Q How do I see MyTradecast?MyTradecast displays in the software "MyTradecast" Sidebar window.
Q What is a ControlPoint and Prime-Line Cluster? A ControlPoint is a confluence of Prime-Line Elements on one time frame. Prime-Line Clusters are a confluence of Prime-Line Elements at multiple time frames. ControlPoints and Prime-Line Clusters define multi-fractal clusters of support and resistance within the market matrix. ControlPoints and Prime-Line Clusters give you control because they help predefine risk.
Q How do I use Prime-Line Tools in vMax Trader? When you enroll in the Prime-Line VIP Star Trader Program, Prime-Line Tools are activated in your software. The Prime-Line Method™ is described in our Breaking The Market Code Course (Prime-Line Matrix Course). To use vMax Trader with Prime-Line and to understand trade setups read this documentation (included with Star Trader Training).
Using Prime-Line Tools - called shapes in vMax Trader is easy: click Insert > Prime-Lines or Insert >PL Extensions on the program menu or click the tool short-cut icons.
Clicking either of the above drops the tool(s) onto the graph surface. All tools in vMax Trader can be dragged and precisely placed on the price chart. To drag any tool simply place the cursor over tool or solid node points, hold down the left button, and then drag into position.
To use Snap-To, place your cursor over the hollow node point and left-click. The cursor changes to a +. Moving the + cursor over the price bars highlights them - when highlighted, left-click to bring up the Snap-To Dialog. From the dialog window click the appropriate price to snap to.
When charts are zoomed down it may be difficult to accurately ascertain which bar to snap to. There are two tools to assist in this case. First, as you move the cursor a Data Information Line at the top of each chart displays open, high, low, close, (modal point values for VolumeEdge -MyTradecast Stock Pro members only). Second, Region Snap will automatically snap to the correct price. To use Region Snap: 1) Place the Prime-Line tool on the chart. 2) Left-click the hollow node point, then left-click a start region price bar and while holding down the left mouse button drag across the region to select the end region price bar. From the drop-down dialog, select what point to snap to. You will find Region Snap to be very accurate and fast.
Q How much data can I chart? When you set up a Project you can set the Start and End Dates.
Q How do I get Prime-Line values? Getting precision values of Prime-Lines and ControlPoints are critical. We've made this easy in vMax Trader using the Cross-Hair Information Box - all the information you need is here. You toggle the Cross-Hair on-off by clicking the "+" icon on the Menu bar.
Q How do I save my charts? vMax Trader asks you if you want to save your work. However we suggest you save all your work periodically by clicking Ctrl+S, File > Save, or the Save icon. The program has the capability to save unlimited charts - the only limiting factor is the space available on your hard drive.
Data Provider is another important concept in vMAX Trader™ so let's spend a little bit of time understanding what it is. Luckily, like everything else in vMAX, it is pretty easy.Our company doesn't supply delayed or real-time data for any security type. Instead we integrated access to many existing services directly into vMAX Trader. We call those services Data Providers. So whether you're configuring a time frame for a stock or index or future contract or FOREX currency pair you have to specify which data provider you want to use. vMAX Trader comes pre-configured with default data providers for all supported securities. In many cases default settings are exactly what you need, in other cases you may want to adjust them.An image on a "Symbol look-up" button always indicates which data provider is currently used for a time frame. In this case it's Yahoo Finance which is a default data provider. Supported Data Providers by Access Types vMAX Trader supports both free and commercial Internet-based and file-based data sources.Free/ Subscriber Data SourcesData providerSecuritiesTime framesYahoo Finance stocks, indices Daily, Weekly, Monthly MSN Money stocks, indices Daily, Weekly, Monthly VolumeEDGEstocks, indices Daily, Weekly, Monthly Data providerSecuritiesTime frameseSignalstocks, indices, futures, FOREX Intraday, Daily, Weekly, MonthlyLiveCharts stocks, indices, futuresIntraday, Daily, Weekly, Monthly
Data Provider is another important concept in vMAX Trader™ so let's spend a little bit of time understanding what it is. Luckily, like everything else in vMAX, it is pretty easy.
Our company doesn't supply delayed or real-time data for any security type. Instead we integrated access to many existing services directly into vMAX Trader. We call those services Data Providers. So whether you're configuring a time frame for a stock or index or future contract or FOREX currency pair you have to specify which data provider you want to use. vMAX Trader comes pre-configured with default data providers for all supported securities. In many cases default settings are exactly what you need, in other cases you may want to adjust them.
