Chapter 4. Quote Sheets and Quote Sheet Plugins

The Status Bar: About Your Server and Connection

Before we get too wrapped up in Quote sheets and Charts let’s learn some tips about your connection to the Internet and Quote.com servers. Earlier we mentioned that the QCharts service is actually made up of the QCharts client program and the Quote.com server farm. The protocol that the servers and the QCharts client use is called QFeed. The server network is located throughout the United States. Normally the Quote.com server decides, when you first log in, exactly which server you’ll connect to. Because there are many users connecting to the Quote.com servers there are times when the servers respond slower than usual. When this happens the Status bar area in ErlangerQuote can tell you a great deal about the connection between ErlangerQuote and Quote.com’s servers program. The other variable in the equation of quotes moving from the servers to your PC and ErlangerQuote is the Internet. While the Internet is reliable, it has times when it slows down, and at those times your quotes may also slow down. The first reaction when your quotes slow down may be to pound the table and blame Quote.com. However it is very likely that there are other reasons. For example your Internet path on the information superhighway may be hitting speed bumps. Quotes do not follow a direct path from the Quote.com servers to your ISP. Normally, the data will take a Byzantine and convoluted route. Data can travel from Atlanta to New York to get to Texas and in this routing the data might go from a very fast server to a slow one or from a fast pipe to a slow one. In the process, delays may result from some unknown element in between. To help with managing your data reliability we’ve included a section here on PingPlotter, which is an essential shareware program that you’ll want to use in addition to ErlangerQuote.

PingPlotter (http://www.nessoft.com/pingplotter) can locate and display the delay between your ISP and the Quote.com server you are connected to. PingPlotter, and other similar freeware and shareware programs, will graphically display the route between your ISP and the Quote.com servers. You will see that your quotes do not take a direct route but rather travel across many servers before they get to your ISP. PingPlotter will present a graphical study of the ping times over a period so you can get an average turn around time for the connection.

By the way, to monitor QFeed performance and other issues you can also sign up for the QCharts discussion group that can be found at www.yahoogroups.com. Yahoogroups is a web site for free email based discussion groups. Search for QCharts and sign-up according to their instructions. You can receive information updates as they are posted or compiled weekly. Many members of these discussion groups will provide useful tips and insight so there is an additional benefit for joining this free service. We also post updates there and you can send us questions that we frequently answer within a few minutes. There is also a mailing list at www.siliconinvestor.com devoted to ErlangerQuote and QCharts. Egroups is a free service, but SI charges a fee for its subscription service. Employees from Quote.com are in both of these forums that keep you abreast of QFeed server problems. This may help prevent your hair from falling out.

Status Bar

ErlangerQuote has its own version of PingPlotter at the bottom of the application in a horizontal band called the Status bar. You can toggle the Status bar on or off using the dropdown menu command (View->Status Bar). This area will display connection information when you are connected to the data server during market hours and receiving quotes. When you first install the program the following indicators should be listed: Server Name, CAPS, NUM, SCRL.

It is possible to add other powerful indicators and displays to the status area by using the dropdown menu command (Tools->Status Bar Properties), which we will discuss later. One important status indicator is Server BPS (Bytes-per-second). This is the number of bytes received by ErlangerQuote from the QFeed server. Server BPS samples the data connection once per second and indicates the overall condition of the QFeed server to your computer connection. Good performance range should be in the 2K to 12K per second range depending on the speed of your Internet connection. The more stocks and charts in operation, the higher this number will be.

Another important indicator is the Server Load, which can be seen in the Status area shown below as displaying ‘Load OK’. Load OK is displayed when your workspace is not overloading the connection capability. Overload is displayed if the workspace is demanding more data than the Server (connection) can provide in a timely fashion. The Server Delay window indicates the ping times between your computer and the server. If this is under 0.12 seconds this is good, but from 0.25 to 0.50 seconds means the delays are excessive. The Server BPS gives you the number of bytes per second that are flowing from the server to ErlangerQuote.

