http://forum.equis.com/drm_main.php?mode=drm_file_view&cat=10&file=1

Jim This depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Could you give me a little more detail about what you are trying to do. If you edit an Exploration and select options you can specify a date to run the exploration on, but this may not be really what you want to do. Regards Doc

Jim Each exploration has an option to set the date. The default is probably "Most Recent Date", but it can be changed to "Specific Date". An explorationt can scan us much data as you want it to by changing the "Explorer Options" from "Load Minimum Records" to "Load [censored]X Records". However, each column can only report 1 value, and typically that will be the column value as at the last bar scanned. Don't confuse Options for the Explorer tool overall for the Options available for each individual exploration Think of each exploration column as a non-visual indicator where the reported value is the value (of that indicator) for the last bar of scanned data. Values from any previous bar or event can be captured as long as certain rules are followed. 1) The event must be properly defined, and 2) the exploration must scan sufficient bars to include said event. ValueWhen(1,"event","required value or data array") will show the value of your signa when the defined event took place. The ValueWhen() function "remembers" the value and reports that value on the last bar scanned. It's also possible to accumulate a series of values and report a total as at the last scanned bar. For example I have some "Trade Equity" explorations that summarize a trading systems perofmance across several years of data and thousands of securities. The Explorer is a very powerful tool and it can do much more than is at first apparent. However there are a number of tricks to getting the most from it. Roy MetaStock Tips & Tools

Jim The problem is that an exploration can only report one value per column. It's a time-slice if you like. It can take a sample of whatever you want on any given bar, but it can only report one value per column. It's up to you to think of ways to extract what you want given the "one value per column" restriction. If you want to catalog up to six events then the best you can probably do is use one column each for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th events. I've set up the following exploration to report the "PS Fractal Entry" in reverse order. That is, the date for the most recent event appears on column F, the second most recent event in Column E and so on. If column F doesn't report the event then no other column will either and that security is filtered out. The exploration will run a little faster if you define the event in each column rather than call it as an indicator. You MUST define the event as a leading edge so that it's only true for one bar rather than several bars. If you don't then you'll essentially be capturing the same event several times (on successive bars while the event remains true). MetaStock can only sum up to about 6 digits (preferably whole numbers) before it introduces "single digit precision" errors. Thus, adding Day, Month and Year to give 8 accurate digits is rather tricky. Errors may still occur with the method I've used but they should be few and far between. I ran this exploration on 500 bars of the ASX 300 and it appears to work OK. There are other ways that you can capture the timing of events but each method has it's limitations. Col A: Event:=Fml("PS Fractal Entry"); ValueWhen(6,Event,Month()*100) + ValueWhen(6,Event,DayOfMonth()) + ValueWhen(6,Event,If(Year()=2005,.05,.04)); Col B: Event:=Fml("PS Fractal Entry"); ValueWhen(5,Event,Month()*100) + ValueWhen(5,Event,DayOfMonth()) + ValueWhen(5,Event,If(Year()=2005,.05,.04)); Col C: Event:=Fml("PS Fractal Entry"); ValueWhen(4,Event,Month()*100) + ValueWhen(4,Event,DayOfMonth()) + ValueWhen(4,Event,If(Year()=2005,.05,.04)); Col D: Event:=Fml("PS Fractal Entry"); ValueWhen(3,Event,Month()*100) + ValueWhen(3,Event,DayOfMonth()) + ValueWhen(3,Event,If(Year()=2005,.05,.04)); Col E: Event:=Fml("PS Fractal Entry"); ValueWhen(2,Event,Month()*100) + ValueWhen(2,Event,DayOfMonth()) + ValueWhen(2,Event,If(Year()=2005,.05,.04)); Col F: Event:=Fml("PS Fractal Entry"); ValueWhen(1,Event,Month()*100) + ValueWhen(1,Event,DayOfMonth()) + ValueWhen(1,Event,If(Year()=2005,.05,.04)); Filter colF>0 Filter enabled Yes Periodicity Daily Records required 500 Hope this helps Roy MetaStock Tips & Tools