RAPID VERSION 4.0 1986-91 - TABLE OF CONTENTS - * SHORT SUMMARY OF INSTRUCTIONS ........ 2 * INSTALLING RAPID ..................... 3 * HOW TO USE THE MENUS ................. 3 * PRESET CUSTOMIZED FEATURES ........... 3 * LOAD A GRAPH onto the screen ......... 3 * ZOOM and <-left,right-> scrolling .... 4 * GRID LINES: horizontal/vertical CYCLE ANALYSIS ....................... 4 * PRICE SCALE: auto/manual setting ..... 4 * TRENDLINES and LABELS ON GRAPHS ...... 4 * GANN LINES ........................... 4 * FIBONACCI NUMBERS .................... 4 * 1.272 HIGH-LOW-HIGH PREDICTION ....... 4 * VOLUME (on/off) ...................... 4 * GRAPH A CLEAN CHART .................. 4 * MOVING AVERAGES ...................... 4 * LIFT-UP FOR OSCILLATORS .............. 5 Relative Strength (RSI) ............. 5 Stochastics ......................... 5 Slope Oscillator (linear regression). 5 Rate of Change ...................... 5 Momentum ............................ 5 Detrending .......................... 5 Integration line .................... 5 Two-moving average oscillator - simple, exponential & weighted .... 5 MACD: Moving Ave. Converg./Diverg.... 5 Wilder Directional Movement Index.... 5 Wilder Volatility + profit results... 5 Wilder Parabolic + profit results.... 5 Chaikin Volume Accumulation ......... 5 OBV - On Balance Volume, Granville... 5 pOBV price-weighted-OBV ............. 5 Negative Volume Index ............... 5 Positive Volume Index ............... 5 Commodity Channel Index ............. 5 Williams %R ......................... 5 Wms. Accumulation/Distribution ...... 5 Derivative Oscillator ............... 5 Swapping ............................ 5 Closes = (H+L)/2 or (H+L+C)/3 ....... 5 * VIEWING ACTUAL OSCILLATOR VALUES .... 5 * MORE STUDIES: ENVELOPES ........................... 6 BOLLINGER BANDS ..................... 6 STANDARD DEVIATION BANDS ............ 6 PROBABILITY OSCILLATOR .............. 5 POINT & FIGURE CHARTS ............... 6 CANDLE STICKS ....................... 6 SEARSON CHINESE CHART + profit results 6 * LOOK AHEAD PRICE BAR ................. 6 * ERASE-YOUR-LAST-ACTIVITY ............. 5 * LOGARITHMIC and LINEAR PRICE SCALES... 5 * PRINTING + SAVING SCREEN IMAGES ...... 6 * MACROS ............................... 6 * SPLIT SCREEN - TWO CHARTS AT ONCE .... 6 * RECORDING TRADES and GRAPHING YOUR PERFORMANCE ..................... 6 * GETTING DATA INTO RAPID BY THE KEYBOARD with graph displayed ................. 6 without graph displayed .............. 7 * "LIST!" NAMES ........................ 7 READING OTHER DATABASES .............. 7 Telemet ............................ 8 CSI data ........................... 9 Text ASCII data .................... 9 Technical Tools and Starquote ...... 9 Lotus 1-2-3 & Linking other data ... 1O * OMITTING HOLIDAY DATES ............... 1O * COMPRESSING DAILY GRAPHS TO WEEKLY .. 1O * COMPRESSING GRAPHS by any factor .... 1O * SPREADS, TRUE RELATIVE STRENGTH, OPTION HEDGES, SUMMING YOUR PORTFOLIO 11 MUTUAL FUND ADJUSTMENTS ............. 11 DIVIDEND PAYOUTS, STOCK SPLITS ...... 11 * COMMODITY ROLLOVERS ................. 11 * SHORT-CUT FOR LOADING GRAPHS ........ 8 * OTHER FEATURES ...................... 12 * METHODS OF TECHNICAL ANALYSIS ....... 12 * RAPID LICENSE AGREEMENT ............. 14 2 SHORT SUMMARY OF RAPID INSTRUCTIONS 2 This summary will get you started with loading a graph on screen. If you get lost, ESCape will get you out of almost any menu. The detailed instructions are accessed by pressing for HELP at ANY point in the program and by reading the remainder of this instruction manual. Step 1: Turn your computer on and load your DOS version 2.O or higher. Put RAPID into drive A and type: Step 2: A: RAPID Step 3: Follow the menu selections to call a graph onto the screen. Example: press S&P The graph should now be on the screen. Step 4: The following is a sample list of analytical tools and the key to press to call each tool into action. Note that you can make selections from the pop-menus by using the up/dn arrows and then pressing or directly by way of these 'key-commands': key to press HELP screens + pop-menus ...... Change the graph (prices)...... C C Print to dot-matrix printer.... P P Graph a clean chart ........... G <-arrows-> shift the graph .... <--> Zoom. Set number of days ...... Z Volume display ON/OFF ......... V Log price scale ON/OFF ........ L Trendlines .................... X Labels on graphs .............. X + Moving averages ............... A Horizontal grid lines ......... H Vertical grid lines ........... J Sat/Sunday blanks ON/OFF....... Line/Bar graph format ......... Relative strength indices ..... U R Stochastics indices ........... U T Slope Oscillators ............. U S MACD .......................... U O Point and figure charts ....... F6 Write graph to disk ........... W If disk is full, insert your own blank, formatted disks. Change price boundaries........ Ctrl-B WILDER DMI, Volat., Parab...... U OBV ........................... U William's %R .................. U Split screen SAVE/RECALL ...... Ctrl-U and then Ctrl- Ctrl- Step 5: Press ESCape a number of times to go back to the beginning menu. OTHER FEATURES (found in the 1st menu): key to press Fast one-day update of a graph..... Combined graphs: spread, straddles. Compress daily graphs to weekly ... Read TEXT (ASCII) files ........... Read CSI, TECHTOOL or TELEMET data. Set up the way RAPID operates when first started .......... Exit to DOS ....................... 3 RAPID is a tool for drawing price and volume graphs and experimenting with many different kinds and periods of indicators. You can update your graphs immediately from the keyboard or from a database. Please do not give away copies of RAPID or this instruction manual. Please read the license agreement. REQUIRED EQUIPMENT - IBM micros or compatibles - 256K of ram - one or more disk drives - PCDOS or MSDOS version 2.O or higher - Hercules, CGA, or VGA monitors. Graphs are not colour in Hercules and CGA modes. EGA/VGA modes are 16 colour. - Optional: Hard disk drive Dot-matrix printer The disk that you received is either CGA-EGA-VGA or Hercules. If it does not run on your monitor, you will get an error message reporting the problem. You either have the wrong version of RAPID or your monitor is set to the wrong mode. Some hybrid video boards have special software for setting themselves to 8O column Colour or 8O column Hercules. Check with your computer manuals or your computer vendor if you are unsure. INSTALLING RAPID You have ONE FLOPPY DISK drive: Put RAPID in drive A: and type: DISKCOPY A: B: Put your blank disk into the drive when the computer asks for it. RAPID uses R.OV & R.HLP while the program is running. Therefore, these files must not be removed while operating RAPID. Hint: If you have only one disk drive, delete ALL EXCEPT: R.HLP RAPID.EXE and R.OV SETUP.RPD from your disk. The other files are not as essential. This will leave abundant room for data along with the RAPID program on one disk. You have TWO FLOPPY DISK drives: Put RAPID in drive A: and a blank floppy disk into drive B: and type: DISKCOPY A: B: You have ONE HARD DISK drive and one or more floppy disk drives: Put RAPID in drive A: and type: INSTALL C: HOW TO USE THE MENUS If a detailed menu is not shown, then press to get a menu listing. Press AGAIN to get more detailed HELP instructions. These pop-up menus and HELP instructions will familiarize you with 9O% of RAPID's features. This manual gives further help with the rest of RAPID's features. Press ANYWHERE in the program to get a different set of instructions and pop-up menu. There are two ways to execute a menu choice. You can press the indicated 'key-command' or if a pop-up menu is available you can use the up/dn arrows to select a choice and then press to execute it. The key-command, 'H' is indicated, for example, as: H = Horizontal grid