Figure 1 The Status bar

This is a quick description of the indicators displayed in the Status bar figure above: Moving from left to right, the Status bar shows the number of seconds since the connection was last updated (currently indicated as 19 seconds since last update). Next is the name of the server to which you are connected (mtnview-r02.quote.com). If you use PingPlotter, you will want to track the turn around time between this server address (http:// mtnview-r02.quote.com) and your ISP's or your address. The Server Load box indicates Load OK; The Server Delay shows 0.13 sec. The Server BPS is 0 bytes/sec (all of these will be explained in detail below).

After Server BPS, the DJIA Index is shown in red because it is down from the open and the same for the next indicator, which is the Nasdaq. 62,320 KB Free shows the amount of free memory available and the last status indicator is the 24-hour clock (US Eastern Standard Time) which is the same time as the US markets (all US markets are based on the New York Stock Exchange which is located, naturally, in New York city which is in the North American Eastern Time Zone).

Status Bar Indicators

The indicators listed below can be added to the status bar. Try out the indicators as you read the descriptions and modify your status bar the way you want it. To access the additional indicators go to the Main Toolbar to Tools->Status Bar Properties.

Server Name – This will list the name of the Quote.com server you are connected to. This is important because you will begin to discover some servers are more overloaded than others are and this helps you identify them, especially when used with the Server Load indicator.
Server BPS - shows the bytes per second flowing between the QFeed server and ErlangerQuote. This measures how fast your server can update your application and depends on many factors.
Server Bytes Received - shows the total bytes received from the server. Not a very useful number.
Server QBytes - displays the number of bytes waiting at the server.
Server Delay – The number of milliseconds it takes the current server to send a message to Continuum Client. This tells you how long it takes QFeed to update your Continuum DLL. A value of .22 sec means 22 milliseconds. When you look at this be aware that the trade information you are viewing happened at the exchange less than one second before it shows up on your ErlangerQuote workspace.
Server Load - displays one of three indicators. If the number of Queued Requests are less than 100 "Load OK" is displayed. If the number of Queued Requests are less than 500 "Loaded" is displayed. If the number of Queued Requests are more than 500 "Overloaded" is displayed.
Market Time - shows U.S. Eastern Standard Time in 24-hour format.
Available Memory - shows how much memory is free for the program (typical 50K)
NASDAQ – This is the NASDAQ index (COMPX).
DJIA – Shows the current Dow Jones Industrial Average index (INDU).
DOT – Tracks TheStreet.com Internet Sector Index (DOT.X)
UserSymbol1 - Enter your own symbol to display in the status bar. Symbols are displayed in a wide format and tend to use a lot of space in the status bar area.
UserSymbol2 - Enter your own symbol.
UserSymbol3 - Enter your own symbol.
UserSymbol4 - Enter your own symbol.
UserSymbol5 - Enter your own symbol.
CAPS - indicates whether CAPS lock is on or off.
NUM indicates that the Num Lock key is on.
SCRL – indicates that the Scroll Lock key is on.

Modifying the Status Bar

To modify the Status bar right-click in the status bar area and select Edit from the menu. This will display the Status Bar Properties dialog box. In this box you will see two windows with a set of right and left arrows between them. The window on the LEFT contains a list of commands you can insert into your Status Bar area. To insert them, select the name in the LEFT list window, and then click the >> button. This will copy them to the list on the RIGHT. Commands appearing in the list from top to bottom will be displayed in the Status bar from left to right. The up and down buttons will adjust the sequence in which the indicators are arranged.

A sample list for your status bar is presented below. The Status bar is right-justified so it positions to the right of your ErlangerQuote workspace. If you use a multiple monitor layout, the Status bar will be justified all the way to the right side of your workspace.

Last Update

Server Name

Server Load

Server Delay

Server BPS

DJIA

NASDAQ

Avail Memory

Market Time

These will appear in the status bar like this:

Server Name Server Load Server Delay Server BPS DJIA NASDAQ Avail Memory Market Time

Please note that you can’t place every indicator in the status bar at the same time due to the fact that it does not scroll like a Workspace bar does.

How Do I Look: Quote Sheet and Chart Preferences

Before you invest lots of time adding things to your quote sheets and charts take a look at this section to get the foundation look and feel of these objects the way you like them. It all begins with determining what YOUR preferences are and we make it easy with our customization tools. A large part of the customization tools are located in the Preferences file. In many cases the way you set up your default preferences is a matter of what kind of trading you are doing and so you may find you use several kinds of preferences for different quote sheet. The example below shows the Quote sheet preferences designed for a trading strategy that occurs in the morning.

