Setting up a Chart
Select { File | New }
from the menu or select the New icon from the toolbar. This will
open a new chart with no symbol assigned. The default chart type
is "daily" , but this can be modified with { Chart | Properties... }.
Any time you enter a new symbol in a chart, either in the chart
properties dialog, or using the shortcut of just typing a symbol
in a selected chart, the program will attempt to retrieve the
data requested. This may cause it to connect to the internet
site currently configured for retrieving historic data for the
selected time unit (days, weeks, etc.). Depending upon your networking
configuration this may initiate dialing, if you are configured
for dial-up networking and have no current connection. If the
connection can not be made, it may take up to two minutes for
the program to "time-out" and give up trying. With
your internet connection established, type any stock symbol in
the chart and hit <enter>.
At this point data will be downloaded and displayed.
Retrieving Data
There are two types of data retrieved by SSChart. The first
is historic data used for displaying daily, weekly, and monthly
charts. The second is quote data (either realtime or delayed)
that is recorded to build intraday charts, (time frames less
than 1 day). There is no historic retrieval of intraday data
from free data sources. Some subscription sources provide this
feature.
Historical daily, weekly, and monthly charts:
Each time a new symbol is typed in a chart, the program first
checks for data previously downloaded and saved in the .\Data
directory. If there is any data for this symbol it is loaded.
If the { Data | Auto Update On
} menu item is
selected (checked) it will attempt to bring the data up to date
with the latest available.
You can also manually initiate the update with { Data | Update }, or with the cursor
in the chart window { <right
click> | Update }.
The "update" operation attempts to retrieve data
from the last day you already have, forward to today or whatever
date is set in the date fields in {Chart
| Properties... }.
The { Chart | Reload }
operation discards previously retrieved data and attempts to
refetch the full range requested by the date fields in { Chart | Properties... }.
Intraday Charts
In order to get data for intraday charts, the program must
be running and gathering quotes continuously during market hours
(free quote sources). The program saves the data as one minute
data. Other intervals are generated by combining 1-minute data
to produce the desired interval. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30,
and 60 minute intervals are currently supported). To get a full
day's intraday data, the program must be run continually, with
data collection on, the whole time the market is open, otherwise
there will be gaps in the data when you stop collecting. If using
the Yahoo US, source which combines realtime ECN with delayed
quotes, the price is available realtime, but the volume is only
in the delayed quote so the most recent 15 or 20 minutes of the
chart will not have the volume information.
SSChart will save several days of intraday data for each active
symbol. By default, data is collected for all symbols in open
charts as well as all symbols in any open SLFMap
when data collection is on. The actual number of days can be
set in the Data Preferences dialog.
(You actually have to run the program during market hours for
each day you want to accumulate data for.) There is also a preference
setting to accumulate data only for symbols in open charts and
not symbols listed only in an SLFMap.
Note: Selecting an SLF file in the toolbar
selection box does not cause quote data to be collected for the
symbols listed in that file, unless you actually create an SLFMap
by clicking on the SLFMap button in the toolbar. For each symbol
listed in an open SLFMap, SSChart collects and saves 1-minute
data. From this saved 1-minute data it can construct intraday
charts for longer periods.
The Medved QuoteTracker program can
be configured to pass data through to SSChart, if you have
this program. Whatever data limitations are applicable to the
data source set in QuoteTracker pass through to SSChart.
About Retrieved Data
All data suppliers disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy
of the data. This includes the live data streams you pay for,
and even data feeds direct from the exchange. You should double
check any data with multiple sources before relying upon it to
make trading decisions. We do not offer trading advice, any decisions
you make in this regard are yours alone.
About Intraday Data
Since the intraday charts are constructed using quote data,
they do not "see" every trade. There may be some trades
in between quotes that are beyond the range of the current "candle"
being constructed. This means in reality in some cases a candle
may be graphed shorter than it actually should be. When using
the "Yahoo delayed+ECN" source, the ECN data is realtime,
but only for trades on the ECNs reported. There may be other
trades on another market that would affect the range of the current
candle. SSChart puts a gray "halo" around the candle
when the data collected is incomplete. The data is marked this
way in two cases, (1) when the data is constructed from ECN data
only, and (2) when the data collection was interrupted for more
than a minute, in which case it plots data in a straight sloping
progression between the last time it had, and the latest quote.
