I'm trying to rank the values of MetaStock formulas, so that the highest (numeric) value is #1, the second is #2, etc.  Since I'm ranking well over 100 stocks, and need to develop a composite ranking of 5 different formulas, Explorer won't help much; plus, I'd like to be able to reference the ranking number from within System Tester or TradeSim.

It sounds like an external DDL is the only solution.  I've heard that SpyGlass may be able to do this.  Now that Adaptic has purchased SpyGlass and re-developed it as it's FIRE product, I'm even more "unsure".  E-mailed questions to Adaptick are slow in response, and don't really answer my ranking question (they just refernce a generic product link).

So, if anyone out there has used SpyGlass, or found a way to rank formulas, I'd love to hear from you.  Thanks & Good Trading !        ....................  Tom  .................

Tom

I’m unclear from your brief description exactly what you’re trying to do. From what I can gather of your intentions and what I know about ERSA I don’t think that’s going to do it for you – not unless Adaptick build in some more versatility. At present the ranking is purely price based, with results from 0 to 99% for every tested bar of every security.

Don’t get me wrong - ERSA is a good tool. Though I’m not a particularly proficient user I like it for what it can do. Other than splitting the number of bars (to apply it’s ranking to) into 4 sections and allowing the user to assign percentage weightings to each section, it’s not open to allowing the user to change the ranking method (unfortunately). If it were then I suspect it would be a great solution for your needs.

I’ve developed a ranking process whereby a portfolio of securities can be ranked by any given formula (ROC, RSI or whatever, but only one formula at a time) for a given range of historical bars. The process is clumsy and requires historical data to meet a certain standard. It’s really only intended to rank the top 10-20 securities. A monthly fund-trading system that appeared in MSTT some time back is based on this ranking process, albeit only using the top 6 ROC rankings.

The process uses Mark Pyle’s versatile GlobalVar DLL and essentially requires one pass of an exploration to build each ranking level. Once completed the ranking data arrays (held temporarily by the GlobalVar DLL) are available for system tests or explorations. However there’s no easy way to save rankings, and generating several different rankings in the same MetaStock session would require multiple copies of the already numerous ranking explorations.

Perhaps Equis could take a leaf out of AmiBroker’s book and create a Scan function that allows ranking without all the fuss. From memory it only took the creator of AmiBroker about two weeks to introduce AB’s Scan function after he read of my ranking process in the “Trade Equity” Yahoo group (that’s my version of events anyway). I guess that’s not going to happen.

Roy

MetaStock Tips & Tools

Thanks for the reply Roy.  It sounds like SpyGlass will not be of any use to me.  That's too bad since I was hoping to be able to to a ranking on > 100 securities and do a (true) portfolio test using TradeSim.

My objective is to do rankings on 5 different formulas, to evalute momentum, relative strength (to an index), trend-ness, trend quality and "contribution" to the overall portfolio; then take a composite of these for a final ranking.

I do have AmiBroker, but I'm an old time MetaStock user, and would like to stay with it.  It's looking more and more like I'll be forced to go with the more current, capable and dynamic product.

Thanks Again & Good Trading.        .............  Tom  .................