Here is the meaning of the different selections in the Quote Sheet Preferences window:

Title. Here you can change the title of your quote sheet.

Colors. These selections allow the user to change the colors of everything in the chart from Alternate BG (background color) to Subtotal FG (foreground color – foreground actually refers to the text). These are explained in detail down below.

Alternate Rows Every. This will allow the user to have the selected color highlight every Nth row, for example, every 3^rd, 4^th, etc.

Hilite Time. This is the length of time the highlight color will last when data changes in a cell, measure in milliseconds. So for example the value 3000 means 3000 mS or 3 Seconds of highlight time.

Auto Sort Rate (seconds). If you have Auto Sort selected from the View menu, then this figure will control the rate at which the auto sort occurs. For example the value 1 will auto sort the rows every 1 second (as the data updates).

True Alerts (Default). When a user-set alert is triggered TRUE, this will happen: The background color will turn blue, the foreground color (text) will be white, the text will read True and the sound Sounds\default.wav will play. The Notify box if checked will direct the alert to be displayed in the Alert List, and optionally to whatever email address you have set up.

False Alerts (Default). When a user-set alert is triggered FALSE, this will happen: The background color will turn white, the foreground color (text) will be black, the text will read False and no sound will play (because none is selected in this example). The Notify box if checked will direct the alert to be displayed in the Alert List, and optionally to whatever email address you have set up. NOTE: Most users set their alerts to alert them when the conditions are True, not False.

Font. The font button allows the user to change the fonts in the quotesheet. To the right of the font button is a sample of the currently selected font. This will be described in greater detail below.

Quote Sheet Preferences

Access the Quote sheet preferences by right clicking on the quote sheet and selecting Quote Sheet Preferences from the menu. From the resulting dialog box you can set the colors of many of the elements of a quote sheet as shown in the table below.

Quote Sheet Preferences Default Colors
Preference Name	Default Color	Meaning
Alternate BG	Light Gray	When alternate background is on these colors will be drawn every N rows for N rows. BG is the background color and FG is the foreground color.
Alternate FG	White	Alternate background foreground color (the text color).
Background	Dark Gray	This is the normal background color outside the cells.
Current Cell BG	Black	The current cell is the one that you have selected and here you can set the foreground and background.
Current Cell FG	White	Current cell foreground color (the text).
Empty Cell	White	An empty cell is the one that has no data in it at all.
Grand Total BG	Black	Grand total row background colors.
Grand Total FG	White	Grand total row foreground colors (the text).
Grid	Light Gray	The grid color.
Normal BG	White	The regular cell background colors.
Normal FG	Black	The regular cell foreground colors (the text).
Update BG	Yellow	The color of a cell when the data feed updates the cell.
Update FG	Black	The color of the foreground (text) when the cell is updated.
Selected BG	Dark Blue	The background color of a row or column when selected.
Selected FG	White	The foreground (text) color of a row or column when selected.
Subtotal BG	Black	The Subtotal row background color.
Subtotal FG	White	The Subtotal row foreground (text) colors.

Figure 2 Quote Sheet Preferences Color meanings

Change the Quote Sheet Background Color

We are going to start by changing the background color for the sheet from white to pale blue. There are two ways we can do this. We won't be going over everything on this dialog right now, but will eventually cover it all.

Setting the Color Depth on your Monitor

First lets set your desktop to the right color depth. Minimize ErlangerQuote and right click on the desktop. Select Properties->Settings. In the Settings tab look for the Colors drop down menu. Your options may include 256 Colors, High Color (16 bit), True Color (24 bit), or True Color (32 bit). To get the best results select High Color or if you don't have High Color select True Color or anything like 24 bit color or 32 bit color. The idea is to set your display to be able to handle subtle color changes.

