Metastock - Converting data

hooikk · 10 July 2008

I'm trying out Metastock v10.1 at the moment as I'm looking for a new charting software (not particularly satisfied with IC-Investor) and was trying to to load up some the historical ASX prices from float.com.au (Ref: here)

I'm trying to get all the stocks into a single directory. Currently when I convert the files, Metastock creates individual directories for each alphabet e.g

Destination Folder: C:\Metastock Data\ASX

When I import the data using Downloader, it creates:
C:\Metastock Data\ASX\A\
C:\Metastock Data\ASX\B\
C:\Metastock Data\ASX\C\
...and so on

Its pretty annoying when I have to navigate to multiple folders when I just want to open up a quick chart. Anyone knows how I can just get all the charts under a single folder i.e. C:\Metastock Data\ASX\ ?

IFocus · 10 July 2008

Use the copy function in downloader under tools and copy the stocks over to your folder

Just be aware that some times you can get corrupted data and lose the file.

When you use the downloader to update the new folder any new stocks will be loaded into a newly created A,B,C etc folders

AlterEgo · 10 July 2008

You don't need to get Downloader to store them in a single folder. In Metastock you can create a folder in 'favourites' for the whole market, and add all the stocks to that favourites folder. They are still stored in the seperate folders on the hard drive (I group them by industury group rather than A, B, C, etc), but you can access them all through the single favourites folder within Metastock.

The way to do this is to do an 'exploration', add the contents of every folder to the list to scan, then click to save that list to your favourites.

wabbit · 10 July 2008

Whilst trialling MetaStock, why not trial a data feed for MS that will take care of the data distribution for you?

Try http://www.premiumdata.net/products/premiumdata/freetrial.php

wabbit

hooikk · 10 July 2008

AlterEgo said:
You don't need to get Downloader to store them in a single folder. In Metastock you can create a folder in 'favourites' for the whole market, and add all the stocks to that favourites folder. They are still stored in the seperate folders on the hard drive (I group them by industury group rather than A, B, C, etc), but you can access them all through the single favourites folder within Metastock.

The way to do this is to do an 'exploration', add the contents of every folder to the list to scan, then click to save that list to your favourites.

What do you mean by an exploration? Is it a function in Metastock, or did you just mean building my own lists of favourites?

Also, I just got all of my data off float.com. 4 hours and its still converting/installing (I guess putting in all the prices from '97 - '08 wasn't a good idea in hindsight). This is just raw price/volume data yea? i.e Not adjusted for splits, renaming etc.

I've never really had to bother with that kind of stuff before, since I used to subscribe to some Insight Trader's Database Manager and am currently IC-Investors's data service.

wabbit · 10 July 2008

hooikk said:
This is just raw price/volume data yea? i.e Not adjusted for splits, renaming etc.

A good data vendor like PremiumData will take care of all of this for you... and it will take a lot less time to download and install twenty years historical data!

wabbit

AlterEgo · 11 July 2008

hooikk said:
What do you mean by an exploration? Is it a function in Metastock, or did you just mean building my own lists of favourites?

I’m referring to the application which is built in to Metastock called “The Explorer”. This is an application that you should become very familiar with, as it is a very powerful tool.

To open this application, click on the binocular icon at the top of the Metastock window.

Then pick any Exploration you like, and click "Explore".

Click "Add Securities".

Go through each folder one at a time, highlight all charts, and click "Open".

Click “Add Securities" again, and repeat until you’ve added all charts to the list.

Then click “Save” to save this list to your favourites. (Create a new folder in your favourites to save the list to)

Once you’ve done that, all the securities will be able to be accessed from a single “favourites” folder.

IFocus · 11 July 2008

wabbit said:
A good data vendor like PremiumData will take care of all of this for you... and it will take a lot less time to download and install twenty years historical data!

wabbit

I used to organize my own data for years joined Premium last year, Richard dose an excellent job its a bit like broadband I can never go back to dialup

The application that comes with Premium also allows you to create lists and what ever for Metastock, it also allows you to put all your stocks in one folder.

I also like the fact there is no annoying option and warrant data

The free trial is really worth it..... no strings........

hooikk · 11 July 2008

IFocus said:
The application that comes with Premium also allows you to create lists and what ever for Metastock, it also allows you to put all your stocks in one folder.

I also like the fact there is no annoying option and warrant data

There isn't a way to do this in Metastock itself? i.e. Manually putting together a favourites list using notepad or something.

Thats how I've usually done it in Insight Trader & IC-Investor

IFocus · 11 July 2008

hooikk said:
There isn't a way to do this in Metastock itself? i.e. Manually putting together a favourites list using notepad or something.

Thats how I've usually done it in Insight Trader & IC-Investor

Metastock really sucks in this regard, you can buy JB List Creator for $50 ish but after losing my favorites file for the umpteenth time I went and brought Amibroker $200 http://www.amibroker.com/

I actually prefer the charts in Metastock but Amibroker cost and functionality is far superior x 10 IMHO

Amibroker dose all the things you mention and a zillion more

Oh it reads Metastock data too

hooikk · 12 July 2008

IFocus said:
Metastock really sucks in this regard, you can buy JB List Creator for $50 ish but after losing my favorites file for the umpteenth time I went and brought Amibroker $200 http://www.amibroker.com/

I actually prefer the charts in Metastock but Amibroker cost and functionality is far superior x 10 IMHO

Amibroker dose all the things you mention and a zillion more

Oh it reads Metastock data too

I just downloaded Amibroker last night to have a go. Its nice that there isn't a time limit with the trial and I can take my time looking around.Looks fairly decent but their scripting language doesn't look as friendly as Metastock. Been a while since I looked at C/C++ code.

At a glance, it appears to be more powerful than Metastock. Looking forward to see if I can implement my trading ideas & money management rules into the backtesting utility, which was the main reason I'm checking out these packages.

AlterEgo · 12 July 2008

hooikk said:
Looking forward to see if I can implement my trading ideas & money management rules into the backtesting utility, which was the main reason I'm checking out these packages.

Metastock is not very good for backtesting, as it can't test a basket of securities in a realistic way to how you would trade in real life. There is an add-on program that can be used with Metastock though, called TradeSim (also works with BullCharts I understand). It's fairly pricey, but it's a very powerful backtesting program. I don't yet have this program, but I've often considered getting it. I think there are others on the forum that do have it though, who may be able to say more about it.

Metastock - Converting data

hooikk

IFocus

You are arguing with a Galah

AlterEgo

wabbit

hooikk

wabbit

AlterEgo

IFocus

You are arguing with a Galah

hooikk

IFocus

You are arguing with a Galah

hooikk

AlterEgo

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Metastock - Converting data

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