Ok.  So I've come to grips with the nasty little twist that purchasing the "North American" package from Rueters doesn't get you the North American Indices.  I'm a brand new trader just getting started, and I can't justify spending an additional $120 per year to get a chart for the DJIA, SP500, and the NDX.  The question is, what do I do about it?

Can I build my own index?  My initial idea was to creat a composite of a composite until I combined everything I needed into the index (1+2=A, and 3+4=B, then A+B=index).  The problem, It doesn't look like I can create a composite from 2 composites. 

Can anyone offer advice or point me in the right direction?

hey j..... it's good to have a budget when it comes to investing, otherwise we can easily go overboard with expenses.....

its possible to create your own replica of the djia but it's a good deal of work..... far better would be to use one of the free data vendors such as yahoo....  you can download free historical data in cvs format.... then using the meta downloader, create the indices.......  that still will be time consuming....

one of patrick's orignal dll had a index maker in it..... that version might be floating around somewhere, but i don't see it in the download section.........

120 a year would be alot for just 3 charts but that stand alone 120 package contains quite a bit more..... such as the broad market type indicators.... those indicators alone are worth the price......but like i said we all need a budget and your wise to draw the line somewhere..... h

 

Thanks hayseed.  I didn't know about loading my own cvs text into a security.  That and the yahoo data will accomplish what I need.  Updating 3 indices each night should be doable.

You said it is possible create my own replica of the djia.  Any idea how I might do this.  Nearest I can tell, I can't create a composite from 2 composites.  And other than that... I have no idea how to proceed.

I might wind up just springing for the indice package down the road anyway.  Sector rotation is something that I think I need to study and understand and I probably need to have the indice package to make life easier.

hey j..... the later versions of meta have a 'security data' function.....  you can use that function to add up the values of your selected stocks..... such as

Security("C:\MetaStock Data\dow 30\aa", c)  +

Security("C:\MetaStock Data\dow 30\aapl", c)  +

Security("C:\MetaStock Data\dow 30\aig", c)  +

and so on....

this enables you to turn your index into a indicator that can be placed on any chart....  if you try to total a large number of securitys you might run out of room..... the second part of this post, eric had,  has a method to reduce the characters used thereby giving you more room for addtional symbols.....

once i created  a index of nothing but  high beta issues and divided that total by vix, in hopes of seeing   market turns sooner..... it made a neat indicator but didn't seem to have any worthwhile predictive power.......

and yes, your definitely correct, the broad market package will make life easier....... when the budget permits..... h

 

AHA!  The "security data" function is exactly what I'm looking for.  I'll use Eric's file path tip as well.  With this, I should be able to easily recreate the handful of indices that I need. 

Thank you!

You can definitely create folder averages using the security data function, as well as with a plug-in known as FIRE (http://www.adaptick.com/fire/index.html / http://www.equis.com/products/thirdparty/?3PC-ADD-FIRE).  Keep in mind that many index constituents are weighted differently, so simply adding them together is not going to give you a value that matches the actual index.

I figured there would be some additional math that would be requrired, but I didn't realize that each security in an index had a different weight.  I figured each would be weighted equally and then some divisor applied to it.

Is the weight a function of average daily volume or something?  Is the weighting made public?  Is this something I can figure out or should I just stop chasing it before I waste a bunch of time?

hey j..... some indexes are equal weighted..... some are float weighted.... some are market cap weighted .... and so on..... you should be able to get the appropriate weight for each component, but those weights change, as do the components themselves..... todays nasdaq 100 makeup is far different than the nasdaq 100 of 1999......

the math behind indexes is mind burning..... you simply would not believe some of the calculations done.....

i have reuters broad market package and also everything esignal supplys but still there were times when i wanted to group things differently.....  my 'purpose' built indexes were all equal weighted.....

your correct, construction  will be time consuming.... that's why most of us opt for the 120 buck package.... just  considering the time and accuracy  issues alone it's clearly the way to go..... i have esignals realtime package and still find the reuters deal  well worth the addtional cost......h

Ok.  I can recognize an unnecasarry uphill battle when presented with one.  I guess I'll just spring for the indice package.

Guys... thanks for all the help.  I've learned alot regardless of the outcome.

Thanks,

J32driver