First Method. One way to set a color on a quote sheet, and perhaps the most straightforward, is to right click on the Quote sheet and select Quote Sheet Preferences. This will open the dialog box in the figure. This presents you an Office 2000 color palette system to pick a standard color or make a custom color. You can see that there is a scrolling window with all the color names in it, and a color drop down menu with a set of colors (the palette). This dropdown menu has a set of predefined colors in the first two rows. The 2^nd row ends with white. These colors may not always the ones you wish to use, and so you can make your own colors with the More Colors… item on the menu. Each time you make a custom color it will show up in the palette dropdown menu.

Figure 3 The Quote Sheet Preferences

When you click on the More Colors item in the color dropdown menu you get the dialog below. This menu shows a modern color picker that lets you select from a large range of predefined colors. The Custom tab lets you enter colors from a different picker. The Custom menu has the ability to accept entering the Red, Green, Blue values or the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance values. Each can be 0 to 255. Unfortunately you can't name these custom colors. Lets not set anything right now.

Figure 4A Quote Sheet Preferences More Colors Standard Tab

Figure 4B Quote Sheet Preferences Custom Tab

Making colors this way is not perfect because they are not remembered when you quit and return to the ErlangerQuote application. They will not be displayed in the dropdown menu for Custom colors.

Make a Background Color using App Prefs

Second Method. The other way to make new colors also saves them after you quit the program. In this approach you create the colors in the main application color palette, not in the object's color palette. The application palette is located under Tools->App Preferences. Click on the Palette tab. This will open a Property Sheet as shown below, which allows you to not only pick colors, but create your own custom colors and save them for use through the program where colors are indicated. In this color picker you can also input R, G, B values between 0 and 255.

Figure 5 The Color Palette Property Sheet found in the App Preferences Menu

Restore the ErlangerQuote application, and select Tools->App Preferences->Palette. Then in the fields to the left of the Apply RGB button enter:

R=234

G=253

B=253

Next click on the Apply RGB button. When you do this you should see a faint shade of pale blue appear in the horizontal band under the color picker box. If you don't see this color then adjust the vertical slider (along the right side of the Color Picker box – not displayed in the above sample) so that you can see a nice pale blue shade appear in the horizontal band under the Color Picker box. You’re mixing light, not paint, and so there are different rules and properties. If you don't like this color, just use the mouse to move around in the color Picker to change the color. Once you have your color, click the Add button and your color will be added to the end of a scrolling list of horizontal color bars. The Move Up and Move Down buttons allow you to reorganize the custom colors, so they appear in the order you want them. This is the process for making custom application colors. When done close this box.

Now right click on the Quote sheet and select Quote Sheet Preferences. Click on Background. Then pull down the Color menu. Notice that in the top two rows of colors there is one tiny pale blue square at the end. This is the same color as the one you created in the Palette preferences. Go ahead and click on it and watch how the Background color box changes to pale blue. Click OK on the Quote Sheet Preferences dialog to close it and watch how the Background color for the quote sheet becomes pale blue (or whatever color you set.

It is possible to make groups of custom colors in this palette and then use these in your workspaces on a regular bases so your sheets will be standardized. We added a pale red and pale green color to the Color palette for a subtler look rather than the garish green and red most commonly available.

Change Other Colors in Your Quote Sheet

You can change all the color elements of the Quote sheet using the Quote Sheet Preferences color menu. Here is more about what these do and how they work.

Background Color. This is the color of the area outside the cells.

Alternate Color. Remember old-fashion continuous sheet computer printouts with green and white horizontal bands that ran across the page? (Blech!) The alternating colored lines helped your eyes follow a row across the page more clearly. You can enable a similar feature in ErlangerQuote that will shade every n rows with the alternating color on the quote sheet for as many rows as you define and will repeat this pattern (alternate color->background color->alternate color…).

Current Cell Color. This is the color of the cell that is currently selected with the mouse. The ErlangerQuote default is white text on a black background.

Empty Cell Color. This is the color of all the cells in the quotesheet that are showing but have no contents.

Grid Color. If the grid is turned on this is where its color is set.

Normal Color: The normal colors are the colors that are painted for the background color of the cell. Don’t confuse Background with Normal Background. Normal Color sets the Normal Foreground and Normal Background control of the cell color. Background controls the colors around the cells.

