TASC subscribers can vote online at http://technical.traders.com/Products/ballot.asp

• Support for importing and streaming data from IQFeed.
• Updated sample models and introductory tutorials.
• Display ticker symbols in the Portfolio View.

The Evaluation version, End-of-Day level, and Real-Time level can all be updated for free by downloading an update patch from the following link:
http://www.tradingsolutions.com/downloads/updates.html

Pal Anand is an independent software consultant in British Columbia. When he is not writing code for clients, he is using TradingSolutions to fine-tune his models for the foreign exchange market. These models have shown an incredible profit potential. For example, he entered a trading contest with real money with his broker in which he took second place by earning a 247% return in just over a 10 day period.

Two new models were introduced soon after the release of the last newsletter - Boise Cascade (NYSE:BCC) and Panamsat (NASDAQ:SPOT). Both of these models have made gains of around 6% since their introduction.

Calculating Float Bars
Given a way to keep an accumulated total of traded volume, the current accumulated volume can be compared to previous accumulated volumes to identify the number of bars needed to cover a specified volume. This can be done using the current value special processing in TradingSolutions.

Here are brief step-by-step instructions for how to do this using the “Accumulator” function we wrote in the previous article. For more complete instructions on how to write functions in TradingSolutions, see the step-by-step tutorials.

1. Select Define Functions... from the Processing menu.
2. Select a function group to place this new custom function in.
3. Press New... under the list of Function Definitions in the Selected Group.
4. Enter a Display Name of Float Bars and a Short Name of FloatBars and press Next.
5. Select the Bars Since Was True (BarsSince) function.
6. For the Condition input, select the Is Greater Than Or Equal To (GE) function.
7. For the Value 1 input, select the Subtract function.
8. For the Value 1 input, select the new Accumulator function.
9. For the Value input, press Create New Input… and assign the name Volume.
10. For the Value 2 input, also select the new Accumulator function.
11. For the Value input of the second Accumulator function, select the Volume input you just created.
12. For the Value 2 input of the GE function, create a new input called Float Volume.
13. For the Period input of the BarsSince function, create a new input called Maximum Period.

We now need to change one of the “Accumulator (Volume)” functions to look at the value for the current bar while the other looks at the value relative to the BarsSince function.

1. Select the first Accumulator function in the formula.
2. Select the Special Processing tab.
3. Press the Add Level button to add the Identity function around this function.
4. Select Use the current value of the selected function for all values in the surrounding array function.
5. Press the Next button, then the Finish button to save your function.

How It Works
The resultant formula looks like this:

BarsSince (GE (Sub (Current: Ident (Accumulator (Volume)), Accumulator (Volume)), Float Volume), Maximum Period)

The Bars Since Was True function will determine the number of bars since a given condition was true, up to Maximum Period ago. The condition we are checking is whether the difference between the current accumulated volume and previous accumulated volumes is greater than the target Float Volume parameter. This gives us how many bars ago the cumulative volume changed by Float Volume.

Three New Indicators Three new indicators have been added to the Traders' Tip section of the Solution Library based on articles in recent issues of Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine (TASC).

Giorgios Siligargos article “Divergence Bias,” in the December 2003 issue, compares and contrasts the usages of several different momentum and MACD-type indicators. Most of these indicators are built into TradingSolutions, but use a different name. The one new function, called the “Fractional MACD” has been added to the Solution Library.

Barbara Star's article “Trade the Price Swings,” also in the December 2003 issue, discusses the usage of the Linear Regression Indicator instead of a standard moving average for trading. Her additional calculation called the “Linear Regression Reversal Indicator” has also been added.

Jongseon Kim's article “When And When Not To Trade,” in the January 2004 issue, presents a trading system based on the TRIX indicator. This system is very similar to the TRIX system included with TradingSolutions. It has also been added to the Solution Library.

These functions can be downloaded from the Solution Library. They can then be imported into TradingSolutions using "Import Functions..." from the "File..." menu. The Traders' Tip section of the Solution Library is located at: http://www.tradingsolutions.com/downloads/tasc.html

If you aren't familiar with Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities, we encourage you to visit their web site at http://www.traders.com

Neural 101 is a free educational web site on trading stock and futures markets with neural networks. It includes message areas, links, trading indicators, systems and scans. The message areas include special forums on building trading systems, using neural networks, and even discussing tips, tricks, and ideas for using TradingSolutions.

NeuroDimension encourages the use of this free resource to foster discussions between people interested in TradingSolutions. You can visit Neural 101 at http://www.neural101.com. The TradingSolutions message forum can be located using the “Message Forums” link from the left-hand menu.

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