Business Assistant/Business Assistant.iso/stock/ibmdisk5/smgrdis3.hlp

Text File | 1992-02-08 | 15KB | 298 lines

TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS       SM3.02      PAGE 1 OF 13

This step-by-step procedure will acquaint you with the graphical analy-
sis features of the Stock Charting System.  Start from the Master Menu.

1.  We will examine the high-resolution graphics first.  Type V and you
    should see a color display on the screen.  If you have a monochrome
    monitor you may see several different shades of one color, rather
    than different colors.  This is where you select the color scheme
    for TEXTUAL display.  Select a color, or press the Enter key by it-
    self to retain the color scheme you had before.

2.  The second color display is for GRAPHICS screens only. If you choose
    color 0 (zero), you will get high-resolution (80-column) graphs in
    monochrome.  If you choose any of the other color schemes, you will
    get medium-resolution (40-column) graphics, with color.  For now,
    type 0 <Enter> for high-resolution graphics.  The Master Menu should
    then re-appear.





TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS                   PAGE 2 OF 13

3.  Type S to proceed to the Stock Select screen.  Select one of the
    sample stocks that came with the system for demonstration purposes,
    or select DJIND, the Dow Jones Industrials.  Don't select the stock
    entered in Tutorial Part 2; there is insufficient data there for
    demonstration of moving averages and other features.

4.  At the bottom of the screen you may see the caption "XXXXXX for rel.
    strength".  We will examine the relative strength feature later.  In
    the meanwhile press the T key once or twice to cause that caption to
    disappear.  The TAG function selects the "base" security - such as
    the Dow Industrials - to be used for relative strength analysis.

    NOTE:  By de-activating the relative strength feature you will speed
    up graphical analysis because the graphics program will not have to
    read additional data into memory each time graphs are to be dis-
    played for a particular stock.

5.  Near the bottom right corner of the screen you will see the caption
    Daily or Weekly inside a solid bar.  If necessary press the TAB key
    once so the word Weekly appears.  We'll be looking at WEEKLY charts.

TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS                   PAGE 3 OF 13

6.  Type G and in a moment you will see a graph.  Then press the alpha-
    betic "O" key and you will see the Graphics Display Option screen.

    A number of graphics features are listed on this screen, and some of
    them should have an arrow --> next to them.  Look at the V = VOLUME
    option on the left.  Press the V key two or three times and observe
    the arrow turning on and off alternately each time you press V.
    This is called a "toggle".  All of the features (but not the menu
    functions at the bottom of the screen) are activated in like manner.
    A feature is active when it has the arrow --> next to it, and not
    active when there is no arrow next to it.

7.  Activate the VOLUME feature (press V).  Also activate Moving Aver-
    ages 2 and 3 but NOT Moving Average 1 (press 1, 2 or 3 as neces-
    sary).  You should see arrows next to each of the active features.

    For now we will not be using the N, O, L or T features listed nearer
    to the bottom of the screen.  If arrows appear next to any of these
    features, press the appropriate keys to de-activate them for now;
    they will be discussed later.

TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS                   PAGE 4 OF 13

8.  Press G and you should see the graph again.  You can vary the den-
    sity of information (the number of data points) shown on the graph
    by using the numeric 0-9 keys.  The higher the number, the LOWER the
    density and vice versa.  0 is equivalent to 10 and so gives the
    lowest density; 1 gives the highest, 2 the next highest and so on.
    Each time you press a number key the graph will be re-drawn.

9.  What you see on the screen can be considered to be a "window" look-
    ing at part of a larger display, which can extend horizontally to
    the left and right of the physical screen.  The + and - keys effec-
    tively "move" the screen area to later or earlier ranges of dates,
    respectively.  First press 0 to set up for the lowest density range.
    Then try presssing the - key a couple of times, and the + key a
    couple of times, while observing the effects on the graph.  The com-
    puter will beep at you if it cannot take the requested action.

    Note the vertical scales on the right side of the screen will change
    automatically, adjusting to whatever data is displayed.  The program
    computes the vertical scale ranges automatically.


TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS                   PAGE 5 OF 13

10. You should see two moving average lines; the dotted line represents
    Moving Average 2 and the solid line Moving Average 3.  Also you
    should see a histogram of sales volumes occupying the bottom third
    of the display.  The sales volume chart is identified by the cap-
    tions "max=xxxx" and "min=xxxx" on the lower right.  These are the
    maximum and minimum volumes displayed, in thousands.

    See Appendix C in the user manual for further explanation of some
    financial terms used in technical analysis.

11. Press O to return to the Graphics Display Option screen.  Press C to
    activate the Crossover/Oscillator feature.  Press G again.  At the
    bottom of the screen you will see a Crossover chart (identified by
    the caption "xover") replacing the volume chart.  The Crossover
    chart depicts the algebraic difference between the two moving aver-
    ages and so gives a more graphical representation of when the two
    averages cross.

12. Press O again.  Type 1 2 3.  This should activate Moving Average 1
    and de-activate 2 and 3.  We want only Average 1 for the next demo.

TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS                   PAGE 6 OF 13

13. Press G to see the graph again.  You may notice the moving average
    line is harder to see because it is intermingled with the high-low-
    close bars.  The oscillator you see below, and identified with the
    caption "osc", now gives a more graphical representation of the
    algebraic difference between the moving average and closing price
    values.

    The relationships between moving averages and their corresponding
    closing price values are frequently used as "indicators" in techni-
    cal analysis.  For example the rise of a closing price above a mov-
    ing average line could be a positive indicator, and the fall below
    that moving average line could be a negative indicator.  The com-
    bination of certain positive indicators may constitute a BUY signal;
    the combination of certain negative indicators may constitute a SELL
    signal.

    This is known as "technical analysis". Many books have been written,
    and whole college courses have been taught, on this subject.  It is
    beyond the scope of this user manual to try to teach technical anal-
    ysis.

TUTORIAL GUIDE PART 3: GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS                   PAGE 7 OF 13

14. Go back to the option screen and activate the on-balance volume
    feature (press O and then B).  The arrow will move up to the B
    option.  Press G to graph.  The line graph at the bottom of the
    display is a popular momentum indicator, identified by the caption
    "obv".  A momentum indicator tends to show the strength of a trend
    rather than the trend itself.

15. Now type O A G.  Observe the high-low-close bar graph now occupies
    the full screen and shows more detail because there is better ver-
    tical resolution.  Use the ALONE option if you don't want sales
    volume, oscillators or on-balance volume to show at the bottom of
    the chart.

16. Go back to the option screen again.  Activate moving average 2 ONLY
    (press 1 and then 2).  We want only one moving average for this next
    demo.  Now press F.