Indicators Using Date & Time Input

All the indicators requiring date input have been standardized to accept the date and time in the following format:

1. First the year 2003

2. Second the month, so March as 3

3. Third the day of the month as 01 to 31, so 09

4. Fourth the hour as 09 (If not applicable, you must fill with 00)

5. Fifth the minutes as .30 (Note the decimal point before the minutes. If not applicable, do not fill)

Although it is not standard, this simple way of entering the date and time will allow you to use the dates in calculations where you need to compare which is the biggest or the smallest, when should a display begin and many more applications. MetaStock® as we all know does not provide date functions other than separate indicators for Year, Month and Day of Month; when you try to group them to simulate a date function, the eight digit limitation of the program makes the data inaccurate. The time input is necessary for intraday charts; if you do not use intraday, do not forget to add the 00 after the day otherwise your input will be rejected as too small.

The order in which the inputs are required is also very important as you need to retain sequential relative position for each bar. As an example, let’s assume we will input these two dates December 20, 1999 and January 16, 2001 in the following format:

Month, Day of Month and Year: mmddyyyy 12201999 or 12,201,999 01162001 or 1,162,001

It is easy to see that the biggest number numerically is not the latest date! If you compared these two dates, you would be told that December 20, 1999 is the latest bar. Another problem would take place on certain days where the decimal place would throw the day numeral off. It gets even worst when you need to add the hours and the minutes for intraday charts. The system AlphOmega is using, checks the year first and separately to overcome 8 digit limitations; it is then building a serial that groups the month and the day and the hours on the integer side; the fractional side has the minutes.

In addition, the largest number has only 7 digits keeping it in the accuracy limit of MetaStock®. Look at the Wolf Wave graph that uses the date features to not only start displaying at the right time but also the relevant data before the detected signal (Where the short red line starts). To illustrate, look at a Wolf Wave pattern that uses internally the date indicator to start the display only from the date selected. (Let’s add regarding the Wolf Wave pattern, that this pattern is very risky as it expects a normal wave to fail and the pattern to reverse.)

Protection

The formatting of the proprietary indicators and experts is limited by password protection only to avoid mishandling. However, some changes can be made without the password so just be careful that you don’t merge your indicators into the background. A password has been provided with the set to make it an end user flexible tool; be careful of the integrity of the set once the formulas are changed! Make sure you have a back up copy to restore the original set.