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Walter,
Excel VBa does have possibilities and I do plan to read "Microsoft Excel 2000
Power Programming with VBa" and "'Special'
Edition Using Excel 2000." What I like about Excel, while tracking a few
symbols, is its ability to create custom TA which Metastock cannot. For
example, if you wanted to combine more than 2-4 symbols for a custom indicator.
If you aren't already familiar with true visual programming in VB or VC++, it's
probably best you stick with Metastock or Excel VBa. Getting results in
programming can be tedious, especially if you're not experienced. However, if
you truly want to program, EBAY has MS Visual Studio 6 Enterprise for only about
$250. This has EVERYTHING. It is huge requiring 8 CD's and includes VB6, VC++
6, J++, and more. If I ever get back into programming, and with the
http://www.FMLabs.com product I just might, this is the package I would get.
For now I will stick with VBa. However, there are 2 drawbacks to Excel VBa.
First, in order to get 8,785 symbols continually updated realtime in Excel, you
need the VBa code. The only way to obtain this is to get BMI/eSignal/DBC to
cough it up. Without their support, you can pretty much forget it. Because
Excel is the standard, I'm pretty sure DBC has the code. If I bothered them
long enough, I think they may actually send it to me. <G>
Second, I used Excel VBa to update a small 3 tab spreadsheet consisting of 250
symbols via the Net and it was pretty slow. It appears that VBa, as with most
other macro languages, is rather slow. You would need some major computing
power to track even 1,000 symbols. Although considering that Excel is
inexpensive (and free if you already have it), this is not really that bad,
quite good in fact.
The only other product I can think of which gives you realtime alerts based on
programmed criteria is Omega Research's $2400 Radar 2000i. Telescan has its
$250 ProSearch Alert. However, I believe Telescan's output is at a set
interval, not true realtime. I think to get realtime alerts it would probably
be simpler (and more productive) to use one of these if you can afford it.
Daniel.
Walter Lake wrote:
> Hi Daniel
>
> With Metastock being a "cash cow" business (as the MBA's describe it) ... no
> investment and milk it till it dies, Excel continues to look like the only
> way to go.
>
> It looks like all of the "charting" software companies have totally run out
> of ideas as to where the next big direction will go. Once the rush to
> day-trading (i.e., shorter time frames) is over ... they're dead in the
> water.
>
> Re: Quotes Plus ... even though I don't use it ... John Fritch at
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~jfritch/
>
> sent me an email that his large workbook posted at the site is only part of
> a much larger workbook that he has for QuotesPlus. He'll respond directly to
> your questions.
>
> Once memory settles down in price <G> P3-450's etc. should be down to
> Celeron prices and with gig chips on the horizon all that you mention will
> be possible.
>
> If I don't learn to program, I'm going to get left in the dust ... because I
> can't count of the charting companies to bail me out.
>
> Best regards
>
> Walter
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Daniel Martinez
> To: metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Saturday, September 25, 1999 11:26 AM
> Subject: Re: Excel 2000 VBa book
>
> I just got "Microsoft Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBa" and "'Special'
> Edition Using Excel 2000". Both are about 1,000 pages and have a CD-ROM. I
> recommend both. I think with the first book I'll pretty much be able to
> program whatever I wish into Excel, if I ever actually finish it. One
> problem is that it won't show you how to directly access the Quotes-Plus2
> database or BMI/eSignal RT datafeed. I don't really want to get into MSFT
> VC++ or VB programming since it would probably take forever to produce any
> meaningful results.
> For those of you who don't know, if you subscribe to BMI via cable, you
> would be able to get unlimited tickers. BMI sends all of the tickers at
> once via cable. Right now the only way I know how to get BMI data into
> Excel is via a DDE link. This limits the number of tickers, I believe. If
> you could tap into the BMI feed directly in Excel, you could theoretically
> track every single ticker on Nasdaq and NYSE. You could then set up a page
> which would consist of alerts. Of course, you would need a fairly powerful
> computer to do this. You would need something on the order of a Pentium III
> 500 (or greater) with 256 MB's of memory (or more). Nevertheless, think of
> the possibilities for profit this setup would create, even if you only
> caught a piece of the movement in a stock. The profit potential would be
> nothing less than incredible. <G>
> Daniel.
>
> Walter Lake wrote:
> Hi Guy
> A VB baby?? ... Right ... you're installing Visual Studio Professional and
> I'm struggling away with the "plain vanilla" VB standard version. The "Black
> Book" sounds interesting however, will have to check it out.
> Am totally amazed at the UserForms that can be created using VBA in Excel.
> They are so easy to make and add "stuff" too ... I can even use non-standard
> colours like "purple" <G> now that I found the colour codes and the colour
> palette in the properties section for each UserForm.
> Hope that you get unblocked soon. I've heard about those nasty "blocks" that
> the old guys at the home develop. <G>
> Best regards
> Walter
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