C21TSI News Events and Alerts for TradeStation IndicatorV7

C21 News Events and AlertsIndicator for TradeStation

Version 7.09

IntroductionThe C21TSI News Events and Alerts for TradeStation indicator displays publicly available information from web pages of several economic information web sites in a manner to a) give you a quick condensed view of upcoming news events and time-of-day events you define that may impact the market, and b) issue visual and sound alerts ahead of events so that you are aware of the pending events and may decide to enter or exit a position based upon the upcoming events and their potential impact on the market.

For active traders it is very easy to get focused on the charts and other windows within TradeStation and forget about upcoming events that could impact the market. These alerts give you a wake-up call in order to allow you to adjust your current trades to avoid a potential large loss if the market moves significantly or place orders to take advantage of market moves.

The C21TSI News Events and Alerts for TradeStation indicator will refresh the calendar from the web site(s) when started. This will take a few seconds, depending upon the responsiveness of TradeStation, the web sites and the CPU power of your computer. Normally the extracted information is good for the entire day and does not need to be refreshed during the trading day.

At present this product accesses the www.econoday.com and www.forexfactory.com web sites. Both these sites have additional useful information and we encourage you to visit them and take advantage of the additional information available. Should there be additional economic data sites that you would like to include, please contact us.

Setup

General The C21TSI News Events and Alerts Indicator for TradeStation requires at a minimum TradeStation

9.1 Update 22. The C21TSI News Events and Alerts Indicator for TradeStation should be inserted into only one chart.

You should choose a chart that will be always present. The chart and workspace do not need to be visible for the indicator to function.

Normally the only indicator input you should need to set is the iWIndowsTextSize if you are using something other than 'Smaller' for the Windows text size. Note that different computers display text slightly differently and you may need to slightly adjust the sizing of the data fields in the calendar and alert windows using the Options window.

C21 New Event and Alerts – Version 07 29 August 2013 C21TSI LLC

The C21TSI Calendar windows will initially display at the coordinates (400, 400) on your primary display, which is assumed to be positioned at (0, 0).

Set the Sub-graph to 'Hidden' on the indicator scaling tab. Set the sound volume for TradeStation in the Windows sound mixer to the preferred level for

hearing the alerts. You may test the sound level in the Options Window. All other options may be set in the Options window available through the Calendar window.

Indicator Formatting

Special NoteWhen you change the status of the indicator to inactive, it may take 2-3 seconds for it actually to become inactive due to the processing and saving of data being performed.

Input ParametersThere are only two input parameters, and most users would never need to change them.

The iWindowTextSize input parameter is the text size you have chosen for your displays using the Windows display resolution “Make text and other items larger or smaller” dialog, as shown below. It is only referenced the first time the indicator is run. After that the Calendar Form Sizing tab in the Options window should be used.

The iPrintLog input parameter indicates whether messages should be written to the EasyLanguage Print Log. These are useful if there is a problem, but otherwise you can ignore them. The default is ‘false’.


Alerts TabThe default settings for the Alerts tab are appropriate.

OperationWhen first started the Calendar window will appear with no events, as shown below.

At this point the indicator is obtaining information from the TradeStation servers and then retrieving news from the web site(s). You may choose from which web sites you wish to obtain news events in the Options window. Note the status display message under the buttons.

Once the data is refreshed events will appear in the calendar, as shown below. The calendar automatically sizes itself to show the events for today plus the first event for the next day with events. The columns are shaded light gray for the next day’s events and then back to white for the following day, and so on. Whenever one or more events are removed from displaying in the calendar after their time has passed, the calendar will display again, even if currently minimized.


If this is the first time you have used the indicator you may should to look at the options.

You may move the windows to any position on any display and the indicator will remember the window position. You may minimize the window. If you want to see the calendar there will be an icon in the task bar with the TradeStation logo that you can click to open up any of the available indicator windows.

If the TradeStation client gets disconnected from the TradeStation servers, it may force the restart of all the indicators on the charts, including the C21 News Event Alerts indicator.

Due to some limitations on EasyLanguage windows within TradeStation, clicking the X that normally closes a window will not work properly. If you click it the window may disappear for a second and then will reappear.

EventsEvents are retrieved from the economic web sites or may be defined by you. The events you define are typically for events that occur at the same time every trading day.

Events are assigned weights of zero (0) to three (3) based upon their likelihood to impact the market. Events with weight zero tend to have little impact on the market while events with weight three may have significant impact. Most of the weights assigned by the web sites are reasonable, although sometimes the weight assigned to a speaker is zero and that speaker’s comments (such as Ben Bernanke) can have significant impact on the market. The weights for specific events may be overridden in the Options window.

