File
Menu
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New - Create a new empty chart window with default
chart properties.
Open Page Layout - Brings up a dialog to open a saved page
layout (see Save Page). You can save several different layouts
and reload them.
Save Page Layout- Brings up a dialog to save the current
program layout (all charts, and SLF maps, etc.) to a named file
that can be reloaded later. The default layout file is "pages.ssc".
The last layout you save will be loaded by default the next time
you start SSChart. Use "Open Page" to load a different
layout.
Open Chart - Brings up the stardard Windows File
Open dialog box. The default directory is the Data directory
where all saved stock data resides. File names for stock symbols
are composed of the stock symbol and a suffix indicating the
time period. The current time periods and suffices are .1min
for intraday data, .dyd for daily, .wyd for weekly, and .mym
for monthly chart data.
Close Chart - Closes the current chart window.
Save SLFMAP and Save As SLFMAP - Save all
symbols in the current SLFMap window to a file.
Delete SLFMap File - Delete the file associated with the
SLFMap.
Import - Open the standard Windows File Open dialog box
and allows the user to select any file for importing. Additional
information about the type of data in the file, etc. will be
requested from the Import File Settings dialog box. See the Import File Dialog for more information.
Export - Export chart data to ascii file in a variety
of formats. See the Export Settings Dialog
for more information.
Preferences - Shows the current user preferences
which can be changed, including the starting dates for acquiring
price data from the internet, the price display format, etc.
See the User Preferences Dialog for
more information.
The remaining menu items perform
the standard Windows functions.
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Edit
Menu
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Favorites - Brings up the Chart
Favorite Dialog from which you can edit the list of saved
chart templates.
Prices - Brings up the Edit
Prices Dialog from which you can change the data points of
a symbol.
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View
Menu
   
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Display of Panes - The
chart window can display a maximum of 4 panes with different
information. The default chart window is set up to show the stock
price and studied in the top pane, studies in the second pane,
and the volume and studies in the third pane. This layout can
be changes from the Chart Properties Dialog.
The display of the Top, Middle, Bottom and
Equity pane can be toggled from this menu as well as from
the context specific popup menu.
Candle Size - Changes the size of each candle to be
small , medium (default), large or custom depending on how many
data points should be visible. The candle size of the custom
candle is set in the User Preferences
Dialog.
Time Span - Selects the time units which a single
candle represents. 1 day is the default. Tick charts can be created
with a default of 25 ticks per candle. This initial value can
be changed to any value appropriate for the data being collected.
It can be specified in the Chart Setup Dialog.
It should be kept in mind that a tick size of 1 may result in
a very large file depending on the symbol being followed.
Availabe View Units is a list of multipliers of the base
tick unit. This is a temporary view setting for the chart and
does not affect the tick unit specified for the data in the file.
For example if the tick count for collecting the data is 25 (default)
the multipliers are as seen above. So the tick data can be viewed
as 50 ticks to the candle, 125 ticks to the candle, etc. You
cannot view a tick chart at less than the collected tick count.
You can't view a 25 tick chart as 5 ticks. You will need to collect
the tick data at 5 ticks or less. It can be specified in the
Chart Setup Dialog.
Customize Chart Layout - This allows you to customize the chart
layout by showing/hiding price, volume, price studies, volume
studies, scales, legends, and the title.
Show Quick Alerts - Shows the green and red bell symbols
on the bottom right hand corner of each chart. These are used
for setting high and low audible alerts on the price. Setting/resetting
is done graphically. See the section on Quick Alerts.
Scale Price Only - Toggles the scaling of the price candles
without taking the visible price studies into consideration (moving
averages for example). This has the effect of enlarging the candles
in cases where a study line is far away from the current price.
Scale Most Recent Price - Toggles the scaling of the most recent
price data points. In effect it zooms into the number of points
specified in the User Preferences Dialog.
The Status Messages menu
item opens and closes a dialog which records informative as well
as error messages. A check will appear beside the menu item if
the Status Messages are visible. See the Status
Messages Dialog for more information.
The Toolbar and the Symbol
List File (SLF) Toolbar contain selected items from the SSChart
menus. A check will appear beside the menu item if the Toolbar
is visible. The state of the Toolbar (visible/invisible) will
be saved in the Registry and will be preserved across program
invocations.
The Status Bar is a standard
Windows items and can be toggled on and off. A check will appear
beside the menu item if the Status Bar is visible. The state
of the Status Bar (visible/invisible) will be saved in the Registry
and will be preserved across program invocations.
Show Trading Zones toggles on and off a color background
for the horizontal scale. The colors green, yellow, and red denote
different time periods throughout the US Market session.
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Chart
Menu
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Properties - Enables you to change the stock symbol,
time period, chart type, and the window layout. See the Chart
Properties Dialog for more information.
Color - Allows you to change the color of the background
as well as every chart item, i.e. candlestick colors, chart lables.
