Nison's Candlesticks Unleashed reveals power of Japanese-style charting techniques;

Adaptive Trading Solutions offers cream-of-the crop stock systems

SALT LAKE CITY, July 22, 2002 - MetaStock ®, the technology leader in charting and analysis software for financial markets, expands its potential today with the release of two new trading system plug-ins: Nison's Candlesticks UnleashedTM (NCU) and Adaptive Trading SolutionsTM (ATS). The makers of MetaStock at Equis International, a Reuters company (NASDAQ: RTRSY) have prepared these plug-ins with development partners Steve Nison and TSA Group, respectively.

Nison's Candlesticks Unleashed

Nison's Candlesticks Unleashed, the first of the two new plug-ins, helps traders get the context of the markets' broader trends, then trades on the fluctuations within those trends using Steve Nison's candlestick patterns and proprietary formulas.

"For an effective candlestick-based trading system, one that keeps risk to a minimum and increases the probability of successful trades, there was no question but to ask Steve Nison to spearhead the project," says Equis president and CEO Allan McNichol. "His stellar reputation is well earned, and traders will see the benefits of his expertise when they use NCU."

Nison adds, "MetaStock is the perfect platform for traders to capitalize on my unique trading approach, through software. It's powerful, reliable, flexible, educational, yet easy to use." And, he says, "This project has added new dimensions to my own analytical techniques, thanks largely to the power of MetaStock."

What Is Candlestick Charting?

Japanese Candlestick charts date back to the 1700s, when they were used to analyze the prices of rice contracts. Candlestick charts display the open, high, low, and closing prices as Western bar charts do, but in a way that clarifies the relationship between the opening and closing prices. Many traders find that by using candlestick charts, they can see more clearly what technical analysis should always reveal-the action and reaction of individual traders acting en masse.

Helping Traders Apply Nison's Ideas

NCU capitalizes on some of Steve Nison's most practical trading principles. The system combines Steve Nison's favorite candlestick patterns and MetaStock's versatile power tools. Using these tools, traders can

• Screen for bullish or bearish market patterns. An exclusive expert for MetaStock's Expert AdvisorTM, the NCU-SPY Global Market Monitor, determines the current direction of the financial markets so the trader knows whether to screen for buy or short trades-or neither. Created specifically for the NCU trading system, the SPY Global Market Monitor synthesizes trend, volatility, volume, and price momentum into one technical indicator.
• Find the right securities to watch, depending on how the markets are behaving overall. The NCU-Bear and NCU-Bull explorations in The ExplorerTM allow traders to find the most promising trade opportunities. Each exploration searches for securities showing any of its respective candlestick patterns. Based on Steve Nison's proprietary formula, the exploration report also reveals which of these stocks with candlestick patterns show the greatest evidence of movement in favor of a trade.
• Manage trading risk with expert commentary delivering Reward/Risk Ratios. After opening the chart of a favorable stock, the appropriate expert is attached, and the trader can view the expert commentary. Here, a Limit price is given, based on an acceptable Reward/Risk ratio - that being, the potential gain calculated is at least 50% greater than the potential loss in every trade.
• Monitor open trades automatically. Once having entered a Buy or Short trade, NCU provides daily commentary so Stop Loss and Limit orders can be adjusted, based on daily calculations. By analyzing the recent volatility, pivot highs and lows, and the open trade's ever-changing reward to risk ratio, the Expert Commentary calculates -- and recalculates -- precise points to place ongoing Sell or Buy Stop orders.
• Expand their understanding of candlestick charting. Some trading systems operate on a "black box" basis, where signals are generated without any explanation for the user. NCU is a "gray box" system, providing information and requiring the trader's involvement. Nison writes, "I won't be satisfied with this product if it expands only your wallet. It must expand your mind, as well."

Adaptive Trading Solutions

The second new plug-in, Adaptive Trading Solutions (ATS) increases the odds of success for the individual stock trader by using pre-programmed analysis systems to generate buy and sell signals along with calculated confidence levels and historical success rates. It includes one system each for real-time and end-of-day traders, both proven through extensive testing to be the top performers from a field of 20,000 similar systems.

ATS' Two Best-of-the Best Systems

Adaptive Trading Solutions offers two options for traders.

• The End-of-Day System works exclusively on stocks and is based on positive trend reinforcement, or variations in high and low price movement.
• The Real-Time System is based on increases and decreases in the volatility of the security on which the system is being used. This system also includes stop losses to get out of any losing trades before losses grow too large.

How ATS Systems Work

A user of either ATS system may create a WatchList of stocks customized to specific criteria, or download an entire database of securities. The trader will then run a signal exploration to determine which stocks are generating buy signals for that day through ATS-generally 1-3% of the list. Results may be sorted according to Historical Success Rate (percentage of successful trades ATS would have generated in the past for each stock) or Confidence Level (a conservatively calculated estimate of the success of future trades).

Next, the trader can analyze promising signals from the signal exploration more deeply with ATS' exclusive tools in MetaStock. An equity curve tool in MetaStock's System Tester helps determine how the "personality" of a stock would have worked historically with ATS. And Expert Commentary exclusive to ATS offers information on the size of past wins or losses using ATS on the historical price data for a particular security.

With information gained from ATS, users can place trades knowing for sure how much the odds are on their side.

System Requirements

ATS and NCU are programmed for MetaStock 7.2, MetaStock Professional 7.2 and higher. The minimum configuration needed includes Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT 4.0 (or higher) Pentium 166, 32MB of RAM, and 50MB of free hard disk space. The recommended configuration includes 233 MHz (or faster), 128MB of RAM, and 50MB of free hard disk space.

Pricing and Availability

NCU and ATS are regularly priced at U.S.$399 each, but each title is currently available for the limited-time introductory price of U.S.$299 plus shipping and handling. These plug-ins can be ordered by phone at 801-265-8886 or 800-882-3040, by fax at 801-265-3999, or by e-mail at sales@equis.com. More information and online ordering are available at http://www.metastock.com.

Journalists and other qualified professionals may obtain evaluation copies by contacting Marilyn McDonald at Equis; mmcdonald@equis.com.

About Steve Nison

Steve Nison, CMT, the Western world's authority on candlestick charts, introduced this revealing charting style to America and Europe. Nison is president of CANDLECHARTS.COM, providing education and advisory services to institutions and private traders. A renowned speaker and educator, he has trained professionals in over 18 countries and from almost every major investment firm on using candlestick charts. Nison has authored two authoritative works on candlesticks, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques and Beyond Candlesticks. Publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Worth, and Barron's have highlighted Nison's work.

About Equis International

Equis International develops and markets MetaStock, award-winning investment charting and analysis software for individual investors, traders, stockbrokers, money managers, and professional analysts. The MetaStock Family includes MetaStock for End-of-Day traders, MetaStock Professional for Quote.com, MetaStock Professional for eSignal, Reuters MetaStock Professional, and MetaStock Online at https://www.metastock.com/online. Equis, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was founded in 1982. In 1996, Equis was acquired by Reuters (NASDAQ:RTRSY), the world's premier news and financial information company. Additional information about Equis and MetaStock can be found online at http://www.metastock.com.