wmadani There are at least two ways to do this, and probably more. The task cannot be accomplished with the MetaStock Formula Language on its own though. The easiest method is probably to structure your exploration so that the state you want to count is reported as a TRUE (one). The completed report can be copied and pasted into Excel and the required columns summed. Creating a total in Excel should take about 10 seconds so it's not an onerous task. The second method requires the use of the Mark Pyle's GlobalVar dll (find it in the Downloads section). Some slightly more complicated code is required, including a supporting indicator or exploration to reset counter(s) before running the main exploration. The process reads the counter (a global variable cell for want of a better name), and then adds the result for the current security to the retrieved value and stores the new value. You will need either the reset indicator or reset exploration, but not both. The indicator, if used, should be dropped onto any chart and then deleted. It plots a sine wave simply to ensure that its plot is visible and can be easily seen for deletion. Its job is done once it has been dropped onto a chart. Leaving it on the chart would cause further resets each time the chart refreshed. The reset exploration only needs to be run on one security but no harm is done if it is batched and run on the same portfolio as the accumulation scan. These formulas demonstrate a principle that can be applied to sum many different vaules. Each globabl variable cell (or data array) must be reset prior to any attempt to accumulate data. Results from acummulating large numbers (such as volume or turnover) tend to be inaccurate once the total climbs above 6 significant digits. Neither MetaStock nor the GV dll were designed for double digit precision but summing small whole numbers is perfectly satisfactory. Exploration results are best sorted to ensure that the final value occurs at the end of the report. The order in which securities are presented to the Explorer can mean that results appear to be out of sequence and you should not assume that the last number appearing in any column is the highest number and represents the last security processed. You have been warned. {Tally Reset Indicator} {© 2006 Roy Larsen, www.metastocktips.co.nz} {* reset GV cell(s) before tally scan} A:=ExtFml("GV.SetVar","CountA",0); Sin(Cum(5)); {forces visible plot} {Tally Reset Exploration} {© 2006 Roy Larsen, www.metastocktips.co.nz} {* reset GV cell(s) before tally scan} ExtFml("GV.SetVar","CountA",0); {Tally Exploration} {© 2006 Roy Larsen, www.metastocktips.co.nz} {* accumulate state scan} {Column A: C>MA} {Issues above MA} Read:= LastValue(ExtFml("GV.GetVar","CountA")); State:=C > Mov(C,14,S); Write:=Read + State; ExtFml("GV.SetVar","CountA",LastValue(Write)); I trust that this is of some help. Roy MetaStock Tips & Tools

Hi H One thing I forgot to mention. ALL securities are evaluated when this approach is used. That's because any column accumulation occurs BEFORE the filter is activated. The filter can be activated on the last bar of any security, but that only happens AFTER columns A through F have been processed. Therefore, any required filter parameters must also be included as a filter in whatever state is being counted. In my example that would be as below. If that were not done you'd end up with a situation where the ascending count in a column could appear to skip one or more numbers. The missing numbers would be those relating to securities that were subsequently rejected by the exploration filter. State:=C > Mov(C,14,S) AND ("any required filter parameters"); I hope this makes sense. No action needs to be taken when the exploration filter is not active. Roy MetaStock Tips & Tools

Hi H Non-incremented securities could be filtered out easily enough. If you were counting three columns for advances, delines and no-change, for example, you'd probably wouldn't want to filter any out anyway. There are many possibilities available, such as reporting zero for a security where no increment has occurred. I just presented the bare-bones code you'd need to get started. There should be no problem with multiple columns but each GV accumulator requires a different GV name. What I'm saying is that there are a whole bunch of traps you can fall into, but if you stop and think about what's happening there are logical explanations for such problems, and from there the solutions also tend to fall into place. Roy

Hello Roy, Thank you for your thorough reply to my question . I have run the following exploration on the Nasdaq100 as of close on June 27 : Read:= LastValue(ExtFml("GV.GetVar","Countd")); State:=C > Mov(C,20,S); Write:=Read + State; ExtFml("GV.SetVar","Countd",LastValue(Write)); and I have not used any filter; the above code was pasted in COLa , the result I got is 35 (double checked with other software to make sure that I have done it correctly) . Then; I pasted the same exploration code as an indicator and the plot I got was a horizontal line that reads 35 . My next step was to use the reset indicator and then refresh the chart and the value was reset as it suppose. So far so good BUT how to have a history plot for the past 1000 days loaded ,and not only for a single last day ? am I doing any thing incorrectly or that is the way its intended to be : A single day plot . Once again Thank you for taking the time to reply . H, Thank you for your input . Its really a great joy to read a dialogue between highly knowledgable people on questions submitted by MetaStock usrers. with my best Regards.