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Any Metastock to ASCII conversion tools that actually work (for a non techie??)
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Joined: 6/25/2012(UTC)
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I've been trying to find a simple utility that will help me to convert Metastock data files to ASCII/TXT files. I am unable to use The Downloader's built in converter because the ASCII files it generates automatically replaces the first character of the ticker symbol with an underscore at the beginning of the file name which causes problems.
I have found the following tools which 'apparantly' can convert the files, but I am not a Techie by any means and have not been able to get any of them to work... even after spending many hours trying to learn how to become a computer programmer!
1. MsCmdLineUtilsV1.8.1 (Mansoor's toolkit)
2. Atem-0.3.5 (https://bitbucket.org/rudimeier/atem/overview)
3. MSConvert (http://themech.net/2008/08/reading-metastock-files/#ms_convert)
If anyone can help me, I would appreciate it. I dont actually even mind PAYING for a piece of software that can do this.. if only I could find one!!!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered, Registered Users, Subscribers
Joined: 3/6/2010(UTC)
Posts: 113
Location: London
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I've never had the problem of the Downloader replacing the first character of the ticker symbol with an underscore. Is it possible to give the header and one bar of data as an example? It could be something in the settings.
I do a lot of ASCII file converting. Most of the time I use the Downloader although sometimes I write my own programs, but only when the Downloader can't do what I want to do, such as convert a large number of bars (e.g. over 65,500).
Thanks.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Registered, Registered Users
Joined: 6/25/2012(UTC)
Posts: 12
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Thanks for the reply. Here are the conversion settings I am using in the downloader (Version 11.0):
Source File Type: Metastock
Source File Name: CHINA POWER ORD (selected using the file browse function)
Destination File Type: ASCII Text
Conversion report filename: _380_HKD.TXT
First line of converted file as follows:
<DTYYYYMMDD>,<OPEN>,<HIGH>,<LOW>,<CLOSE>,<VOL>
20041015,2.8750,3.0000,2.8250,2.9500,5066271
Note that the actual symbol name for this security is 2380.HK so you can see the '2' has been dropped off the front of the reulting file. I have no idea why its renamed as "HKD" either - I assume the downloader is using the currency field for this.
The problem is that I have several securities such as 1380.HK, 3380.HK and 8380.HK - and when they are all converted together in the same batch, they just overwite each other because the resulting ASCII files will be renamed to '_380_.TXT'
All the securities originate from, and are updated daily using Reuters DataLink.
The workaround I am currently using is to convert securities in batches to different folders named 0-999, 1000-1999,2000-2999 etc and then when all the files are there, I just rename all the files in the folders usign a batch command to replace the underscore with their appropriate number.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered, Registered Users, Subscribers
Joined: 3/6/2010(UTC)
Posts: 113
Location: London
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What operating system do you run?
You might want to contact Equis support for this. EDIT: Sorry, you are right. It does place an underscore in the ASCII file as you said.
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Rank: Member
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Joined: 6/25/2012(UTC)
Posts: 12
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Thanks - I'll try to take it up with Equis support and report back as and when I get a reply.
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Rank: Member
Groups: Registered, Registered Users
Joined: 6/25/2012(UTC)
Posts: 12
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Here is the reply I received from Equis, FYI:
When you convert from
MetaStock to ASCII format, you do not have to specify a file name.
However, if you do, the download builds a filename using the following
procedure:
1) start with the ticker symbol of the security being converted
2) replace all illegal filename symbols and periods with underscore characters
3) If the string of characters is 8 characters or longer, drop all but the
first 6 and and an underscore to the end.
4) Add a letter representing the periodicity of the data to the end.
5) add .TXT to the end.
If you enter a filename of you own, that name will be used as you entered it as long as it does not exceed 8 characters and uses no illegal filename symbols
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Any Metastock to ASCII conversion tools that actually work (for a non techie??)
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