STOCK HISTORY HELP version 2.2

Contents

  1. New Features
  2. Overview
  3. Registration
  4. Installation
  5. Getting Started
  6. The Displays
  7. Graphs
  8. Menu Functions
  9. Toolbar Buttons
  10. Mouse Buttons
  11. Status Bar
  12. Stock Alerts
  13. Tips and "How do I?"
  14. Work Arounds
  15. Case Studies

  1. New Features in this version
    1. The menus have been reorganised.
    2. The Indices can now be downloaded without error.
    3. Overlay the graph of any stock in the StockWatch
    4. A stockwatch can have "none" selected as the connection method
    5. Multiple copies of a stock can be placed in a stockwatch
    6. A sale price can now be entered
    7. The portfolio view will display profit in three ways
    8. An extended end of day history Note: there may be a problem with the old data files with this feature - I had a problem once - that I removed simply by going into the properties dialog of each stockwatch and simply selecting OK which reset (and thereby reformatted) the old settings.
    9. The data has been compressed a little - should be around 30% less storage
    10. The full history of one stock can be exported and imported as a .shk file


  2. Overview
  3. This program downloads UK Stockmarket price data and displays it in tabular or graphical form. It can download either from Electronic Share Information Ltd. (ESI) if you have an account with them or free from Yahoo. It can also work with the the stockwatch pages downloaded by WebTracker - a program from the Henham Software Company, written by JJ Nowell (click WebTracker to go to the download page).

    Essentially StockHistory stores historical data files called stockwatchs; each time you update one of these file a new snapshot of the values in the stockwatch page is stored. Any stored snapshot values can be viewed as well as the differences with previous ones. Also an historic view of any one category (eg. volume) can be displayed. This historic view is particularly useful as you can easily see from the colours of the data how things are moving during the day.

    The historic data can also be viewed in graph form, with graphs of mid, bid, offer, volume, spread, change, moving averages, stop loss and start rise lines combined in any way you choose.

    Sorry there is no online help - this is it!! Save this page to your machine and open it in a normal web browser (eg. drag and drop into your browser or just double click the file).

    General note: Various displays can look a little odd on the first update after the previous day's close of business. For example the bid and offer on SETS stocks can do very strange things pre market, and volume, of course, goes back down to zero at start of business, making it appear as negative (ie red) movements.

    Storage requirements are now approximately 4.4k per stock per 100 snapshots. A stockwatch with 20 stocks in it and a total history of 400 will require around 350k - this is both disk storage and memory whilst the program is running.

    IMPORTANT Note: After registering (or even after just noting the key number in order to register) should you want to move the program to a different location (folder) ensure you move the StockHistory.ini file as well. This is generated in the same folder as the program when it is first run and all registration information is stored here. Should you loose this file don't worry I have a note of everyone who has registered and you can always re-register - it will cost nothing! Also if you want to install the software on a second machine I have no problem with that - the easiest way is to copy all files including the .ini file to the second machine and you will not need to re-register the software on the new machine. Equally all you need to to do to pass data between two machines running StockHistory is copy the .shy files across. I know that some of this is clearly open to abuse, but I am very trusting and after all it's hardly worth cheating me for the sake of £10! Enjoy!

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  4. Registration
  5. Whilst you are free to download this the StockHistory software and use it for free for as long as you like, I have spent considerable time and effort developing it, and though I am not out to make a profit (you cannot imagine how many registrations it would take to even make a scratch in the time spent) I would like to recover some of the cost, and justify continuing to develop and enhance it. Therefore I am asking for a small registration fee of £10 (ten pounds sterling) payable to Focus. This should be sent to:
    Focus
    Giuthas
    Station Road
    Garve
    Ross-shire
    IV23 2PS
    UK
    Please be sure to include the registration key number and your email address and I will send your pass number to you by email, this will then make all features fully available.

    Unregistered users will be restricted to five accesses of the Portfolio view, and five File Exports during each run of the program. Also whilst Stop Losses, Start Rises and Alert Prices can be set up they will not be saved on program exit, so will need to be set up again each time the program is executed.

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  6. Installation
  7. Sorry I have no automated installation for this program. You simply place it in your desired directory (eg a directory called StockHistory under Program Files). Then you will have to set up shortcuts icons manually. If you have any problems with this please email me and I'll do what I can to help.

    If you move it at a later data, it is no problem, but ensure you move the .ini file as well.

