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FFcal - Plot News indicator

  • #341
  • Aug 19, 2008 8:34pm Aug 19, 2008 8:34pm
Just wondering..... does anybody know of an inexpensive (preferably freeware, LOL) software product that would allow me to make instructional videos for Plot_News, that I could upload onto (for example) YouTube?

If somebody could point me in the direction of such a product, I will definitely consider creating some Plot_News videos, and post links to them in post #1 of this thread.

Thanks,
David
  • #342
  • Edited 3:17pm Aug 20, 2008 3:08pm | Edited 3:17pm
Camtasia studio by TechSmith is a good one. http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

Or you may try CamStudio (Freeware) download here: http://camstudio.org/
Butt kissers suck!
  • #343
  • Aug 21, 2008 7:13pm Aug 21, 2008 7:13pm
Quoting Pippo Loco
Camtasia studio by TechSmith is a good one. http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

Or you may try CamStudio (Freeware) download here: http://camstudio.org/
Thanks, Pippo, I will investigate this further.

David
  • #344
  • Aug 22, 2008 12:54pm Aug 22, 2008 12:54pm
hello hanover
And many thnx for you efforts

But i downloaded the program and when open it it takes more than screen space and i tried to reduce the software interface not working

Do you have a solution
Attachen a full screen snapshot

Thnx in advance
regards
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: untitled.JPG Size: 167 KB
  • #345
  • Aug 22, 2008 7:40pm Aug 22, 2008 7:40pm
Ahmed, right-click on your desktop/wallpaper, and choose "Properties" then the "Settings" tab. Increase your screen resolution to the highest possible value.

Does this solve the problem?

David
  • #346
  • Aug 23, 2008 6:49am Aug 23, 2008 6:49am
Hello
Its work but as you know the font size will be very small
its now working fine but do you have any other option for example to make the borders of the software accepting to change its dimentions using the mose !!

Thnx again
Regards
  • #347
  • Aug 23, 2008 3:15pm Aug 23, 2008 3:15pm
Quoting ahmedalhosenyy
Hello
Its work but as you know the font size will be very small
its now working fine but do you have any other option for example to make the borders of the software accepting to change its dimentions using the mose !!

Thnx again
Regards
Hi Ahmed,

I will make all windows resizable in version 1.30.

However, I don't know how well this will solve your problem, because sizing the window smaller will simply mean that fields near the right and/or bottom areas of the window will no longer be displayed.

I will also have the application open 'maximized'. Doing this means that the main parameter entry window automatically fits a 17-inch monitor, that's running 1152 x 864 resolution (my current Win-98 setup).

The only way that I know of to fit more data on your screen is to increase the resolution. As you point out, fitting more data into the same space is going to make everything, including font sizes, smaller.

David
  • #348
  • Aug 24, 2008 5:33am Aug 24, 2008 5:33am
Version 1.31 can now be downloaded from post #1 in this thread. Full instructions there also.

Fixes and enhancements in v 1.31 are:

1. FFcal.EXE app now starts maximized, and with a splash screen.

2. All windows are now resizable. Please note that if you downsize a window, fields near the right and/or bottom of the window will disappear, and no longer be available for entry.

3. An automatic backup of Events History database (to file @[email protected]) occurs every time an output/export is performed. Hence an up-to-date backup is always available for restoration (press Alt-F9).

4. Alt-F9 facility (Delete/Rebuild/Import/Export) now calls Events History database view automatically upon completion.

5. Separate symbols for positive and negative swap are now supported. On the Edit Swap Details, you can enter a different Wingding codes for "Symbol (up)" and "Symbol (down)". The first code is used/output if swap is positive, the second if it is negative.

6. Events History database files no longer overwrite your existing database, when you install a new version of the software. This removes the need for existing users to Backup and Restore their existing database. However, this means that new users will start with an empty database.

7. Lowercase characters may no longer be typed into the export filename field.


Please note that I have done my best to test all of the above on both my Win-98 and Win-XP platforms, which run firewalls and anti-virus software. However, you download and run this software at your own risk. I accept no liability for any damage or losses that you might incur.

Please feel welcome to report any bugs, and post queries or suggestions in this thread.

David
  • #349
  • Aug 24, 2008 9:30pm Aug 24, 2008 9:30pm
Hi Hannover,

Thanks a lot and again and again, I don't know what to tell more than that in case of you effort in helping, supporting, and guiding me through this community.

May I have an idea please, which is perhaps you could develop further feature in the PlotNews indicator to be an EA which is only read the forex-factory news data and act to buy or sell accordingly.

For example like http://www.forex-tsd.com/news-signal...g-signals.html

But what I mean is this EA will only read forex-factory calenderl.

God Bless You...
Joko Kendil Trading For Live
  • #350
  • Edited 4:25am Aug 25, 2008 4:02am | Edited 4:25am
Quoting jokokendil
............
May I have an idea please, which is perhaps you could develop further feature in the PlotNews indicator to be an EA which is only read the forex-factory news data and act to buy or sell accordingly.

