The Symbols page is where you select the actual securities that will be monitored by the ScanExpert Viewer application. These securities are organized into portfolios. A portfolio is simply a file that contains the required information for one or more securities (i.e., symbol name, bar interval, session start time, session end time). You can maintain an unlimited number of portfolios in ScanExpert but only one portfolio can be active at any given time. The portfolio that is currently being used is called the Active Portfolio.
There are a couple of different ways that you can create a portfolio in ScanExpert. You can type in the information one symbol at a time or you can import a text file containing a list of securities. You can also combine existing portfolios to create larger portfolios, and you can mix and match bar intervals as well as session times within a portfolio.
Note: ScanExpert uses the eSignal data feed so all symbol names that you input into your ScanExpert portfolios should be formatted based on the eSignal specifications. Symbol names that are misspelled or formatted incorrectly as well as symbols that no longer have any data will result in empty rows in your Grid. In addition, ScanExpert requires a valid eSignal subscription in order to operate. The maximum number of symbols that ScanExpert can access at any given time is 500. However depending upon the symbol limits of your eSignal subscription, the number of symbols that you can access may be less than 500. See Usage Notes.
The Symbols page in Configuration Manager contains a number of options which allow you to manage and maintain an unlimited number of portfolios. As mentioned above, a portfolio is simply a collection of securities (including symbol name, bar interval, and session start/end times) that will be monitored by the ScanExpert Viewer application and each portfolio can contain from 1 to 500 securities.
| • | Interval: Use this selection box to set the default bar interval. Once this is set you can then import a list of symbols and the default interval you have selected will automatically be applied. Or you can change the interval in an existing portfolio by first changing the default Interval setting and then clicking on the Remap Interval button. You can select any intraday bar interval (i.e., 1-min and up) as well as Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. Tick intervals are not supported by ScanExpert. Study formulas can access data from bar intervals that is different from the bar interval specified in the Active Portfolio. See the MultiTimeframe section for more information on this topic. |
| • | Sess Start: Use this selection box to set the default Session Start time. All session times are based on a 24-hour clock (military time) and all sessions are based on your local time-zone. Use the up-arrow to increase the hours or minutes. Use the down-arrow to decrease the hours or minutes. Or you can simply type in a time. Press the period (.) key to move between hours and minutes. |
| • | Sess End: Use this selection box to set the default Session End time. All session times are based on a 24-hour clock (military time) and all sessions are based on your local time-zone. Use the up-arrow to increase the hours or minutes. Use the down-arrow to decrease the hours or minutes. Or you can simply type in a time. Press the period (.) key to move between hours and minutes. |
Note: Session times only apply to intraday bar intervals (i.e., 1-min bars and up). They do NOT apply to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly bar intervals. Those bar intervals are always based on a 24-hour session. Also, the Session End time must always be greater than the Session Start time. The only exception is when selecting a 24-hour session. In that case you would set the Start Time to 00:00 and the End Time to 00:00.
| • | RTH Button: (Alt-R) This button is simply a short-cut that you can use to quickly set the Session Start and Session End times to Regular Trading Hours (RTH). On the East Coast, regular trading hours would be from 9:30 to 16:00 and on the West Coast regular trading hours would be from 6:30 to 13:00. The default RTH setting is 9:30 to 16:00, which is correct for the East Coast. However you can click on the Define RTH button (Alt-F) to define the specific Regular Trading Hours start and end times that you would like to use based on your geographical location or personal preference. |
Define your RTH session using the
Set RTH Times dialog.
