Tradinghumble -
Allow me to offer a couple of comments -
* First, glad you found the DateRange.afl on AmibrokerU.com useful.
As Keith said, source AFL's are there to be added to, modified, etc.
For example, you might want to add shorter display ranges for intra-day
charts.
* IMO, the power of Amibroker is the ability to make use of its many
"capabilities and hooks" to customize it. That being said, the question
is when to draw the line, and to suggest and wait for Tomasz to add a
facility - particularly when the way in which we might try to simulate
it would have limitations. PLUS, Tomasz always seems to find better
ways to integrate enhancement requests.
* With a minor restructure, but a few limitations, I could add code
to DateRange.afl to set the chart ranges at start-up to the last known
period set thru DateRange. I might still do this, but it is probably
more applicable as a general example of how to do special things at
first execution of a chart.
* I believe what you are pointing out is a valid, useful enhancement
request. IMO, this should be posted to the feedback center. It seems
like a layout should remember the last range. It already remembers the
periodicity when saved, so the range is a logical step.
-- BruceR
--- In [email protected], "tradinghumble" <sharp...@...> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "booker_1324" booker_1324@ wrote:
> >
> > tradinghunble, no I am not overlooking those software packages. I
have used QT and consider it more of a toy for that very reason. It's
been a while since I have used Stockcharts and Bigcharts and even then
it was only to check the closing prices. The others that you mentioned
are either limited or come up short of the power of Amibroker. I still
do not know why you would want to display a set number of bars. Maybe I
am missing something. Could you enlighten me as to the advantage of
using a set number of bars?
> >
> > --- In [email protected], "tradinghumble" <sharp2be@> wrote:
> > >
> > > --- In [email protected], "booker_1324" <booker_1324@>
wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I use 3 different software packages and none of them have a set
number of bars for the chart. All have buttons to expand or contract the
number of bars and I really do not understand why it should be any other
way. You must have cut your eye teeth on one that does and have an
adjustment to make. Old habits are hard to break.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --- In [email protected], "tradinghumble" <sharp2be@>
wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Every charting software out there has some way to say I want
to display bars from xx/xx/xx to xx/xx/xx or say last 3 months, 6
months, 2 years, etc... on a chart-by-chart basis... I always wondered
why this is not available in Amibroker.
> > > > >
> > > > > Am I missing something here? Most people don't need it ? I
find it very annoying to have a layout with multiple charts, different
time frames and having to readjust every chart to my favorite number of
bars everytime I open Amibroker (as it will load the number of bars
defined in Parameters)...
> > > > >
> > > > > Has anyone here found a workaround for this? Thanks in advance
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > Booker - you may be overlooking a few software packages out there
including some well know names such as Tradestation and QuoteTracker (as
an example), Ninja Trader would be yet another example... if you want to
also have a few web-based charting packages please look at
www.stockcharts.com, www.prophet.net or even the oldest of them all
www.bigcharts.com ... hope this helps you.
> > >
> >
>
> Booker, one of the reasons I'm like the functionality of limiting the
number of bars but also "persisting/remembering" when I re-open the
charting software is simply consistency. Couple of examples:
>
> When you build a layout with a daily, weekly and sometime intraday
charts I like for example to have the daily charts set at 6 months,
weekly at 2 years and 15-minute at 4 days... when I close Amibroker all
the charts will be displaying the "same" number of bars (as set in the
preference dialog)... not to mention that everytime I switch to a
different layout it will also happen...
>
> here is another example -- say you want to setup a layout with about
10-20 small daily charts which will help getting a picture of these
instructions "at a glance" -- I normally want to look at them OHLC, 1
year chart... guess what, when I restart Amibroker they will all be back
to the "parameters setting".. and when I switch to my "intraday
monitoring" layout it will all be reset as well...
>
> The functionality I just described is present in QT, Tradestation,
NinjaTrader and (I am 80% sure) Metastock...
>
> Finally I love to say I really enjoy Amibroker and is by far one of
the most powerful TA chart out there at the moment... however, the
functionality I just describe is "essential" to trades who look at
multiple instruments/timeframes at once, otherwise it would not be
present in other packages...
>
> Hope this helps and please don't take as a criticism to AB...
>
