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GETTING STARTED WITH GUPPY TRADERS ESSENTIALS

MATCHING THE DATA FILES: SETTING THE CHART DISPLAY: BUILDING A CUSTOM TOOL BOX : USING TRADE TRAINING

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The priority with any new charting program is to first make sure the program is reading the data files. Then we want to set up the screen display so that it suits our needs. Once this is achieved we can start work on analyzing potential trading and investment opportunities. Every program goes through these processes in a  slightly different manner. The GTE pak is no exception. It takes much longer to describe these operations than it does to do them in reality. Once these set up procedures have been completed they do not need to be done again.

Before any charting program can display a chart of price history it must have a data file to work with. The chart is a graph constructed from what is essentially a spreadsheet containing all the necessary figures required to build the chart. These are the data files. The GTE pak reads Metastock data files. Traders already using Metastock will have all these files stored   already in a folder usually called DATA, or MS DATA, or something similar.

New users who have just signed up with a data supplier will need to ensure that the data is being delivered in Metastock format.

The first step is to locate the data files so the GTE program knows where to look for information.  This starts with the FILE menu. Click on either of the areas shown to expand the file menu. Then click the SEARCH button. This instructs GTE to search through your hard drive to locate all the folders and sub folders that contain Metastock format data. In the lower part of the file menu a new selection box appears.

It shows all the drives available on your computer. For most users this will simply be Drive C or Local Disk C. Users working on a network can also search all the network drives, or any other additional hard drives located on their PC. Once you have selected the drive or drives to search, then click the SEARCH DISK button.

GTE will now search all the folders on your hard drive. The bottom of the menu box shows the search progress.

When the search is completed the top section of the file menu will show a new display. To locate all the Metastock files click on the  METASTOCK FILES button. As you can see from this example, I have Metastock files laying all over the place on my computer. You are most likely to have just a  single folder which, when opened, will contain the standard A, B, C sub folders. This is the standard way that Metastock files are arranged and it is a pain in the neck. Every time you want to open a new stock in a  different part of the alphabet you have to burrow down through the sub folders to find the relevant folder.

GTE allows users to overcome this problem as that we can simply use the F3 button on the keyboard to access any stock with this group of data folders. We do this by clicking on the last sub folder that contains all the alphabetical folders. In this example this is the folder called all01. If we clicked on the previous folder, DATA then it would contain the folder all01 which then contains all the alphabetical sub folders. You must select the exact folder which contains all the alphabetical sub folders.

To ‘lock in’ this multi folder reference, it is a good idea to open one of the stocks at this stage. Select any chart from any of the folders now shown in the bottom section of the file menu display. Using the drop down menu box you can choose to display these by name or code, or both. We select AAI. Double click on this, and the chart will be loaded and displayed. At this stage, do not worry about the size of the screen display. We show you how to adjust this in next week’s notes. Our task at the moment is to verify that the GTE pak is locked into the selected Metastock data files.

To verify this, press the F3 button on your keyboard. This brings up a SELECT CODE menu screen. Now type in a stock at the other end of the alphabetical sub folders. We use WBC in this example. Click OK and the WBC chart will load. This confirms that the GTE program is grouping all of these Metastock alphabetical files together. It confirms that we can access any stock code within this group of alphabetical folders at any time simply by pressing F3 and typing in the code. This really speeds the analysis of multiple stocks and opportunities.

Depending on your data supplier, you may notice an anomaly in the price scaling on the charts. Stocks trading at $0.10 may be shown as $1.00. You could request your data supplier to change the decimalization settings on your account, but the GTE pak provides an easier way to solve this problem. This is particularly useful if you are using multiple data suppliers and following multiple markets. Each group of folders can be customized with individual settings.