Hi guys! I am interested in buying metastock and that is for writing explorations and system testers. I have spoken with one of metastock's salesmen . He was very kind , explaind me a little about the software and everything seemed very promissing, especially the plug-ins-I haven't heared about things like that in any other software. But when I checked out the formula primer I was very disappointed and confused! It looked more like a reference book and not like a real serious elaborated studyguide for the formula ( I have to mention thogh,that I didn't read it very thoroughly....). I looked at some formulas written by members of the forum and I didn't understand much... pllllllllllllease tell me that the manual and the disks that I will get when I buy metastock are more elaborate , with many more examples, because I don't think I could master the formula just from the formula primer. I know some people who use welth-lab software but its formula is pascal-based , and that didn't appeal to me because I am not a programmer. but after I have seen some of the codes written by the forum members ,the pascal looks suddenly very simple.... :) . I would like very much to use metastock. I love its platform, and it looks easy and fun to use . I only need to understand the formula. I have also heared that the use of c++ is available for metastock. a friend of mine , who is a programmer told me ( after he glimpsed at some of the formulas here:http://forum.equis.com/viewtopic.php?t=1562&sid=82d80cd64b7c1e86905394e764a1a7ce), that it would be much easier for me to learn c++ ( I have a background in math ),because It's more friendly to use and probably has more possibilities and capabilities :? so , I am very confused and I can't decide what to do.I will really appreciate any answers, advices or hints from the forum members. thanks a lot, lemonlime.[/url]

Hey g. thank you very much for your response.perhaps if I studied the formula primer more I would understand the formula better. I also noticed the tutorials you mentioned and I hope they will be usefull for me and other beginners . But still, the reason I mentioned pascal & c++ ,is because they are easy to figure out! Just look at this ( a randomaly chosen formula from the formula collection): Correl(((Sum(Cum(1)*(Mov(C,12,E)-Mov(C,26,E)),100))-(Sum(Cum(1),100)* Sum((Mov(C,12,E)-Mov(C,26,E)),100)/100))/((Sum(Power(Cum(1),2),100))- (Power(Sum(Cum(1),100),2)/100)),((Sum(Cum(1)*C,100))-(Sum(Cum(1),100)* Sum(C,100)/100))/((Sum(Power(Cum(1),2),100))-(Power(Sum(Cum(1),100),2)/100)),12,0) .............. Can you honestly look at this and figure out what it means? It doesn't look too intuitive, does it...? If you can tell me that you understand it and you think that so will I (with time & practice..) ,assuming that I'm not completely dumb, that will satisfy me and and will get me to start and learn the formula more thoroughly. Moreover, correct me if I'm wrong, even if I choose to use c++ for writing codes, I'd still have to understand to some level the ms formula. Also , you mentioned Roy Larsen's newsletter and Jose Silva's comprehensive public list of custom indicators- I'll appreciate if you can specify briefly where do I find them-(are these the feeds to my left?) .Also, you wrote about the TASC journal. could you expand on that a bit? Is it an on-line journal or a paper one..I'm not a US resident so I have never heared of this.... And back to the learning issue- would you recommend other tutorials such as "Discovering the Power of MetaStock Interactive CD-ROM and Workbook" that is available to purchase or the two martin pring's c d -roms?.. And again, if you'l excuse me , a question not about understanding or learning the ms formula, but about its capability and efficiency.Let's take a simple example- In your opinion ,can you ,or other experts, write a code that indetifies positive (or negative) divergence between ,let's say, the highs of the prices and the macd? and that is not just finding a pattern when the prices go up and the macd goes down! the code should be able to find two successesive highs (local maximum points in math language) both in the prices and the macd, and on top of that, with the prices, the second high should be higher than the first and with the macd, the second high should be lower.... I don't see how that can be done without some kind of looping- and that was just an example... my programmer friend whom I metiond before, told me that writing it in c++ (or even without the pluses...) would be a breeze.... I know I asked a lot of questions but I would be very gratefull if you or someone else could address them. thanks again, lemonlime.

