AmiBroker - 4.60 to 4.70

[GreatPig]

Well I made the upgrade yesterday, and I'm afraid the old girl ain't quite what she used to be

Overall it's working much the same, but I had to go through all my indicators and restore the parameters I was using, and get the AFL files for them back out of the trash bin folder they had been moved to.

Can't say I like the new parameter setting dialogs much. They might look a little spiffier, but the old ones were so clear and easy to use. It took a while to find where all the settings got moved to, and I still can't find the PSAR display option that used to be in the main chart preferences.

Anyway, my main problem right now is that I can't get volume to display properly on the main price chart. The only time it will display is if I uncheck the Own Scale option, but then the price chart itself gets squashed down to nothing. If I check that box again, the volume chart (histogram) disappears, although I can still see the value tag for it in the right margin.

Anyone else using version 4.70? Do you have a volume histogram displaying okay on the main price chart?

Cheers,
GP

 

[kaveman]

GP moving from 460 to 470 is a massive jump in operation of AB.
Suggest you have a loo through the changes that occurred whilst you were hybernating Help - Information for users of previous versions - What's New
This lists all the change notes going back to version 4.30
I believe the move of all AFL was to a central directory and charts as well as scans all reside there rather than charts in a separate file/editor.
The AFL is now all listed in Workspace and you can drag/drop from the list onto existing charts/ or start new chart by right click - insert from the list.
I fiond this great now as before I was always losing code changes swapping between the chart and exploration AFL.
Back to your problem, start a new chart as from the workspace - charts - basic charts - All-in-One. Right click and "Insert Linked"
This will show the default chart as you used to know it.
The parameter window can then be used to set up the display by hiding unwanted squiggly lines, then in same window but on tab Axes and grids - you can select which settings eg show dates, log/liner axis etc

Hope this helps a bit
There are videos on teh AB site showing how to do various things, like dragndrop.

 

[GreatPig]

Thanks, Kaveman.

I'll have a look around and experiment some more as I have time.

Haven't tried any drag'n'drop features yet, or using workspaces. I only look at ASX shares and just keep my portfolios in watchlists. I find that works fine for what I do, but I'm sure workspaces, etc. are better .

Cheers,
GP

 

[kaveman]

GP Workspace is the window where the watchlists are shown, see the tabs in that window for other items shown there, eg Layouts, Layers, Charts

 

[Caliente]

hi, using 4.70rc3. having not used 4.6 before I cant compare between them, but the software seems to be very good. Hasn't crashed on me yet, so I'm happy. volume histogram shows fine on the main price chart over here.

 

[GreatPig]

start a new chart as from the workspace - charts - basic charts - All-in-One. Right click and "Insert Linked"

<sigh> one step forward, two steps back...

Tried that, and sure enough the price chart appeared with the volume histogram. Went through the parameters and got rid of all the MAs and BBs, then selected log display.... at which point the volume histogram disappeared again. Back to linear, histogram returned, back to log, disappeared again.

Looks like it works with linear display but not log display.

But wait, there's more...

When I did that I closed the price chart I had before. When I inserted the new one, there were no trend lines or other things I drawn on them. Now I can't get that old price chart with my lines and stuff back. Under the "old" folder there's no price chart, and if I insert any type of new price chart, none of my lines are on there.

... okay, just decided to restore from yesterday's backup and now I have the price chart with all my lines and stuff back again. If I edit it though, I see it's the _price.afl file under the drag-drop folder. Now, I tried that before and it gave me a price chart, but with none of my lines on it. And now that I've restored the backup, the Charts tab of the workspace doesn't even have a drag-drop folder.

Any ideas about how to insert a new price chart and get all my trend lines (manually drawn ones that is) transferred onto it?

Cheers,
GP

 

[GreatPig]

And now that I've restored the backup, the Charts tab of the workspace doesn't even have a drag-drop folder.

I think I got a bit confused there. The drag-drop folder appears in the Open File dialog, so perhaps it's not supposed to be under the Charts workspace tab.

So I can insert a _price.afl indicator now, but it still doesn't have my trend lines, etc. on it.

GP

 

[kaveman]

GP the drag drop folder is hidden by default, you can however have it showing through AB preferences settings

I personally find overlaying charts like price and volume too confusing and the possible overlap of bars gets annoying. Always have the volume as separate small pane below the price chart. Well, I use my version of turnover not volume, but that is another story
as to why volume disappears with log scale, no idea but suggest you contact AB support in case this is problem in AB, or was intended

 

[GreatPig]

suggest you contact AB support

I did that and just got a response.

The answers to a few questions:


1. Regarding volume histogram on log price chart

It will be discussed with Tomasz.

Not sure if that means the guy tried it and had the same problem, or just needs to get Tomasz to check it.


2. Getting hand-drawn studies to the new price charts

The studies (as they called them) are specific to a chart ID. They will consider adding the ability to copy & paste them to another chart at some stage.

So sounds like I have to stay with my old price chart for now.


3. Reading a chart linear/log mode setting

It's currently not possible to read this setting.


4. Obtaining the current backtest equity

Accessed via the advanced backtester interface.

So I'll have to read up on that.

Cheers,
GP

 

[GreatPig]

1. Regarding volume histogram on log price chart

It will be discussed with Tomasz.

I got a reply from Tomasz to the effect that the volume histogram can't be plotted on a log scale because it starts at zero.

Used to work fine in 4.60 though. Perhaps he used to ignore the log scale for volume and just plot it as linear.

GP