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  8. Getting Started
  9. On initially running the program:
    1. Create a new document - File/New
    2. Edit the properties for the new file - Edit/Properties. A dialog box will appear.
    3. The History size specifies the number of snapshots to store.
    4. Downloading from Yahoo is the default, but to do this you must also add the EPIC codes of the stocks you are interested in.
    5. If you are using stockwatch files downloaded by WebTracker - select HSWT and enter a stockwatch file. The easiest way is to browse for it. This file must a be a stockwatch file downloaded by WebTracker in text only form - something like:

      http://www.esi.co.uk/silver/shares.cgi?Page=1234&TextOnly=yes

      as advised by WebTracker help. These files are normally in a directory named "sites" within the WebTracker application directory. Note: the names of these files are typically abbreviations of the name you gave for the site in WebTracker, though if you later change the site name the file name remains the same. Initially no data will appear - see 6. below.
    6. To enable remote downloading from ESI select ESI and enter details of your connection to ESI. The page number is the number that appears after Page= in the URL when viewing your stockwatches. Note: When first entering your Stockwatch pages from the ESI home no page number appears - it automatically picks up your default stockwatch. You must select a stockwatch from the list at the bottom of your stockwatch pages in order to determine the page number.
    7. I would suggest that you now save the document - it will by default take the extension ".shy" (short for Stock History).
    8. No data will appear until you have done an update. Updates can now either be done locally or remotely depending upon the data previously entered. They can be done either from the toolbar or from the Update menu. Update will only update the current document, Update All will update all open documents.

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  10. The Displays
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  12. Graphing
  13. The number of times graph views can be displayed is restricted for non unregistered users.

    The easiest way to navigate around the graphs is using the mouse buttons, but a graph display can also be entered from the View/Graph menu option. Graphs can be viewed for all stored stocks . For each graph there is one primary graph and secondary graphs can be overlaid on this primary graph. Primary graphs can be displayed for mid price, bid price, offer price, spread, change and volume. Secondary graphs can be specified from the Edit/Graph Properties menu option, and include all the primaries and stop loss, start rise, volume difference, overlay and three moving averages. These settings can be applied to all graphs in the current StockWatch.

    Some graphs can have a "de-spike" filter applied to them. The intention here is purely to remove spikes and is primarily targeted at SETS stocks. If the value has changed more than 2% from the previous value and not held that amount of change for more than 3 snapshots then the value is ignored for plotting. This is purely the plotted value - the stored value is not changed in any way and will still trigger alerts. Take care with this feature as it could visually mask a genuine sudden large move. Also if the spike lasts for more than 3 snapshots it will not be filtered out.

    Some graphs can be displayed at only third height (ie. only using the bottom third of the plot area. This is particularly useful for things like the volume difference, to avoid cluttering the whole graph with the secondary data.

    The amount of data that is plotted can be modified using the same Set Range and Move Range menu options and toolbar buttons as for the text displays, however the ranges values are independant of the text displays as typically a much larger range will be plotted than is normal in the text displays. The vertical axis is automatically set to the limits of the displayed data. The horizontal axis is also set to the limits of the data being displayed and vertical lines drawn at the start of each day, week or month depending on the range being displayed. If no data at all is displayed then try setting the range to all data (the button labeled |<<>>| will do this - though it should not normally happen.)

    The Graphs

    The primary graph is always displayed in black. The secondary graphs use the colours specified below. Some secondary graphs (notably the volume difference) can either be displayed using the full vertical axis or just 1/3rd of it, helping to avoid clutter around the primary.

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  14. Menu Functions
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  16. Toolbar Buttons
  17. Pause the mouse cursor over a button and it will tell you it's function. All buttons duplicate functions available through the normal menus. A number of more popular views can be activated directly using these buttons.

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  18. Mouse Buttons
  19. The mouse butons provide the easiest way of navigating around the graphs.

    Right Button

    - Clicking the right mouse button will generate a menu with many of the more commonly used options from the main menu.

    Left Button

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  20. Status Bar
  21. The status bar is the information bar at the bottom of the main window. There are 7 separate panes on the right hand side of the status bar; the first four of these indicate the type of display currently selected.

  22. Stock Alerts
  23. There are three kinds of Alert available.
    1. Stop Losses - alert value rises with the price, but does not fall.
    2. Start Rises - alert value falls with the price, but does not rise.
    3. Alert Price - fixed alert value, generated an alert if crossed in either direction.
    All of them can be viewed in the Alert View. Any alert will make the stock name display in red. Alerts can be acknowledged to change the name display back to black, but stop losses and start rise's will need to be reset if you want them to start again from the new prices.

    Note: unregistered users can use stock alerts but the data will not be saved on program exit. See Registration.

  24. Tips and "How do I?"
  25. Below are all the tips that are displayed at program start up (unless deselected - they can be reslected from the Help menu). Some have additional details added.

    Tips

  26. Work Arounds

Any problems please contact me at mike.franklin@btinternet.com.