lines You will find that the pop-up menus are useful when you are first getting started. For faster operation you will want to remember some 'key-commands'. PRESET CUSTOMIZED FEATURES RAPID starts the program. Press to look at the features to which RAPID is preset. Use the up/dn arrows and press to select the features which you want to change. Carefully go down the list and choose the settings which you desire. Notice that you can preset the drive and subdirectory of where the data is going to be located. Also, if your monitor is composite (not colour) you should set all colours to 'white'. Note: This CUSTOMIZE option can also be selected WHILE A GRAPH IS DISPLAYED by pressing Alt-C. LOAD A GRAPH RAPID starts the program. Choose and then press for help or type in a graph name. If the name was on disk then the graph will now appear on screen. If the graph is longer than 365 bars then RAPID will ask you what date at which to start loading the graph. If the graph name is not on disk then a new blank graph is created. You must obey your DOS manual concerning filenames: a maximum of eight characters, a dot and three more characters. If you do not know what is on your disk, then press for a directory listing and then highlight the desired name and press to load it. If the displayed name has a \ after it then it is not a graph, but, rather it is a sub-directory. It you select a sub-directory and press then you are switched into that sub-directory and its contents are displayed. Choose "..\" if you want to switch to the parent sub-directory. 4 Load the GOLD graph onto the screen and then try these activities: ZOOM and <-left,right-> scrolling Load a graph onto the screen and then follow these examples. First, hold the Ctrl key and then press the right-> arrow. Notice that the dates are now starting at the end of the file. Hold Ctrl and press the <-left arrow and the graph will display the beginning dates. To choose something between these dates, press the right arrow (without Ctrl) five or more times and watch the dates change at the bottom of the screen. Let go and wait 3 seconds, the graph will redraw itself according to the dates that you chose. The left arrow shifts the graph leftward. Zoom is the third way of choosing which dates to display. Press Z and then type 99 or 365 to choose how many days are going to be displayed. Press Z again but this time instead of entering a number, press the - (minus) key a number of times and watch how the left boundary line moves to the right. This is showing a snap-shot of what is going to be displayed. Let go of the - key and wait two seconds and the graph will automatically redraw according to where you set the left boundary. Press Z again and try - and + (or press for more help). If you lose your place in the graph, press Ctrl<- or Ctrl-> to reset to the beginning or ending. Also try and then - several times and then the <- arrow to shift the box. This lets you select a specific area to zoom in for display. GRID LINES: horizontal/vertical CYCLE ANALYSIS Press H for horizontal or J for vertical lines. The J lines require another step. Press J again to display the preset spacing of them. Press J and then enter a number: press 11 to choose a specific spacing. Or thirdly, press J and then + or - to slowly increase or decrease the spacing. For cycle analysis you can press J and then shift the lines left/right with the arrow keys <- ->. You can press Ctrl-J to get a zig-zag display. + - and <- -> work with Ctrl-J in the same way that they do with J. PRICE SCALE automatic/manual setting: The price scale is set automatically depending upon the data in the file. However, Ctrl-B allows you to enlarge or shrink the boundaries and reset the spacing of the horizontal grid lines. It is possible to turn off the automatic boundary feature. This can be confusing, however, because if boundaries are not set automatically then when you load a graph, it will be displayed with whatever settings that you select with Ctrl-B. If you make poor choices with Ctrl-B you will get very strange looking graphs. If you still want to turn off automatic boundaries here is how: 1) Pull up a graph 2) Press 3) Select "Manual Scaling of dates/prices" 4) Select "Automatic price boundaries (ON/off)" It will flip to (on/OFF) instead; indicating that automatic scaling is now OFF. TRENDLINES and LABELS ON GRAPHS Press X then use the up/dn/left/right arrows to move the blinking X. Then press . Next, move it to the second point and press . A line will be drawn through the two X points which you chose. Press Alt-X if you want ALL trendlines to be short rather than long. Press for a list of all commands which are available while the blinking X is displayed. Note that the | can be used to set a vertical 'cursor' and that \ can be used to set and unset a mode which shows the trendline before you press the second X to set the line in place. You will see what this means by experimenting with it. The price-date location of the X marker is shown in the upper right corner. The indicated price is only as accurate as the pixel density on your screen permits. Writing labels: Move the X and hit the space-bar once. Now just start typing. Press at the end of the line and the blinking X reappears. GANN LINES Move the X to the desired location and then press any of the top row of keys: 1,2,3,4 ... up to 8,9,0,- Also try holding the shift key and press the same top row of keys. The setting for the <6> key is 45 degree angle based on 1 price unit per day or week. If you want to adjust this slope to some other multiple, then press Alt-G. Enter a multiplier such as 2 to increase the slope or O.5 to decrease the slope. This slope adjustment will remain in effect until another graph is loaded or another Alt-G command changes it. If you want to save a certain multiple for each graph then consider creating a MACRO with the Alt-G key-stroke and then save that macro with the graph. In this way, whenever you load that graph it will have your preferred GANN multiplier preset. FIBONACCI NUMBERS The fibonacci series of numbers generate the same ratio as the GOLDEN rectangle popular in ancient architecture. This GOLDEN ratio is used to measure retracements and projections from a high/low range. Put the X at the high and press and then put the X at the low and press . RAPID will ask you if you want to display the actual fib. numbers on the screen; answer Y. Two horizontal lines are drawn and the FIB. markers appear along the right side of the chart. Also, the actual price values are displayed on the chart where the X is located. If you look carefully, you will see the 50%, 23.6% and 61.8% markings between the two lines. Only the 61.8% are displayed with actual price values. Also, Fibonacci ratios can be shown on the date scale for time projections by marking two separate vertical lines (using the J instead of H). The FIB. markers then appear along the top of the chart. 1.27 HIGH-LOW-HIGH PREDICTION There is a system of date prediction which says to choose two peaks and then project a 1.27 multiple of the number of days FROM the in-between low. This predicts the date of the next low. So, when you mark two peaks with vertical lines using X and J, you not only see fibonacci ratios along the top date scale, but, you see a vertical dashed line. This is the 1.27 prediction. It also works if you mark two lows to predict the next high. Note that if you mark the two J lines in the opposite order, then it projects the date backwards instead of forwards. If you accidentally choose two J lines which have a higher high AND a lower low in between, then RAPID gets confused and creates two dashed predictions; one from the in between low and one from the in between high. VOLUME (on/off) The graph can be drawn with or without volume. Press V. GRAPH A CLEAN CHART Press G to clean off the screen (remove trendlines, oscillators, et cetera). Pressing will automatically re-scale the price boundaries even if you have the automatic scaling turned off. MOVING AVERAGES Press A and then type the size: 2O or 12 . Next choose whether you want to apply this to the Highs, Lows or Closes. A simple moving average will appear. Moving averages will be drawn dotted, semi-solid or solid (in rotation). Press Ctrl-A to set RAPID to Simple, Exponential or Weighted, ALL future averages will be whatever type that you chose (until you switch off the computer). Also, note that the 'two- moving-average oscillator' (discussed later), will use whatever type of average that you set with Ctrl-A. MACD is unaffected. It is always exponential. (Use 'Envelopes' to redraw an erased moving average). 