The ScanExpert Wizard main screen can be broken down into 3 parts: the Study Selection Box, the Layout Grid, and the Conditions Grid.
The Study Selection box is located at the top-left of the Wizard main screen.
Study selection box (closed)
This is where you select the data points, conditions, and/or studies that will ultimately be displayed in the ScanExpert Viewer Grid. The Study Selection box is comprised of sections and each section contains the data points and/or studies that are associated with that section. Just click once on a section to expand it:
Study Selection box (expanded)
Note: In this documentation the term "study" is used interchangeably to refer to both standard data points (such as Open, High, Low, Close, etc.) as well as user-defined conditions and actual study formulas.
Once a section has been expanded, just double-click on any item in that section and it will be added as a new row in the Layout Grid. Right-click on any item in the Study Selection box and a description of that item will be displayed, if available.
Right-click on a formula to view a description
The first two sections in the Study Selection box (i.e., Data Streams and Conditions) are integrated into the Wizard and cannot be modified in any way.
| • | Data Streams: This section contains a list of what are considered to be the standard data point items, which are Date, Time, Open, High, Low, Close, HL/2, HLC/3, OHLC/4, and Volume. These items do not have any configurable parameters. Just double-click on one or more of these items and they will be added into the Layout Grid. You do not need to add any of the Data Streams items into the Layout Grid if you only need them as inputs to other studies (i.e., if you do not need them for display purposes). The standard data point items contained in the Data Streams section are always available as inputs to studies regardless of whether or not they are present in the actual Layout Grid. |
"Data Streams" section
| • | Conditions: This special section contains one item, called user condition. The user condition item allows you to display the results of one or more conditions that you may have defined for the script you are building (see Conditions Grid). A condition is simply a set of one or more logic statements that evaluates to either true or false. When a user condition item is included in the Layout Grid, you will need to select the user-defined condition that it should be assigned to. In the ScanExpert Viewer Grid, a user condition column will return the text "True" if the condition currently evaluates to true or else it will return nothing. If no user-defined conditions have been created, or if no condition has been assigned to a user condition item, then it will have no effect and the display column in the ScanExpert Viewer Grid will be empty. |
"Conditions" section
Note: With the exception of the first two sections (i.e., Data Streams, and Conditions), the section names, and the studies that appear in each section, are defined by the functionsSystem.pas and functionsUser.pas configuration files which can be found in the My Documents\ScanExpert\Scripts folder on your hard drive.
The Layout Grid is positioned just to the right of the Study Selection box.
The Layout Grid
The Layout Grid is where you will:
| • | Define the columns that will be displayed in the ScanExpert Viewer Grid |
| • | Define the columns that will be used as input to other columns |
| • | Set the input parameters for any studies that you have selected |
| • | Set the display order of the columns |
| • | Set the display state of each column |
| • | Set the column title text for display |
Each row in the Layout Grid represents either a column that will be displayed in the ScanExpert Viewer Grid OR a study that is being used as an input to another study. Studies can be nested or combined to create new studies and this will be demonstrated in the Creating a New Script section. Up to 40 rows of studies can be added to the Layout Grid.
To the left of the Layout Grid there is a vertical button bar.
| • | Click on the right-arrow button to add a study item from the Study Selection box into the Layout Grid. As mentioned above, you can also just double-click on the study item in the Study Selection box to add that study item into the Layout Grid. |
| • | Click on the left-arrow button to remove the currently-highlighted study item from the Layout Grid. |
Note: You can only remove studies that are NOT currently being used as input to other studies. Also, if any Conditions have been defined then the Layout Grid is considered locked and no studies can be removed.
| • | Click on the up-arrow button to move the currently-highlighted study item in the Layout Grid up by one row. |
| • | Click on the down-arrow button to move the currently-highlighted study item in the Layout Grid down by one row. |
Note: All studies that use other studies as input MUST be below those referrer studies in the Layout Grid. So, for example, if you create a moving average of a CCI, and if the CCI is on row 3 of the Layout Grid then the moving average study that uses the CCI as input can be no higher in the Layout Grid than row 4.
To configure a study item that has been added to the Layout Grid, just double-click on that row. You can also right-click in the row and select the Parameter Editor option from the menu. The Parameter Dialog will be displayed.
Parameter Dialog
The Parameter Dialog will usually contain a brief description of the study in the upper portion of the dialog and all available parameters will be displayed in the lower portion of the dialog. For those studies that accept one or more input sources, you can select from standard data points (such as Open, High, Low, Close, HL/2, HLC/3, OHLC/4, and Volume) OR you can select any study that appears above the study you are currently configuring in the Layout Grid. Most studies will also have an "inv" parameter (for interval) where you can specify that the study be calculated on a bar interval that is different from the interval being used in the Active Portfolio. See the MultiTimeframe section for more information on this topic.
| • | Click on the Ok button to save your changes or press the ESC key to cancel. |
| • | Check the "Set as default" box if you want these same settings to be used the next time you add this particular study into the Layout Grid. The "Set as default" checkbox will only be available if all of the input sources used in the study are standard data points. |
Note: The Parameter Dialog will only appear if the study you have double-clicked on has editable parameters. So, for example, if you double-click on a row that references a standard data point such as Open, High, Low, Close, or Volume, the Parameter Dialog will not be displayed because there are no parameters to edit.
To configure a user condition item (see Conditions) that has been added to the Layout Grid, just double-click on that row. If any conditions have been defined, the Select Condition dialog box will be displayed. Just select the condition that you wish to assign to this user condition item and click on the Ok button, or press the ESC key to cancel.
Select Condition Dialog
The Conditions Grid is situated directly below the Layout Grid.
Define Conditions Grid
The Conditions Grid is optional. It is used to create global conditions that can then be implemented as alerts, displayed in the ScanExpert Viewer Grid, or both. A condition is simply one or more logic statements that evaluates to true or false. See the Conditions and Alerts section for more information on how to create and edit conditions and alerts.
See also: