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Re: A newbie's first question



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Me too neo
 
Theo
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  <DIV 
  style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From: 
  neo 
  To: <A title=metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  href="mailto:metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 10:14 
  PM
  Subject: RE: A newbie's first 
  question
  
  I 
  agree that a severe limitation of MetaStock is the lack of a Portfolio 
  Manager.
  <SPAN 
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  <SPAN 
  class=210421321-30112000>neo
  <SPAN 
  class=210421321-30112000> 
  
    <FONT face=Tahoma 
    size=2>-----Original Message-----From: <A 
    href="mailto:owner-metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>owner-metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    [mailto:owner-metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Lionel 
    IssenSent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 12:31 PMTo: <A 
    href="mailto:metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxSubject: 
    Re: A newbie's first question
    Put all the stocks you own into a separate folder, 
    then you can follow them easily.
    Lionel Issen<A 
    href="mailto:lissen@xxxxxxxxx";>lissen@xxxxxxxxx
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      ----- Original Message ----- 
      <DIV 
      style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From: 
      Bill 
      Irwin 
      To: <A title=MetaStock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
      href="mailto:MetaStock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>Mail List - MetaStock Submit 
      (E-mail) 
      Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 
      11:48 PM
      Subject: A newbie's first 
      question
      
      Hello list members:
       
      I'm a brand spanking new MS owner 
      (7.03 EOD) and I've just spent the last three days going over the Getting 
      Started, DownLoader and User Manual.  I have to say that, aside from 
      some keyboard weakness in the Browse dialogue boxes, I'm impressed with 
      the software's number crunching ability and, what appears to be (at this 
      early stage), it's configurability for tuning.  I'm far from being a 
      technical expert (which will soon become glaringly apparent to you) so I'm 
      feeling more than a bit overwhelmed at this point.
       
      After scanning the entire contents of 
      these three manuals, and reading a good deal of them, I haven't seen any 
      mention of where you tell MS that you've taken a position, so that it 
      would know to alert you to exit.  The only thing I can think off (at 
      this early stage) is to attach an exit alert to a stock when you take a 
      position and to remove the alert after you exit so that you aren't alerted 
      when you're out.
       
      What I'm hoping to be able to do is to 
      update prices daily, then run an Exploration across all the stocks that 
      will alert for buy/short on stocks I'm out of and alert for exits on 
      stocks I have positions in.  Then review the alerts, make my trading 
      decisions and book my trades for the next day.  I know this must 
      sound very naive to those of you who know MS but we all had to start 
      somewhere, right?
       
      Perhaps some of you could give me an 
      overview of your normal daily activities, aside from the arduous task of 
      testing new systems and tweaking the indicators in search for the optimal 
      system.  I know I have a lot of work ahead of me just to get a basic 
      understanding of the indicators, so for now, I'm just working with the 
      canned ones.  Getting a feel for how some seasoned users use the 
      software each day would go a long way towards helping me know where I 
      should be focusing my time at this point.
       
      I never expected MS to be a portfolio 
      manager but I thought it should at least know which stocks I have a 
      position in so it knows what and when to alert me.
       
      Thanks for any advise and suggestions 
      you may be willing to share with me.
       
      New List Member Bio:  I've 
      been interested in technical analysis ever since I bought my Commodore PET 
      2001 (circa 1978) and became fascinated that this 40 column screen, 8 Kb 
      RAM, cassette tape I/O device could be programmed to follow my 
      instructions.  I typed in a program (Commodore BASIC) I found in a 
      magazine that monitored stocks and enhanced it to (among other thins) be 
      able to scale the chart so that the 18, or so, horizontal lines I had 
      available would be fully utilized regardless of the unit value.  It 
      taught me how to be very frugal with my coding as every module had to fit 
      within the approx. 6 Kb of code space I had available after the data 
      arrays were loaded.
       
      The program used a 5, 15 & 40 week 
      simple moving average and buy alerts were triggered when the 15 
      was below the 40 and the 5 crossed above the 15, indicating the 
      bottom may have been reached.  The buy alert operated the other 
      way.  There were no online data feeds in those days (at least not 
      ones that the average mortal could afford) so I weekly keyed in the 
      closing prices for the 50 - 60 stocks I followed from the Saturday 
      paper.  The only criteria I used in picking which stocks to follow 
      were: I had to be able to pronounce it; the annual high/low spread was 
      around 100%, so I had stocks that cycled ... somewhat.
       
      Using this primitive system, and 
      accounting for trade commissions, I was able to generate (on paper) an 
      annual return of 30% - 35% over a 3 year period.  This experience 
      convinced me that even a simple mechanical system could, if emotions were 
      eliminated, generate superior returns.  I have no idea what the TSE 
      market was returning in those days (1982 - 1985), but I doubt it was 
      30%.  The problem back then was that what few programs existed were 
      way too expensive for my budget (What budget?  In those days it all 
      went on beer!).  This was way before Windows.
       
      I recently became a victim of 
      corporate downsizing (anyone been following GAC.TO for the last 2 years?) 
      and lost my job after 15 years of continuous employment - exactly 1 1/2 
      years after my previous employer was acquired by Geac.  The 
      reasonable severance I was able to negotiate has given me both the time 
      and the funds to finally see if I can really do anything meaningful with 
      technical trading.  After browsing all the indicators described in 
      the MS manual I feel inclined to build my old 5, 15 & 40 MA system and 
      see if it can still generate 30%, and forget about the steep learning 
      curve I know awaits me!
       
      Actually, I'm hoping that over the 
      next few months I can build a reasonable understanding of some of the 
      indicators and develop proficiency in MS so that I can paper trade to a 
      point where I have some degree of confidence in whatever "system" I come 
      up with.  An unrealistically optimistic scenario would be me, in 
      6 months, responding to my wife's questions about when am I ever going to 
      get another job, by stating that I'm making more money trading than I was 
      in my old day job.  I know.  I hear you all muttering, "What 
      a dreamer this guy is!"  I would like to get there some day and 
      I know it won't happen in 6 months.
       
      Anyway, I plan to be a regular reader 
      of this list, in addition to some technical trading newsgroups, and would 
      welcome any suggestions you might be willing to toss my way - especially 
      those things you've learned that made you say, "Now, if I'd only 
      learned this when I first got into TA trading..."
       
      Profitable trades,
      Bill
      <A 
      href="mailto:Bill-Irwin@xxxxxxxx";>Bill-Irwin@xxxxxxxx