32
ESC key 7, 8, 11
Expanded Memory 3
Expanded Memory System 3
Expression 35, 41, 42, 43, 48, 70, 71, 92, 93, 98, 103
F1 key 11
FIRST_TICKER 49, 68, 85, 87
FlexSoft BBS 4
FOR statement 44
FORMAT function 64
Format specifier 64
Format string 68
Formfeed 64
FULLNAME 49, 64
Function 7, 8, 19, 24, 31, 35, 36, 41, 42, 49, 51, 52, 56,
58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 72, 74, 75, 76,
93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106, 107
GEnie 5, 6
GOSUB 46, 47, 48, 107
GOTO 45, 46, 96, 100, 106
Graph 55, 59, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 96, 97, 106
Hardware configuration 3
Heap 96, 102
HELP Key 7, 11, 25, 31, 32
Historical data 2
INCLUDE TICKER PERIOD 15
INDEX 20, 49, 50
INDEX Command 82
Indices
See Array Indices 39
Installation of TAS 7
Sample Selection 8
Integer 38, 59, 64, 67, 68
Intermixing directories 15
Investograph Plus 3
Iterate
see loop 44
LAST_TICKER 49, 65
Linear regression 56, 58, 60
LONG 16, 23, 25, 26, 71, 72, 81, 89, 90, 91, 94, 95
Long or complex script 16
Loop 43, 44, 67
MAX_QUOTES 33, 39, 80, 81, 82, 89, 94, 102
MAXIMUM QUOTES 20, 80, 95, 101, 102, 106, 109
Maximum value of an "integer" field 68
MegaTech 3
Memory 3, 11, 16, 95, 96, 101, 102, 104, 109
Memory - minimum 3
Metastock 3, 13, 14, 15
MetaStock data files 5
MetaStock Pro "Custom Formulas" 2
MetaStock Professional 6
Minumum Configuration 3
MONEY 25, 26, 27, 28, 61, 81
Monitor 3
Monochrome 9
More than 10 Metastock directories 15
Mouse 3, 8, 17, 29
Nested 106
New Line 64, 68
New page 64
New Ticker List See DEFINE TICKER LIST.i.TICKER LIST 17
New versions of TAS 4
Number 8, 16, 20, 21, 24, 27, 31, 33, 38, 48, 49, 50, 52,
53, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 74, 80, 92,
93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 104, 106, 107
Numeric array 38
Old Ticker List See DEFINE TICKER LIST.i.TICKER LIST 17
Online order system 4
OPTION SETTINGS 25
OUTPUT_FILE 79, 80, 89
OUTPUT_FILE.i.OUTPUT_FILE 79, 89
P 21, 49, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61
Parameter 15, 16, 31, 51, 56, 60, 61, 63, 66, 67, 72, 74,
75, 93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 102
PDL 5
Permanent arrays 106, 107, 109
PLOT 69
PLOT PHASE 72, 73
PML 5
POUND 79
POUND commands 79
PRINTER
See OUTPUT_FILE 79
Prodigy 5, 6
Profit test 20, 24, 26, 27, 28, 69, 72, 81, 95
PROFIT_TEST 81
Pt_buy 72
Pt_price 72
Pt_sell 72
Pt_setprice 72
Pt_stop 72
QUOTE_COUNT 39, 47, 49
QUOTE_RANGE 49
QUOTES PER SYMBOL 16
processing time 16
Rank 7, 8, 18
Real number 38
Redistribution of TAS 5
REGISTER.DOC 17
Registration Code 4, 17
encrypted code 17
Running TAS 12
SCAN_DATE 80
Semi-colon 34, 43, 79, 104
SHORT 23, 26, 67, 71, 72, 81, 90, 91, 95
Software configuration 3
Sort buffer 65, 66, 67, 104
Statement 34, 35, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 68, 69, 70,
71, 77, 82, 84, 95, 96, 98, 100, 101, 103, 104, 107
String constant 67, 99
Subroutine 46, 47, 48, 107
Subscript 40, 99, 103
Support 4
Suppressing TAS Report Heading 80
Switches
See Starting TAS 9
SYMBOL TABLE SIZE 16, 102, 105, 109
SYMBOL TABLE SIZE.i.SYMBOL TABLE SIZE 16
Syntax 31, 34, 95, 101, 108
SYNTAX CHECK 101
Tab 25, 64
Tab stops 64
TAS Editor 101
TAS Main Menu 9
TAS.CNF 15
Technical Analysis References 6
TEST PHASE 72, 73
TICKER LIST 17, 20, 33
TICKER LISTS 15
Trading rules 2
TRIM function 38
TSRs 109
Updates to TASsee new version of TAS 4
Upgrade Registration Fee 4
Variable 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 49, 50, 58, 59, 60, 64, 67,
68, 72, 83, 84, 92, 94, 95, 101
Warranty 6
WEEKLY data 15
WHILE 67
WHILE statement 43
Wilder 6
XMS 3
Yesterday 41, 59, 83