###  | Quick Start |

#### 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. (Subscription sources may be added in the future to provide this). 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. 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 combine 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. What ever 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. #### Setting Data Sources for Retrieval The { Data | Internet Sources... } menu item can be used to select from available data sources. 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. 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 ##### 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. ##### Mouse shortcuts: Double clicking in any chart expands that chart to full screen. Double clicking again restores its original size. You can drag-and-drop a symbol from the SLFMap into a chart. #### 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 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"). 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 updating your daily charts at the end of the day. 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.

###

[Back To Contents] SSChart is a trademark of Simian Savants LLC Copyright (c) 1999-2001 Simian Savants LLC. All rights reserved.