In the Options window various alert times may be assigned to each event or weight. An alert window will appear at the specified times prior to the event so that you may take any action appropriate to your trading style prior to the actual event. You may change these alert times in the Options window.


Calendar WindowNormally only the first day with events and the first event from the next day with events is shown but you may make the window larger vertically to see more days.

You may click on the underlined link for an event to see the event detail information in the Browser window. The event detail from the economic news website will be displayed. You may move and resize this window.

Changing the ‘Wt >=’ value determines which events with weights will display on the calendar. Checking the Past checkbox will display the events that have already occurred on the displayed day. Checking the Day, SEA, ECD, ECG and FF checkboxes will enable or disable display of events from

those data sources. The “Sources” tab in the options defines which sources are retrieved. You may retrieve events but chose not to display them on the calendar.

Clicking the ‘REFRESH’ button will cause the indicator to request the current news events from the selected web sites.


Clicking the ‘OPTIONS’ button will cause the Options window to display. See below for a detailed description of the Options window.

Each computer may display the calendar with slightly different sizes. The size of the columns and the fonts for many of the calendar controls may be adjusted using the 'Calendar Form Sizing' tab in the Options window.

All times displayed are New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) times.

Alerts WindowThe Alert window will appear for one or more events that are to occur in the alert time period associated with the event. There is a sound alert available as well.

The window will disappear after the number of seconds specified in the Options window, or you may close it by clicking on the ‘X’ in the title bar. You may drag the Alert Window to any position where you want it to appear. As in the calendar you may click on any underlined event description to see the event detail in the browser window.

Note that all events retrieved for the calendar, even if you choose not to display them in the calendar, will be displayed in the alerts form.

Options WindowThe tabbed Options window permits you to highly customize this indicator to your needs. Note that this information is stored in an XML file in the TradeStation MyWork directory and should not be deleted.

There are various buttons at the top of the window.

Add New Item – This button is visible when either of the Events Configuration tabs is selected. By clicking on it you may add a new item to the list of events. It is suggested that you add one item at a time, perform the review and save the configuration updates.


Review Changes and Sort – If you have made some changes this button will cause a quick review of all the settings and identify errors or missing data. For the event tabs it will also sort them into the appropriate order for use.

Save Changes, Exit and Refresh – If you make any changes in the Event Configuration tabs or in the Other Options tab that would alter the news items retrieved, you should click this when done so that the event data used in the calendar will be refreshed.

Save Changes and Redisplay – This button is useful if you are making changes in the Calendar Form Sizing tab and want to see the impact of those changes on the Calendar window.

Exit – This minimizes the Options window. Sound Test – Clicking this will cause an alert so that you may check the sound level of the alerts.

Options - News EventsThe News Configurations items allow you to establish the alert times ahead of an event at which time alerts will be issued.

Column Discussion# The sort order. The news events are sorted with entries containing match criteria before those without.

Then they are sorted by weight.Unique Name Each News Event List item is given a unique name by you.Src Wt This is the weight, if any, assigned by the source web site.Adj Wt This is the weight you want associated with the event. If you set the adjusted weight to ‘X’ then the

event will not have any alerts issued for it nor will it appear in the calendar.Currency This is a currency that should be associated with the event.Match The match criteria is either a simple text string exactly matching the event description, or is one that

matches using the wild card character (*) that matches anything.Adj Time hh:mm:ss This is an adjustment to the published time. Some issuers of economic news will make that information

available to their subscribers before the general public. The Chicago PMI is such as case.Event Src This is the source of the news event. ‘ALL’ matches any source.Alert Times (hh:mm:ss list)

This is a comma-separated list of the time periods before the event at which you want to receive an alert.

DELETE If a delete button appears then this button is used to delete an item.


Note that the last four news events may not be deleted. These specify the alert times for the different weighted events for all events not specifically identified in a news event configuration item. However, you may change the alert times on these.

Options - Day EventsThe Daily Configurations items allow you to define events that occur daily and establish the alert times ahead of an event at which time alerts will be issued.

