May 2005 Letters To The Editor
The editors of S&C invite readers to submit their opinions and information on subjects relating to technical analysis and this magazine. This column is our means of communication with our readers. Is there something you would like to know more (or less) about? Tell us about it. Without a source of new ideas and subjects coming from our readers, this magazine would not exist.
Address your correspondence to: Editor, STOCKS & COMMODITIES, 4757 California Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98116-4499, or E-mail to editor@traders.com. All letters become the property of Technical Analysis, Inc. Letter-writers must include their full name and address for verification. Letters may be edited for length or clarity. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the magazine. -Editor
GUJRAL BOOK
Editor,
How may I obtain a copy of the book How To Make Money Trading Derivatives, by Ashwani Gujral? I see that it is listed as suggested reading after his interview (Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, March 2005). An excellent article, by the way.
Robert Phillips
via email
Thank you for your feedback. We are glad you enjoyed the article. I would suggest you contact Gujral via his website, www.ashwanigujral.com, regarding his book.-Editor
WANTED: STOCK ALERTS
Editor,
I am looking for a charting service that will send me alerts on stocks where the 50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average. The stocks can be priced between $5 and $75 with minimum volume of 50,000 shares. Can you suggest a service?
Jerome. Bonat
Boca Raton, FL
There are several stock screening services such as Yahoo! Finance, StockCharts.com, MSNMoney, and so forth that provide such services. I would also recommend you visit our Traders' Resource section on our website. See also the next letter.-Editor
FILTER ALERTS
Editor,
I am a daytrader with my own firm. I am finding it hard to get a filter that alerts me if a stock moves 25 or 35 cents or whatever parameters I input. I need a system that allows me to type in a bunch of stocks and alerts me when it makes a particular move. Please help me.
James
via email
Several packages and websites offer alert services. Please visit the Traders' Resource area of our website at Traders.com for some listings. See also the Traders' Resource section printed in this issue, the category of Advisories starting on page 82, which includes some alert services.-Editor
EASYLANGUAGE CODE FOR "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?"
Editor,
There is an article in the March 2005 S&C issue titled "What's The Difference?" by John Ehlers, which includes some code for TradeStation. This code will not verify in TradeStation 8.0. Do you have any idea where I could get the correct code?
William W. Cooper
via email
We put the code into TradeStation 8 and it successfully verified for us. Make sure you copy and paste the code in instead of retyping it. You'll find the code posted in our Subscriber Area at https://technical.traders.com/sub/Codes/2005/032005Ehlers.asp. (Login to our Subscriber Area requires your subscriber number and last name.)
See also the next letter.-Editor
MEDIAN AVERAGE ADAPTIVE FILTER
Editor,
In the March 2005 S&C, I was very interested in the indicator that was discussed in "What's The Difference?" by John Ehlers, the median average adaptive filter.
But because it was not possible to cut and paste the EasyLanguage code from your website (it was a .jpg file), I had to fat finger it into TradeStation just like back in the Stone Age (the last millennium). I managed to two-finger type it all properly, except for the Input Price((H+L)/2), which I entered as Price(H+L/2). Because of the "while" loop in the program, it resulted in an infinite loop. The only way I could stop it was to manually turn off my computer. I learned in my college programming classes that "while" loops should be avoided when possible. If used, there should always be an escape mechanism. I solved this by adding a line to the loop:
While Value3 > Threshold begin
alpha = 2/(Length + 1);
Value1 = Median(Smooth, Length);
Value2 = alpha*Smooth + (1 - alpha)*Value2[1];
IF Value1 <> 0 Then
Value3 = ABSValue(Value1 - Value2)/Value1;
Length = Length - 2;
If length < 1 then Value3 = 0; {This prevents an infinite loop}
END;
This causes the loop to be exited if the length is less than 1 and the
"Value3 > Threshold" has not been met.
Richard Duffey
Marietta, GA
Thank you for writing in with this suggestion.
Incidentally, the code from Ehlers' March 2005 article is indeed posted at our website in text format (which can be copied and pasted) in our Subscriber Area at https://technical.traders.com/sub/Codes/2005/032005Ehlers.asp. There is a gray tint over the code, but it is still text that can be copied and pasted.
Login to our Subscriber Area requires your subscriber number and last name.
In addition, this column and previous Letters to S&C columns are posted at our website in the STOCKS & COMMODITIES area at https://www.traders.com/Documentation/FEEDbk_docs/Letters/Letters.html, and code given here can be copied and pasted from the online display of this column.-Editor
MOVE-ADJUSTED MOVING AVERAGE CODE
Editor,
The article "Visiting Moma" by Stephan Bisse (S&C February 2005) contained some Excel formulas (sidebar "MOMA and Excel") that could have been improved. I suggest the author use matrix formulas to avoid problems with expansion of the time periods. I'll explain by showing how some of the formulas could be substituted.
The formula for the absolute sums in cell F7 should be:
=SUM(ABS(E4:E7-E3:E6))
and the formula in cell G7 should be:
Both formulas have to be entered with combination of keys Shift+Ctrl+Enter. This means that Excel will consider it as a matrix formula and not a regular formula.=SUM(E4:E7*ABS(E4:E7-E3:E6)/F7)
In this case, the author can also skip the first step and make all calculations in one column. The formula in cell G7 would be:
If you use matrix formulas, you will not have any problems with expansion on more periods or wider ranges. For example, the 50-period MOMA formula in cell G53 would be:=SUM(E4:E7*ABS(E4:E7-E3:E6)/SUM(ABS(E4:E7-E3:E6))) (SHIFT+CTRL+ENTER)
=SUM(E4:E53*ABS(E4:E53-E3:E52)/SUM(ABS(E4:E53-E3:E52))) (SHIFT+CTRL+ENTER)
Darko Bele
via email
CODE AT TRADERS.COM
Editor,
When will the code for the S&C April 2005 articles be available online? I just received the email showing the latest articles, though not the paper copy in the mail yet.
By the way, why not let us subscribers review the entire article online?
Terry Hockett
via email
Generally, we post code from each issue to our Subscriber Area by the time the issue mails, so that by the time you receive the issue in the mail, the code should be available at our website.
As for making the entire articles available online for free to subscribers, we do post the code, spreadsheets, and some equations for our subscribers' use, which is what subscribers most need to be able to copy and paste.-Editor
ERRATA: BUILDING A WORKABLE TRADING MODEL
Editor,
Thanks for publishing my article ("Building A Workable Trading Model," February 2005). I saw a copy of the magazine and it looks like the last figure isn't totally correct. Please note that it looks like you have accidentally switched the labels for the Dow Jones Industrial Average plot line and the "Grow and protect strategy" plot line in Figure 11's legend.
Allen Rehert
via email
You are correct that we inadvertently switched the two blue color markers in the legend in Figure 11. The corrected figure is displayed below. -Editor
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