| • | 24 Button: (Alt-2) This button is simply a short-cut that you can use to quickly set the Session Start and Session End times to a 24-hour session. When you click on this button, both the Session Start and Session End times will be set to 0:00. |
| • | Bars to Load: Use this selection box to set the number of price bars that ScanExpert Viewer should attempt to load for each security in a portfolio. The default value is 300 bars. You can select any number between 10 and 600 bars. You should select a number of bars that is adequate to perform all calculations defined in your ScanExpert script. So if one of the formulas being displayed by your script is a 200-period moving average, you would want to set the number of bars to load to something like 225 or 250. The fewer the bars, the faster ScanExpert Viewer will operate (and the less memory it will use) so always select the smallest number of bars that will be adequate based on the formulas you have defined in your script. |
| • | Active Portfolio: The Active Portfolio list shows you the securities that are currently selected. For each security there is a column for Symbol, Interval, Start, and End. |
The Active Portfolio
To add securities into the Active Portfolio, you have several options:
| • | Import: (Alt-I) Click on the Import List button to import a list of symbols into the Active Portfolio. You will be prompted to either append the new information to the end of the existing Active Portfolio or to overwrite the existing Active Portfolio. When an import is performed, the current default Interval, Session Start and Session End will be used. The Import feature can be used to import any list of symbols. The only requirement is that the import file must be an ASCII text file and there must be only one symbol per line. Once you have imported a list of symbols, you can then click on the Save Portfolio button to save that list as a ScanExpert Portfolio or press the ESC key to cancel. |
Example of import list format
Note: The preferred symbol import format is a text file with one symbol per line, as in the image above. However you can also import CSV-type files as long as the symbol name is the first item on each line. So, for example, you could use the TradingMarkets.com™ online stock scanner to generate a list of securities that meet certain criteria, choose the Export to Excel option in their control panel, and then save the resulting scan as a CSV file. Since the symbol name is the first item of information on each line, ScanExpert will be able to read in this file to create a new portfolio based on the results of the online scan.
| • | Add Symbol: (Alt-A) Click on the Add Symbol button to add symbols manually, one at a time. When you click on the Add Symbol button, the Add Symbol dialog will appear and you can type in the Symbol, select the Interval as well as the Session Start/End times. Click on the Save button or press the Enter key and the dialog will remain open so that you can enter more symbols. Click on the Save & Close button to complete the operation and close the dialog. Click on the Cancel button or press the ESC key to cancel. |
The Add Symbol dialog
Note: You can use the Add Symbol dialog to add securities to an existing portfolio as well as to create a new portfolio.
| • | Spreads: Click on the Spreads button to define custom spreads. When you click on the Spreads button the Spread Symbol Definitions dialog will appear. You can add new spread definitions or edit existing spread definitions. Once you define one or more spread symbols, you can use them in your portfolios. See the Spreads section for more information. |
The Spread Symbol Definitions Dialog
Other Portfolio Operations
| • | Load Portfolio: (Alt-P) Click on the Load Portfolio button to load an existing portfolio file. You will be prompted to either append the new information to the end of the existing Active Portfolio or to overwrite the existing Active Portfolio. You can also right-click in the Active Portfolio and select the Load Portfolio option from the menu. |
| • | Save Portfolio: (Alt-S) Click on the Save Portfolio button to save the current Active Portfolio to a ScanExpert portfolio file. You can also right-click in the Active Portfolio and select the Save Portfolio option from the menu. |
| • | Clear: Click on the Clear button to clear the current Active Portfolio at any time. You can also right-click in the Active Portfolio and select the Clear option from the menu. |
| • | Remap Interval: (Alt-V) This is a quick way to change the interval being used in the Active Portfolio. So, for example, if you load an existing portfolio based on the W (Weekly) bar interval and you want to create a new portfolio with exactly the same symbols but using the D (Daily) bar interval, you would: |
A. Change the "Default Interval" at the top of the screen to "D".
B. Click on the Remap Interval button. You will be prompted to confirm the action and, if you do, the interval in the Active Portfolio (i.e., all symbols) will be changed to D (Daily).
Note: To change the interval for just one security in the portfolio, double-click on that symbol to access the Edit Symbol dialog.
| • | Remap Session: (Alt-E) This is a quick way to change the session being used in the Active Portfolio. So, for example, if you load an existing portfolio based on a 5-min bar interval with a Session set from 9:30 to 16:00 and you want to create a new portfolio based on those same symbols but using a 24-hour session, you would: |
A. Change "Session Start" and "Session End" fields at the top of the screen to the session times you wish to use.
B. Click on the Remap Session button. You will be prompted to confirm the action and, if you do, the session start and session end times in the Active Portfolio (i.e., all symbols) will be changed to the new session times that you have selected.
Note: To change the session times for just one symbol in the portfolio, double-click on that symbol to access the Edit Symbol dialog.
| • | Delete: To delete one or more symbols from the Active Portfolio, select the symbol (or symbols) with your mouse and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. You can also right-click in the Active Portfolio and select the Delete Selected option from the menu. |
| • | Edit: To Edit a symbol in the Active Portfolio, just double-click on that symbol in the portfolio. The Edit Symbol dialog will be displayed and you can make changes to the Interval and/or the Session times. |
See also: