Investment Software - What do you recommend for the beginner?

[FlyingFox]

Not for the beginner but if all else fails, write your own.

 

[pixel]

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend a software to scan for stocks with certain criteria's?

Sure; I've been using Market Analyser for that purpose. Its scripting language is Pascal.

I am after software that is easy to use and understand for beginners at coding language something which is very basic and can be used easily?

A modicum of Logic and programming Boolean function must be considered indispensible.

I know Amibroker and other softwares can do it, but I just can't understand all these scripts and coding language.

I don't know AB specifically, but judging by how widely-spread it is, I wouldn't think it's all that hard to use. If you're baulking at as low a level as that, I'm afraid you won't get by without professional help. Which will cost money.

appreciate any help.

cheers

leyy

PS: I am trading with Paritech's PULSE; they also offer a MarketScan package, which may require less of a programming-type skill. I haven't used it for many years and no longer subscribe to it.
Contacting them via http://www.paritech.com.au/ can't hurt. Ask for Joe and mention "Arty" sent you.

 

[trash]

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend a software to scan for stocks with certain criteria's?


I am after software that is easy to use and understand for beginners at coding language something which is very basic and can be used easily?

I know Amibroker and other softwares can do it, but I just can't understand all these scripts and coding language.

appreciate any help.

cheers

leyy

leyy, AFL of AmiBroker is very simple language.

For example if you would want to scan stocks whose current day's close is higher than the day's open ....
Well, it's just one line of AFL code.

Filter =  C > O;

or

Filter = Close > Open;

both output all bars of the data base where close is higher than open ( of your set bar timeframe) .

But if you just want to get the most recent occurrence it's simple again

Filter =  C > O AND Status( "LastBarInRange" );

So now the scanner outputs just the last occurrence.

Now it could happen that you want to scan a watchlist but not the whole database.

Filter =  C > O AND Status( "LastBarInRange" ) AND InWatchlist( 0 );

So now it scans for all symbols that are part of watchlist number 0 ( you have put them in there before).
And as you can see each search criteria is connected by AND operator.

Now it could happen that you want to exclude an industry where one or more of those symbols of your watchlist 0 is part of.
I guess you already know it, yes it's simple again

Filter =  C > O AND Status( "LastBarInRange" ) AND InWatchlist( 0 ) AND NOT IndustryID(1) == "Software & Programming";

Now stocks of industry "Software & Programming" are excluded by using AND NOT.

Maybe you want to add some columns

like

Filter =  C > O AND Status( "LastBarInRange" ) AND InWatchlist( 0 ) AND NOT IndustryID(1) == "Software & Programming";

AddColumn( Close, "Close", 1.2);// outputs bar's Close price, two decimal places
Addcolumn( Open , "Open", 1.2);// outputs bar's Open price, two decimal places
AddColumn( Close - Open, "Close minus Open", 1.1);// outputs Close minus Open, one decimal place
Addcolumn( ROC( C, 1 ) , "Rate Of Change", 1.1); // outputs 1 bar percent rate-of-change of the closing prices, one decimal place

etc etc

Of course this is a very simple example for using AB's explorer and codes can become more complex if you wanna add more complex logic. But you can see that even for programming beginners it is not difficult. Don't be afraid of programming. It can be fun, actually.

 

[Boggo]

...
I am after software that is easy to use and understand for beginners at coding language something which is very basic and can be used easily?

I know Amibroker and other softwares can do it, but I just can't understand all these scripts and coding language.

Many moons ago I spent countless hours experimenting with and learning how to code what I wanted in Metastock.
It was a wortwhile exercise for both learning how to program and more importantly knowing and understanding what your scan results were giving you.

From what I have seen Amibroker is probably the way to go but I would strongly recommend that you know what you want to find (pattern/behaviour etc) and then learn to program your software to find and backtest the results.
[I am assuming here that you are looking for technical approach software]

It may take many long hours etc but you will find that the harder you work at it the luckier you will get

I started with Metastock 6 and now run v9 on Windows 7 Pro.
Unfortunately Metastock is finished as far as I can see, the latest v12 EOD will only read EOD data from one dedicated data subscription service (their own) - such a pity that what was a benchmark product seems to have lost the plot.

What was DOS I hear some say