Riddle solved: Metastock's canned MACD formula: MACD()

[Brookemail@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 11/25/98 7:55:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, jgelfand@xxxxxxx
writes:

> Is it possible that QP and
>  MS are using slightly different equations?

Ed: Now I see what's going on. You're using the canned MACD formula in
Metastock, not the long version of the formula I sent. You're using: MACD().
That does give the value you sent. And that does give a different result from
QP. 

Here are the traditional formulas for MACD and its signal line:

period1:=12;
period2:=26;
period3:=9;
Mov(C,period1,E) - Mov(C,period2,E);
Mov((Mov(C,period1,E) - Mov(C,period2,E)),period3,E)

Metastock's canned MACD formula is different. The formula isn't variable, so I
wonder about its usefulness.  The Metastock help file says: "The MACD is
actually the difference between   0.075 and 0.15 exponential moving averages.
No exact time periods (using whole numbers) correspond with these percentages.
If you want to plot an MACD-like indicator using moving averages other than
the ones recommended by Gerald Appel, use the Price Oscillator (see Price
Channel)."

If you use the Price Oscillator, you'll get values equal to those in Quotes
Plus. Go to the Price Oscillator and put in 12, 26, exponential and "points"
(for the method). You'll get -0.25629 for the value of AAPL's MACD on 11/24,
which is the value of MACD. This is how you can do MACD for variable periods
in Metastock, if you stick to the canned formulas. But I'd use the traditional
spelled-out formula above. 

Brooke