lemonlime, I had the privilege of attending a session with Jim Berg last night and was completely taken aback by his use of MS. He is a very successful trader, but his system is sooooo simple, that it does not even begin to test the limits of MS in any way, shape or form. It proves, again, you do not have to get complicated, or mega-technical to make money. KISS. MS is a tool that you will use to facilitate your trading; it will adapt to your trading style as much as you will adapt to it. It will NOT however, be a system that you start up, leave alone for it to make money for you. You must learn to interact with MS else it will do nothing other than show you a lot of pretty coloured lines that mean nothing. If you already have a background in any sort of maths or programming then you will easily appreciate the MS formula language. Like C, MSFL has its own syntax, like Pascal it has different strengths and weaknesses. MSFL is robust in that it does what it is designed to do. Jose, Roy, Hayseed and others extend the MSFL beyond these limits, so please do not read their code and think they are writing for the novice. Their code is posted generally for people who are beyond the basic realm of the MS Formula Primer, and are themselves looking to further their own MS knowledge, to further shape MS to suit their trading. I believe Equis still offers a trial period. Have a go and see how it goes. Spend the time in the MS Users Manual coming to terms with the very basic concepts of indicators, explorations, system testing and experts before getting ingrained into the formula language itself. There is more to MS than simply programming indicators. Hope this helps, and if you have more questions, please ask. wabbit :D

wabbit...... somehow I just saw your reply, so first of all, thank you for your concern and encouragement (and the option to speak to someone in the opposite side of the earth :D ) I am simply saying that a standart computer language might be easier to write explorations and system testes with than the MSFL. In your oppinion, do you think that a novice could write a code for the simple task as the one I set above? ...in pascal it is easy ,and my guess is that in c it will not be much different (that programmer friend of mine actually told me that c is simpler and easier than pascal...... ) you see, a code that could be suitable only for roy , heyseed or jose in MSFL , might be easier to compose in c or visual basic...that is why , as i explained to heyseed , I ask so much about how comlicated should it be to integrate c in metastock. I was told that it is possible, but I don't know how difficult it is....and to anybody who can answer me about this,I would like very much to read whatever you have to say! :) To your question, I don't think that a trial of one month will help me make up my mind. As I said before, my main goal in ms is scanning, meaning writing explorations.I don't think I could study that in a month...And No, I don't want to use ms to trade automatically for me, I am simply looking for a good and solid scanning and back-testing tool (with all the visual graphs and stuff -but just that can be found in a much lesser softwares than ms..) and one last question- why can I add emoticons only at first, and in my replies, I have to submit it without them then edit, and only then I can add them......? :( thanks a lot to anyone who reads this ,lemonlime.

You have to break it down into sections to digest... just like any other programming language. IMO, yes. http://www.traders.com/ Personally, I didn't get a lot out of it, but everyone is different. Yes, that can be done; C++ not required. Look up examples of HHV() and Ref() and similar functions to see how they are used. While plug-ins are abundant, you'll want to spend some time getting to understand the basic product. It includes many, many indicators and explorations.

LemonLime, as far as I know MetaStock formula language is Pascal-based. The 200-odd indicators available in WealthLab pale into insignificance with the thousands & thousands freely available to MetaStock. As for their usefulness, well, it depends... The MACD & MACD Histogram found in your link are basic charting indicators. The myriad applications based on them can be validly coded into MetaStock as long as there is no hindsight involved, and the logic is well defined. "Continuous and relatively smooth move" is an example of undefined & hindsight-based "logic". To wrap it up, I haven't found any limitations to coding valid strategies in MetaStock. jose '-)

Before we get too excited about the above's signals, take note: jose '-)

Lemonlime, I can practically code almost any condition in MetaStock, as long as it doesn't violate any of nature's laws, such as looking into the future. Having said that, the MACDH Divergence kit includes warning divergence signals which appear on the day prior to the actual divergence signals. These warning signals always appear before each divergence signal, and approx 33% of these signals go on to become actual divergence signals. jose '-)

LemonLime, replacing the MACD Histogram for any other indicator in the MACD Histogram Divergence kit is child's play. jose '-)

Thanks for giving us the oportunity to help you make a decision. I believe that you got some quality responses. MS is a top-notch program and I'm sure that you'll find it useful in analyzing the technical aspects of your trades. Good luck to you. BTW, MS has a built-in function that calculates the predefined MACD indicator. The formula "macd()" returns the value of the MACD indicator (i.e., the solid line). The formula "mov(macd(),9,E)" returns the value of the MACD's signal line (i.e., the dotted line). This is probably fundamental to your original question, but it reinforces what Hayseed was telling you about the abyundant number of stock indicators. Once you start mixing these up, you'll have more variations than you could have ever hoped for.