Update Color: This controls updating of the colors painted when the server updates the cell in real time. If your colors are set to the defaults you will see many of your cells turn yellow when your worksheet first loads as they fill with data.

Selected Color. This is the color of the selected row or column.

Grand Total and Subtotal Colors. These are the colors displayed in the two special position rows that add up column sums.

Change Your Quote Sheet Font

A very useful function is the ability to change your quote sheet fonts. To do this, right click on the quote sheet and select Quote Sheet Preferences. Look at the button named Font. To its right is a sample of the font and style that is currently selected on the quote sheet. To change it, click on the Font button. A regular font dialog box will appear as shown in the figure.

Figure 6 Quote Sheet Font dialog box

Learn to Use Styles

Before we leave the subject of making nice looking quote sheets you are probably wondering if there is some way to retain your colors and fonts so the next time you want to make a quote sheet you can have it appear in this same costume. Or what if you want several different looking quote sheets, with radically different colors?

The answer is "styles". See the figure below. These are names that you can assign to all your windows whether they are quote sheets, charts, time and sales windows, Level II windows, and even plugins. This is how to create a style: right click on a quote sheet (or any window) and select Styles->Save Style…. A dialog asks you for a name, which you enter and click OK. The fonts, colors, columns you have added, even plugins and formulas are remembered in this style. Now the next time you want to format the look and feel of a quote sheet, right click on the quote sheet, select Styles->Load Style… and select the style name you previously saved. Your sheet now has a the exact look and feel of the style that you created previously.. Naming a style is called making a custom style. You can make as many different quotes sheets and save styles for them, as you want. You can have long descriptive names for styles like "pastel background", or "terminal emulator", "corporate blue and black", etc. These are custom styles. There are also default styles.

The default style is the style that holds the look and feel for the quote sheet when it’s first created with New (actually this is true for charts as well). This information is stored in the file called DefaultQS.inf. This file can be found in the folder pointed to by your default folder for Save/Load. Use Set as Default Style to save any style as the default. You will not have to give it a name. The default for charts will be different from the default for plug-ins because each window is saved with an extension specific to the type of window that it is. For example, quotesheets are saved with .qs extensions and time and sales are saved with a .ts extension.

Figure 7A Quote Sheet Styles submenu

Quote Sheet Plugins

Quote sheet cells are supposed to show just numbers right? Not! ErlangerQuote is the first application to take Quote sheets to the next level, allowing quote sheet cells to act as visual displays, presenting meters, bar charts, and many more kinds of indicators. You can see a quote sheet below filled with 7 quote sheet plugins.

Figure 7B Quote Sheet Styles submenu

A Plugin is computer code designed in a special way to add functionality to ErlangerQuote with a simple drag and drop to a specific folder. If you put a Plugin file in ErlangerQuote's "Plugin" folder, the functionality and features of the Plugin will be available to ErlangerQuote immediately. Programs such as PhotoShop have popularized this idea. We created the Plugin architecture with the idea that 3^rd party developers would create special tools and indicators that work with ErlangerQuote. To this end we offer a set of APIs and a Software Developers Kit that shows how to build these Plugins. What this means to you as a customer is a rich future for new features. Plugins appear in different places in the program. They are in quote sheets, chart Plugins, and "workspace" plugins that stand alone like a chart but have unique and special features. In this section we will focus on the Quote sheet Plugins that can be found when you right click on a Quote sheet. Lets learn what each does (there could be some Plugins in your folder that we have not defined below).

If the plugin allows an Interval, then the letter for the Interval that you choose will show up in the same column as the name, inside of parentheses, such as (5) for 5 minutes or (D) for day. Plugin are also read exactly like a chart from left to right. As the trading period progresses, the latest activity will ‘draw’ itself at the hard right edge of the plugin. Again, for emphasis, this is just like how charts draw themselves.

3 Point Break

Figure 8A 3 Point Break Plugin

The 3 Point Break Plugin is a type of bar chart that is useful for showing a change in trend.. When the Plugin is inserted in a quote sheet it makes a small horizontal meter of colors. You can see five rows of the meters in the figure. Each bar indicates the direction of the price, green is up, red is down, white is no change. When a 3 Point Price break occurs, you can have this Plugin alert you with a sound.

