Charts

In order to create good strategies, you need to know how the expressions you are using behave. Trade Strategist allows you to make charts of expressions, so that you can compare them, and see how they can best be utilized. You can even export the data you calculate to other applications like spreadsheets. In this way, Trade Strategist can be used as a powerful financial calculator.

Opening the Chart Window

To open the chart window, either select the menu item Window > Charts, or click the Charts toolbar item.

Adding Plots

1. Click the round + button under the plot area.
2. Fill in a name for the plot. This name must be different to all other plot names.
3. Choose a color for the plot by clicking the color well.
4. Fill in a valid Trade Strategist expression. This expression must have a floating point value.

Selecting Plots

1. To select an existing plot, select its name from the pop up button.
2. Examine, remove, or edit the selected plot as desired.

Removing Plots

1. Select the plot you wish you remove by selecting its name in the pop up button.
2. Click the round – button under the plot area.

Hiding Plots

If you have added many plots to the chart window, you may wish to hide some of them. To do this, either

1. Select a plot you wish you hide by selecting its name in the pop up button.
2. Select the Hide check box.
3. Repeat for each plot you wish to hide.

or

1. Click the Hide All button to hide all plots.
2. Select any plots you wish to display, and deselect the Hide checkbox for those plots.

Displaying Plots

1. Make sure that the plots you wish to view are not hidden.
2. Enter a start date (mm/dd/yy) and end date for the chart.
3. Enter the ticker of a single stock.
4. Click the 'Plot' button, and wait. Trade Strategist may need to download data, so this could take a moment.

Saving Plots

Plots are automatically saved along with your strategies. Simply save your document, and your plot expressions will be saved so that next time you open your document, they will be unchanged.

Exporting Chart Data

The Chart Window is not only useful for creating plots of data, it can also be used as a calculator to generate data for other applications such as spreadsheets. Trade Strategist has access to a very wide range of Technical Analysis indicators, which can be combined in infinitely many ways. In this sense, Trade Strategist is much more powerful than a spreadsheet, and can be used to complement the strengths of a spreadsheet application.

You can copy the data generated for a plot by simply choosing Copy from the Edit menu after you have created some plots. The data is put on the clipboard in tab-delimited form, and can be pasted directly into other applications. Only the data of visible plots is put on the clipboard — data for hidden plots is not included.

You can export data to file by selecting Data > Export Chart Data... after creating your plots. Data is exported to file in comma-separated values (CSV) format, which can be imported into other applications.

Limitations

The demo and standard registered versions of Trade Strategist place a limit of five plots in the Charts Window. To create new plots, you either have to delete old ones, or purchase Trade Strategist Pro, which allows you to create and save an unlimited number of plots.