5 LIFT-UP FOR OSCILLATORS Press U to lift the graph to make room for an oscillator (Ctrl-U lifts up twice as much to make room for two oscillators). Similarly, PgUp and PgDn can be used to lift up the graph. The oscillators can be placed in two locations. At the bottom of the screen (above volume if you are displaying volume) or slightly higher. For example, press R for RSI or Ctrl-R for RSI located slightly higher. All of these tools can be displayed for ANY period of days: low high Relative Strength (RSI) R Ctrl-R Stochastics T Ctrl-T Slope (linear regression) S Ctrl-S Rate of Change S Ctrl-S Momentum S Ctrl-S Detrending Alt-S Integration line Alt-S Two-Mov. Ave. Oscillator Q Ctrl-Q MACD O Ctrl-O Wilder Directional Index F2 Ctrl-F2 Wilder Volatility Index F2 Ctrl-F2 Wilder Parabolic Index F2 Ctrl-F2 Chaikin Volume Accumulation F3 Ctrl-F3 OBV - On Balance Volume F3 Ctrl-F3 pOBV - Price Weighted OBV F3 Ctrl-F3 Negative Volume Index F3 Ctrl-F3 Positive Volume Index F3 Ctrl-F3 Commodity Channel Index F4 Ctrl-F4 Williams %R F5 Ctrl-F5 Wms. Accumulation/Distribution F5 Ctrl-F5 Derivative oscillator D Ctrl-D Swapping D Closes=(H+L)/2 or (H+L+C)/3 D After many of these commands, you can press for help. RELATIVE STRENGTH INDEX can be 14 days or any period up to 366. It is calculated by summing all the up and down days and coming up with a ratio of the sum of up-changes versus the sum of all 'up plus down changes'. There is another kind of relative strength which is the ratio of a stock graph to an index graph. See "Spreads, True Relative Strength ..." in the table of contents. STOCHASTICS INDEX: As with RSI, you can specify any period up to 366. It is smoothed once (3 day average %K) and can be smoothed again by answering to create %D. The calculation is simply a ratio of the close relative to the high to low range for the entire period. Wms%R is a graph of these raw ratio values and Stochastics is the 3 day average of these ratio values. SLOPE is the best estimated line (least squares regression) drawn through the closing prices for the number of days that you specify. If you choose three days then the oscillator will display the slope of the best estimated imaginary line drawn through each day and its two immediately preceeding days. If there is a break of more than 5 days in your data then the slope oscillator will break off and restart where it finds a continuous run of data. RATE OF CHANGE is similar to slope but uses a cruder calculation which is the ratio of the last close and the first close of the requested period. MOMENTUM is similar to Rate-of-Change but uses the difference in prices instead of the ratio of prices. DETRENDing follows after doing the integration line. Press and answer es when you reach the question which asks if you want to do detrending. Detrending means that if you choose a broad slope oscillator such as 40 days, then that 40 day trend is removed from the price action. You are left with a bar chart which more easily shows smaller cycles. This bar chart can be transferred to the 'price' area of the graph where you can perform other oscillator studies! Try it. Other software use a moving average to do detrending. But, the slope oscillator basis is mathematically more accurate. INTEGRATION LINE is the 'undoing' of a slope oscillator. This creates a smoothed price line which looks similar to a moving average. It is drawn centred on the range of days that formed it; shifted left of the last day on your screen. A dotted portion of the line is an estimated projection up to the last day of data. TWO-MOVING-AVERAGE OSCILLATOR is the difference between two moving averages. They can be simple, exponential or weighted as set by Ctrl-A or as set in the 'Customize' menu (F6 1st screen). MACD is traditionally done with two exponential moving averages and then a second line is an exponential average of the MACD main line. In RAPID, you can set the moving averages (by using Ctrl-A) to simple or weighted instead of exponential, and then the MACD is going to use whatever type of average that you set with Ctrl-A. You can choose an average of the highs, lows, or closes. This adds another dimension to your use of MACD! Also, you can shift the smoothed MACD line by pressing Alt-A and then arrow keys. WILDER Directional Movement Index was designed by J. Welles Wilder, Jr. See his book: New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems, Trend Research PO Box 128, McLeansville, NC 27301. Usually a value of 14 days is used to calculate this index. Three lines will result. The Directional Movement Index (solid line) moves higher whenever a market is trending up OR down. It moves lower when a market is trendless. Commodities which are registering an average value of less than 25 should not be traded with a trend following system. If the index is high (relative to the other two lines) and is just starting to move lower, it often signals a major change of direction of a market; the direction change (up or down) is confirmed when the dotted line (down index) crosses the semi-solid line (up index). There is also a Commodity Selection Index. It can be calculated after the indices are drawn. It decides where you can get the highest and most directional "bang for your buck"; a higher numbered CSI is best value. WILDER VOLATILITY INDEX is a measure of the daily range of trading over a period of days that you specify. The SAR (stop-and-reverse) line is super-imposed over the price chart. The multiplier (which you choose) determines how close the SAR is to the price bars. The actual volatility index is located below the graph. The buy/sell points are indicated where the price crosses SAR. The SAR value for tomorrow is displayed on the top line. Wilder's book explains in greater detail. The profit is shown as the total of: completed-trades + yet-to- complete-trade. WILDER PARABOLIC INDEX is a trading method which looks similar to the volatility SAR. Long positions are indicated where the SAR line crosses below the price action and short positions are indicated where the SAR line crosses above the price action. The SAR line is where the old position is closed and the new position opened on a stop. The acceleration factor determines how quickly the SAR line moves toward the price level where the long or short position was undertaken. The maximum acceleration factors determines the maximum rate at which the SAR moves. The SAR value for tomorrow is displayed on the top line. The profit is shown as the total of: completed-trades + yet-to- complete-trade. CHAIKIN VOLUME ACCUMULATION is similar to OBV. However, rather than add and subtract the entire volume, as with OBV, the volume is added or subtracted according to whether the close is near the day's high or low. If the close is in the middle then the volume is ignored. OBV - On Balance Volume by Granville is a summation of all volumes from the beginning of a graph. They are added if the close was up and subtracted if the close was down and the volume is ignored if the close is unchanged. pOBV - PRICE WEIGHTED OBV is the price change multiplied by the volume. The result is summed each