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Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
I can't log in at 8:45pm Pacific time.
Me, too.
Casey J
DarkLady - Customer Service
DarkLady,
I have been a member of StockCharts for seven years. I really like the charts and the capability that is provided, as you said you do. There are some problems, but I work around them.
I also greatly appreciate and respect the help that Quasi provides to SC users, but I have to disagree with him regarding what I call StockCharts "Customer Disservice".
Your observation regarding customer service is their standard mode of operation based on my experiences with them. If you care to read about some of them, I did a couple of posts on it in May, 2009. You can also read posts #6172 and #6185 to hear about others' experiences. Apparently it hasn't gotten better since then and probably won't until a better value is available somewhere else. And that happens to all complacent businesses sooner or later.
The only help you're likely to find is at this forum and at S.C.A.N. as Quasi mentioned.
Best regards,
Casey
Thinly Traded, Dividend Paying Stocks
Cruncher,
You may not find StockCharts to be very useful for stocks paying large dividends. SC moves all previous prices lower when there is a distribution, so if you are looking at stocks with large dividends, the price errors could become quite significant the farther back you go.
An example is FTR. StockCharts shows a year 2000 high of about 11. If you look at the real high price for that year on charts from somebody like TradeStation or Yahoo Finance you'll see it was actually 19. SC shows the 2007 high to be about 13.5. It was actually a few cents above 16.
As you can see, if you look back past the most recent ex-dividend date, support and resistance levels, gaps, trendlines, etc will be incorrect.
Best regards,
Casey
Gap Differences
Qone0,
StockCharts adjusts historic prices on their charts for distributions. Any time a distribution is made they move all previous prices on the chart down by the amount of the distribution so there is no gap. I guess it makes for nice smooth indicators, but in my opinion price is more important than indicators. Any support and resistance information you get from those adjusted prices is wrong. I've complained to them a few times to no avail.
Here's a link to some discussion of it at their website.
http://stockcharts.com/commentary/mailbag/mailbag20000804.html
Casey
Annotation Problems and Java
Quasi,
Thanks for your suggestions. I haven't tried any of them yet. I rarely use the shaded box or oval so it hasn't been a big hardship to go without the capability. I'll let you know the results when I try your ideas.
Thanks again,
Casey
Annotations
Quasi,
The Annotation Tool works fine until I shade a box or circle. Then I am unable to add, delete, or modify any annotations. The Annotation Tool is totally nonfunctional.
Based on what you are telling me it's my problem and not a StockCharts problem.
Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.
Casey
Annotation Tool
When I had a problem and looked at StockCharts new Support page I saw they had six people providing 18 hours per day coverage. I was quite pleased, because I was foolish enough to believe that now I would really get a timely response to my question. But after a few weeks with no response I realize it's same old, same old.
Perhaps someone here can help me.
Everything to do with the ChartNotes Annotation Tool works fine for me with a small exception. Once I upload a shaded box or oval the chart is locked and no changes, additions, or deletions to the annotations is possible. A box or oval without shading causes no problem.
I'd like to know if this is a StockCharts problem or my problem. If someone would let me know whether or not shaded boxes or ovals are affecting their charts similarly I would appreciate it.
Casey
earlybird01, Support and Resistance Scans
earlybird,
Although you addressed you question to Quasi, I trust it's okay for me to respond, also.
As Quasi pointed out there are many types of support and resistance. The only two types I can think of offhand whose levels can be recognized by StockCharts scan software are MAs and round numbers. And I can't see how a useful scan could be written for round number S/R.
Several years ago I wrote scans to look for long and short swing trading candidates based on an Oliver Velez swing trading video from Pristine.com. The idea is to look for trending stocks that are pulling back from an upmove (in the case of a long candidate) and are near a moving average. The idea was not original with Velez. Variations of the method are very widely used. I would guess the best known reference is the Holy Grail chapter in Linda Raschke's book "Street Smarts".
For long candidates I was looking for stocks that were in an uptrend, undergoing a three to five day pullback, with current day's low lower than 2% above the SMA 20, and were short-term oversold.
I used four clauses to define the pullback to SMA support.
[High < yesterdays high] and
[yesterdays High < 2 days ago high] and
[2 days ago High < 3 days ago high] and
[Low < SMA(20, close)*1.02]
You were probably looking for something more than just pullbacks to MAs, but I think defining any other type of S/R areas in scanning software would be very difficult.