You will notice when it has been able to fill this data with
delayed quote data, the halo goes away. We have noted with the
ECN data that for some symbols during the day the server may
stop updating the quote for several minutes at a time. You can
tell when this is happening if you notice the time of the last
quote displayed near the top left of a chart and compare this
with current time at the exchange when the last quote was requested
that shown in the right side of the status bar at the bottom
of the main window. (The actual quote time returned by the "Yahoo"
sources, does not contain the seconds, so the seconds will always
show as zero in the chart window when you are collecting quotes
from this source).
Special note for delayed data sources:
Keep collecting data with the delayed sources until the market
close time plus the delay time (usually 15 or 20 minutes past
the official close time).
Even with these problems, the charts are generally accurate
for most actively traded securities, but you need to be alert
to possible data errors. In a future version of SSChart we will
add the use of a subscription data source with more reliable
data. (Unfortunately this will not be free.)
Setting up Studies
There are three available display panes to each chart. By
default, only the top pane is visible. The volume information
will display in the bottom pane by default, but to make this
visible select { View | Bottom
Pane }. Other Studies are selected from the { Studies | Setup... } menu.
Each study has a default group it belongs to for purposes of
routing it to the desired pane for display. Experiment with the
pane selections under { Chart
| Properties... } to get what you want. This area
is still undergoing further development so some changes may occur
between releases.
Selecting Data Sources
The { Data | Internet Sources...
} menu item can be used to select from available data
sources. Different sources can be specified for quotes, daily,
weekly, and monthly data. (The quote source is used for intraday
data). Note different sources may update their data at different
times, and at any given time there may be errors. We have noted
missing days on some sources, that get filled in after a few
days, etc. If you do not seem to be getting good results from
one source, try one of the others available. If you find additional
web sites offering historic stock price data in either HTML or
download format (usually denoted as spreadsheet download format),
let us know the URL and we will attempt to add configurations
for these sites to the program.
Using the quote routers to get
data from myTrack or IB
The quote routers are programs included with SSChart that
interface realtime data sources to SSChart. They also allow you
to connect up to four computers on a LAN each running a copy
of SSChart which will get their data from the one machine running
the quote router. This is done so you can have a cluster of machines
to get more screen space. They will function for free during
the trial period (but you still need an account with the data
provider). After the trial period they are available for a ($10
- $15 a month lease (in addition to the fees you pay the data
provider and exchanges). Note: In order
to use the quote routers, both the router and SSChart must be
running on either Windows NT, 2000, or XP. We recommend
you have a broadband internet connection and enought RAM in your
system to avoid swapping programs to disk. You can check this
by running the task manager program and checking that the current
memory usage does not exceed the physical memory. If swapping
occurs, system response time slows down drastically, close down
applications you don't need. You can tell from the task manager
window which programs are the real memory hogs. There are currently
two quote routers available:
SSQRouterMT
This interfaces to the Track Data "myTrack" data
source. You must add the "SDK" entitlement to your
myTrack account to enable
the quote router.
Additional SSChart features available with myTrack account
include: live intraday charting, historic update of intraday
charts, time&sales display, and (ECN) orderbook and level
II if you have these features enabled in your account.
SSQRouterIB
Interfaces to the TWS (Trader Work Station) of your Interactive
Brokers account. No historic update is available with this
source, but intraday charts can be generated and saved as long
as you are running and collecting quotes during market hours.
You also get a time and sales display. There is currently a limitation
of 40 symbols at one time that you can monitor. This is a TWS
interface limitation not an SSChart limitation.
Usage Instructions:
The router programs SSQRouterIB.exe and SSQRouterMT.exe are
installed in the same directory where you installed SSChart.
We suggest you first create a desktop icon for either of these
you intend to use. You can do this by doing a <right
click> on a blank area of your desktop, selecting {New | Shortcut}, then click
on the {Browse} button
to locate the correct file.
