# Technical analysis software



## Aussiesteve (12 January 2018)

I'm more of FA type of investor for the mid to long term. I'm interested in combining this with a bit of TA so I can better time my entries and exits. My problem is limited time. By way of accelerating my learning in this area I was wondering is there any software out there (free or paid) that actually helps the user identify key patterns (dojis, cup and handles, etc etc). 
Failing that what is the best user friendly software to use for TA?
Or maybe I'm better off to just stick with ASX charts and learn a few patterns every week?


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## tech/a (12 January 2018)

There isn’t a software with. Built in pattern finders.
You need to write code in software to find patterns 

I have trick in finding these

Simply look for a breakout which is easily written and then set a look back of 7 days
Or less 
You’ll find lots of patterns appear .


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## systematic (12 January 2018)

Aussiesteve said:


> I'm more of FA type of investor for the mid to long term. I'm interested in combining this with a bit of TA so I can better time my entries and exits.




If you’re going this route, I’d suggest making sure that the type of TA you’re going to use us appropriate for  the ‘mid to long term’  ie learning a style that results in trades of a few days or weeks won’t match your intention. 

Colin Nicholson is prob not a bad way to start, in that he teaches a TA style that is meant for that: riding the bigger trends underpinned by fundamentals; and you won’t have to change your FA approach to implement. You can get his stuff in books or website and he uses a charting program that I believe he goes into how to use that for his style etc.


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## pixel (12 January 2018)

... or you could try IncredibleCharts 
that package lets you screen markets for specific patterns.


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## tech/a (12 January 2018)

systematic said:


> If you’re going this route, I’d suggest making sure that the type of TA you’re going to use us appropriate for  the ‘mid to long term’  ie learning a style that results in trades of a few days or weeks won’t match your intention.
> 
> Colin Nicholson is prob not a bad way to start, in that he teaches a TA style that is meant for that: riding the bigger trends underpinned by fundamentals; and you won’t have to change your FA approach to implement. You can get his stuff in books or website and he uses a charting program that I believe he goes into how to use that for his style etc.




Personally not a lover of Nicholson. Bit of a fossil with analysis.
But with T/A (The analysis) its only the Entry and Exit that's key.
Time spent in a trade is only Trade management. The balance will
be a tried and tested methodology.

The only way to be sure is through testing ideas and to do that you'll need something like Amibroker
or python linked to AB or something similar---and the skill to do that.

*Systematic *what's your opinion of a tool like stock Doctor for Fundamentals for the time poor?
Don't mind the idea of combining both schools of analysis but have never seen it done?
Would be a great exercise. Someone make up a Fundamental watch list and then a chartist look at the entry
and exit over X timeframe.


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## Roller_1 (12 January 2018)

tech/a said:


> *Systematic *what's your opinion of a tool like stock Doctor for Fundamentals for the time poor?
> Don't mind the idea of combining both schools of analysis but have never seen it done?
> Would be a great exercise. Someone make up a Fundamental watch list and then a chartist look at the entry
> and exit over X timeframe.




At one of radges conferences he had a speaker who was using stock doctor to filter signals from his growth portfolio, ie, only taking signals that had a good rating. His results were good although he didn't have a large data set. Haven't heard how he has been going in the last 12 months


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## Aussiesteve (12 January 2018)

Thanks guys n gals - that gives me a number of avenues to chase!


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## brty (12 January 2018)

I find myself obsessed with this statement of the OP.............

"My problem is limited time"

Of all the reasons to look for a shortcut, that is probably the worst.

For my money to find out how TA goes with FA, it is a lot more complicated than just looking for some good TA signals on a software package. It is more about studying past fundamentals of a group of companies, then doing a walk forward exercise to see where there was a TA signal/breakout. Then work out if it did or didn't add to the system or not.
Time is what it would take.

I do not believe shortcuts lead to success, but happy to be proven incorrect.


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## lenny (14 January 2018)

Roller_1 said:


> At one of radges conferences he had a speaker who was using stock doctor to filter signals from his growth portfolio, ie, only taking signals that had a good rating. His results were good although he didn't have a large data set. Haven't heard how he has been going in the last 12 months



I was very impressed with the results that Phil was able to achieve using FA filtering(stock doctor) and Nicks turnkey system.
It's maybe something that could be explored with the tech trader thread.


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## tech/a (14 January 2018)

brty said:


> I find myself obsessed with this statement of the OP.............
> 
> "My problem is limited time"
> 
> ...