My swing trading scan results often contain stocks that aren't even close to what I'm looking for, but they usually produce a few that are of interest, too.
Casey
Copy and Paste
buyittradeit,
I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. I subscribe to StockCharts Extra, but have never posted a chart to this forum.
I'm sure there are many people here that do know the answer. Perhaps one of them will be able to help.
Casey
Quasi: Customer Support
Quasi,
I enjoyed your Saturday morning ramble.
I agree with your thoughts on adjusting past prices for things like stock splits, special distributions, etc. I'd just like to know that when I look back at a support or resistance area, I'm looking at the same prices people using other charting services are looking at.
As you pointed out it is nice, as a member of this forum to work at it if and when you choose. It's much easier than being part of Customer Support. Back when I was sometimes helping with scan questions I was selective, too. If someone seemed to be making no effort, but was looking to be spoon fed, I would ignore them. And if I had helped someone previously and they hadn't acknowledged my time and effort, I didn't help them again.
I realize that customer support is a very difficult task, some customers are completely unreasonable, and some problems may not lend themselves to resolution. But I don't think totally ignoring a customer's request for help is ever acceptable.
I don't mean to be totally negative regarding StockCharts. I've had very few times I've found it necessary to contact them. I like their charts. I think the scanning capability could be improved, but it's better than most. I like the large number of watch lists that I can maintain and the large number of charts that can be in a watch list. My biggest issue is that when I look to the left on my charts I don't know if what I'm seeing is fact or fiction. Other than that I'm quite pleased.
Best regards,
Casey
Susan: Regarding Charts
Susan,
It sounds like you're not happy with either StockCharts or Prophet. If you're looking for another charting service, I'd be interested in knowing what you come up with.
My experience with charting packages includes Scottrade, Thinkorswim, and TradeStation where I have accounts. I use the accounts at Scottrade and Thinkorswim much less frequently than the TradeStation account, but I am familiar with all of them.
I haven't used the ScottradeElite software lately, but when I tried it I thought it was clunky.
Thinkorswim has their own chart package and also a version of Prophet.net. The TOS charts are okay. But have some annoying things I don't think they'll ever correct, because they're more interested in delta neutral strategies than they are in market direction. When I've used their customer support it has been great beyond belief. I'm not sure that will continue now that they have been or are being acquired by TD Ameritrade.
TradeStation's customer support is sometimes good, sometimes not, but I've rarely needed it. I really like their charts and their trading platform. I use it for daytrading. Even though I like it a lot it doesn't replace StockCharts scanning and watch list capability. There's a monthly fee for the platform unless you trade a minimum of 5000 shares per month.
Several years ago I had a 30 day trial of Telecharts. I didn't follow through with it, probably due to inertia. I didn't feel like learning another charting package. But several people in our local traders group use it, like it, and say they have telephone support that is very good. I'll probably talk to them again later this year if they come to the Las Vegas Traders Expo.
I think what someone looks for in chart software depends on how they use it. So I don't know if any of this is of interest to you. But I'm interested in anything you find out if you do any investigation.
Best regards,
Casey
StockCharts Customer Service
Quasi,
I would like to add my comments to what Hank (Post# 6172) and Susan (Post# 6185) have said about StockCharts customer service.
I've been an Extra member for over 4 1/2 years and have had four customer service issues that I can recall, and poor response to my emails. I wrote many engineering reports over my career, so I'm confident I did a very good job of documenting my concerns. These were all probably about two years ago or more, but from what I'm reading from Hank and Susan, it sounds like there has been further deterioration in customer service.
One of the issues was that I noticed many charts had wrong price levels at previous highs and lows. I got an immediate response referring me to documents explaining that prices were adjusted for distributions. I still don't like this, but at least I now know that all chart prices prior to any distribution date, and therefore all support and resistance levels on many if not most charts, are wrong and get more erroneous the farther back in time you look. I fear there may be many users who are unaware of this. But the response from SC was good.
I can't remember what the other problems were, but one was responded to in a timely manner. I just gave up on the other two, but was surprised with a response to one of them two or three months after the fact. I got no response at all to the other one. There were also some emails about bad data points on the charts that went uncorrected for some period of time after the emails.
