Hi,

I'm building an exploration based on daily data and as a part of that exploration I would like to compare today's development to last week and last month.

For example I would like to identify those stocks which has a down day which follows a down week which follows a down month. The down week wasn't a problem but can any body help med with the down month based on daily data?

 

Thanks,

Hi Roy, I mean last calender month. My solution for week changes: WeekOpen:= If(DayOfWeek() = 1, Ref(O,-5), If(DayOfWeek() = 2, Ref(O,-6), If(DayOfWeek() = 3, Ref(O,-7), If(DayOfWeek() = 4, Ref(O,-8), Ref(O,-9))))); WeekClose:= If(DayOfWeek() = 1, Ref(C,-1), If(DayOfWeek() = 2, Ref(C,-2), If(DayOfWeek() = 3, Ref(C,-3), If(DayOfWeek() = 4, Ref(C,-4), Ref(C,-5))))); {This is the correct formula writeif(WeekClose - WeekOpen > 0,"UP","DOWN") But writeif() doesn't work...} If(WeekClose - WeekOpen > 0,1,0) Thanks,

Hi rasj Here's another couple of code snippets that you might find helpful. The down-count method allows you to generate any fixed interval range of bars relating to the last bar, 21 bars per time-frame in this case. To mark off the same size time-frames from the first bar simply use Cum(1) to create an up-count. Looking at APPL in the US market it seems that 21 periods is more representative of the average number of bars in a month than 22. {Nominal End of Month} DownCount:=LastValue(Cum(1))-Cum(1); NominalEOM:=DownCount/21 = Int(DownCount/21); NominalEOM; {Nominal End of Month CLOSE} DownCount:=LastValue(Cum(1))-Cum(1); NominalEOM:=DownCount/21 = Int(DownCount/21); ValueWhen(1,NominalEOM,C); Roy

Hi rasj I suspect that your problem is not ValueWhen() but that your explorations are set for "minimum records". Change your exploration Options setting from "Load Minimum Records" to say 100 records. This button is used for ALL explorations, though there is an Options button for individual explorations that sets the effective date and periodicity. ValueWhen() and a few other functions will return wrong or N/A (null) results when used with the Minimum Records setting. Any function using an Exponential Moving Average internally will appear to work correctly but the fact is that you need up to five times as much data loaded than the Periods parameter stipulates. In general the Explorer will load about 30% more data than the maximum Periods parameter setting. However, that's way too little to generate an accurate result. ADX and all of its derivatives use Wilders Smoothing (a form of EMA). as do a surprising number of MetaStock functions. . It's surprising just how many MetaStock functions use an EMA internally - somewhere north of 30% is my estimate, so don't skimp on the amount of data loaded. ValueWhen() is notorious in this respect, but if you load the same amount of data as you use for each chart you can't go too far wrong. I'd suggest that you also test your new exploration columns as indicators. With an indicator you can add an output line for each variable you construct and actually see how it performs, correctly or otherwise. An exploration gives you no visual feedback and it's much harder to identify problems in an exploration than in an indicator. BarsSince(), HighestSince(), LowestSince(), HighestSinceBars(), LowestSinceBars(), and in fact any function using an Nth parameter will need sufficient data loaded for it to function properly. Hope this helps. Roy

But if I tried this instead - vola! {Find close of previous month} M:= Month()<>Ref(Month(),-1) OR Cum(1)=2; ValueWhen(1,M,Ref(C,-1)) Do you like it? Robin

Hi Robin Just saw your post. Looks good, particularly the use of Cum(1) to generate an initial signal. :-) Roy

Hi Robin The newer Forum DLL is 188 KB in size whereas the first version is a little smaller at 164 KB. There are less functions in the original version and the function names tend to be different. At least a couple of functions were discontinued in the later version, but several other functions were added. Roy