Traders' Tips  |  FEB 1999

Traders’ Tips

TRADERS’ TIPS Here is this month’s selection of Traders’ Tips, contributed by various developers of technical analysis software to help readers more easily implement some of the strategies presented. Internet users will also find these and some previous Traders’ Tips on our home page at http://www.Traders.com. ✦ METASTOCK In “Trading Stocks With A Cyclical System,” Jeffrey Owen Katz and Donna McCormick introduce a system based on stock cycles. In MetaStock 6.5 or higher, you can easily recreate this system. With MetaStock running, choose System Tester from the Tools menu, click on the New button and enter the following formulas: <BLOCKQUOTE><PRE> Enter Long thresh:= 4; k:= 3; m:= 63; Value1:= Stdev(Ref(ROC(C,k,$),-m),20); Value2:= Ref(ROC(C,k,$),-m); When(Value2 > thresh*Value1) Enter Short thresh:= 4; k:= 3; m:= 63; Value1:= Stdev(Ref(ROC(C,k,$),-m),20); Value2:= Ref(ROC(C,k,$),-m); When(Value2 <-thresh*Value1) Stops Inactivity<BLOCKQUOTE> Positions - Long and Short Method - Points Minimum Change - 15000 Periods - 10</BLOCKQUOTE></PRE></BLOCKQUOTE> After entering the formulas, click OK, then click on Options. On the Testing page, set the Trade Delay to zero, set Positions to “both,” then set any other desired options. Click OK to save the changes, then open a chart and run the system. —Allan J. McNichol, EQUIS International 800 882-3040, 801 265-8886 http://www.equis.com

by Technical Analysis, Inc.