I don't know how you find time for all the help you provide to this forum, Quasi. Many users would be lost without you, and I think everyone here appreciates it immensely. But I suspect that by virtue of your position on this forum, your experience with customer service may not be typical. And I wanted Susan and Hank to know they aren't alone in their complaints.
Best regards,
Casey
Chart Annotation Question
Abuelo,
I have found that naming the charts will avoid that problem. And using a numbering system along with the name will allow you to keep the charts in whatever order you choose.
I have a watch list I use just for creating a chart. I annotate it, upload it to that list, and name it before I move it to the list I want it in. That way I don't overwrite other charts of the same symbol. There may be an easier way, but this is what I've been using.
Casey
Windsurf: Regarding Divergence Scan
Windsurf,
Haven't been here for a while, so I just saw your last post on the divergence scan. I appreciate your letting me know that my scan was of some help.
Casey
SMA Criteria
Windsurf,
I just counted my scans, and found there's over 100. Many of them were written a few years ago and most I rarely if ever use. So even though many of them are just variations of each other, I can't always recall what I was thinking at the time I wrote them. I think I was looking for price above an upward trending SMA 50 to restrict the scan to uptrends that might be weakening and eliminate stocks that were drifting sideways.
Casey
Double Top Scan 02
Windsurf,
Your understanding of the clause is correct. It forces the high of the last three days to be be no lower than 2% below the high in the earlier time window.
When you write "[close > the max(20,high)]" I don't think you'll get any results. Since today's close is within the range of the last 20 days it can't be higher than the maximum of that range. If you're looking for today's high to be equal to or higher than any of the last 20 days you could try "[high >= max(20,high)]".
Casey
Double Top Scan
Windsurf,
I think divergences work better at finding bottoms than finding tops, but here's a scan for double tops with MACD Line divergence that I've used on occasion. I'm looking for two highs with the second being no more than 2% lower than the first. I'm using a very short time window for the most recent top and a 50 day time window looking back from 15 days ago for the previous top.
The scan is very imprecise. It finds what I'm looking for, but it finds a lot of stuff that is not even close, too. It will find stocks that have been drifting sideways for months, stocks that had a higher high between the time windows, MACD that is still rising, stocks that have been trending upward with no significant dip between the highs, etc. I decided I was willing to look through a lot of charts to find a few interesting ones, so I didn't try to refine it further.
You can substitute indicators and time windows of your choice and see if it at least gives you a starting point. If you or Quasi can refine the idea or have a better one I'd like to hear about it, because this is not a very good scan.
[type = stock] and [country = us] and [daily sma(50,daily volume) > 1000000] and [Close > 15] and [max(3,high)>= 15 days ago max(50,high)*0.98] and [max(5,MACD Line(12,26,9)) < 15 days ago max(50,MACD Line(12,26,9))] and [Close > SMA(50,close)] and [SMA(50,close) > 20 days ago SMA(50,close)]
Best regards,
Casey
Regarding "Best of the Season to All"
Quasi,
I really like your greeting. Happy holidays to you, too.
Casey
Quasi re Breakout Scan
Quasi,
I really like your idea. It's certainly a lot less work than the one I posted.
Casey
Breakout Scan
tgg,
I haven't tested this and I may be way off base, but this is what came to mind when I read your post. See what you think.
If we assume 250 trading days per year we could select new 52 week highs by scanning for the current day's high > than yesterdays max(249,high).
To make sure that yesterday was not a 52 week high, scan for yesterdays high <= 2 days ago max(249,high).
Then scan for 2 days ago high <= 3 days ago max(249,high). This could be done for as far back as you wanted to go.
For longer time periods I think you could do it on a weekly basis, but I'm not sure.
If you want to go back a long way this idea would probably be unsuitable. Perhaps someone can come up with a better way to do it.
Casey
re Pullback from 52 Week High to EMA 9
Leonard,
[max(5,high) > 6 days ago max(240,high)]
This clause selects stocks that have made a high in the last 5 days that is higher than any in the previous 240 trading days.
[High >= EMA(9,close)] and [Low <= EMA(9,close)]
These clauses select stocks whose current bar is touching the EMA 9. This could be modified to return stocks whose current low was within some percent or some price range of the EMA 9.
The reason your are getting so few stocks is because this clause "[daily high > yesterday's daily max(260,daily high)]"
is forcing the current bar to be the highest high in the last 260 trading days while the EMA 9 clauses are requiring the same bar to be touching the EMA 9. That's why I scanned for highs occurring within the last 5 days. It gives some time for retracement to the EMA 9.