The preferences for the 3 Point Break Plugin are set in this dialog box which can be accessed by right clicking on the 3 Point Break column and selecting Column->Column Properties. This dialog box lets you set the time Interval for the chart (here its set to 5 minutes), the basic chart color, the colors of the bars, as well as set up an alert sound for 3PB reversals. The 3 Point Break chart is a favorite of day-traders and scalpers, and is used actively by many investors. There is an excellent description of the 3 Price Break methods in The Undergroundtrader.com Guide to Electronic Trading by Jae Yu (in Appendix A written by Dr Russell A Lockhart). You can also find out more about the 3 Point Break chart in Nison's Beyond Candlesticks, Wiley, and Technical Analysis from A to Z, Steven B. Achelis, http://www.equis.com/free/taaz/pointnfigure.html

Figure 8B 3 Point Break Plugin Preferences

New Hi-Low Monitor

Figure 9A New High New Low Plugin

The New High New Low Monitor is used to keep count of the number of new intraday highs or lows your security is making. If there are 2 new highs for example the column to the right of the black vertical line will show the number 2 in the color you have selected for New High. The default is green. The New Low count is kept in the column to the left of the black vertical line in a red number. You can also create an alarm sound whenever a new high or a new low is hit.

Figure 9B New High New Low Plugin Preferences

Level II Meter

Figure 10A Level II Meter

The Level II meter is a Quote sheet plugin that indicates the size of the bid and ask prices for stocks on the Nasdaq exchange. The black down arrow in the middle divides the bid from the ask. The bid is on the left and the ask is on the right.

The colors represent different levels of price trading. They also correspond to the colors on a Level II Quote sheet and represent the volume at the different price levels. For example the Market Makers that control prices are usually sitting at the inside bid/ask. These represent the closest the bid and ask have been and currently are, and these are drawn in yellow. Those market markers that are on the next level out are displayed in green, then cyan, then red. So, for example if the ask/bid is:

94 95 96 97 <= BIDs ASKs => 98 99 100 101
97 and 98 are yellow
96 and 99 are green
95 and 100 are cyan
94 and 101 are red

In the example in the Level II meter above, in the first row you can see the Ask side of the meter has a lot of green showing and almost no yellow. This shows that a large number of sellers are sitting just above the inside Ask, and one would expect that the price might be headed down (except of course when it goes up). In the Level II meter in the second row of the figure, there is more pressure on the bid side, and so the yellow band on the left side is large. You can change the colors to be whatever you want with the Preferences for this Plugin, and you can customize the background. You can also insert more colors for the price levels.

Figure 10B Level II Meter Preferences

Moving Average Monitor

Figure 11A Moving Average Monitor

The Moving Average Monitor is a great way to build visual signals for trades based on breakouts above or below moving averages. This Plugin shows if the price is either greater or less than the specific moving average set by the Interval and bar length. The defaults are such that if the price is above the moving average a green bar will draw to the right, and if it is less than the moving average a red bar will draw to the left. If however the price is within a certain tolerance of the moving average a tolerance color can be drawn, in this example the default color is blue. You can control the tolerance amount in points or percent. If you are looking for a signal when the price is very close to the moving average you can set an alert to go off when the price is enters the In Tolerance value.

This does not tell you the exact moment that the price crosses over or under the moving average, that takes a formula, but it does do a good job of indicating quickly if the trend is up or down. In the figure with the rows of MAMs, the first, second, and third stocks are within the tolerance factor so the bar indicator is currently blue for those stocks. The first and third do indicate that the price is below the moving average and may be headed up for a crossover or could still be headed down. The monitor will alert you to which stocks are possibly getting close to the crossover point. The second is within the In Tolerance value but the price is above the moving average line and could be headed higher or could be headed down. Once alerted by the MAM, you’ll want to check your chart to see which is occurring. The third stock is below the In Tolerance value so it is red. The fourth stock is above the In Tolerance value so it is green. These are the default colors, but you can change them in the preferences by right clicking the plugin and selecting preferences. The moving average can be set for any time period, as well. In the example below the settings are Interval – 5 and Bar Length – 50. Depending on which MA is being viewed; it might also be considered as a bouncing point. For example if the 200 day or 50 day MA are rebound points for a stock you could use this monitor to let you know when the price is approaching the MA.