day to form the index. NEGATIVE VOLUME INDEX is the sum of all day to day % price changes on days which have declining volume. The idea is that insiders do their activity on inactive days and insider activity should be followed. For example, a rising NVI is a buy signal. POSITIVE VOLUME INDEX is the sum of all day to day % price changes on days which have rising volume. The idea is that the public does their activity on active days and their activity should be used as a measure of what not to do. For example, a rising PVI is a sell signal. COMMODITY CHANNEL INDEX is a kind of statistical analysis which examines the mean range of trading over a set number of days and identifies 'random' price action which is higher or lower than the norm. WILLIAMS %R is a popular oscillator similar to stochastics. WMS. ACCUMULATION/DISTRIBUTION is roughly the sum of all up or down price changes between the first and last day of the period. You will need to read Larry William's or Joe Ross' material to get an idea of how to use it and to get a more precise formula. DERIVATIVE OSCILLATOR is derived from a previous moving average or oscillator. For example, do a 12 day moving average and then do a derivative of 5. The resulting index is the slope of the moving average over 5 day intervals. Similarly, the derivative of any other oscillator can be calculated. SWAPPING lets you take any resulting moving average or oscillator and swap it into the 'price' area so that you can do any other calculation on the data. This lets you calculate your own complex oscillator combinations. You might want to consider doing a split-screen saving of the actual price data before doing swapping so as to have a way of re-displaying the actual price data for comparison to your oscillator. CLOSES = (H+L)/2 OR (H+L+C)/3 - this is a substitution of CLOSES with the average of high and low or the average of high+low+close. This affects other subsequent oscillators and moving averages in an interesting way. VIEWING ACTUAL OSCILLATOR VALUES Press the pipe symbol <|> to turn on a vertical cursor which is available when you are in X and available when you are in . When this vertical cursor is present, the last drawn average's or oscillator's values are displayed in the far left column inside [] brackets. Next, use the arrow keys to shift left or right to see each numeric value for each specific day that the vertical cursor is sitting on. Press pipe <|> again to turn off the vertical cursor. ENVELOPES Envelopes and trading bands are formed by shifting a moving average up/dn. Draw a moving average and then press Alt-A to go into envelope mode. Next, use the up/dn arrows to shift the moving average. Press if you want to 'permanently' set the average at a location and then continue using the arrow keys to shift again. Press when you are finished. The Integration line, discussed later, can also be shifted. So too, can the smoothed-MACD line; also discussed later. Bollinger Bands and Standard deviation bands also form envelopes. They are discussed separately. BOLLINGER BANDS were invented by John Bollinger. They are created by summing the square of all differences between the close and a moving average and then creating an envelope around the moving average. Read John Bollinger's writings for further information on how to use them. STANDARD DEVIATION BANDS are a tool in statistics, used to create an envelope which predicts the containment of all random price movement. In other words, movement beyond either band is likely to be random motion and will correct back to the centre 'integration' line. Be careful though, because the last few days (half of the requested period) are an estimate into the future and will shift as you add data to a graph. In fact, periods of five or less days are very unreliable. Two standard deviations are recommended. PROBABILITY OSCILLATOR is based on the standard deviation bands. It creates an oscillator based on how close the price is to the upper and lower bands. A high or low oscillator indicates that the price is probably too high or probably too low. POINT & FIGURE CHARTS Press and then set the box and reversal size (1x1, 1x3, 2x8 ...). For example, a gold chart could use $2.5 as the box size and 3 boxes trigger a reversal. Here is a trick for superimposing the price chart over the P&F chart: Draw the P&F chart and then press twice. CANDLE STICKS are a Japanese method of interpreting and graphically showing the meaning of the relative position of open, high, low and close for each day. SEARSON CHINESE CHART This looks similar to point and figure. It generates a buy signal whenever the price CLOSES a tick or more above the last 'local' high. It generates a sell signal whenever the price CLOSES a tick or more below the last 'local' low. The solid areas are long(buy) trades and the shaded areas are short(sell) trades. The profit results are reported at the top of the chart. Up (long) trades result in a total profit or loss and Down (short) trades result in a total profit or loss. These two are added to give Total Profit. The 'Adjusted Total' assumes that the trades are made BEFORE the close, (just as the price ticks above or below the local high or low), whereas, normally the trades are made at the CLOSE. This adjusted total is NOT a good assumption because it does not account for the many times when a stop would be hit and then at the close the price turns the other way! However, it is useful because it shows that if you can predict the close it might be advantageous to enter the trades earlier in the day. Here is a trick for superimposing the price chart over the Searson chart: Draw the Searson chart and then press twice. LOOK AHEAD PRICE BAR This bar appears after many of the oscillators are drawn. If you draw an RSI, for example, you will see a vertical bar appear at the right hand side of the screen up near the price data. This bar represents the entire range of prices which would be needed to generate the entire high to low range of oscillator values. This gives you the opportunity to predict what price would be necessary to send an oscillator to an extreme or to a mid-point area, for example. This might be used to decide what price to put a sell order, knowing that the oscillator rarely exceeds a certain high level. Previously, many of us had to type in a price for tomorrow and then re-calculate the oscillator to see where it will land. This process was tedious. The predictor bar lets you visually estimate what price will trigger what oscillator value. Sometimes the predictor bar goes from top to bottom of the entire price chart. This occurs when an oscillator could not possibly reach its high or low by adding only the next day of data. In other words, it would take more than one day of price movement to push the oscillator to a high or low. In this case, the predictor bar is not too useful. If you want to turn off this predictor bar then choose in the "Customize" menu and set it to NO. ERASE-YOUR-LAST-ACTIVITY Press E to remove the last drawn trendline or moving average or oscillator without disturbing the graph thus far. This lets you experiment with an oscillator and then erase it without losing the trendlines or averages that are already displayed. This feature is not available in the pop-up menus because they share the same memory space in the computer. So, this rase command is one that you must remember! LOGARITHMIC and LINEAR PRICE SCALES Graphs are displayed with a linear price scale unless you press L. Press L again, to return to a linear scale. Logarithmic scaling is used when a graph has a wide price range, like 2 to 1OO, because one inch (on the price scale) at the bottom is the same PERCENTAGE as one inch at the top. 6 PRINTING and SAVING SCREEN IMAGES TO DISK Only dot-matrix printers can print graphs. Press P and then P for most printers or press P and then for more