Sometimes I use other indicators in scans such as Bollinger Bands to look for volatility squeezes or ADX for trending stocks. But mostly I use moving averages and price levels.
If you're looking at the StockCharts scan tutorials you have as much info as I do. Those tutorials leave something to be desired. When my scan syntax is incorrect or my scan results don't seem to make sense, and it happens often, I enter one clause at a time and make sure it is working properly before adding any more.
Casey
Pullback from 52 Week High to EMA 9
Leonard,
I think this will find what you are looking for. It will also find some charts that you're not likely to be interested in.
[max(5,high) > 6 days ago max(240,high)] and [High >= EMA(9,close)] and [Low <= EMA(9,close)]
I arbitrarily chose 5 days as the look back period for the 52 week high.
The way I described the pullback to the EMA 9, if any of the current day's range is touching the EMA 9 it will be selected. If that's not what you had in mind let me know and I'll see if I can do better.
Casey
For USDollar regarding Prophet
USDollar,
It's "prophet.net", not "prophet .com".
Thinkorswim has free access to prophet charts for their clients. I'm not sure if they still do this, but they used to have 10 days free access to their trading platform when you opened an account. The account did not need to be funded to get this access.
Casey
Re: Jack Carter
Leonard,
Before you asked about him I had never heard of Jack Carter. I used Google to find the ad for his book. The second paragraph says "How to get the exact list of stocks… every single day the stock market is open… that are… 97% certain to move up in price." That's enough for me to form an opinion. Save your money.
If you're somewhat new to trading I'd suggest you get a good working knowledge of charts, candlesticks, and commonly used indicators. You also need to determine what kind of trading you will be most comfortable doing. Do you want to scalp, day trade, swing trade, position trade, etc?
There are a great many trading books that are as worthless as I suspect Carter's stuff would be, but there are some that are very helpful. There is some very good info available on the internet for free among all the worthless stuff, too.
Nobody has the secret for sale, because there is none. No one else's method is likely to work for you. I think all profitable traders have built the method that suits their personality using their own ideas along with bits and pieces of the ideas of others. If there is a secret it's one that no one wants to hear - successful trading is a lot of hard work, and there is a price to be paid in time and money.
I apologize if my rant is basic stuff to you. I've spent many thousands of dollars over the years on grossly overpriced seminars, videos, and books. I hate to see those hustlers get other people's money, too.
Casey
Scan Syntax
I copied the scan directly from the post into the Scan Engine. It said the syntax was correct and the scan results seemed to be what you are looking for.
If you post the scan exactly as you used it I'll see if I can find any problem with it.
Casey
Leonard,
Try this and let me know if it doesn't work.
[High > yesterday max(52, weekly high)] and [Close > 20] and [Volume > 100,000] and [Close > EMA(9, close)]
I wasn't sure if the volume greater than 100,000 requirement meant average volume over some period of time or volume on the day of the scan. For average volume the clause would be [EMA(20, daily volume) > 100,000]. I chose an exponential moving average and 20 days because that's what I usually use.
Casey
Regarding RT Data
Janet,
I still use StockCharts Extra for end of day charts and once-in-a while for intraday scanning. But the intraday scans are on daily data. Scanning on intraday data is not available.
I get real-time streaming charts from all three brokerages that I have accounts with; ThinkorSwim, TradeStation, and OptionsXpress.
OptionsXpress has charts provided by Prophet as does Thinkorswim. Thinkorswim also has their own TOS charts available. (Prophet and Thinkorswim are both Investools companies). Neither firm charges for the charts and neither has a minimum trading requirement. I like Thinkorswim's trading platform, and their customer support is not only better than any other brokerage I've come across, it's better than any customer support I ever experienced anywhere.
I trade mostly stocks now and for that I really like TradeStation's trading platform. The platform and it's charts are free if you trade a minimum of 5000 shares per month. I think I pay them an additional $4 per month fee for data from the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, and S&P.
I hope this info is helpful. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions.
Casey
RT Charts
Janet,
I quit using StockCharts RT data because it isn't streaming data. You have to refresh it each time you want to see current prices on your charts. There is also a feature available that will auto refresh your charts at 15, 30, or 60, second intervals.
