malaguti wrote:Hi there, I was hoping to get an unbiased view of Metastock.
Being the official Metastock forum provided by the software owner probably means any answers here are going to contain some bias!
malaguti wrote:Having used charting packages like esignal, sharescope and now more recently omnitrader all promising the world and cant even deliver the most basic could somebody tell me whether a very simple wishlist can be achieved by metastock:
As a software programmer, I know there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution and as I trader I know this is particularly true. Unless you pay a great deal of money to have something written specifically for you and you NEVER change your trading style or habits, then you have to purchase the product which best suits the needs at the most basic level of the majority of traders, then can be customised to meet the additional individual requirements.
malaguti wrote:1) and by far the most important is a scanning tool. I know MS has one but is it based on its own systems? ie If I just want to scan all stocks where the SMA is above 10, 20 and 30 ie all 3 in alignment. is this straight out of the box, or does it need to customised? And how about if I then wanted to see which of these had the fast stochastic below 80 on a 5 period, or below 50 on a 14period..again, standard or needs to be customised? How simple is customising. I just want to find trades, not learn a programming language.
Many people have complained about the MetaStock Formula Language being too simplistic, but that is the whole idea. Although there are a few number of programmers who can trade, and a few traders who can program, the number of traders who are proficient programmers or programmers who are proficient traders are much fewer. In any case, MetaStock was designed a long time ago with the aim of supporting traders through a simple scripting language built into the charting package. It doesn't take a lot of effort to become proficient at writing basic criteria scripts like you mention; read the MS Users manual, download the free Equis Formula Primer and work through the exercises contained there, then start working by customising your explorations (scans) to meet your own requirements. If you get stuck along the way, there are people around here who will help, so long as you have put in the basic effort yourself first.
Could you imagine how long the list of scans would be if the software programmers had to provide every feasible scan/indicator/expert/signal generation system for every type of trader? Don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds really selfish to hear, "Why isn't MY basic scan included in the product?" I don't think there is anything complex about Z-Scores of Twice Normalized Detrended Transformed data but it didn't come with the standard distribution of MetaStock, I had to write it myself; and I care little for simple moving average arrangements, thereby demonstrating that no one solution will suit everyone.
Over time, your trading needs will change as markets change, so having a product which only works out of the box is not going to be able to keep up. You need a product which you can customise and keep customising as times change; which behoves you learning how to customise the software.
malaguti wrote:2) Can I create multiple watchlists? and scan on these watchlists?
There are various methods of organising your data. Some of these are achievable just within MetaStock, some are achieved through using good data providers who allow their clients to customise the storage of their MetaStock data, or even provide ready-made "custom" lists for the clients. There is a lot of information regarding lists on the Forum, do a search and see if your questions are already asked and answered.
malaguti wrote:3) New indicators such as darvas boxes/donchian channels i believe is out of the box for v11? Can I scan for breakouts of these or do I have to trawl through every stock in my watchlist constantly monitoring positions.
MetaStock has several methods to monitor for triggers and alerts. Which one you use will depend on your requirements. If you only watch a few open charts at one time, then you might use an Expert Advisor to produce audio/visual alerts when your custom criteria is met; or, if you are watching an entire market then you might have to find another solution using the Explorer to conduct scans (can normally only be done manually, but there are solutions involving writing Windows scripts to automate the process)
malaguti wrote:Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated before i commit even more money on something.
Equis offer a try-before-you-buy period. Contact them, download and install the app, read the documentation, get some data and see if it meets your needs. If it does, buy it, if not then you haven't lost anything, except maybe a bit of time, but if you learn something along the way then it isn't really wasted then is it? Note: MetaStock doesn't suit everyone, but learning what doesn't suit you is just as important as learning what does suit you. Thomas Edison tested thousands and thousands of different materials before finding tungsten worked in his incandescent light bulb; when asked if he had wasted time before making his discovery, Edison replied that he had discovered one material which worked in lightbulbs and discovered several thousand which didn't!
MetaStock is a simple charting tool with a basic scripting language, which means the learning curve is pretty flat and many traders can get up and running in a short time. There are a lot more powerful charting (cum trading) applications which contain much more powerful programming languages and tools, but these have much steeper learning curves and it can take a loooong time to become proficient with these tools. Regardless of the software used, you are going to learn some sort of programming langauage; the complexity of that language is up to you. There is no easy ride and no free lunch; you are going to have to do some work yourself if you want to use a computer to support your trading decision making.