help. If you have a printer which does not work then you will have to specify some of the escape commands by running the PRINTER.EXE program from DOS: PRINTER (You could instead use EDLIN to change PRINTER.DAT if you are an expert.) Most printers are attached to LPT1. If yours is not, then you can select from the print menu and enter a different port name such as LPT2. Alternatively, you can choose a filename. For example: GRAPH1 The image will be sent to disk and you can print it after you exit RAPID. The advantage is that it is faster to save an image to disk rather than waiting for it to be printed. After exiting RAPID, you can use the command: TYPE GRAPH1>LPT1 TYPE GRAPH2>LPT1 TYPE GRAPH3>LPT1 ... These print files are very large (from 16000 to 75000 bytes depending on your monitor type). You could even put these lines in a batch file. (See your DOS manual regarding "batch" files. IMAGE.BAT is on your disk as an example.) Also, note the date/time stamp in the right hand corner of all printouts. PRINTING MANY CHARTS UNATTENDED can be done by using the Ctrl-P command. This is NOT listed in the pop-up menus. This command simply prints a chart using the P P sequence and then escapes, and loads the next graph (from a list.! of names). Press Ctrl-P TEN or more times in order to print TEN or more graphs in sequence. Only ONE printing and loading is performed for each time you press Ctrl-P. Press Ctrl-P ten times and then leave the room. When you return, ten graphs will be printed. You could have a macro attached to each graph so that the moving averages and oscillators which you desire will be performed just before each graph is printed! We have discussed two concepts here which are described in greater detail later: 1) "List.!" names 2) Macros Come back to Ctrl-P printing after you understand these two concepts. MACROS Almost any activity that you do WHILE A GRAPH IS ON SCREEN can be recorded as a macro and then either attached to the graph or reused on the next graph which is displayed. In this way, you could have a favourite moving average or oscillator performed automatically when a graph is loaded. Or you could repeat the last activities on each graph that you load. For example: Press to start macros. Then do: U H J J 7 This lifts the graph up, draws horizontal and vertical grid lines, and then draws a 7 day RSI. Press again to halt the macro. Next, choose * or Alt-F1 to Alt-F10 to indicate which key that you want the macro attached to. Now, if you store the graph using , this macro will be permanently attached to the graph. Whenever you load this graph, this sequence will be repeated, automatically (assuming that you have not turn off macros in the customize menu). You do not need to store this macro with the graph. Instead, you can simply press whatever macro key that you chose above, whenever you want to repeat the macro. Note that the CUSTOMIZE menu must have MACROS turned ON if you want the charts to 'perform' the macro when loaded. The * key works even if this macro-when-loading-charts feature is OFF. SPLIT SCREEN - TWO CHARTS AT ONCE Press Ctrl-U to lift the graph and then press Ctrl- to save the upper screen image. Next, ESCape and load another graph. Press Ctrl- and the first screen image will be dumped where the oscillators are normally located. This lower screen image is inactive in the sense that all averages, tools, volumes and dates apply only to the upper active chart. It is up to you to line up the date scales so that they match for each chart. Normally you would load your graphs at the same starting date and then the date scales line up automatically. This Ctrl- image can be called up again and again and it is never lost until you Ctrl- another upper image or you exit RAPID. RECORDING TRADES and GRAPHING YOUR PERFORMANCE With a graph displayed, press <$> to get into an entry table where you can type your buy/sell trades. First, type in the name of the file which you want to use for listing your trades. Notice that you can use several names so as to list each account or portfolio separately. Next, a screen appears which has a column for: 1) buy-date: YYMMDD 2) type of trade: real or paper; leave it blank to represent real trades; enter any other letter(s) to represent paper trades. 3) A description of the trade: this should be exactly the same as the name of the graph on disk, including the sub-directories in front of the name if needed. For example: \stocks\IBMN or IBMN In this way, your open trades can be graphed by looking up the actual closing prices from your disk drive. If the graph names cannot be found on disk then only closing trade profits and loses are graphed. 4) Number of shares or futures. 5) Buy-price 6) Sell-price 7) Sell-date: YYMMDD 8) Commission Press to graph the trade activity. Press if you want to return to the last graph without graphing your trades. GETTING DATA INTO RAPID - BY THE KEYBOARD With a graph displayed: Press C to change prices in the graph. Check if all of the settings in the pop-up menu are to your satisfaction and then press C again to start entering prices. If you want to change any of the settings, such as, High/low/close, opening prices, open interest, the date or volume (on/off) then simply use the up/dn arrows and press . The volume, for example, will be turned on or off each time you select it and press . Press when you are ready to proceed or Escape. Next, a prompt appears in the lower right of your screen where you can enter prices and volumes. The left/right arrows let you scroll through the dates. A little blinking dot marks where you are in the graph. Press for a list of other commands. Normally numbers are to be entered in decimals. However, the key accepts the input in 8ths, 16ths, 32nds, or 64ths for stock, bond and option entries. Press ESCape when you are finished entering prices. 7 GETTING DATA INTO RAPID - BY THE KEYBOARD WITHOUT A GRAPH DISPLAYED: Press ESCape a number of times to exit from the graph display and get back to the first RAPID menu. Press . This choice lets you enter one day of prices for a number of graphs without displaying them. (Press if you need more help). Next, choose a graph and then press to proceed as before. Enter prices for one day and then you are immediately prompted for another graphname. Enter a graphname and then you are prompted for prices. This sequence continues until you press ESCape to signal the end of your list. After pressing ESCape you will be asked for a LIST!-name. Your prices have been stored and your list of names are now saved in a LIST!-name that ends with .! (example: LIST1.! ). If you do not specify a list name then the name RAPID.! is automatically used. The next time that you use the mode, you do not need to enter each graphname. Instead, you enter the LIST1.! name and all of your list will be repeated. This is handy for copying prices from the newspaper each morning. "LIST!" NAMES are used if you want to review, print or update the same list of graphs every day. After selecting or , press for a further explanation. Creating or changing a list! name: After selecting or you can press to go into an editor that lets you display old list! names or create new list! names. Simply select an old .! name or type in a new .! name and then use the arrow keys to move around the screen and type in one graph name on each line. We recommend that you create list! names as described above using mode rather than using this editor because in mode you can call up a directory listing but here, you cannot. So, if you forget the names you have to exit and look them up. Whatever way you choose, the resulting list! of names serves the same purpose. GETTING DATA INTO RAPID - FROM DATABASES RAPID is not a communication package. You can purchase a modem (or FM radio receiver) and then you can use any of the popular communication software (such as Procomm or PC-Talk) to transfer, onto your disk, whatever files you request from the various database companies listed below (note that many other un-named database companies provide data which is suitable for RAPID). You can then use our RAPIDUTL or RAPIDTEL or RAPIDCSI to translate these files into a file which RAPID can read and display as a graph. These programs can be run from DOS or you can select from the first menu of RAPID and then choose what type of file you are reading. Follow the menus and choose the correct settings. Here are some recommended data sources: Technical Tools 334 State St., Suite 201, Los Altos, CA, USA 94022 (415) 948-6124 Telemet America Inc., (FM transmission throughout USA) 325 First St., Alexandria, VA, USA 22314 1-8OO-368-2O78 or 1-7O3-548-2O42 Inexpensive FM radio broadcast You will need RAPIDTEL software (sold separately), in order to convert from Telemet to RAPID. Genesis Financial Data Services, P.O. Box 15O628 Arlington, TX, USA, 76O15 (about $49/month for 39 commodities or 78 stocks) Dow Jones (609)-452-1511 Other Sources: Compuserve, Starquote ... 