Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Price Crosses 20-day MA

Running an historic test on an Alert.

[1] The first step is to create the Market Alert you wish to test. In the example below I have created the price cross of 20-day MA to act on the default list of 18 U.S. stocks



[2] The alert created needs to be selected in order to highlight the [Historical Test] button. The Historical Test is conducted using the stock or stocks on which it's created. It's recommended an Historical Test is run on an alert tied to a Stock List.

[3] The default lookback period is 6-months, but this can be any period back to 2000.  A four year period, covering the collapse and recovery of the market, is selected.

The Historical Test also requires selecting the projected point forward from the time of the Alert trigger to calculate the return. Options are 1-, 2- and 3-months forward.



Then [Calculate]

[4] The resulting output offers the Maximum Gain and Loss for the time frame and the end-point Return (1-, 2-, or 3-Months after the Alert Trigger)



You can also use the Strategy Builder engine to test and develop more complicated triggers and have real-time delivery of signal triggers. Although there is no SMS support for Strategy Signals.  

Dr. Declan Fallon, Senior Market Technician, Zignals.com the free stock alerts, market alerts, and stock charts website