I actually hear and  empathise with the O/P

You do have to put in the time but you do need to know what you DONT need to know.

Anyone can analyse a stock in fact buildings full of analysts do it most days of each week
Most return very little over the index. 
You can easily emulate these analysts
But as an enquiring Duck I couldn’t see the point in the weeks I was spending looking for that Jewel. Each year there are plenty of them but the ONLY way I have found to be consistent is a quantified scatter gun approach.

I can find good prospects every week but I can’t tell which one will be outstanding in 12 mths.

But I know how to construct a highly probable portfolio and in doing so minimise risk and weed out the under performers while preserving capital

It’s called trading.
Learn how to trade and you’ll have found “A” short cut.


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## Sir Burr (14 January 2018)

Roller_1 said:


> At one of radges conferences he had a speaker who was using stock doctor to filter signals from his growth portfolio, ie, only taking signals that had a good rating. His results were good although he didn't have a large data set. Haven't heard how he has been going in the last 12 months




Good results? Was he using the full GP or Greens, Blues or Reds?
I know only the full GP results are disclosed but the "best" backtested Blues are not afaik.


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## lenny (15 January 2018)

Sir Burr said:


> Good results? Was he using the full GP or Greens, Blues or Reds?
> I know only the full GP results are disclosed but the "best" backtested Blues are not afaik.



Hi Sir Burr,
From memory he was trading the GP blue signals and the WTT on the ASX. 

For e.g. I was trading the GP blue signals at the  same time and my portfolio was in a -14% drawdown and Phil's portfolio with FA filtering with stock doctor was up about +18%. 
I think he only had small sample size of approx 4 years back test (limited by stock doctor results I think).
And a couple of years of live trading where he got considerable out performance.


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## Roller_1 (15 January 2018)

lenny said:


> Hi Sir Burr,
> From memory he was trading the GP blue signals and the WTT on the ASX.
> 
> For e.g. I was trading the GP blue signals at the  same time and my portfolio was in a -14% drawdown and Phil's portfolio with FA filtering with stock doctor was up about +18%.
> ...




I thought he was trading the blue signals from the GP with his filtering? either way his results looked promising and the only effort needed would be a subscription to stock doctor or similar (don't thnk it's cheap??) Like Lenny said, it's hard to backtest though..


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## brty (15 January 2018)

Tech/A,
"But as an enquiring Duck I couldn’t see the point in the weeks I was spending looking for that Jewel. Each year there are plenty of them but the ONLY way I have found to be consistent is a quantified scatter gun approach."

I do use FA, but in a different way than looking for the Jewel. I'm looking for the rubbish, the stuff easily dismissed, or often overlooked.
For example on the Penny dreadful thread, I mentioned the TA reasons of a trade in DRM, but I also have FA reasons, but nothing to do with earnings etc. It is announcements. That company can expect further announcements in the next month or so on their drilling program. Assuming that those who have already seen the drill cores have been buying or selling according to what they know, and told their friends, then the current new highs says a lot about where the market might go/results will be.
Likewise, if this stock was at new highs but all results were in the market, with nothing new for a few months, then past profit makers would be tempted to sell, so a quick drop in price would be more likely to happen sometime soon.
Not a traditional use of FA, but I find very little of anything "traditional" to be of much use (both FA and TA).


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## tech/a (15 January 2018)

brty said:


> I do use FA, but in a different way than looking for the Jewel. I'm looking for the rubbish, the stuff easily dismissed, or often overlooked.




Like that.
Frankly the time held for my style of trading Pennies doesn't warrant Fundamental or longer term Technical analysis.


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## Sir Burr (16 January 2018)

Roller_1 said:


> I thought he was trading the blue signals from the GP with his filtering? either way his results looked promising and the only effort needed would be a subscription to stock doctor or similar (don't thnk it's cheap??) Like Lenny said, it's hard to backtest though..




Yes I looked once and thought Stock Doctor was pricey too.

You can backtest fundamentals in Amibroker if you can get data in a spreadsheet plus having good coding skills that I don’t have!


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## Roller_1 (16 January 2018)

Sir Burr said:


> Yes I looked once and thought Stock Doctor was pricey too.
> 
> You can backtest fundamentals in Amibroker if you can get data in a spreadsheet plus having good coding skills that I don’t have!




