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jjstein  
#1 Posted : 13 years ago
jjstein

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Posts: 715
Location: Midwest, USA

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Why are there CONSTANT changes EVERY month in the folder and names for the NA Symbol Utility?

Do they put the newest hire in charge and say, "knock yourself out, be creative and re-arrange things willy-nilly, however you like"?

Does anyone at Equis actually USE the product? This constant changing of names messes up everything from the (already defective enough) Favorites lists to Smart Charts and Explorations!!!

Does NOBODY check quality of work there?

MS Support  
#2 Posted : 13 years ago
MS Support

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We get a several hundred meg text file dump of all the symbols from the central servers. This file includes codes that mark which exchange the symbols are in and the names of the securities. The file is parsed and separated based on that information and the new symbol database created. From there, the symbol utility is created.

The disposition of the securities by industry group is determined by the S&P GICS coding.

We do test the file to see if the correct number of symbols are in randomly selected folders (ie does the S&P 100 folder have 100 symbols in it.), but we can not realistically check every symbol in every folder manually.

Is there some specific examples you can cite? Have some symbols been put in the wrong folder or something of that nature?
jjstein  
#3 Posted : 13 years ago
jjstein

Rank: Advanced Member

Groups: Registered, Registered Users, Subscribers
Joined: 5/13/2005(UTC)
Posts: 715
Location: Midwest, USA

Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
Since you asked...

This has NOTHING to do with a misplaced symbol. It is entirely the havoc wrought throughout Metastock's systems by renaming folders for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.

Around Mar/Apr of this year, after a 2-3 month delay, an update was finally posted. Symbols in the wrong folder are NOT the problem, it is that the FOLDER NAMES were changed without any discernable reason. The changes went something like this:

Stocks Alphabetical to US Stocks Alphabetical
Stocks Alphabetical -- 2 folders to 6 folders
Preferred Stocks & Warrants -- now a sub-folder of Us Stocks Alphabetical
Preferred Stocks & Warrants -- 1 folder to 2 sub-folders
Stocks by Exchange -- New York Stock Exchange to NYSE
Stocks Grouped by Sector -- COMPLETELY MISSING
Canadian Trading & Quotation system -- COMPLETELY MISSING
Canadian Venture Exchange -- moved to 2 sub-folders
Toronto Stock Exchange -- moved to 2 sub-folders
S&P500 to S&P 500 -- meaningless folder name change
DJ Industrials to Dow Jones Industrial -- meaningless folder name change

All of the following had to be changed, corrected or otherwise fixed, then checked, purely due to the changes in folder organization. ALL OF THEM!!!

* Custom indicators using the SECURITY() function.
* Favorites lists -- causes this unstable aspect of Metastock to wig out on ALL lists.
* FIRE Addon lists & computations
* Smart Charts
* Explorations
* Downloader lists

Then -- all of a sudden -- the July changes as listed HERE put them back the way they had been!!! When I saw the web page, I about had my very first coronary!

Fortunately, it turned out that the documentation page DOES NOT MATCH the actual contents created by the Update Utility! It was a good thing I renamed the Metastock folder temporarily, then did the extract and compared the web page to the actual folders. I didn't have to do nearly as much work this time as at the beginning of the 2nd quarter.

My opinion is that this amount of unbridled revision is COMPLETELY NUTS! This creates HOURS OF WORK to correct the items affected, not to mention the additional time required to check that everything works!

These changes are NOT a minor matter -- a bit of discipline would go a long way, and while NECESSARY changes should be made, they ought be noted/documented up-front on the webpage where you are listing the folders, so a user has a "heads-up" that Charts, Indicators, Experts, Explorations and Add-ons WILL NOT WORK!!!

This kind of thing wastes my time with office busy-work crap, when said effort needs to be spent checking charts for stop level violations, running Explorations for Long/Short candidates and placing broker orders.

This mickey-mouse stuff is the very LAST THING I need to be dealing with, particularly in volatile markets.

OK, I'm done. You DID ask, though...

tolka  
#4 Posted : 10 years ago
tolka

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Joined: 1/28/2015(UTC)
Posts: 1

Custom indicators
Favorites lists
FIRE Addon
Smart Charts
Downloader lists
Explorations



kaleem

Edited by user 10 years ago  | Reason: Not specified

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