All routers:
When you start one of the quote router programs it opens a
command console window, (which looks like a dos window). If you
select this window and hit <enter>
you will get a status display and a list of commands. The commands
are mainly for debugging purposes. You can minimize this window.
If you close this window, it will exit the router program.
- Start the router program before starting SSChart
- Start SSChart
- Under the SSChart {File |
Preferences} dialog enter the name of the computer
on which the quote router is running in the box labeled "Quote
Router hostname". (Do this for all systems on which SSChart
is going to be run to access the quote router).
- If you will be using intraday charts for symbols that trade
outside of normal US market hours (0930 - 1600 eastern time)
you will need to check the "Keep Extended Market Hour Data"
box under the {File | Preferences}
menu. This would include futures, and stocks trading
on markets outside the US, as well as extended market hour trading
in the US. (You will also need to <right
click> in each intraday chart, and select "Show
All Sessions" to produce the chart.)
- Under the SSChart {Data | Internet sources} dialog, select
the appropriate router under "Quote Data". (For myTrack,
you may also select it as the daily, weekly, and monthly data
source, but this will only work if it is also the quote data
source).
- Exit SSChart on all machines (or shut off quotes) before
stopping the router. Exit the router by clicking on the X button
in the upper right hand corner the the router console task bar,
or type exit<enter>
on the router console.
Quirks:
If SSChart crashes while connected to the quote router, it
may be unable to reconnect when you restart it unless you shut
down and restart the router. Hitting <enter>
on the router console will show what connections are on each
of the four channels. If SSQRouterMT loses connection with the
myTrack server while SSChart is doing a request for some types
of data, it may cause SSChart to hang for approx. 30 seconds.
If SSChart hangs when you attempt to close it, closing the quote
router will let it exit.
SSQrouterIB details:
- You must enable the socket client interface under the TWS
settings menu.
- As soon as you switch on continuous quotes in SSChart, SSQRouterIB
will attempt to connect to TWS. (TWS must be running first, with
the socket client interface enabled). At this point TWS pops
of a dialog asking if you want to accept the connection. Click
yes. The pop-up dialog is sometimes hidden under another window,
you can bring it to the top by selecting TWS from the windows
desktop taskbar.
- Shut off your screen saver on the system running SSQRouterIB,
we have found that TWS stops delivering quotes when the screensaver
kicks on.
- The TWS interface does not deliver the time of each sale,
so we syncronize your system clock the the USNO (atomic clock)
from their web site when you start collecting quotes, and use
the current time when each sale comes through (adjusted for eastern
time) as the time.
- Please check for additional details on our website here.
SSQrouterMT details:
- The first time you run SSQRouterMT, it will prompt for you
username and password to login to your myTrack account. It will
save this in the registry (encrypted) so you only need enter
it once. If you need to change this for some reason, you can
do so with "LOGIN" command on the router console windows.
We suggest you leave the "use tunnel" parameter set
to 0 (off) unless you really need it. We have experience connectivity
problems with this on.
- In order for the Orderbook and Level II features to work,
you must have these enabled on your myTrack account.
- You must have the SDK entitlement enabled on your myTrack
account.
- Please check for additional details on our website here.
Operation differences when using SSQRouterMT:
Since the myTrack connection gives you access to historic
intraday data for backfill, the update and reload functions of
the chart pop-up on intraday charts are active when using this
data source. The { Update } selection
will fetch data to bring and intraday chart upto data. The { Reload } selection will
reload entirely the number of days of data specified under the
{ File
| Preferences } menu from the mytrack server.
Usually after the market closes, we use the batch update button
to update our daily charts, then set { Data | Auto update } and
run a slide show on an intraday chart to make sure all the intraday
data is up to date.
Note the myTrack historic daily data is actually retrived
slower than when you get it from Yahoo, or Dreyfus. The difference
is it is ready as soon as the market closes, where as there is
an hour or more delay with the other sources before the data
is ready.
