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Dan,
We at StockWiz (http://www.stockwiz.com) have taken a slightly different
approach. We ask that you maintain a StockWiz database on your PC. This
database will typically contain daily prices for about 10,000 US companies.
Then we provide a set of free programs that scan your disk for all Metastock
directories and create a batch file that in one step everyday it will
update all of your Metastock directories. By updating the split factors
within the StockWiz database you do not need to worry about that in the
Metastock files.
Since StockWiz (without the data) is also free to download from our web
site you can use it with data from other vendors. Just place your
data in a text file with records of the format
TICKER,YYYYMMDD,OPEN,HIGH,LOW,CLOSE,VOLUME. In other words the dates
must be in the format of 19970131. The compression will also be
better if the Volume is expressed in 100s. I have tried this with
the daily files from Quote.Com and it worked just fine. You will
though need to write a little utility to reformat the data.
The people at Equis do have in a way of importing split factors from
a text file but they do not make it available to third party developers.
Just look for the <SPLIT> file header in their documentation. It is listed
as a header but it is not explained. When I asked their technical support
for an explanation they told me that it is for use by Metastock only.
--Steve
At 09:44 PM 7/3/97 -0400, DanMartinz@xxxxxxx wrote:
>John,
>if a user installs the full Investor's Reference Library on his drive, a
>third party vendor should be able maintain this database with little or no
>manual changes to stock splits or ticker changes. Because the IRL uses the
>older 256 files/directory format, the smaller data vendors should be able to
>write a small update program to automatically change MetaStock files for
>stock splits and ticker name changes. Since many data vendors are already
>writing their own mini-technical analysis programs, they should be able to do
>this one simple task. I am not asking for a lot here and this would not a
>complicated program.
>
>Daniel.
>
>
>In a message dated 97-07-02 14:53:50 EDT, John Manasco writes:
>
><< Dan
>
> Regarding stock splits: Metastock has no way of knowing about a stock
> split the Downloader doesn't see so if you're not using the Downloader
> to directly collect prices you're going to have to do the adjustments
> yourself. The information on adjustments is sent by the data provider to
> the Downloader.
>
> Maintaining a second database and the inconvenience of doing manual
> adjustments seem to be the price you pay for not using one of the built
> in data providers. I use Telescan and get equities, indices, and mutual
> funds for $29.95 per month. Plus I only have one database to maintain
> and the stocks adjustments are done automatically. Do you really think
> the savings are worth it? Maybe so.
>
> John
>
>
> DanMartinz@xxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> > I will be buying the Investor's Reference Library CD-ROM stock price
>database
> > which uses the old 256 files per directory format. It has 5 years of
>data.
> > The new MetaStock v6 directory format is not an issue here.
> >
> > I have MetaStock v6. Every single information provider on the Net makes
>you
> > maintain their database IN ADDITION TO METASTOCK'S. I have a 1.6 GB drive
> > with Microsoft's DriveSpace 3 compression software. I thought I had
>plenty
> > of room. Now I find I will barely be able to squeeze all the data I want
> > because of this duplication. I don't need a second database! The CD-ROM
>I
> > get with MetaStock has 5 years of data. I can get others with even more.
> > Why would I need a second and smaller 2 mos database maintained daily?
> >
> > Also, many stock price info providers make you MANUALLY go in and change
> > stock splits and ticker name changes. If I maintained all US stocks, I
>would
> > have to change 15 per day! Instead of wasting time and effort creating a
> > technical analysis program, stock price info providers should concentrate
>on
> > information and conversion to other technical analysis program databases
> > only. You can now get a cheap TA program for $50. These TA programs are
> > Windows 95 based and always better than the programs supplied by info
> > providers. They specialize in this field. The only way I can have
> > everything done automatically is if I use MetaStock's Reuters service.
> They
> > want $35/month. There is no way I am going to pay $35/month for just US
> > Stocks end-of-day!
> >
> > Why is this so complicated???!!
> >>
>
>
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