Column Discussion# The sort order. The news events are sorted with entries containing match criteria before those

without. Then they are sorted by weight.Unique Name Each News Event List item is given a unique name by you.Wt This is the weight you want associated with the event. Note than an ‘X” indicates the event

should not appear in the calendar nor alerts.Currency This is a currency that should be associated with the event.Description This is the event description that will appear in the calendar.Day of week This allows you to specify upon which days of the week the event should appear. The field

must contain 7 characters corresponding to the first character of the name of the day in the appropriate position, starting with ‘M’ for Monday. A ‘-‘ indicates the event should not occur on the corresponding day of the week.

Time hh:mm:ss This is the event time in hours, minutes and seconds.Alert Times (hh:mm:ss list) This is a comma-separated list of the time periods before the event at which you want to receive

an alert. Note that all times must be in the hours, minutes and seconds format.Special The code displayed identifies special handling of this event.

Blank - means no special handling -NYEC – Not an early closing day on the NYSE -NYHD – Not a NYSE holiday -NYHDEC – Not on a NYSE holiday nor early closing day NYEC – Only on a NYSE early closing day NYHD – Only on a NYSE holiday

DELETE If a delete button appears then this button is used to delete an item.


Options - Stock EventsThe Stock Events options allow you to select for which stocks you want an event when there is an earnings announcement. Note that most earnings announcements for domestic stocks to not specify a specific time. They normally just indicate if it is before the market open or after the market close.

Property DiscussionDefault Before Market Open Event Time

The time of day for events for earnings announcements for before the market open.

Default After Market Close Alert Times

The time of day for events for earnings announcements for after the close.

Default Time Not Specified Alert Times

The time of day for events for earnings announcements for unspecified times.

Default Event Weight Weight to be assigned to earnings announcements.Stock Symbols to Report… A list of stock symbols to report. The symbols should be separated by one or more blanks.


Options - SourcesThe Sources tab allows you to set numerous operational aspects of the indicator. There are several areas on this tab. Note that the default installation has all sources turn on.

SourcesThe sources allow you to determine which economic news sites should be included.

Source Abbr. DescriptionEconoday USA ECD The news events will include those associated with or impacting the US markets from the US

Announcements of www.econoday.com web site .Econoday Global ECG The news events will include those associated with or impacting global markets form the Global

Announcements of the www.econoday.com web site.Forex Factory FF The events are those that potentially impact forex markets from the www.forexfactory.com web

site.Stock Earnings SEA These events correspond to earnings announcements from www.yahoo.com for the stocks

identified in the symbols list.

CurrenciesThe events are typically associated with a currency. If you uncheck a currency checkbox then events associated with that currency will not be included in the calendar.

CountriesThe events are typically associated with a country (or EU for the Eurozone). If you uncheck a country checkbox then events associated with that country will not be included in the calendar.


http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.forexfactory.com/

http://www.econoday.com/

http://www.econoday.com/

Other OptionsOption DescriptionNumber of calendar days … Up to 7 days of events may be retrieved, but we recommend you use 4 days.Number of seconds Alerts Window displays

This specifies the number of seconds the alerts window should appear before being hidden.

Sound Alerts If checked the sound alerts will be produced.Default minimum weight for event in calendar

This is the minimum weight that an event must have to appear in the calendar.

Minimum weight for alerts This is the minimum weight for an event to have to appear in the alerts window.

Options - Alert Text MessageThe Alert Text Messages allow you to customize the alert messages. The tokens (contained in the ‘<’ and ‘>’ characters) within the message text are replaced by the calculated values when an alert is given.


Options - Calendar Form SizingThe settings on this tab permit you to adjust the sizing and font of the controls on the calendar form. This is sometimes necessary due to the inconsistencies on how different computers display characters. If you make a few changes, click the 'Save Changes and Redisplay' button and the Calendar Form will redisplay itself so that you may see the impact of the changes without exiting the configuration form.

The default values should generally be pretty close if you have selected the “Smaller” Windows Text Sizing in the Windows options. If you do make adjustments we suggest you just do a few and then check them out.

Hint: If the horizontal scroll bar appears in the calendar window, reduce the value for Description Width.

The following is a good starting point for Windows Text Size = “Smaller”.

On occasion TradeStation forms get confused and really messes up the display. You may need to stop and restart the indicator to “unconfused” it.


The following is a good starting point for Windows Text Size = “Medium”.

Most of the options are self-explanatory. Some of the critical or less-than-obvious parameters are explained below.

Option DescriptionCalendar Form - Width This is the width of the calendar form in pixels.Alert Form - Width This is the width of the alerts form in pixels.Form Extra This is extra pixel width and height to account for title bars, borders, scroll bars.Separation Distance in pixels between controls added to the calendar and alert forms.Description * - width This specifies the width of the event description. If greater than or equal to 100 it is the

number of pixels in the description. If less than 100 it is the negative adjustment of the event description width that is auto-sized to the size of the form it is in.