See the Chart Color Dialog for more
information.
Add to Favorites - Adds the current chart to the list
of Chart Favorites. See the Save
As Favorites Dialog for more information. Once a chart has
been added to the Favorites it also gets added as a menu item.
There will be a maximum of 4 chart favorites listed in addition
to the Default chart. If there are more than 4 chart favorites
an button titled More... will be displayed, which when
pressed, displays the Chart Favorites
Dialog. One of the listed chart favorites has a check next
to it. When the { Chart | New } or { File | New }
button is pressed a chart will be created of the same type as
the checked chart favorite. If you press any of the chart favorites
a chart of that type will be created.
Slide Show - Cycle through all the symbols in the
current SLF File in the current active chart window.
Show Extended Sessions - Show the price data for before and
after market hours. If you are using free quote data sources
and you want to keep the extended market data in the files you
must make sure that the Keep Extended Market Hour Data flag is
set in the User Preferences Dialog
since the data cannot be reloaded at a later time unlike a paid
data source.
A partial list of saved favorites
is shown at the bottom of this menu. If you have more than 4
favorites a menu item labelled More... brings up the Chart Favorites Dialog with the complete
list.
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Studies
Menu
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Selected Studies - Lets you view all studies which are
currently attached to a chart. In addition it enables you to
change the color of studies as well as delete unwanted studies
(currently studies cannot be reassigned from their predefined
overlay assignment). See the Select Studies
Dialog for more information.
For detailed information on the
available studies and their parameters see the respective dialogs:
Moving Average, Bollinger
Band, MACD, Stochastics,
RSI, CCI, VHF, Volume, Accumulation Distribution Line, Chaikin
Oscillator, External Studies,
and Indicators Lines.
Indicators are the following:
Day's Open - Draws a
horizontal line at the day's opening price (intraday charts only).
Day's High - Draws a horizontal line at the day's high
price (intraday charts only).
Day's Low - Draws a horizontal line at the day's low price
(intraday charts only).
Day's Midpoint - Draws a horizontal line halfway between
the day's high and low price (intraday charts only).
Previous Day's Close - Draws a horizontal line at the
previous day's closing price (intraday charts only).
Previous Day's High - Draws a horizontal line at the previous
day's high price (intraday charts only).
Previous Day's Low - Draws a horizontal line at the previous
day's low price (intraday charts only).
Floor Trader Lines - See the Indicators
Lines dialog for description.
Add All Indicators
- Draws
all above listed indicator lines.
Delete All
Indicators-
Deletes all above listed indicator lines.
The line type and line width
of these lines can be modified. See the Indicators
Lines study types for more information.
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Data
Menu

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Get Single Quote - Contacts the internet data source and
requests a one time quote update for all symbols which are currently
open, either in a chart or SLFMap window.
Get Continuous Quotes - Contacts the internet data source and
requests continuous quote updates for all symbols which are currently
open, either in a chart or SLFMap window.
Slide Show - Cycle through all symbols in the currently
selected symbol list file in the current chart window. May be
combined with Auto Update On.
Auto Update On - Automatically update all stock price
data which is out of date. Note that this flag updates all charts
which are currently loaded when they become the active chart.
Update - Get the current price data for the active chart
window.
Reload - Get all the data for the stock symbol
for the current time period as specified in the Chart Properties
Dialog. This function is useful in the event that the data for
a stock symbol has been corrupted. Unless you configure SSChart to alway
retrieve data from import files, you need an internet connection
for any of these items to function.
Purge - Deletes either todays
intraday data, all but today's intrayday data or all intraday
data for the current symbol. This
function is useful in the event that the intraday data for a
stock symbol has been corrupted or is incomplete.
Internet Sources - Select the internet
data source that data will be retrieved from. Separate source
are specified for daily, weekly, monthly, and quote data. The
quote data is used to create intraday charts.
Import Settings - Brings up a dialog
box which is used to set the list of directories to search for
import files, set the import file attributes, and also specify
the search order for acquiring data. See the Import Dialog for more information.
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Tools
Menu
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Draw Lines and Erase Lines - We can draw some basic lines. Press
on Draw Lines to go into line drawing mode. The cursor
changes to a pencils. You can now draw in the price pane of the
chart window. Press Draw Lines again to get out of drawing
mode. This
is work in progress and will be completed in a later release.
On intraday charts the lines drawn in any time interval for a
symbol will transfer to other time intervals for that symbol.
Trade... and Paper Trade... - Generate
trade orders either real or simulated. See Trading Window.
Manage Accounts... - See Trade
Accounts dialog.
Select Strategy... - Strategy backtest and automated trading
are still under development and are not yet usable.
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SLFMap
Menu
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Sort - sort the SLFMap
Show MiniCharts - toggles on/off the display of the mini
charts in each cell of the SLFMAP. The minicharts show the latest
30 minutes activity.