An image on a "Symbol look-up" button always indicates which data provider is currently used for a time frame. In this case it's Yahoo Finance which is a default data provider.
vMAX Trader supports both free and commercial Internet-based and file-based data sources.
If you have an account with brokers like Interactive Brokers, Ameritrade, optionsXpress, TD Waterhouse, CyberTrader and many others then you might want to try to use Medved QuoteTracker in conjunction with vMAX Trader to get real-time intraday quotes.
Supported Data Providers by Security Type
Yahoo Finance (free)MSN Money (free)eSignal (fee-based)Quote.COM LiveCharts (fee-based)Medved QuoteTracker (free or fee-based) CSV file
A default Data Provider for a certain Security Type and a Time Frame can be set up in "Program Options" dialog accessible from "Tools" menu.
Medved QuoteTracker is a Windows program that integrates with various data feeds, brokers and financial sites to provide you with streaming real-time quotes. Check out their site to see if your financial institution or brokerage firm is supported.
Default values for QuoteTracker doesn't usually need to be modified. Do it only when you have a unique setup.
Medved QuoteTracker first needs to be configured to allow requests from vMAX Trader™. In QuoteTracker go to "Options" menu and select "Edit Preferences". When Preference dialog box opens, select "Misc" tab on the top and enable "API Server Settings".
Medved QuoteTracker needs to be registered in order to accept requests from vMAX Trader and any other product.
If you are subscribed to LiveCharts services from QUOTE.COM you can use your credentials to download price data for variety of equities and commodities.
Before LiveCharts can be used as a data provider it needs to be set up first. Enter your LiveCharts user name in the corresponding text box. Do not enter your password just now. The password for LiveCharts needs to be passed in an encrypted format so you need to find out what the encrypted value is. Fortunately it is easy and it is one time only procedure.
Open LiveCharts in a browser and load any symbol (SUNW used in the example). Click on a "Chart style & tools" button, select "Export Chart" menu item and then click on "Bar Data to Ascii Text".
A browser window will open with historical price data for a certain time period. All you are interested in is the address bar of the browser. Value between "Pswd=" and "&DataType" is your encrypted password you have to enter into Password box described above. The encrypted password in this example is 7w1gPWh5bfdRE.
A lot of existing quote services and software programs can export price data in a CSV (Comma Separated Values) format. vMAX Trader can read those files though sometimes extra configuration is required as there is no standard on the exact format of CSV files with market data.
When creating a new project, add a time frame and then select "CSV Files" as a data provider. Click on "Source File" tab and locate your CSV file by clicking on a button with an image of a small folder. Then you would have to provide file layout and date and time formats. The exact values can only be known after inspecting the actual CSV file. If you are having difficulty with this step then send us an email with the CSV file and we will tell you those values.
vMAX Trader™ is a MDI (Multiple Document Interface) Windows application. Its interface is built upon best practices in creating Windows applications and anyone familiar with Windows will be up to speed in no time.
The following illustration shows main components of vMAX Trader™ that will be referred to in the rest of the documentation.
vMAX Trader™ "project" is a collection of data for a particular security necessary to display its price chart and indicators with all supporting features in one or more time frames.
Go to "File" menu and click on "New". The dialog first appears in a brief mode where you just have to type in a symbol name for a chosen security type. Then click OK and a project based on a default template will be created. Example template: 3 time frames: Daily, with 6 month worth of data; Weekly - 2 years and Monthly - 5 years.
You can have more control over project parameters if you switch the dialog in a full mode by clicking on "More >>" button. Type in a Security Name and select a Security Type. Then add as many time frames as needed.
Security Name could be either a company name (in case of a stock) like "General Electric Co" or a symbol like "GE". If a symbol is provided for Security Name as opposed to a company name then every time frame can used the symbol by default to request information from a data provider.
Once the project is set up, click OK button and vMAX Trader™ will automatically download data for all time frames using appropriate data providers.
Template inherits time frame and all configuration settings. vMAX Trader™ has three default templates: stocks, commodities, and FOREX. You can easily create a new template for any security type by clicking "Save as Template" from the Project Properties dialog.
vMAX Trader™ offers a multi-functional and flexible way to keep track of all your projects, be it stocks or indices, currencies and other commodities. This is achieved by means of Watch List.
