July 2006 Letters To The Editor

or return to July 2006 Contents

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


BOWL PATTERN BREAKOUT

Editor,

I loved the article "The Bowl Pattern Breakout" in the May 2006 S&C by your staff writer Sharon Yamanaka. The end of the article reads "Next time, I'll look at..." Are you planning a followup article in a future issue of S&C?

I was originally planning on letting my subscription to S&C lapse, as there is too much heavy technical subject matter in the magazine for me, but I'd stay with it to follow her work. Could she come up with a screening system for this? I subscribe to Prophet.net for stock charts and simple indicators.

Dave Geupel

See page 42 of this issue for a follow-up article by Sharon Yamanaka, "Going Forward Using Stock Screeners." Continuing from "Bowl Pattern Breakouts," this article uses the stock screeners available on financial websites to take another look at bowl patterns.-Editor


DIRECTIONAL EXTREME BANDWIDTH INDICATOR

Editor,

In one of your articles written by Barbara Star regarding the bandwidth volatility extremes ["Bandwidth Volatility Extremes," Bonus Issue 2006, S&C], she talks about an indicator called the Directional Extreme Bandwidth. How do I get access to this indicator? Is there a company that offers this study or can I download it? What do I need to get it and use it?

Fernando

Because Barbara Star introduced this indicator in our 2006 Bonus Issue after she developed it, it is not an indicator that can be found prepackaged in technical analysis commercial software. Custom code was given in the article for implementing the indicator in eSignal, but if you use another program, we suggest checking with the support department for that program to request custom code, or try visiting user forums to see whether someone has programmed it.

The indicator on which Star's was based, John Bollinger's Bollinger BandWidth indicator, is described in Bollinger On Bollinger Bands (McGraw-Hill/www.BollingerOnBollingerBands.com).—Editor


DIRECTIONAL EXTREME BANDWIDTH, CONTINUED

Editor,
Could you publish the MetaStock code for Barbara Star's Extreme Bandwidth indicator (S&C Bonus Issue 2006)?

KTA Cader
Hong Kong

Code for Barbara Star's Extreme Bandwidth indicator and the Directional Extreme was published in the article for eSignal. We can't provide translations to MetaStock code, but we suggest checking with Equis International's support department at www.metastock.com, or try a consultant who specializes in writing code for MetaStock.—Editor


CODE FOR OMNITRADER?

Editor,

I am a subscriber of your magazine and would like to see some information and programming code for filters or whatever can be obtained for OmniTrader 2006. Is there any reason why nothing is available for OmniTrader? Any resources, comments, or other users' experiences? I notice that such programs as eSignal and MetaStock are well covered in your magazine, but not OmniTrader. I am just wondering.

Victor Montanez

Not all software developers contribute to our Traders' Tips column, which is where we usually present code for software, in part because not all software has the programmability necessary to input code or use custom indicators. We have reviewed different versions of OmniTrader over the years, including reviews published in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002. In addition, the program has received various Readers' Choice Awards over the years in our annual Bonus Issue, and the software is listed in the Traders' Resource section at our website.-Editor


OPTIONS TRADING COURSES

Editor,

I am looking for an article reviewing the different options trading courses that are available. I would like to follow one, but I'm not sure which one would be best suited to me. I believe one of the courses you reviewed is the Optionetics course. As far as I am aware this article was published last year.

Dave

We reviewed The Optionetics Course in the September 2002 S&C; the review is available from the Online Store at our website, www.Traders.com. We also reviewed Optionetics Platinum 2.0 in the October 2002 S&C, and reviewed the website Optionetics.com in the June 2002 S&C, available to the public to read at our website at https://www.traders.com/Documentation/FEEDbk_docs/Archive/Y-2002.html.

See also our monthly column by Tom Gentile, chief options strategist at Optionetics, which is a firm dedicated to teaching investors how to minimize their risk while maximizing profits using options.

See also the Courses & Seminars category of our Traders' Resource database at our website, https://technical.traders.com/Products/home.asp, for the Optionetics listing as well as other course listings that may interest you.

Finally, in the August 2004 S&C, we interviewed George Fontanills, cofounder of Optionetics. This article is available for purchase at our Online Store at our website, www.Traders.com.-Editor


NEED SIMPLE TRADING SYSTEM

Editor,

Do you have any articles (or other info, books, and so on) that present simple systems using moving averages, MACD, stochastics, or the like that by themselves (or when optimized) beat buy & hold? I need something in the MetaStock language that can do this with accurate backtesting results. I thought you might be able to point me in the right direction as far as whether I need a consultant or whether you have any advertisers who offer a service to help me.

JR

We have published several articles that compare the performance of a trading system to a buy & hold strategy. Mark Vakkur is an author who has written several articles on the subject. Here are a few articles that may interest you:

Evens, Stuart V. [1999]. "Bollinger Bands," Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, Volume 17: March.
Tezel, Ahmet, and Susan Koknar-Tezel [1997]. "On Using Volatility Bands," Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, Volume 15: October.
Vakkur, Mark [1997]. "The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence," Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, Volume 15: April.
Vakkur, Mark V. [1998]. "On System Development, Part 1," Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, Volume 16: June.
Vakkur, Mark V. [1998]. "On System Development, Part 2," Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, Volume 16: July.

