Dan,
I created a new DB per your ‘Part A’ and got 8477 symbols vs 26,010 for one that includes MFs.
Re ‘Part B’, why exclude Preferred Stocks, Warrant or right, Convertible preferred, or Certificate and Units from ‘Stocks’?
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Dan Clark
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 8:36 AM
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
Tomasz,
I did not realize that the groupings changed because of the plugin version. If these are standard grouping going forward, then I’ll change my code to match the new groupings. However…
There are still two issues:
1. Part A - Even though “Mutual Funds” is NOT checked in the “Quotes Plus plugin configuration” window, Mutual Fund symbols are still retrieved. To ensure that the DB was clean, I deleted all symbols from AB. Then I “Retrieve”d symbols, etc. from the “Quotes Plus plugin configuration” window with “Mutual Funds” NOT checked. I still got Mutual Funds symbols. Why are they retrieved? Shouldn’t they be excluded?
Part B – In addition to Mutual Funds, other non-Stock/non-Index items are retrieved - Preferred Stocks, ADRs, Warrant or right, Convertible preferred, ETF, Certificate and Unit. ADRs and ETFs may be considered stocks, but not the others (AFAIK).
Which leads to issue 2…
2. With the old plugin, the AB Groups and “Quotes Plus plugin configuration” categories roughly matched. With the new plugin, the Groups and Categories no longer match. Shouldn’t the “Quotes Plus plugin configuration” categories be a closer match to the AB Groups so that unwanted symbols can be excluded?
Including symbols that we don’t want increases database size, scan time, and risk of composite errors (key for me). Please take a look.
Regards,
Dan.
From: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tomasz Janeczko
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 7:32 AM
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
Hello,
New plugin uses new groupings, old plugin uses old groupings.
If you like old one, use old plugin.
Old plugin "stocks" group was not entirely correct as it included not only stocks, but for example ADRs and ETFs as well.
If you need old "stocks" category, you can try EXCLUDE "Indexes" group instead.
Best regards,
Tomasz Janeczko
amibroker.com
----- Original Message -----
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 4:11 PM
Subject: RE: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
Steve,
You’re right. I’m still getting used to QP data. QP was set up to download Mutual funds, but AB was not. I changed that. It now pulls in 29,320 symbols. Hmmm… That’s a lot.
I also found something I didn’t expect – the Groups have changed massively. For example, “Stocks” are now “Common Stocks” and “Preferred Stocks”. And, some of my scan and explorations no longer work! (Some were filtered by Group = “Stocks”.) The Database size has increased significantly. Now I have a mess! What’s worse…
I’m tried to convert AB back to using the original QP groupings and excluding Mutual Funds, but id doesn’t work! I’ve deleted the QP database, created a new one, and retrieved the QP stocks, indices and industry/sector assignments. Even though I did NOT retrieve Mutual Fund symbols, AB continues to use the OLD Groups and it still has the Mutual Fund symbols!!!
How do I revert to the old groupings and get rid of the Mutual Fund symbols?
Regards,
Dan.
From: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Dugas
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 10:21 PM
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
OK thanks Dan - I guess you are not downloading funds...
Steve
----- Original Message -----
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 12:06 AM
Subject: RE: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
Steve,
I did a scan of all symbols and got 9,308 symbols including QP’s indexes and my composite indexes. Regards,
Dan.
From: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Dugas
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 12:15 PM
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
Hi Dan ! Just curious - would you mind telling me how many tickers you have in your AB Quotes Plus database? Thanks !
Steve
----- Original Message -----
To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 12:06 PM
Subject: [amibroker] Report on Quotes Plus Data
Hi,
Over the last several weeks, I’ve posted questions about Quotes Plus data. This a quick report on what’s happened so far.
When I started using AB again in April, I used TeleChart as my data source. As a source and as a charting package, TeleChart had some advantages. The TC charting had a few, minor advantages over AB. And, the data had some good features when compared to Quotes Plus – Media General Industry Group and Sector Indexes, intraday data updates, and clean data (minimal dead tickers).
However, on the downside, the TC UI had loads of idiosyncrasies and is not even in the same league with AB for scanning and back testing. And, as I became more familiar with QP3 data, TC data advantages started to disappear:
· While TC intraday data updates are still an advantage, I can work around it with intraday updates from my broker – Interactive Brokers.
· With the new QP plugin, the QP data appears to be much cleaner; dead tickers are excluded.
· It turns out that TC’s implemention of Hemscott’s Media General industry/sector hierarchy doesn’t work well for me. TC stripped off the Hemscott macroeconomic Sector Level (8 Sectors) of the hierarchy and uses the bottom two levels of the Hemscott hierarchy – Business Segment and Industry Group.
Unfortunately, TC refers to the “Business Segment” level as the “Sector” level. IMO, the 31 TC “Sectors” provide too much granularity and are not useful as macroeconomic indicators.
Quotes Plus apparently uses the Reuters Industry and Sector hierarchy which I now find more useful.
· Now that I’ve gone through the process of creating my own indexes, I find that it’s an advantage. Using “AddToComposite” I can create custom indexes that meet my needs and do not have to depend on the TC definition.
· While I don’t invest in Mutual Funds, I do like to use them sometimes as economic indicators. With TC, they are an added cost item. With Quotes Plus, they come as part of the standard package.
· Except for Money Stream and BOP, TC provides little additional data to AB other than price and volume. Quotes Plus has a wide variety of fundamental data and “other” data. For example, it provides market cap data and the percent shares held by institutions – which I use in my system.
· My scans run much faster with QP data. Accessing TC’s data from AB is slower than accessing QP data. I haven’t quantified how fast the scans run, but scans running against QP data appear to run 50 to 100% faster.
One final issue with TC is more emotional in nature...
TC is a VERY marketing oriented company. Although TC’s trainers seem like pretty good folks, asking a basic question to TC management get a marketing hype response. In some cases, the answers are quite insulting. At one point, I posted a question on forum about the Worden Studio product (a web-based product) and how it related to Telechart. Instead of a clear answer, I got marketing hype. When I complained that I couldn’t see any value with Worden Studio, they condescendingly stated that I just didn’t know how to use it!
I’m a Data Warehouse Architect by profession (fancy name for database developer) and have developed analytical software for 34 years. I don’t claim perfection, but I do understand a fair amount about analytical systems. For TC management to try to explain away their products’ deficiencies by telling me that I just don’t know how to use it is extremely insulting! What’s worse is that it displays a lack of sensitivity for customer needs and requirements.
OK, flame off!
Because I’m cautious, I’ll keep the TC subscription for another month or so to ensure that I haven’t missed anything. From this point forward, Quotes Plus is my primary EOD data source.
I hope you’ve found this report useful.
Best Regards,
Dan.