Doesn't commsec have a fundamental rating on stocks? If so it might be enough anyway


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## Willfish (17 January 2018)

Aussiesteve said:


> I'm more of FA type of investor for the mid to long term. I'm interested in combining this with a bit of TA so I can better time my entries and exits. My problem is limited time. By way of accelerating my learning in this area I was wondering is there any software out there (free or paid) that actually helps the user identify key patterns (dojis, cup and handles, etc etc).
> Failing that what is the best user friendly software to use for TA?
> Or maybe I'm better off to just stick with ASX charts and learn a few patterns every week?



I have spent many years and a lot of money chasing the software holy grail that will pop out the magic market winners for me.  I found a lot of expensive and useless software, and spent a lot of time chasing rainbows.  Eventually I settled on a system which is relatively simple, and works well.  I bought a great little software program called "Insight Trader" (can buy online - Aussie developer is easy to deal with).  It is one of the few software packages that allow me to download daily ASX data for free each evening, and allows me to program what patterns I want it the software to search for (bit fiddly, but all in the manual supplied).  I then use StockDoctor to provide me with the fundamentals.  I look for trending stocks with the software (TA), check fundamentals with Stockdoctor (FA), and have been quite successful.  Simple, but works well, and does not take too much time.  Just to be sure I read lots of newsletters, free and paid, to generate other stock ideas.  Hope this helps.


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## Zero Sum Game (17 January 2018)

If a shortlist of stocks is first procured through fundamental analysis resulting in a list of, say, 10 stocks; is a charting program then really necessary? I am currently trading through CMC, and their advanced charts seem to have everything I already need...
Is a charting program mostly used as a tool for filtering a large amount of stocks? Or would it still be useful in my situation?


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## Joules MM1 (17 January 2018)

Aussiesteve said:


> I'm more of FA type of investor for the mid to long term. I'm interested in combining this with a bit of TA so I can better time my entries and exits. My problem is limited time. By way of accelerating my learning in this area I was wondering is there any software out there (free or paid) that actually helps the user identify key patterns (dojis, cup and handles, etc etc).
> Failing that what is the best user friendly software to use for TA?
> Or maybe I'm better off to just stick with ASX charts and learn a few patterns every week?




how much you take versus how much give you up in dollars comes down to proving that everything works or does not work, you have to go thru the process of proving what works and proving what fails, rather, you have to prove the rate of pro or con .......many methods are going to appear to work yet few methods will click for you and then it comes down to your propensities as single player in the auction..."it" being how long you last till your account runs regularly positive

this requires the time it requires and nothing less


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## Sir Burr (17 January 2018)

Willfish said:


> great little software program called "Insight Trader




Yes I used Insight Trader many years ago too (not for long). Think it was my first go at trading software and was going to suggest it as I was sure you could download fundamental data within it and backtest with charting/fundametals together.

I guess if your using Stock Doctor that side of Insight Trader has changed since I used it?

...just had a look at their site and they do still have fundamentals within the software. Think it's an extra module but it *"Provides the fundamental information of earnings, dividends, franking, net asset backing, shares on issue and debt to equity from which the important fundamental ratios are calculated".
*
Edit: BTW I don't think data is free as you mentioned. Maybe you got in before they started to charge, not that I'm against paying for data


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## Willfish (17 January 2018)

Sir Burr said:


> Yes I used Insight Trader many years ago too (not for long). Think it was my first go at trading software and was going to suggest it as I was sure you could download fundamental data within it and backtest with charting/fundametals together.
> 
> I guess if your using Stock Doctor that side of Insight Trader has changed since I used it?
> 
> ...



To get free (yes FREE) data download each day, you need to go into a Commsec account, on menu bar go to "Quotes and Research", then "Quotes", then "End of Day Prices", go down to "All Securities", drop down "type of securities" = "ASX equities", then download format as "Insight trader" (on of the dropdown options), put in the date for data you want, and hit "download".  Been downloading it free for several years.  Only drawback is that you can only download one day at a time.  I have never had to pay for data download from Commsec.  Hope this clarifies.


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## Willfish (17 January 2018)

My philosophy for investing resources is that if I pay for something, it has to return me 4 times the purchase price per year.  Quite happy to pay for Stockdoctor each year, as it easily gives me well over 4 times the cost in investment return each year.  I wouldn't purchase a stock without consulting Stockdoctor, but I don't necessarily follow their advice or recommendations (I do follow some), but it is a good yardstick and often steers me away from poor quality stocks.  I would much rather pay them to gather and sort all the fundamental and research data, than waste a heap of time mucking around trying to find it myself.  I have a fair bit of equity in the market and quite happy to pay for good research.  I have tried heaps of newsletters/ paid sites over the years, and consistently found Stockdoctor and Marcus Today give me great value.


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