Something else I got fooled on when I upgraded to RT was that I still couldn't use the scan capability for the current day until 15 or 20 minutes after the market opened. And I was told that RT chart data did not imply RT scanning data. The scanning data could be current, or it could be as much as 20 minutes delayed.
Hope this Helps,
Casey
StockCharts Attentiveness
KastelCo,
I think you're fortunate if SC has usually been attentive to your requests. That hasn't been my experience.
I got a response from them yesterday (May 2) to a message I sent to them on March 5. It was my second message to them on the issue. They ignored the first one.
Best regards,
Casey
Regarding Ex-Dividend Prices
Windsurf,
My problem isn't with adjusting the current price for dividends. It's that StockCharts adjusts all historical prices by the amount of the distribution each time there is one. So if you look at a stock that pays a quarterly dividend, the price on the chart two years ago has been adjusted downward eight times from where the trades actually took place.
I agree with you. I want to see the actual prices.
Casey
Adjustments for Distributions
Quasi,
I like your idea. It would leave prices on the great majority of charts at the levels where the trades actually occurred. But I think the chances of anything like it being implemented in the near future are almost nonexistent.
There are a lot of things to like about StockCharts. When I investigate the alternatives and consider the learning curve and time to rewrite scans, etc, I don't find one I want to move to. Until there is an alternative that subscribers are drawn to I don't think there is much incentive for change at SC.
Casey
Difference in Charts of CHY
Getting Better,
This page will tell you how StockCharts adjusts their charts for dividends and other distributions.
http://stockcharts.com/commentary/mailbag/mailbag20000804.html
I don't like what they do because I think it can move support and resistance levels to places on the chart where support and resistance do not actually exist. For funds like CHY with monthly distributions it can make sideways price movement look like a bull market and a bear market look like a trading range.
Casey
Finding a Turn in an Indicator
Windsurf,
This should find a turn in an indicator. If you are looking for turns above a certain level an additional clause will be required.
I used an RSI of only 5 day length because it moves a lot, and therefore makes it's easy to find a lot of situations to check if it works.
[yesterday RSI(5) > 2 days ago RSI(5)] and [yesterday RSI (5) > RSI (5)].
Casey
Break Above SMA 30 of Highs
Need Luck,
I think these two clauses will find stocks whose close was below yesterday's SMA 30 of the highs and is above today's SMA 30 of the highs. However, since you can't actually plot that SMA you need to take it on faith or calculate the SMA manually.
[yesterday SMA(30,high) > yesterday close] and [SMA(30,high) < close]
Casey
Bollinger Band Breakout
Wark,
I don't think you'll find a lot of low-volatility situations right now, but here a a couple of scans that will look for them.
1) This one looks for yesterday's BB Width less than 6% of the closing price and today's close above the upper band.
[yesterday BB Width(20,2,close)<= yesterday daily sma(20, daily close) * 0.06] and [Upper BB(20,2,close) < close]
Of course, you can modify this to look for breakouts to the downside or for whatever specific purpose you have in mind.
2) This scan looks for a close above the upper band after yesterday's BB Width was the narrowest in the last six months.
[yesterday BB Width(20,2,close)<= yesterday Min(130, bb width(20,2,close))] and [Upper BB(20,2,close) < close]
Casey
5% Range
Jkelly,
I didn't test it, but I think this clause will give you stocks whose one-month high is no more than 5% higher than their one month low.
[max(21,high) <= min(21,low)*1.05]
If you are looking for low volatility stocks you might also consider scanning on Bollinger Band Width.
Casey
RE: More Weekly Close > Weekly SMA 30
Quasi,
Very nice post. I know it took you a while to write a scan to check each of 30 weeks. But your charts made it much clearer than my post did.
Casey
More Weekly Close > Weekly SMA 30
KMD,
Trader77 is right. His scan will provide stocks whose weekly close is greater than the weekly EMA 30 for whatever time period is specified. And that meets your criteria. However, since the current week's EMA 30 will always be the highest one for the time period, all the stocks that it finds will have been above that current value for the entire time. It will miss those stocks that have closed above their EMA 30 each week but closed below their current EMA 30 at any time during the period. And the longer the period the more stocks that will be. To get those stocks the scan needs to check each week individually. If you can get what you need without those stocks, perhaps it's not worth the extra effort.
Here are some current examples of stocks that could be found only with the week by week scan using a 10 week period - ABT, C, WFR, and WYE.
Casey