There are times when you are looking for a condition to occur and once you create a highlight bar you get several in a row highlighted.  If you plan to enter as soon as the condition is true, the rest of the highlight bars are unnecessary and just add clutter to your charts.

An example of such a situation is when you search for a new highest high during the last 60 bars (High = Highest (High , 60)).  When you plot this on your chart you can get a series of bars that are all true.  (See image below).

To eliminate all highlight bars after the first one you can use the function called ‘Consecutive.’  This function will count how many times in a row a condition is true.  I’ll demonstrate this using the condition above in a function using ‘Consecutive.’  (Consecutive (High = Highest (High , 60)))

As you can see in the image above the indicator stays at zero until a bar with a highlight bar.  At that point the indicator starts to count up until it resets to zero for an unhighlighted bar.
To identify the first bar in the series we need to change this function from an indicator to a highlight bar.  To do this we can set it equal to one (1) and make it a True/False statement. (Consecutive (High = Highest (High , 60)) = 1)

With the last formula you can see that only the first of the new sixty day highs are marked by a blue triangle and that will not clutter up your charts.<-->

This article covers the different ways that you can view the orders for next bar. Trade Navigator can be used to construct entry and exit rules for mechanical strategies. You specify the conditions for entry, and Trade Navigator will then indicate when these conditions occur.

Please note that most of the features described here will require the Platinum version of Trade Navigator.

You can view reports for Next Bar signals in one of three places. 1) While editing an individual strategy. 2) Using the order tracker to view reports across all strategies applied to charts. 3) Using strategy baskets to generate orders for all strategies in the basket.

The simplest way to view orders for next bar is on an individual strategy.

To edit an individual strategy:
1) Click on the Edit menu and click Strategies.
2) Double click on the strategy OR highlight it and click the Edit/Run button.
3) Click the Orders button to see all the current orders for that strategy.

The next dialogue simply allows you to choose the date for the orders. If you are using an end-of-day system, it should default to the day after the most recent end-of-day update.

After clicking OK, you should get a screen similar to the one below:

This report will list the rule, market direction, and stop or limit price for any applicable rules.

Order Tracker The order tracker is used when you want to check the Next Bar orders for all your strategies applied to charts. This is very useful to get an overview of all orders on all the strategies.

The strategies with new rules contain a red dot on the far-left column.

You can view information for all these orders by clicking the Display button. You will then see the orders for all strategies. You can change this to only show orders for a given strategy by selecting that strategy from the drop-down menu.

Strategy Basket The primary advantage of combining all your strategies into a basket is that they can be collectively back-tested. You can also generate order reports using the same methods as the Order Tracker.

To access the Strategy Basket Order Report:
1) Click on the Edit menu and select Strategy Baskets.
2) Click Edit/Run to view all the strategies that are contained within the basket.
3) Simply click the orders button and select a date to view all the orders for all strategies on that date.


Additionally, you can still view reports for all strategies, or you can select an individual strategy from the drop-down menu, and just view its orders, as shown below.

You should now be ready to take advantage of Trade Navigator’s power and flexibility for viewing Next Bar order reports.

Comments or Questions about this article can be directed to:

Ken Willard  t   Software & Data Instructor
Genesis Financial Technologies Training Department 8  www.GenesisFT.com
+ 4775 Centennial Blvd, Suite 150, Colorado Springs, CO 80919
7 Training@GenesisFT.com   (  719-884-0270

Whenever there is a downturn in the the United States economy investors are prompted to make flight to economic safety. This is typically done by abandoning stocks and options and placing a disproportionate amount of focus on precious metals, particularly gold.  Whether investors purchase gold bullion or gold numismatics, the level of interest in gold increases dramatically. The real question is can gold's current valuation sustain itself or are have today's investors been setup for failure?

In January of 1980 gold hit a record high of $850/ounce. Now, almost three decades later, it finally reaches that price level again and is currently staying there. Gold Bugs, investors that love buying gold, contend that when adjusting for inflation, the price of the 1980 gold would have actually been around $2,000/ounce. This has lead many to falsely believe that gold values will not only exceed the former 1980 high, but set new records by eventually reaching $2,000/ounce to reflect the inflation adjusted pricing. This will most likely not be the case.

While on the surface the inflation argument seems sound there are three factors at work; gold's current move up in price, the true weakness of the U.S. economy, and trader psychology. Let's tackle the first one, gold's move up in price. In the summer of 1999 gold plummeted to an all time low of $251.70. Within the last decade, with many bumpy roads along the way, gold has more than tripled in value breaking the former 1980 high of $850 due to a weak dollar, rising oil demand, and a decline in banks holding gold in reserve. If anyone of these factors were to change significantly then gold's economic strength would diminish quickly.

This leads us to the second point, the true weakness of the U.S. economy. With the U.S. government spending trillions of dollars, directly or indirectly into the economy, while at the same time promoting new enterprises in green technology can the dollar's resurgence be too far off? The strength of currencies are strictly based on relativity, both relative strength and relative weakness. If the U.S. , because of its aggressive economic actions, is seen as the strongest of the weak then the value of the dollar will not only stabilize, but increase in. Couple a stronger dollar with the continued war on foreign oil dependence then gold once again loses its luster as an investment and slowly slips back into obscurity, regardless of what the inflation adjusted price should be.