Getting quote data from the
Medved QuoteTracker program
SSChart can use the built in HTTP server in QuoteTracker to
supply quote data (if you have the QuoteTracker program). To
do this first follow the directions for enabling the built-in
HTTP web server in the QuoteTracker program as described in the
QuoteTracker program help. You must configure it for the default
port number of 16239. Next create a portfolio in QuoteTracker
named "SSChart" and add one valid symbol to it. This
portfolio must have at least one symbol in it for the communication
with SSChart to function properly. Lastly select the "QuoteTracker"
data source for quotes under {
Data | Internet Sources... } in SSChart, and be sure
to have the QuoteTracker program running before you enable the
{ Data | Get Continuous Quotes
} or create an SLFMap in SSChart. Note: If you have
not paid to register QuoteTracker then that program will only
activate its HTTP web server if you have a minimum "ad click"
percentage of .8 percent as of the time of this writing.
Setting Colors
The study colors are applied when the studies are created.
Other color selections are made under the { Chart | Color... } menu. To change
the background color select {
Chart | Color... }, highlight the Item BackGround
in the list box, and either click the [Color...]
button or double click the item name. All other items shown may
have their colors specified in a similar manner.
Once you have a chart setup to you liking, exit the SSChart
program so the setting will be saved. When you restart, the entire
layout with custom settings should be restored. This is the easiest
way to maintain your chart setup. Type a new symbol in the chart
to view a different stock. Another mechanism for saving your
settings and applying them to new charts is Chart Favorites.
Chart Favorites
You can now save your favorite chart layouts and save them
to a file. Once you have created a couple of favorite charts
it is easy to create as many charts with the saved characteristics
as you want. Create a chart to your liking and use the { Chart | Add to Favorites... }
menu item to save the chart settings to a file. The filename
you chose will appear as a submenu item under the { Chart } menu the next time you look
there. You can now create as many charts of that type as you
want by selecting the favorite name from the { Chart } menu.
Printing
Chart windows can be printed and will be centered on the page.
You need to experiment with the chart window dimensions and page
orientation until you get something to your liking You can view
the chart window before you print it with { File | Print Preview }. If it looks
OK on the screen it should also look OK on the printer.
Note that the chart window is colored in the Print Preview
window. If you have a black and white printer and use candlesticks
in your charts, then the up candles will print with a black outline
and the down candles will print solid black. If the background
is any other color than white the colors of the items will be
changed so that the background can appear white.
Hints & Shortcuts
<Right-click>
Right clicking in the various windows brings up a menu specific
to that window type. Some of the selections are only available
in this pop-up menu and not in the main menu.
Use the favorites feature
First and most important, after you configure a chart to look
the way you like it, save it as a named favorite by selection
{ Chart | Add to Favorites...
}. It will be saved as a named file with the .fav
extension in the FAVORITE subdirectory
and also its name will appear under the {
Chart } menu. You will then save yourself the tedium
of setting everything up again for a new chart of this type.
You can set a favorite as the default chart that gets created
when you press the { File | New
} or { Chart | New
} button or the [New] icon from the toolbar.
To do this, select { Edit | Favorites...
}, select the chart from the list you want to be the
default, check the Set as default box and press [OK].
Load new symbols into the same chart
Whenever any chart window is the current window, you can just
start typing a new stock symbol on the keyboard. The symbol appears
in the upper left corner of the window while you type. When you
hit the <enter> key, the program attempts to load data
for the new symbol. You can open as many windows as you like,
but each one takes up memory resources. Rather than opening 100
different charts for 100 different stocks, I tend to open 3 or
4 with different time frames, then type in new symbols in these
or drop them in from an SLFMap. (Using drag-and-drop avoids typing
errors).
Mouse shortcuts
Double clicking in any chart expands that chart to full screen.
Double clicking again restores its original size.
Drag-and-Drop
All windows except the chart window support drap-and-drop
in the conventional way by pressing the left mouse button down,
dragging the mouse over another window and releasing the left
mouse button. When dragging from the chart window or the horserace
window the <shift>
key must be pressed in addition to the left mouse button. You
can drag-and-drop a symbol from the SLFMap into a chart or another
SLFMap for example. See the following table for possible drag-and-drop
operations.
