Hey... where did that MetaStock programming competition go? :eek: Oh, here it is. Ok, let's see who can work it out before Sunday's release of the first line of code! :roll: jose '-)

PremiumData, suppliers of quality data (as used by myself), have kindly offered to add the following to the competition's prize pool: One year's data subscription plus complete data history to any one of ASX, SGX, US Stocks, Futures or Forex markets, valued at between US$290 and US$440. With a choice of five quality prizes to be won, MetaStock code never looked so good! :) jose '-)

George, personal details are not relevant to this competition. jose '-)

Congratulations Ripfree! :D

Jose, What if a stock only trades on one month per year? Perhaps something like: nuMonth:=Month()<>Ref(Month(),-1) OR (Month()=Ref(Month(),-1) AND Year()<>Ref(Year(),-1)) OR Cum(1)=2 ; might be more bullet-proof?? wabbit :D P.S. Nice way to get around the not-counting-the-first-bar-in-the-chart problem!

... and another quick question before I sit down and try to think this one out.... What if the monthly hi/lo is reached several times in that month? Does the indicator have to show only one hi/lo per month, or on every occassion it is attained? wabbit :D P.S. I can see this is going to be using up some of my time when I am supposed to be doing other things!

When try to put the Creation of Mr Rodney Platt into my Metastock 9.1 Pro for E-Signal, didn't work correctly. What i mean? I put into the Metastock: --->Start---> Days:=Cum(1); DaysLoaded:=LastValue(Days); DaysRemaining:=DaysLoaded-Days; StartOfMonth:=(Month()>Ref(Month(),-1)) OR (Month()=1 AND Ref(Month(),-1)=12); Months:=Cum(StartOfMonth); MonthsLoaded:=LastValue(Months); MonThsRemaining:=MonthsLoaded-Months; EndOfMonth:=(Month()<Ref(Month(),1)) OR (Month()=12 AND Ref(Month(),1)=1); HighDaysAgo:=If(EndOfMonth,HighestSinceBars(1,StartOfMonth,HIGH),0); LastHigh:=LastValue(HighestSinceBars(1,StartOfMonth,HIGH)); LowDaysAgo:=If(EndOfMonth,LowestSinceBars(1,StartOfMonth,LOW),0); LastLow:=LastValue(LowestSinceBars(1,StartOfMonth,LOW)); DaysPassed:=BarsSince(StartOfMonth); LastDay:=LastValue(DaysPassed); DaysLeftInMonth:=If(MonthsRemaining>0, LastValue(ValueWhen(LastValue(MonthsRemaining+PREV-PREV), Endofmonth,DaysPassed)),LastDay)-DaysPassed; currenthigh:=If(MonthsRemaining>0, LastValue(ValueWhen(LastValue(MonthsRemaining+PREV-PREV), EndOfMonth,HighDaysAgo)),LastHigh); currentLow:=If(MonthsRemaining>0, LastValue(ValueWhen(LastValue(MonthsRemaining+PREV-PREV), EndOfMonth,LowDaysAgo)),LastLow); HighDay:=If(DaysLeftInMonth=Currenthigh,1,0); LowDay:=If(DaysLeftInMonth=CurrentLow,-1,0); HighDay; LowDay; <---End<--- But when i put the same Formula without the: --->Start---> and the <---End<--- into the Metastock, the Formula work! Dear Jose what happen? George K.

Maurice Your "EndofMonth" definition prevents any indicator that it's used with from plotting on the last bar of a chart. Roy MetaStock Tips & Tools

Don't give too much away to the competition, John. ;) I don't know, George - that indicator plots signals (in its own window!) just fine here, although a bit slow. Maybe the Highs & Lows in your charts are missing??? :eek: jose '-)

Hindsight-based functions such as LastValue/ZigZag/Peak/Trough have their place in the scheme of things as visual tools, but should not be used to generate backtesting/trading signals, as these will shift. Hindsight is an important component of learning from past experience. The "Month's High & Low signals" in this competition is also a visual tool - it facilitates the spotting of month's Highs & Lows, but cannot be used for backtesting because the last signals are always (except on the last day of month) dynamic - i.e., they shift as a new high/low appears. jose '-)