I'm pretty new to Metastock and trading in general. I'm having trouble knowing when to use Explorer vs. when to use the System Tester. It looks almost as if they do the same thing. The only thing I can come up with is the Tester looks back at what stocks have done in the past and the Explorer looks at the present. I've tried exploring a large number of stocks against a large number of systems at one time, but the information overwhelms me. Also, isn't there a feature where I can set up layouts and open them daily to look at buy & sell signals?

hey gnuckles.... you have just about labeled the 4 corners of metastock.... the explorer section is pretty much for scaning all securites for some condition..... such as those 'closing above their 10 day sma', or those with a 'macd cross' or those where the 'rsi crossed above 20'..... you can also scan for candlestick formations..... with some of the plugins you can scan for patterns.... the system tester is pretty much for testing some buy/sell rules you developed or some from someone else.... just to see if they preform well over time.... or perhaps to locate some trading rules that work well with something you trade...... the layouts, which you create, are mostly for following the markets in ways that you do repeatedly.... save and place them on your lower tool bar for 1 click access.... the buy/sell alerts are from attaching experts to your charts.... the buy/sell rules in that expert, either yours or metas, will signal in various means when the conditions exist..... if your in a lala lala lala mood, you can attach them to dozens of charts at a time..... they work very well.... when you make layouts remember that some charts can be behind the ones in front, that way sliding over the far right will reveal the latest data on those underneath....... and then there's templates.....h

Hayseed, How many charts are you following? Do you keep track of them all? Your Computer must have a ton of memory!!!