8 TELEMET to RAPID CONVERSION INSTRUCTIONS (Rapidtel is sold separately) RAPIDTEL creates RAPID files which can then be read by RAPID. First, use your Telemet PG program to create monthly or intra-day DIF files. RAPIDTEL can only work on these monthly DIF and intra-day DIF files. The RAPIDTEL.EXE program is located on the same disk as RAPID. It is not accessible inside RAPID. Run the RAPIDTEL program as follows: A>RAPIDTEL B:JUN87.DIF B:\ In this example, the source is JUN87.DIF (which you created using PG) and the destination is the main B:\ directory. All disk drives can be set to A: if you have only one drive. As RAPIDTEL runs, it will list each of the new RAPID filenames that it is creating on drive B:\. Example: B:\EK-S B:\IBM-S B:\OEX-I and then it will say: Finished. You could also specify a subdirectory such as B:\RFILES\ and then the destination of the RAPID files would be: B:\RFILES\EK-S B:\RFILES\IBM-S ... Next, start RAPID by typing RAPID and load any of the new file names which are now on your disk. SHORT CUT FOR LOADING GRAPHS A short way of displaying a graph without going through the RAPID menus is to start RAPID by using the command: RAPID GET GOLD.SPT Intra-day dif files convert as follows: A>RAPIDTEL B:JUL28.DIF B:\ For intra-day files, RAPIDTEL will ask you to enter a number O to 365. This decides where to locate the data in the RAPID file. The purpose is to allow you to connect a number of days of intra-day data, one after another. Just enter O which is the beginning of the file, if you are not sure of what this means. Next RAPIDTEL asks what year. After that, the filenames are listed with an extension ".INT" to indicate that they are intra-day. Other than this, intra-day is the same as monthly dif files. If any of these filenames already exist then RAPIDTEL will ADD data to the file rather than re-creating the file from scratch. This is useful for building RAPID files from data in a JUN and then AUG and then SEP DIF file. Sometimes TELEMET data is faulty when it comes to index files. The highs and lows are incorrect. Press F8 while RAPID has a graph displayed and this will switch to "justcloses" and will ignore the highs and lows. It is up to you to be able to recognize when an oddball number is distorting a graph and you will have to correct the errors manually in RAPID by pressing C to "Change prices in a graph". 9 CSI DATA to RAPID CONVERSION INSTRUCTIONS CSI has become a common file format (used by Genesis and others). The files QMASTER and FOO1.DTA, FOO2.DTA, et cetera, must be present on whatever CSI data disk you are going to convert to RAPID. Select from RAPID's first menu. Then choose , CSI conversion. Next, messages appear: Which disk drive has QMASTER? -> Which subdirectory ...? -> Where do you want to send the RAPID files? -> Instead of converting all of the CSI files into RAPID format, as in RAPIDTEL, RAPIDCSI allows you to select a particular graph by using the up/dn arrows or type ALL to choose all graphs (down from the present position). You have the option of immediately displaying a graph after it is converted to RAPID format. Press ESCape when you are finished with RAPIDCSI. Go into RAPID and you will find all the new RAPID files in whichever subdirectory you sent them. Filenames created with RAPIDCSI are sometimes strange looking. If you want, you can rename them using your DOS command: REN. Also, note that commodity graph names end with two digits that show the delivery month. RAPID can also directly read CSI data. Choose from the main RAPID menu and then to get a directory listing. Highlight the QMASTER file and press enter. RAPID will automatically flip into a menu which looks the same as described above. TEXT (ASCII) DATA to RAPID CONVERSION The RAPIDUTL program is used for converting TEXT files to RAPID files. Dow Jones, Compuserve, Marketfax and many others provide text data. RAPIDUTL can be run directly by typing: RAPIDUTL or you can press in RAPID's first menu. In either case, a number of selections appear. You must match the text date-format, and order-of-the-data (Date,High,low ...) of your files to the options displayed in this menu. You can check the format of any TEXT file by using the DOS command: TYPE filename For example, if your text file looks like this: 7/22/87 1586OOO 133.88O 131.5OO 133.38O 7/23/87 1O86OOO 134.88O 132.5OO 133.38O ... then you know that the date-format is 12/31/87 and the order is DVHLC You can also select the date where you want to start reading data. Leave this set to 000101 (Jan 1st, 0000) if you want ALL data converted. If your text file has LETTERS such as filenames in front of the data, ignore them. Just set the order of the DIGITS. RAPIDUTL will ignore LETTERS. After entering the correct settings to match your file, press to select the text data filename that you want to convert. Next enter a new filename for the RAPID graph. If you choose a RAPID file that already exists then this utility will erase the original file! 1O If RAPIDUTL was started from RAPID (ie.) then a question appears after the conversion is completed: Do you want to graph this new file now? (y/n)-> This allows you to display a graph and avoid going back through RAPID's menus. If you choose 'No' then RAPIDUTL will ask for the NEXT graph to be converted. Press ESCape (a number of times) when you are finished with converting files. Here are a few examples of text file formats which can be read by RAPID: date high low close volume 7/22/86 133.88O 131.5OO 133.38O 1586OOO 29jul86 132.75 13O.88 131.13 11O5OOO date volume high low close 7/22/86 1586OOO 133.88 131.5O 133.38 date open high low close vol OI 1 7/21/86 131.75 132.38 13O.75 131.75 1365O O 2 86O722 1 13O.75 132.38 13O.75 131.75 4324 23 871231 13O.75 132.38 13O.75 131.75 4324 23 TECHNICAL TOOLS in Rapid's first menu and then choose Tech Tools. The conversion procedure is the same as 'Text' files, above. STARQUOTE in Rapid's first menu; then choose Starquote. Next, check the date and port settings (usually COM1) Press and then type in a LIST.! name which contains a list of all of the symbols which you want updated with one day of data from Starquote's feed. LOTUS 1-2-3 PRN FILES and LINKING TO OTHER PROGRAMS Lotus PRN files are text files. So, match any of the settings in RAPIDUTL (described above) in order to read your Lotus PRN file. Also, many other software packages, such as REFLEX, can send data to a text file instead of a printer. Also, note that a RAPID file can be converted backward to a text file which can be read by most word processors, text editors and other software! If you are doing your own programming then this is probably the best way of using RAPID's data. But if you want to use RAPID files, here's the new format: First 128 bytes are a header record. The rest of the file up to