These articles and more can be purchased from the Online Store at our website, www.Traders.com.

As for services, browse the Advertising Index toward the back of our magazine for a list of advertisers and their web addresses.-Editor


PRINTED CHARTS

Editor,

I am looking to buy a CD-ROM product that contains printable historical charts of any market. I would like to be able to use it without having to buy expensive software. An acceptable alternative would be large-format hardcopy of same.

Any suggestions for where I might find such a product?

Geoffrey Levens

I know of CD-ROMs you can buy to get historical data, and websites that allow you to create charts of historical data, but I don't know of any CD-ROMs containing actual printable charts. Many of the older hardcopy charting services that offered subscriptions by mail have changed over to web-based data. One is https://www.chartbook.com. I don't know whether they still offer a hardcopy service.

Here are some possible resources. The following website offers long-term historical charts on just about everything, although the charts are not configurable:

https://www.sharelynx.com/chartstemp/historical.php
Here is a source for a CD-ROM containing historical data:
Prophet.net
https://www.prophet.net/satellites/marketData/cdrom/index.jsp
Here are some other data sources or charting services to check into to see if they fill your needs:
• TopLine Investment Graphics ( https://www.topline-charts.com)
• StockCharts.com
• CSI data - Unfair Advantage (https://www.csidata.com/ua/pricing/index.html)
• Tick Data ( https://www.tickdata.com)
• The various exchanges themselves, such as https://cbotdataexchange.if5.com/
Good luck with your search.-Editor


ADVISORY RATINGS

Editor,

I am looking for the latest article in your magazine in which advisory services have had an editorial rating or ranking or some sort of consumer ranking. I checked your Traders' Resource: Advisory Services listing from your website, but it does not contain editorial ratings or rankings.

Nin

Sorry, we do not offer any editorial rankings or rating of advisory services. Our Traders' Resource feature is a listing of products and services, not a ranking or rating system.

We do feature the Readers' Choice Awards section in our annual Bonus Issue, but we do not have a category for advisories, only for brokerages and various types of software products.

One resource that does rank CTAs is the following:

ITRNet
International Traders Research Inc.
Phone: 800 591-5886
https://www.managedfutures.com
Product: Internet-based software for tracking and evaluating Commodity Trading Advisors.


Our review of this service is available from our Online Store [Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES V. 18:8: Product Review: ITRNet] at www.Traders.com.

You can also check the SEC's guidance for investors offered at https://www.sec.gov, and check the NFA's Background Affiliation Status Information Center (Basic) for the registration status and disciplinary history of every firm and individual conducting futures business with the retail public. This is available from https://www.nfa.futures.org. Another place to check on the background of investment professionals and investment advisory firms is NASD BrokerCheck at https://www.nasd.com.

Good luck with your research.-Editor


PTI AND WAVE 4 CHANNEL

Editor,

Where can I get more information about the profit-taking index and the wave 4 channel, including the formulas for MetaStock?

W.R. Bendig

Sorry, we have not published articles on these indicators. However, some technical analysis software offers the PTI as an indicator. For MetaStock code, please check with technical support at www.metastock.com.-Editor


EXCEL SPREADSHEET FOR BREAKOUT PATTERNS?

Editor,

I was reading Markos Katsanos' May 2006 article ("Bear Flags") containing Excel spreadsheet coding for bear flags. Could a similar program be developed for trading ascending triangles, descending triangles, symmetrical triangles, and so on? Can all these different breakout strategies be assimilated into an Excel spreadsheet with price targets, as was done in the April 2005 S&C article "Measuring Flags & Pennants" by Markos Katsanos?

Rohit Shinde
Cumballa Hill, Mumbai

I believe they can. However, unless we publish an article specifically on these topics, we will not be able to fully answer your questions.-Editor


ERRATA: TRADERS.COM PUBLICATION ADVERTISING INDEX

In the May/June 2006 issue of Traders.com, our bimonthly newsprint publication, an incorrect website address was given on our Advertising Index page for the company GFT Forex. The correct URL is www.gftforex.com. We regret this error.


ERRATA: KELTNER CHANNELS

Editor,

I went back and looked at the "Keltner Channels" article by Stuart Evens in the December 1999 issue of STOCKS & COMMODITIES and have a question about Figures 3 and 4. The caption under Figure 3 states that it is showing STARC bands, yet the graphic shows "Keltner channels" in the top menu bar of the screen capture. Figure 4 has the reverse of that. Are the pictures and captions switched?

I tried finding a correction reference online and in several issues after December 1999 but couldn't find one.

Thanks for any clarification you can give me on this.
Edward Zobac

Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. You are correct; we inadvertently switched the captions on Figures 3 and 4. We have corrected the article so it will now be correct in the article archives at our Online Store. We apologize for this error.-Editor


Back to July 2006 Contents

Originally published in the July 2006 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine.
All rights reserved. © Copyright 2006, Technical Analysis, Inc.