Watch List allows you to view projects and securities they represent in various fashions like list, detail list and thumbnail view (scaled-down graphs). Watch List also has a functionality to download historical data for many projects at a click of a button.
Projects are organized in Watch List Folders (Folders), much like files are organized in folders on a hard drive of your computer. If "Watch List Folders" side bar is not currently shown, you could always activate it via "View/Sidebars" menu or by Shift+F2 keyboard combination.
There are two ways to display Watch List: through main menu and "Watch List Folders" side bar as shown in a picture below.
Refreshes entire Watch List
After Folders are created, they can be simply rearranged using drag-and-drop technique. The same applies for Projects within Folders. To copy projects, instead of moving, just hold a "Ctrl" key before you drop them into the desired location.
There is also a convenient way to add Project to a Folder right from a graph. Just drag a symbol representing two co-centric circles located at the left-top side of a graph and drop it in a desired location on "Watch List Folders" sidebar.
If you just created a new Project, it has to be saved first before you can drag-and-drop it in this fashion.
Sidebar is a panel that encapsulates different controls to drive distinct pieces of functionality in vMAX Trader™. For example, there is a sidebar for MyTradecast, candlestick patterns, indicators, project comments etc. By default all sidebars are available and docked to the right side of the main vMAX Trader window. You can arrange sidebars in almost any way:
As already stated any sidebar can be docked to any side of the main window or another sidebar. It is accomplished by dragging a sidebar either by its tab (3) or a caption title (where it says "Candlestick Patterns" for this example) to a desired location and dropping it there. As you do this operation you will see as a visual help a contour of the sidebar indicating its final position. If you double-click on a sidebar caption, you will make the sidebar float which means it's not going to be docked to any other control. This is very useful if you have multiple monitors and want to have price graph and indicators on one monitor and sidebars on another. In this case you will maximize the size of the graphs and have all the controls readily available for the most productive experience. If you want to dock floating sidebar you could either drag it to a desired location or just double-click on its caption.
Examples of vMAX Trader™ interface with sidebars located in different locations:
vMAX Trader™ can display a price graph and up to 5 indicators at once for any time frame. A distinct characteristic of vMAX Trader™ is an ability to retain a scaling of the price graph as you change number of indicators. Majority of charting products on the market will be resizing a price graph vertically as long as you add new indicators making it next to unusable and distorting many important geometric patterns. In vMAX Trader™ you choose if you want a price graph to take all visible space or share it with one or two indicators.
Adding, removing and changing indicators is available via Indicator sidebar. If not visible, the sidebar can be activated either through "View/Sidebars" menu or by SHIFT+F4 short-cut or by double-clicking on an indicator graph.
"Indicators" sidebar is also used to manage moving averages, overlays and zigzags (waves).
When analyzing indicators there is a way to quickly see their effect on a price behavior by checking "Overlay price" box. This will draw price bars on a background of indicators and help you quickly identify convergence and divergence rallies.
In some cases it is desirable to extend the right side of a chart and to see certain shapes pinpointing future dates. This is easily accomplished via "Add Time" dialog.
Before
"Add Time" dialog accessible via "View/Add Time" menu or by CTRL+T keyboard short-cut
After
Price and time shapes are geometrical representation of nature's law and human behavior that can be applied, almost without limit, to market data series, whether cash currencies, futures, index products, stocks or mutual funds.
SpiralFibonacci spirals provide the optimal link between price and time analysis and are the answer to a long search for a solution to forecasting both time and price. Each point on a spiral manifests an optimal combination of price and time. Corrections and trend changes occur at all those prominent points where the Fibonacci spiral is touched on its growth path through price and time.
You will be astonished to see that if the correct center is chosen, Fibonacci spirals pinpoint turning points in the market with an accuracy seldom before seen. Investing based on spirals is neither a black-box approach nor an overfitted computerized trading system. It is a simple universal geometrical law applied to different sorts of products such as futures, stock index futures, stocks or cash currencies.
Correction / RetracementMarkets move in rhythms. An impulse wave that defines a major market trend will have a corrective wave before the next impulse wave reaches new territory. This occurs in either bull market or bear market conditions. The most common approach to working with corrections is to relate the size of a correction to a percentage of a prior impulsive market move.