Which brings us to the final problem, trader psychology. Traders tend to be the most superstitious group when it comes to numbers. The price of $850/ounce, set in 1980,  has been both a liberator for gold and an albatross around its neck for price growth. On the one hand it set a target for how high the price of gold could be driven, but on the other hand this target has become a comfortable number that the majority of traders do not feel too comfortable getting a way from, lest the market reaches new heights and collapses leaving them holding the bag like it did to so many gold bugs that bought at the top of the market in the 1980's.

It is difficult to make a concrete decision on how gold should be approached from an investor's stand point at its current price levels. It holds the unenviable position of being treated as both a default currency and it has a utility value that is significantly impacted by supply and demand. To be successful a practical approach needs to be taken to the true price action of gold and not what we would hope the price could be like. Therefore buying gold at these levels during these economic changes makes it a dud.

A few ways to participate in gold:

Gold Exchange Traded Funds (GETFs) was introduced as an inexpensive alternative to owning physical gold or buying gold futures. They have become widely accepted by investors as an easier way to buy gold.  

Gold futures and options let investors use leverage to buy gold. Investors are able to buy and sell gold at a fraction of its bullion value, while still reaping the benefits of the full bullion value.

Gold bullion and numismatics are another way to purchase gold. Unfortunately, because of dealer bid/ask spreads, insurance, and a collector value sometimes placed on physical gold it can be difficult to really determine what the true value of your physical gold is if you had to sell it.

Noble DraKoln, Author of the best-selling book "Futures For Small Speculators" is unique in the world of investments. He focuses on the world of futures, commodities, and options and gives everyday investors the tools they need to succeed against the demons of "Fear and Greed". For the past 11 years he has been a futures investor, broker, and author. So he understands and is capable of explaining this risky investment from both sides of the fence. He is also the author of three books: "Futures For Small Speculators", "Futures For Small Speculators: Companion Guide" and "Single Stock Futures For Small Speculators". All three of these books are available on Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. You can also subscribe to Noble DraKoln's FREE weekly Ezine, “Futures For Small Speculators"! Simply visit www.liverpoolgroup.com

This issue we are going to talk about the different ways of changing the spacing and number of bars displayed on the chart.

You can add more bars to the chart by clicking on the chart to make sure it has focus and then typing the + on your keyboard. This will add more bars to the screen making them appear smaller.

Typing the – on your keyboard reduces the number of bars displayed making them appear larger.

On the tool bar next to Templates and Pages you will find the following buttons:

[Show more bars] This serves the same function as the + key described above.

[Show less bars] Clicking show less bars does the same thing as the “-“ key on the keyboard.

[Add extra space above/below the prices] This increases the space above and below the price bars causing the price bars to appear shorter and leaving room for things like notations.

[Reduce extra space above/below the prices]  Use this button to reduce the extra space and make the price bars appear taller.

[Auto-scale the price pane] Clicking this button automatically sets the price bars to the best fit for the chart window vertically.

The Chart Move tools seen here at the top of the Drawing Tools toolbar indicate which ways the chart can be moved by clicking on the chart and dragging. The first example indicates side to side only. The second example indicates the chart can be dragged in any direction.

At the bottom of the portion of the Drawing Tool toolbar shown above you can see the Dual Vertical Scaling button. This tool is used to change the type of scaling change that happens when you click and drag on the scale along the right side of the chart.

Clicking the button to the depressed position sets the scale to shrink or expand from and top and bottom at the same time. Un-clicking this button allows independent scaling for the top or bottom. See the screen shot below to see the scale.

The Escape key [Esc] resets the chart vertically to the best fit.

Clicking and dragging the gray area between the bottom of the chart and the scroll bar adds more bars or less bars on the chart similar to the + and – keys.

When you scroll back through the chart to see more historical bars a Red Arrow appears in the lower right corner. Clicking this arrow brings the chart back to the current bar.

Similarly if you click and drag the chart to show extra space at the end, the Red Arrow points the other way and clicking it will reset the chart the other direction.

 
If you go into the Chart Settings by typing E on the keyboard and then click the Pane 1: Price pane, you will see the screen above. You can use these settings to set the chart to Auto-scale for the best fit for the indicators, Auto-to-price for the best fit for the price bars or manually set scale to choose your own desired Max and Min vertical values.

The Square chart option allows you to set a ratio between the number of bars shown on the chart and the vertical scale of the chart.

Semi-log scale uses logarithmic scaling for the price and linear scaling for time.
This sets the scaling so that movements in price are the same in percentage terms across the scale.

Questions or comments regarding this article shuld be directed to:

Mike Herman

Quality Assurance/Technical Writer

Genesis Financial Technologies

719-884-0245

www.genesisft.com

We still have a few seats left for the Genesis Onsite Seminar May2-May4.  Seating is very limited so call now to reserve your seat.  Get a head start on your trading by training in person with the best minds at Genesis.  Call (800) 808-3282 or e-mail sales@genesisft.com to inquire.