A.I.M. Users Bulletin Board

[The Grabber]

HI Allen.
Where does one find good info about the Williams %r metric?
I've used T&A A-Z when I first looked at technical analysis, but I'm not sure it's still available for free.
But the W%r is simply comparison/calculation of highest highs and lowest lows over the timeframe desired, typically 14 or 15 trading days.
So it's quite a bit more telling of near term price trend.
Defined here:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/williamsr.asp

As to alerts, what are you using for this function?
I use Yahoo Finance and Nasdaq for alerts. I also use a tablet app I found that allows you to set alerts. It's called Stock Alert from Pocketools and there are both phone and tablet versions avaiable for free in Google Play for Android devices which mine are. here are very many other apps available for this.

I also use Seeking Alpha apps on both my tablet and phone. They are a financial news feed service, also for free and you can feed news specific to your portfolio.
Of course there are abundant articles attached to each holding in your portfolio within TD Ameritrade as well.

How would GTC orders work with the Sell on first down move after an upswing and Buy on first up move after a downswing? I can't see how one would set a price, unless it was above/below a selected point that was rather wide.

You can calculate the price at which it will cross the W%r threshold and set them there. Of course the implication is that your other thresholds are in play like Minimum $ and % along with Buy or Sell signals from AIM.
Probably as a Stop Loss on the Sell side and a Stop Limit(?) on the Buy side. I don't do this specifically, but maybe ocroft does and csn provide insight.

Also, I notice VIX is trending up but I don't understand the modeling it uses. Is there a good tutorial on VIX around? All I've seen so far is the sort of generic, "measures volatility" stuff.

I don't know the answer but look here:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/vix.asp
And...
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/070213/tracking-volatility-how-vix-calculated.asp

Also, I notice VIX is trending up but I don't understand the modeling it uses. Is there a good tutorial on VIX around? All I've seen so far is the sort of generic, "measures volatility" stuff.
One can actually trade the VIX!
http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/trade-volatility-with-the-vix-vxx-vxz-tvix-xxv0612.aspx
Although it looks scary to me personally, but apparently very sophisticated investors, traders use it as a hedge and to reduce risk.

We AIMers reduce risk in other ways, so maybe we don't need to hedge via the VIX.