Figure 11B Moving Average Monitor Preferences

Point-n-Figure

Figure 12A Point and Figure Plugin

The Point and Figure Plugin is a chart that uses X's and O's. These are used to denote a change in direction by showing X for upward movement and O for downward movement. If you have a set of X's in a row and an O shows up—that means reversal to the downside has just occurred. . If you have a set of O's in a row and an X shows up—that means reversal to the upside has just occurred. This is very similar in concept to 3PB in the Quotesheet but 3PB uses color to denote direction. PNF can also use color as well but uses mainly the X and Os. In the second row of the example the stock has three X's followed by two O's which means it went up three times, then reversed and went down two times.

The preferences for this Plugin are rather complex, as you can see in the figure. You can set up this Plugin so that it alerts you when certain Point and Figure patterns occur, such as the Double Top, or Triple Top. Many day traders and position traders use Point and Figure charts because it works with any time period. Alerts can be set to trigger when a reversal occurs. The colors of the chart can also be tailored to preferences. Learn more about the Point and Figure chart method in Technical Analysis from A to Z, Steven B. Achelis, http://www.equis.com/free/taaz/pointnfigure.html.

Figure 12B Point and Figure Plugin Preferences

Trends

Figure 13A Trends Plugin

Trends might not be the best name for this Plugin, but that’s what it is. It displays a strip of bars that are like candlesticks with no height information (i.e. no vertical axis). If a bar closes higher than it opened the bar will be green and if it closes lower than it opened it will be red (just like candlesticks do). If you see a series of red bars you know the stock is in a free fall (a breakdown) while a series of green bars indicates a breakout (to the upside).

The Interval of this Plugin and the number of bars it displays can be changed in the preferences. This example shows eight 60-minute bars so it represents a little more than a day's worth of trading (normal trading days are 6 1/2 hours long (9:30am to 4pm Eastern Standard Time) so this encompasses more than one trading day.).

Another feature of the Trend plugin is that it will indicate breakouts (to the upside – long trade potential or short cover) or breakdowns (to the downside – sell potential or a short trade candidate). When the Breakouts option box is checked, the coloring will follow a different rule than just whether the bar closed up or down. Breakout Bars have three states; a breakout to upside, neutral, and a breakout to downside. A breakout to upside is defined as the current bar closing greater than the high of the previous bar. A breakout to the downside occurs when the current bar closes lower than the low of the previous bar. Upside breakouts are green (by default) and breakdowns are red. These can be changed in the preferences dialog box. In the absence of a higher or lower close than the previous bar, the plugin will indicate consolidation (or a neutral state) with gray.

Figure 13B Trends Plugin Preferences

MACD Trend Indicator

Figure 14A Moving Average Convergence Divergence Trend Plugin

Moving averages are used to identify trends by filtering out the erratic changes in a price chart. The Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD, pronounced Mack-D) is a more advanced indicator created by Gerald Appel. The MACD is made up of three exponential moving averages.

Below is a standard MACD indicator (titled MACD (12,26,9) and the MACD Trend plugin (titled MACD Trend 12,26,9) in a chart. The MACD indicator is inserted by right clicking on the chart and selecting Studies->MACD. This sample below consists of a blue line, a red line and a magenta histogram. This powerful tool indicates when a trend is beginning or ending.

The MACD Trend plugin improves the standard MACD indicator by converting the MACD formula into a simple set of colors and draws them as vertical bands: green means the MACD trend is up (long position possibility or a short covering warning).Red means the MACD trend is down (sell warning or a short trade possibility).Yellow means the MACD trend is neutral, indicating neither up nor down.

The MACD Trend plugin for quote sheets works exactly like the MACD Trend plugin for charts. For example, the second row of the above figure is the daily MACD for IBM showing in the cell of a quote sheet. The same IBM stock is graphed in the figure below and it contains a MACD Color Trend Plugin. Note that the colors in the quote sheet MACD are identical back to about Jun 26. A MACD Trend plugin used in a quote sheet can give you instant appreciation of the most basic trend you can find. In this case you can see that the plugin is reporting that IBM has been in an uptrend since about July 20.