UNLIMITED length is 28 bytes for each record: DATE 4 byte long integer OPEN 4 byte floating point HIGH 4 byte floating point LOW 4 byte floating point CLOSE 4 byte floating point VOLUME 4 byte floating point OPEN INTEREST 4 byte long integer OMITTING HOLIDAY DATES With a graph displayed, press Ctrl-H and then C or U or O to select which holiday list that you want to activate. Any dates which are displayed, in the active holiday list, are omitted from the graphs. Notice that none of the lists are filled in with a complete list of holiday dates. Press to exit and simultaneously activate the displayed list or use the up/dn arrows to select a line and then press to edit the date in the given line. In this way, you can add or remove the dates which you want in your list. To override a holiday list, press and all calendar days, including Saturdays and Sundays and holidays are displayed. Press again to switch to normal display. COMPRESSING DAILY GRAPHS TO WEEKLY The RAPIDUTL program, which is discussed above, has a choice which will read a daily graph and create a weekly graph. COMPRESSING GRAPHS by any factor When a graph is displayed in RAPID, will compress it by any number of days. For example, a 2O day compression of daily chart creates a 'monthly' chart. However, this function is limited because it only works with a maximum of 365 days at a time. So, instead of using in RAPID, you will find an option inside the RAPIDUTL (just below weekly conversion). This option creates a new compressed chart using the ENTIRE length of the chart that you are compressing. You can also compress a weekly chart into a 'monthly' or 'yearly' chart. 11 SPREADS, TRUE RELATIVE STRENGTH, HEDGES Press in the first RAPID menu. Then press for two pages of help screens which explain spreads and how the spread equation is saved as a MACRO-name. After you master spreads, you are ready to understand the following: True relative strength: It is useful to compare your own stock to a main index. For example, IBM compared to the DJII can be calculated in mode. Type: 1 IBM /1 DJII ( / is division) (to finish) and then type your new filename and description as with the spreads that you tried. A new line graph appears which is IBM/DJII. Gold/yen could also be calculated. Option hedges are made, for example, when you own a stock and you sell an option against it. The expression of this with the stock and option graph is: 2OO IBM -2OO IBM115.FEB (to finish) Summing your portfolio of stocks is easy. List them in mode: 3OO DIGITAL +1OO GM +15OO VEDRON (to finish) Mutual Fund Adjustments and Dividend Pay-outs could be done in two ways: Reducing by a 2% fraction of the fund Where a fund is trading at 12.5 and it pays out a O.25 dividend, O.25/12.5 = O.O2 therefore: 1 XFUND -O.O2 XFUND (to finish) Or, to subtract a flat O.25 from the graph: 1 XFUND -O.25 (to finish) This subtracts the O.25 dividend from EACH day of the fund graph. Stock Splits, 2 for 1 example: O.5 GM +O GM (to finish) This multiplies GM by 1/2 and adds zero. COMMODITY ROLLOVERS A common problem with commodity trading is that the active contracts are always expiring. The next contract is priced at a lower or higher level and it is difficult to get a continuous chart. Graphing a contract from when it first starts trading has the disadvantage of inactive, unrepresentative trading in its first few months. Here's another important point: Most traders are concentrating only on the near month and they tend to view $400 on gold as significant even as they shift attention from December gold to April gold. This means that it is important to graph the nearest contract month. RAPID has a solution which lets you alternate between viewing the actual near-month chart or viewing an imaginary continuous chart. A continuous chart is created by applying a list of price adjustments to the dates on your actual near-month chart. Where does RAPID get this list of price adjustments? You create it manually when a graph is displayed or in mode with HIGH LOW CLOSE _ < displayed. Press . Use up/dn arrows to select a line from the list and press . Next, enter the date and the price change that is necessary to be applied in order to make the old contract equal the new contract. You can use to enter up to 20 of these date/price adjustments to the list. An example: If today is Dec 1/89 and you have been graphing Dec gold for weeks and now you want to switch to April gold. On Dec 1, Dec gold is at $412. April gold is $416. So, you need to enter an adjustment of +4 on this date in order to bring Dec gold up to April gold. The correct entry is: 891201 +4 On this date Dec 1, 1989 and beyond you can now enter prices for April gold instead of Dec gold. Whenever you press you will get an imaginary continuous chart which has added $4 to all dates before 891201. Press again to 'unadjust' the chart and return to the actual chart. Use your judgement as to which chart you should use for your analysis. 12 OTHER FEATURES The key, left of Q on most keyboards exits a graph that is displayed and loads the next, if a list! name was used. The cursor in RAPID looks double thick when NumLock is on. Some computers lack a NumLock light. If does not get you out of trouble then Ctrl-break will definitely halt any activity. For example, if you want to halt a macro or stop a calculation that is taking too long, Ctrl-Break will halt it. You must insert your own blank, formatted diskettes (see 'format' in your DOS manual) to provide storage space. You can permanently set the location of data by using the set-up menu. Data can be stored on any disk including the same disk as your executable programs. Graph files are portable. They can be copied individually to any other disk. Graphs are stored, while they are on screen, by pressing rite to disk. If you have made changes to a graph (discussed later) then RAPID warns you to store your changes before it lets you exit. If you do not store your changes then your changes are lost when you exit the graph display. To go to DOS temporarily and leave RAPID running in the background, press Ctrl-F1. While in DOS, type EXIT to return to the last displayed graph. METHODS OF TECHNICAL ANALYSIS USING RAPID This article will give a short description of how to use some of RAPID's tools. There are many good technical analysis books available which will describe in greater detail how to use these tools. "Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets", a comprehensive book by John Murphy, covers most of RAPID's tools. Order it from us. Wilder Volatility and Directional Movement are described by J. Welles Wilder, Jr. in his book: "New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems" (order it from: Trend Research, P.O. Box 45O, Greensboro, NC, USA 274O2) Follow the practice instructions to start RAPID and load the GOLD graph. With GOLD displayed, push U to lift up the graph and make room for one of the tools. Call up each of the tools on your computer and compare them to the sample charts which show various buy/sell points using various indices. These sub-graphs can be applied to any stock, commodity or stock index. Each of these indices can be interpreted differently by different individuals. However, here are two methods which can be applied to almost any of the sub-graphs: 1) The first method is to draw horizontal lines at approximately the 75% level and the 25% level and consider a market overbought if the index is above the 75% line and oversold if the index is below the 25% line. The difficulty with this method is that a graph can be showing overbought during the bulk of its move up and if you sell out as soon as overbought is indicated then you will miss most of the move. Therefore, a good rule might be to wait for a fall back below the overbought line before selling. This of course causes the sell signal to be slightly late rather than too early. 