Supported Drag-and-Drop Operations
Window Type |
Drag Source |
Drop Destination |
Chart |
<shift key> |
yes |
SLFMap |
yes |
yes |
HorseRace |
<shift key> |
yes |
Quotes |
no |
yes |
Time&Sales |
no |
yes |
OrderBook |
no |
yes |
Level2 |
no |
yes |
MarketPulse |
no |
no |
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Symbol List Files
An even better shortcut for scrolling through all the stocks
you are interested in, is to use a symbol list file (SLF). A
symbol list file is a simple text file containing ticker symbols,
and optionally the company name one per line.
To create a symbol list file:
Use Notepad to create the file (or another text editor).
The file format needs to be plain text, do not use Word
doc format, as this contains binary information. (You can use
Word or Wordpad however if you save the file as text with line
breaks). Enter your symbols, one on each line. The ticker symbol
is the first entry on the line and anything following it is used
as the company name. (If the ticker symbol happens to contain
spaces then it needs to be surrounded by "double quotes").
When saving the file for the first time, you must select {File | Save as} from the
notepad menu, and then set the "Save as type:"
field to "All Files". Give the file a name with
the extension ".slf" and save it in the SLF subdirectory
under where SSChart is installed. It will then appear in the
toolbar pulldown list where it can be selected.
The company name is optional, if it does not appear in the
.slf file, SSChart will attempt to get it from the data
stream (if present) and if not it will check its symbol database
for a match. If the program cannot find a name for the symbol,
the name field of the chart will be left blank.
The example below shows the contents of the file index_yahoo.slf
which contains the special ticker symbols used to retrieve indices
from the Yahoo finance website. (Note comment lines may be inserted
by beginning the line with the "#" character.
# index symbol names for yahoo
^DJI Dow Jones 30
^SPC S & P 500
^IXIC Nasdaq composite
^RUT Russell 2000
^TYX 30 yr bond
Save all symbol list files which you create with the extension
.slf (symbol list file) in the SLF subdirectory.
To use a symbol file
Select the SLF file you want to view from the selection box
in the SLF Toolbar. Once you have selected a SLF file you can
then choose to view it in a chart or SLFMap window by pressing
the appropriate button next the the selection box. The main window
status line at the bottom of the main window should display a
message indicating the file was loaded. (You can also see this
message in the status message window, which will magically appear
if you hit F4).
What it does for you in a chart window
Now for the neat part. Make any chart window your currently
selected chart (i.e. <click>
on one of your charts so it becomes the active chart). You can
now scroll through your list of stock symbols you loaded by using
the <Page up>,
<Page Down>,
< Home>, and
<End> keys on
the keyboard.
Page Down |
loads the next symbol from the list into the
chart |
Page Up |
loads the previous |
Home |
loads the first |
End |
loads the last |
When you first open the symbol list file, it does not affect
the current chart. Start by hitting the <Home>
key to load the first symbol from the list, then scroll through
the rest with <Page Down>.
You can also select { Chart
| Slide Show } to automatically scroll through the
slf list in a chart once, loading a new symbol every few seconds.
This is especially useful for intraday your daily charts at the
end of the day if you are using a data source supporting intraday
backfill (currently only myTrack). You should first select { Data | Auto Update On }.
Once you've completed the update, switch Auto
Update off again so you can scroll back through the
charts without the delay of it trying to update them again.
What it does for you in an SLFMap window
An SLFMap window lays out all the
symbols in the SLF file in a rectangular grid where each symbol
occupies a cell. All the cells are colored from the green to
the red color spectrum. The color coding shows you the relative
change of a group of stocks during the day (updated by quote
data). If you have an SLFMap open, you can drag-and-drop a symbol
from the SLFMap to an open chart. (You do this by positioning
the mouse cursor over the symbol in the SLFMap, press and hold
down the left mouse button, then move the cursor into an open
chart and release the mouse button. This will load that symbol
into the chart.
Keyboard shortcuts
There are a number of hotkeys assigned to speed common operations
like, changing the time-frame of a chart, changing candles sizes,
and selecting zoom settings. You can find these listed in the
menus next to the specific items they apply to.
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