ExtensionExtensions are exuberant price movements. They express themselves in runaway markets, opening gaps, limit-up and limit-down moves, and high volatility. These situations offer extraordinary trading potential as long as the analysis is carried out in accordance with sensible and definite rules.
Time projection Fibonacci time projection days are days on which a price event may occur. Time projection analysis is not lagging but is of forecasting value. Trades can be entered or exited at the price change rather then after the fact. The concept is dynamic. The distance between two highs or two lows is seldom the same, and time projection days vary, depending on larger or smaller swing sizes of the market price pattern.
Channel Human behavior is not only reflected in chart patterns as large swings, small swings or trend formations. Human behavior is also expressed in peak-valley formation. Fibonacci channels make use of peak and valley formations in the market and lead to conclusions on how to safely forecast major changes in trend directions.
The secret of Fibonacci channels is to identify the correct valleys and peaks to work with. Support and resistance lines can be drawn weeks and months into the future, once the appropriate tops and bottoms in the market have been detected.
EllipseFibonacci ellipses identify underlying structure of price moves. Fibonacci ellipses circumvent price patterns. When a price pattern changes, the shape of the ellipse circumventing the respective market price pattern changes too. We can find long and short ellipses, fat and thin ellipses and ellipses that are flat or have a steep angle. There are very few market price moves that do not follow the pattern of a Fibonacci ellipse.
The strength of Fibonacci ellipses is that no matter how many waves or subwaves we find in a price pattern, we receive a solid overall picture of the total price pattern as long as it can be circumvented by a Fibonacci ellipse.
FansFibonacci fans name derives from the fanlike appearance of the three trendlines shown. The Fibonacci fans are drawn using typical tops or bottoms. The three Fibonacci fans project into the future with slopes at 38.2, 50 and 61.8% (additional levels are also available). As the daily prices pass these three fans, we make predictions about future price movements based upon whether there appears to be price resistance or support at these intersection points. If the prices hold at the fan line, there is support there, if they quickly move through the fan line, then you will not see support until the next fan line is met.
The Position Manager and Reward/ Risk Lines when used in combination with Prime-Line helps you calculate an optimal number of shares or contracts for new positions.
Regardless of the trading method used, a good, but simple, position management strategy is to risk no more than a specific percentage of your trading capital on every trade. Extensive testing has shown that the maximum amount a trader may lose on a single trade without damaging long-term prospects is 2 percent of account equity. This limit includes slippage and commissions.
Looking at a weekly graph of Caterpillar Inc. notice the bull trend retracement to the 38.2% Fibonacci level. Let's say the 91.90 level represents a move above Prime-Line resistance.
We drop a Price Line tool on the graph and set it's price to $91.90. We make sure that property UseRiskLine of the Price Line is set to True. We will set a risk line to $86.30 or $0.10 below the previous low pivot and Prime-Line support. Risk line represents the price level at which we liquidate the position. Risk line price is a stop-loss price. At the same time we see that Price Line shows the risk as 6.09% per share.
Let's say we have a $25,000 account and we are willing to risk only 2% of its value. For a particular long position we won't allow it to go down more than 6.09% (opening price gaps may still occur). Then by providing a price per share and a transaction cost (one way), Position Manager calculates that we need to buy 89 shares (a common practice would be to go with the closest round number - 90). So by trading almost $8,200 worth of CAT shares we are risking only 2% of our equity. But for this statement to be true, you must have a stop loss in place as marked by a Risk Line.
Lines R1, R2 on the graph are Risk-to-Reward lines. They always move to the new values as you adjust the risk line and the risk/ reward ratio in the properties window. The benefit of these lines is that they can be used with the Prime-Line structure to identify potential reward targets. Having multiple candidates for a trade and all other considerations being equal, you might want to trade the security with the greatest reward to risk ratio.
Once "Project Properties" dialog is closed as you create a new vMAX Trader™ Project, vMAX will automatically download price data according to project settings. From this point on keeping with the current data is going to be as easy and you have multiple options on how to do it.
When automatic update is turned on for an opened Project, vMAX Trader™ will download latest data for all time frames as often as configured in "Project Properties" dialog.
Data for multiple projects can be brought to current using Watch List or just "Watch List Folders" side panel.