Tutorial: Learning the Basics
The TradingSolutions Interface
The Solution Service
i Tutorial Task
Use the Solution Service to see sample signals updated on a daily basis.
You can see TradingSolutions in action by registering for the free Solution Service. The Solution Service provides you with current signals for several stocks and data that is updated after each trading day. This allows you to use these signals on a daily basis and learn by example how to generate your own winning signals.
Ä Note: If you do not want to register for the free Solution Service at this time, proceed to the bottom of this page to advance to the next tutorial.
Step-by-step Instructions
1. Press the Update Solution Service button on the toolbar. This will display the Register for the Solution Service Wizard.
Ä Note: If you previously registered for the Solution Service, the Update Solution Service Dialog will be displayed instead of the Register for the Solution Service Wizard. In this case, jump ahead to step 6.
Figure 1. Location of "Update Solution Service" button.
2. Review the introduction to the Register for the Solution Service Wizard and press the Next button.
Figure 2. The Register for the Solution Service Wizard, Introduction page.
3. On the Terms and Conditions page, review the Terms and Conditions and check the I accept these terms and conditions box, then press Next.
4. On the Enter Information page, enter your registration information and press Finish.
5. After a brief delay, a message should appear indicating "Registration Successful". Press OK. This completes the registration process and displays the Update Solution Service Dialog to begin your update.
Ä Note: If you receive a message indicating an error, see the Notes for help with common errors.
Ä Note: If TradingSolutions was not able to register you for the Solution Service, a different message will be displayed, along with suggestions for remedying the problem.
Ä Note: If you are not able to register for the Solution Service at this time, you can still proceed with the other tutorials using the link at the bottom of this page.
Figure 3. The Update Solution Service Dialog.
6. On the Update Solution Service Dialog, press the Start Update button.
7. A final message welcoming you to the Solution Service will be displayed. Press the Yes button to continue.
Figure 4. Additional welcome message.
8. TradingSolutions will contact the Solution Service server to download the required data, models, and commentary. A Status Dialog will be displayed while this information is downloaded.
Ä Note: If you decide not to update the Solution Service at this time or encounter an error, you can still proceed with the other tutorials using the link at the bottom of this page.
9. After the download is complete, a message will appear in the Messages and Alerts Window indicating "The update completed successfully." TradingSolutions will then work on updating its calculations based on the information it downloaded. A new Status Dialog will be displayed while these calculations are being completed.
Ä Note: If you receive a message indicating an error, see the Notes for help with common errors.
Ä Note: Additional messages may be displayed indicating "The default data source has been updated to the Solution Service" for some stocks. This is an indication that stocks that were already in your portfolio will have data imported by future updates to the Solution Service.
10. When the processing has completed, the Status Dialog will disappear and a message will appear in the Messages and Alerts Window indicating how many fields were processed and the total amount of time it took.
11. Examine the Portfolio View. Updating the Solution Service caused the following changes to take place.
Figure 5. The Portfolio View after a Solution Service update.
· The "End-of-Day Last Updated" date is updated to a recent date, typically the most recent trading day.
· An "Active Solutions" group is added beneath the "Solution Service" group.
· The "Active Solutions" group is selected automatically.
· Each stock in the "Active Solutions" group has a signal and %Gain displayed after the calculations are completed.
· The signals and analyses for any sample stocks you have primary signals for may change to reflect the values for the current date. The values of other sample stocks will turn gray if they have not been updated.
Ä Note: It may be necessary to scroll the Portfolio View down to see the entire "Active Solutions" group.
Ä Note: If you do not see a signal and an analysis column next to the stock names, you may need to expand the width of the Portfolio View by dragging on the right-hand edge of that window.
12. Examine the Information View. Since the update selected the "Active Solutions" group in the Portfolio View, the Information View is now displaying information about this group.
Figure 6. The Information View after a Solution Service update.
Ä Note: If you selected another group or stock in the Portfolio View after the update was started, you can re-select the "Active Solutions" group by clicking on it.
13. The Information View includes a section for notes about the selected group or stock. With the "Active Solutions" group still selected, view some of the notes for the "Active Solutions" group.
Ä Note: You can use the scrollbar on the Information View to scroll through the notes. If an individual note is larger than the Information View window, the entire note may not display. In this case, it may necessary to resize the Information View to view the entire note. You can do this by dragging on the top or side of the Information View.
14. Click on a stock in the "Active Solutions" group in the Portfolio View. This will select this stock and the Information View will change to display information about the new selection.
Figure 7. Clicking on a stock updates the Information View.
15. View some of the notes about the currently selected stock. Click on other stocks to read their notes.
16. Let’s view an analysis of one of the Solution Service signals. Right-click on a signal for a stock in the "Active Solutions" group and select "Analyze Signal…".
Figure 8. Selecting "Analyze Signal…" from context menu.
17. This will display the Modify Field Dialog opened to the Signal Analysis page. This is the same dialog we looked at in the previous task. When you are finished with this dialog, press the OK button.
18. You can update the data for the stocks in the "Active Solutions" group after each trading day pressing the Update Solution Service button. This updates the signals for each stock to show you how to trade at the open of the next day.
Ä Note: When a new signal results in needing to change position, the signal will be highlighted with a pink background.
Ä Note: The Solution Service is typically updated after each trading day by 7:30pm U.S. Eastern time.
Congratulations!
You now have an overview of the TradingSolutions interface, a basic understanding of how TradingSolutions calculates and stores values, a method for creating new signals, and several up-to-date examples you can use, even from the evaluation version.
The next tutorials provide you with more detail about each of these steps and introduce you to experimenting with your own methods for creating signals.
_ Continue to the next tutorial.