Figure 14B Moving Average Convergence Divergence "Chart" Plugin

Figure 14C Moving Average Convergence Divergence Trend Preferences

The Preferences for the MACD Trend Plugin are identical to those in the standard MACD Chart study. Interval ( 5 minute); the number of bars in the fast MACD (here set at 12); the number of bars in the slow MACD (here set at 26); the smoothing of the Fast Line (here set at 9) and the source for the data (Close, Open, Low, High). Deleting, Inserting, Turning on Labels, Grids and Other Stories

Next, we’ll discuss how to manipulate the rows and columns in the quote sheet.

Labels (Column Headers and Row Numbers)

Quote sheets are similar to spreadsheets. They can have row numbers and column headers, which are called labels. Column header letters A to Z appear below the column name and above the first row of the quote sheet. Column header letters can be toggled on and off in the dropdown Quote Sheet menu as illustrated below.

Figure 15A Quote Sheet->Label menu.

Grids

ErlangerQuote has a grid structure that can be turned on and off from the Quote Sheet menu as shown in the figure below. You can also turn the Lock Row Height setting on and off. This controls the height resizing function. If this is unlocked, it is possible to make the row taller or shorter. When done, this can be locked so that errant mouse-clicks won’t alter your rows. When rows are resized, the column names will also wrap inside the column box and allow the column to be narrower or wider. This is pretty handy for setting up your quote sheets to fit just right within your desktop workspace area.

Figure 16B Quote Sheet Grid menu

Delete Insert Rows and Columns

To insert a row, right click on a quote sheet row and select Row->Insert Row. Or click on the row and press the Insert key (Insert). To delete a row, right click and select Row->Delete Row. It is possible to delete all rows with one click by going to the quotesheet dropdown menu and selecting Delete All Rows. To insert a column, right click on a column and select Column->Insert Empty Column or press the Ctrl-Insert at the same time. To delete a column, right click on that column and select Column->Delete Column. There is no command for deleting all columns with one click the way there is for deleting all rows simultaneously.

Auto Sort and Sort Lock

Sorting is a topic that everyone understands—we spend our life sorting this from that. Colored socks. Bills. Magazine and coin collections. Does 98 Degrees come before or after BackStreet Boys?

Our quote sheets contain rows of data about companies and their stocks and the columns contain specific aspects of the company's stock information: financials, price changes, trends. All these quote sheet rows can be put in some kind of order called the sort. You sort or order a quote sheet by clicking on the "header" of any column, the area holding the name of the column. When you do that a little red arrow will appear next to the name of the column.

For example if you click on the column with the name Symbol, your rows will be sorted with the A's at the top and the Z's at the bottom. If you click on the column labeled "Net" the stocks will be ordered by the size of the Net, the highest Next on top, and the lowest Net on the bottom. The menu for the Auto Sort and Sort Lock, shown below, can be found under the Quote sheet menu or by right clicking and selecting Sort. In order for sorting to be operate Sort Lock on the Sort menu must be turned off, e.g. have no check mark. Once Sort Lock is turned off the column can be sorted. Keep in mind that this may not be what you want to have happen if the position of the rows in your quote sheet is important. In that case be sure and keep Sort Lock on.

AutoSort is used when you want the quote sheet to constantly sort the rows in real time as the column values are changing.

Figure 17A Quote Sheet Sort menu

The way the sort feature works is as follows. The first time you click on a column a red down arrow will appear like below. This indicates the sort is ascending, meaning it grows downward. We click on the Index of a Hotlist sheet and as you can see it ordered the hot list with the lowest number on top and the numbers grow larger as you go down the list.

Figure 17B HotList Sorted Ascending

The next time you click on the column header it will turn back to neutral (no sort). Then the next time you click the column header it will turn to an arrow pointing up and the list will be sorted in descending mode, with the larger values at the top and the smaller at the bottom as shown below.

Figure 17C HotList Sorted Descending

Summary

We have discussed the most basic features of ErlangerQuote quote sheets, as well as how to customize these sheets. We covered some details of the Quote Sheet Plugins, but there is much more of your journey ahead, as we continue to master ErlangerQuote.