The following two formulas allow
MetaStock to access any statistic in your .csv datafiles to address a wide
variety of situations from very simple to very complex:
ExtFml( "CSV.BySym", YourValue) - 1 parameter This formula will appear to act much like
a "normal" MetaStock function. The plug-in
determines the MetaStock base
* symbol, and returns a
value based upon that symbol, the statistic and the base
symbol's data period. But, instead of calculating
the statistic within MetaStock itself, the above formula
calls the plug-in. The plug-in looks for a
datafile corresponding to the base symbol (plus the
configured file extension) and retrieves the appropriate
value from that datafile. In other words, if you
have an Intel (symbol: INTC) chart open and apply a
custom indicator containing the above formula, the
plug-in will look for a datafile named INTC.csv (or your
configured file extension) in the directory you
specified in setup. Once the plug-in finds your
datafile, the column containing the statistic name ("YourValue"
in the above example) is determined and the column's
values and dates are synchronized with MetaStock's price
data for INTC. Then the values are returned to
MetaStock. MetaStock then uses these
retrieved values to calculate your custom indicator.
*
The "base" symbol is the symbol currently
being used by your MetaStock function. If you are
looking at a chart of the PowerShares QQQ ETF, the "base"
symbol is the symbol for the PowerShares QQQ ETF, QQQQ.
ExtFml( "CSV.ByFile",CompositeSymbol, YourValue,
DataPeriod)
- 3 parameters This formula provides much greater control over
the data retrieved by your MetaStock function.
Three parameters are entered as follows:
Composite Symbol To use statistics from a specific datafile,
enter that file's symbol. To use the base
symbol currently used by the active MetaStock
function, enter "BASE".
Statistic Value As in the previous plug-in formula above, the
plug-in finds your datafile as specified in the
first parameter, then finds the column containing
the statistic name ("YourValue" in the above
example) and then reads the column's values.
Data Period To use statistics from a specific data period,
enter the desired data period (d or daily, w or
weekly, m or monthly or q or quarterly) as the
third parameter. To use the data period of
the current base symbol, enter "BASE".
This parameter can also allow the use of any
or all data periods within one MetaStock
function.
The use of this plug-in formula
allows charts and indicators never before possible in
MetaStock such as multiple data periods in the same
chart, constructing an indicator for one static issue
that uses the base data period of the current MetaStock
function and much more.