Known IssuesTradeStation has been doing aggressive development and enhancement of Easy Language. On occasion this has resulted in new features not fully fleshed-out and containing bugs. The OOEL Forms is one of those areas. The following issues currently exist with Update 22:

Every time the indicator restarts or refreshes the event data, the orchart.exe memory usage increases. The memory should be freed with these events but it is not. With normal usage this is not a real problem, but if your connection to TradeStation were to be broken a large number of times it could become a problem. This applies to all indicators, not just this one. This is scheduled to be fixed in Update 23 or 24.

When the indicator terminates, it will display several of its hidden windows for an instant. This is required to work around EL forms limitations. Hopefully Update 24 will allow us to eliminate this.

Sometimes when starting for the first time or after restart of the indicator, which may occur after a disconnection or backup, the Calendar windows do not display. Clicking on the indicator windows in the Windows task bar may not result in their opening properly. Right-click on the preview window that shows above the task bar and click on 'Maximize' from the context menu and then just grab the window title bar and drag it down and the window will properly resize. This is scheduled to be fixed in Update 24

Versions Version 01 is the original release of the indicator. Version 02 added saving of the calendar source filter settings. Version 03 changed the Strategy Network categories. Version 04 made some changes to work around with the EL Windows bugs. Version 06 made additional changes to work around the EL Windows bugs and fixed the currency

and country filtering. Version 07 added the stock earnings announcements source and added event description auto-

sizing to its form feature, corrected configuration form daily tab column width.

Contact UsC21TSI welcomes your input the C21 News Events and Alerts Indicator for TradeStation. Should you encounter and problems with the indicator please contact us. All suggestions for improvements or additional functionality will be taken seriously. You may email your input to [email protected].


WarningTRANSACTIONS IN STOCKS, OPTIONS, FUTURES AND FOREX MAY CARRY A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK. THE AMOUNT OF INITIAL MARGIN MAY BE SMALL RELATIVE TO THE VALUE OF THE TRADED SECURITY, MEANING THAT TRANSACTIONS ARE HEAVILY 'LEVERAGED.' A RELATIVELY SMALL MARKET MOVEMENT COULD HAVE A PROPORTIONATELY LARGER IMPACT ON THE FUNDS YOU HAVE DEPOSITED OR WILL HAVE TO DEPOSIT: THIS MAY WORK AGAINST YOU AS WELL AS FOR YOU. YOU MAY SUSTAIN A TOTAL LOSS OF INITIAL MARGIN FUNDS AND ANY ADDITIONAL FUNDS DEPOSITED WITH THE FIRM TO MAINTAIN YOUR POSITION. IF THE MARKET MOVES AGAINST YOUR POSITION OR MARGIN LEVELS ARE INCREASED, YOU MAY BE CALLED UPON TO PAY SUBSTANTIAL ADDITIONAL FUNDS ON SHORT NOTICE TO MAINTAIN YOUR POSITION. IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY WITH A REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS WITHIN THE TIME PRESCRIBED, YOUR POSITION MAY BE LIQUIDATED AT A LOSS AND YOU WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY RESULTING DEFICIT.

Important Legal NoticeThe source websites have attempted to verify the information contained in their respective calendars. However, any aspect of such information may change without notice. Neither C21TSI LLC nor the source websites provide investment advice, and do not represent that any of the information or related analysis is accurate or complete at any time. Any trading decisions that you make are solely your responsibility and neither C21TSI LLC nor any of the source websites may be held responsible for any trading losses.

C21TSI LLC will make a best effort to ensure that this indicator is kept up-to-date. However any of the source websites may make unannounced changes to their websites that will require changes to this indicator. These indicator changes may take several days to make and publish in the TradeStation AppStore, and there is no guarantee that this indicator will be able to support the changed source website.

CopyrightCopyright 2012-2013 © - C21TSI LLC - All rights reserved

Warning: The C21TSI News Events and Alerts for TradeStation indicator, associated functions, data files, and/or images generated by or used as an integral part of the operation of this program are protected by copyright law and international treaties. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program, or any part of it, is prohibited and may result in severe civil or criminal penalties, and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form of this material may only be done with written permission from C21TSI LLC.


C21TSI News Events and Alerts for TradeStation IndicatorV7

Documents

Transcript of C21TSI News Events and Alerts for TradeStation IndicatorV7