2) The second method is to watch for a divergence between the index and the price action of the underlying security. In other words, if a stock goes to a new high and the index fails to follow or actually begins to fall back then weakness in the underlying chart is indicated and a top is predicted. The reverse is true of a bottom. It is possible to choose any period of days or weeks for each of these sub-graphs. A longer period should predict longer term price movement and a shorter period should predict shorter term price changes. Try to choose periods which appear to match the natural cycle of a chart. In other words, if a stock seems to move strongly for 14 days and then weaker for 14 days, a 7 to 14 day slope oscillator might be the best choice. Although the above two methods an be applied to any of the sub-graphs, the moving average oscillator has an alternate method of interpretation: Graph two moving averages; 5 day and 8 day. Notice that the buy/sell points can be interpreted to be the point where the moving averages cross each other. Similarly, the 5-8 day mov. ave. oscillator (press O to call it up) crosses the zero line at each of these points (an upward crossing is a buy signal and downward crossing is a sell signal). It is up to you to decide if this method is superior to the other two methods. 13 The slope oscillator also has another rule (press S for slope). It measures the momentum of a move. When a price rise is slowing down, the slope oscillator will turn down before the chart turns down. This indicates a loss of momentum and is often a good sell signal. Experiment with different periods. The stochastics has an additional feature which is a smoothing line called %D. Sell or buy signals are indicated when the two lines, %K and %D cross while in over-bought or oversold territory. In overview, there are a tremendous number of choices to make. You will find that some sub-graphs and periods work well on one chart and not on another. Add to this, the fact that sometimes a choice works well for a time and then poorly at another time and you don't know whether to switch methods. Futhermore, there is more than one way to interprete an index. Sometimes you will find that nothing works! In any case, it is important to have a long length of price data to test a method and then have the discipline to carry it through if you are reasonably sure that it is working. Count how often and by how much a method is wrong when applied to past data, and use this as a measure of how long you might have to shoulder losses before profitable trading occurs. Also, it might be a good idea to focus on two indices that work and then wait for both to signal a move before entering a trade. Do not get overwhelmed with the wide number of choices. Search for a few rules and indices that work on a given chart and write them down. Avoid confusion and get organised. Don't try to focus on too many charts. It is wiser to ar first become intimately familiar with the character of only a few charts. Try to be firm with your trading rules. The sub-graph WILDER Directional Movement, , has three lines; solid, dotted and semi-solid. The solid line moves HIGH when a chart is in either a strong uptrend a strong downtrend. When it starts to move low, a change in trend might be indicated. The dotted & semi-solid lines cross each other to confirm this change in trend. However, if the solid line is below 25% then a trendless market is indicated. (You might consider using a short, 3-day, slope oscillator to trade a trendless chart.) Wilder Volatility Index, , is interesting because it has BUY/SELL signals and profit results. SAR (stop and reverse) means reverse your position and go short if the price has moved below the SAR value; go long if a price has gone above the SAR. The SAR values are superimposed over the price bars. The volatility is a sub-graphed below the prices. (Note that this index requests a multiplier before it asks for a period. This multiplier determines how close the SAR line will be to the price bars.) The attached sample charts show buy/sell points using a number of different rules. September 2, 1991 14 RAPID 4.0 LICENSE AGREEMENT You may: 1. use this program on one machine at a time but will purchase additional copies of the program for simultaneous use on multiple machines. 2. copy the program in any form for backup purposes in support of your use on one machine. You may NOT: 1. modify, use or transfer the program, or any copy, modification or merged portion, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. 2. sublicense, assign or transfer the license or the program. Any attempt to do so is void. Term: The license is in effect until terminated. Termination occurs when any of the above or below license conditions are broken or the purchaser terminates the license by destroying the program and all copies, modifications and merged portions in any form. Limited Warranty: Greenstone Software Inc. does not warrant that the program operation will be uninterrupted and error free and does NOT claim that investment decisions made through the use of this program will be profitable. Limited Remedies: If Greenstone Software Inc. is unable to deliver a copy of the program that is satisfactory, then you may obtain a refund by returning all program materials and documentation within ten days of the date of delivery to you as evidenced by a copy of your receipt. This refund is the limit of Greenstone Software Inc.'s liability and your exclusive remedy. IN NO EVENT WILL GREENSTONE SOFTWARE INC. BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this program even if Greenstone Software Inc. is advised of the possibility of such damages, or any claim by any other party. Some States and Provinces do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for damages so the above may not apply to you. You agree to be bound by all these terms and conditions and you agree that this is the complete and exclusive agreement which supersedes any proposal or prior agreement, oral or written, regarding this program. 16 == ADDENDUM == New features: 1) When a graph is displayed and X is pressed you can choose two H horizontal lines and then move the X to a mid-point (retracement of the range) and press O to do projections up/dn. 2) When a graph is displayed, now does weekly, monthly and other compressions of the entire file data (instead of just compressing the screen data). 3) The portfolio manager has some bugs fixed and sorts the trades with closed trades at the top of the list and open trades at the bottom. 4) Intraday data longer than 365 bars is now handled correctly. Numerous fixes in the data conversion utility are included. 5) A link to Telerate daily and intraday data is now included. 6) Utilities (from first menu) now does a monthly compression and includes automated connections to Dial-Data and CRS data and also operates your modem manually (no need to buy separate communication software). 17 RAPID automatically creates all required sub-directories for the thousands of charts. Expect to use 28 bytes of disk space per day per symbol. If you have limited disk space then remember to use a filter.! list as described above, to limit the number of charts created. Calling Other Databases: ----------------------- Use to directly operate your modem. ATDP5551234 will dial your modem if you have the baud rate and com port set correctly. You can even call CRS and Dial-data directly using in order to access other services not available via the automated logins that we provide. After logging into any service, you can use PgDn to read (download) files into your computer. Ask your data company with information about how to operate their menus. You can use PgUp to send files. You can even use this dialer to communicate and transfer files with other computers which support XMODEM or YMODEM or ZMODEM protocols.