Set Sort Order - Allows you to set the sort order of
the cells to either a percentage change in price or the actual
price change relative to the previous close, open, or mark time
that was set.
Symbol Name - Sorts the symbol cells by the symbol
name in ascending order.
Last Price - Displays the last price in each cell
rather than the percentage or actual change.
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Set Mark
Now - Saves the current price now for all symbols so
that the changes are shown going forward from the marked price
when you set the sort order to sort by change from mark (see
above).
Candle - Sets the mark time to the close of a selected
candle on any intraday chart. Make and SLFMap window active (by
clicking on it), and select {Set Mark | Candle}, the cursor changes
to a hand pointer, click on the candle of the desired time in
any intraday chart, to set the mark time. You can then set the
sort order, to sort from the mark.
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Window
Menu
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All menu items perform the standard Windows functions. |
Help
Menu
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Use the Registration dialog
to record the permanent key whcih you receiced after purchasing
the program. This enables the program for the specified time.
View License Text shows you the license statement, and
Purchase Online points you to the web site where you may
purchase a copy of the program.
Uninstall Software will remove all originally installed
files and directories and delete program registry entries. See
Uninstall for more
information.
About SSChart shows the current version number and
license information.
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Control
Menu
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The control box
(the tiny SSChart icon in the extreme upper left corner of the
window, at the left end of the title bar) provides access to
the control menu, which contains window system commands such
as Restore and Move. The control box on each chart window is
a small icon located in the upper left corner of the title bar
that looks like the icon you click to open that window. The Restore,
Minimize, Maximize, and Close commands in the control menu work
just like the buttons for those functions. The Move and Size
commands require you to use your arrow keys. |
Chart
Window Popup Menu
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The menu items in the popup menu
are the same as found on the menu bar and work they same. The
popup menu is active when the mouse cursor is over a chart window.
Click the right mouse button
and the popup appears under the cursor. Move the cursor down
the menu items until you find the one you want to use and click
the left mouse button or alternately hold down the right mouse
button, drag the cursor to the item you want to use and release
the right mouse button.
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SLFMap Window Popup
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The first item in the popup
is the symbol name of the cell if the mouse was over an SLFMap
cell. Exclude Symbol excludes the symbol from the calculations.
This is useful when a symbol whose values are so far out of range
that the color assignment is meaningless for the other symbols.
Hide symbol temporarily hides the symbol from view. Delete
Symbol deletes the symbol from the SLF file. Show Stats and Show Alerts
are not implemented. Rearm
Alerts |reams the quick alerts for the selected symbol. Delete
Alerts deletes the quick alerts. The above items are symbol
specific. The remaining items affect all symbols in the SLFMap.
Sort - sorts the items. Unhide All - shows all
symbols which were temporarily hidden. Constrain Rows/Columns...
brings up the Constrain Rows/Columns
Dialog where you can change the cell layout configuration
of the SLFMap. Simple
Alerts, Complex aAerts, and Show Alerts are not implemented.
Delete
All Alerts
deletes all quick alerts for all symbols in SLFMap. Show Extended
Sessions continues updating the symbol information after
the market closes.
Update Daily updates all daily data
files for all symbols in the SLFMap.
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Standard Toolbar
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This toolbar contains
a couple of SSChart specific buttons. These are [ScalePriceOnly]
and [ScaleMostRecent]. See the View
menu for more information. |
SLFMap
Toolbar
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This toolbar contains a
selection box which lists all symbol list files in the SLF subdirectory.
If no slf file has been selected it shows "--none--"
and the buttons are disabled. If the buttons shown above from
left to right are described below:
The [Update] button (with
the U) will do a batch update of all daily historical charts
listed the currently selected SLF file.
The [Chart] button opens
a Chart window. The symbol showing
in the chart window is the first one listed in the slf file.
The [SLFMap] button opens
an SLFMap window with the symbols in
the currently selected SLF file.
The [Quotes] button opens
a Quotes window with the symbols
in the currently selected SLF file.
The [HorseRace] button
creates a horserace window with the symbols in the currently
selected SLF file.
The [Time&Sales] button
opens a Time & Sales window.
It is initially empty and a symbol must be dropped into it to
show the time and sales data (Paid data sources only).
The [OrderBook] button
opens an OrderBook window.
It is initially empty and a symbol must be dropped into it to
show the time and sales data (Paid data sources only).
The [Level2] button opens
a Level2 window. It is initially
empty and a symbol must be dropped into it to show the time and
sales data (Paid data sources only).
The [MarketPulse] button
opens a Market Pulse window.
It is initially empty and a symbol must be dropped into it to
show the time and sales data (Paid data sources only).
The right-most button is [Data
Collection On/Off] which toggles the continuous retrieval
of quote data on and off.
Make sure you
have an internet connection for these items to function.
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Status
Bar
 |
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This statusbar
shows status messages about files being loaded, symbol data being
fetched and any error messages. These same messages are also
visible in the Status Messages Dialog. |
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