For example like http://www.forex-tsd.com/news-signal...g-signals.html
........
Jokokendil, thanks for the link.

Plot_News is merely a tool for plotting news times and values on your MT4 charts. How you interpret and trade this information is up to you.

If I understand you correctly, you're asking for a news trading EA. I'm a programmer, not a professional trader. I don't have a method of entries and exits that's capable of exploiting price movements caused by news announcements.

Thanks for your good wishes,
David
  • #351
  • Aug 25, 2008 12:08pm Aug 25, 2008 12:08pm
Quoting hanover
Jokokendil, thanks for the link.

Plot_News is merely a tool for plotting news times and values on your MT4 charts. How you interpret and trade this information is up to you.

If I understand you correctly, you're asking for a news trading EA. I'm a programmer, not a professional trader. I don't have a method of entries and exits that's capable of exploiting price movements caused by news announcements.

Thanks for your good wishes,
David
Hi David,

I perhaps also has the same idea with jokokendil.

Don't worry too much with trading strategy, but the main thing is, whether there is any possibility to transform this Plot_News into a Trading_EA. If yes, then it will be a good future for all of us here.

Though I'm not a good trader, I always eager to learn it more and more.
Once I've found this thread, I like it very much indeed, because it could help me a lot with my manual trading.

My experiences is that we can do entry by calculating between the previous results against the forecast one.

  1. For example with the Entry Point: if previous value of trading balance is 2.6 and the forecast value is 2.2, let's say the currency could be down, so just give the EA reason to Sell at few adjustable minutes before the news time.
  2. The Exist could be by either running and/or stepping trailing stop, breakeven point, certain take profit, and more. But always we have chances to put a stop loss anyway.

Unfortunately, I'm not a good programmer too, but here, we could find professional traders, furthermore, as well as professional trader and good programmers that can help each other.

So please keep up and go ahead your best. I believe you can do it...

I'm thanking you much and please accept my best wishes to you.

Jodie Forex at its Best
  • #352
  • Aug 25, 2008 12:14pm Aug 25, 2008 12:14pm
Quoting hanover
Jokokendil, thanks for the link.

Plot_News is merely a tool for plotting news times and values on your MT4 charts. How you interpret and trade this information is up to you.

If I understand you correctly, you're asking for a news trading EA. I'm a programmer, not a professional trader. I don't have a method of entries and exits that's capable of exploiting price movements caused by news announcements.

Thanks for your good wishes,
David
David,

You have inspiring us all here...
I've agreed with Jodie...
You must be able to make it.
Or...
Maybe anyone else can help each other to implement it.

Good luck and all the best for you David.
Joko Kendil Trading For Live
  • #353
  • Edited 3:18am Aug 26, 2008 3:06am | Edited 3:18am
Jodie, Jokokendil,

Something like this was discussed earlier in the thread.

There is at least one reason why I don't think this can be done. Plot_News gets its data from FF calendar. Sometimes the "Actual" value in FF calendar doesn't get updated until several minutes after the news announcement, which means that the price move will probably have already occurred, hence it's too late to place a trade.

The second reason is that the FFcal.EXE part of the software would need to poll the FF calendar continuously, waiting for the "Actual" value to appear, and I don't think the FF owners/moderators would be happy about all of this additional internet traffic. The traffic problem already causes delays in the "Actual" value being posted.

The third reason is personal. Even if we found solutions to the above points, I'm already writing EAs for two different clients, and have two more waiting in a queue. What you are asking would take several hours, probably days, to develop. Especially if you want the parameters (e.g. where to place entry, TP, SL etc based on difference between "Forecast" vs "Actual") to be customizable. Everybody would want to trade the news in different ways, and with different settings. It is simply too big a job for me at this time.

One of the great things about news trading is that you know when the news will occur, hence you can be ready at your computer at a specific time. Unlike with certain technical setups (e.g. certain indicators reaching certain values), when you need to monitor the charts continuously, because the setup could occur at any time. I would have thought that an EA would be more useful for the latter.

Even if you're interested only in the "Previous" and "Forecast" values, then it's easy enough to place either a market or pending order manually, prior to the news event.

An EA will not help you make better decisons as a trader. You have to devise your own rules first, so that they can be programmed into the EA, or at least be accommodated as parameter settings. The EA is nothing more than a babysitter, it can not make your decisions for you.

David
  • #354
  • Aug 27, 2008 8:37am Aug 27, 2008 8:37am
Quoting hanover
Jodie, Jokokendil,

One of the great things about news trading is that you know when the news will occur, hence you can be ready at your computer at a specific time. Unlike with certain technical setups (e.g. certain indicators reaching certain values), when you need to monitor the charts continuously, because the setup could occur at any time. I would have thought that an EA would be more useful for the latter.

David
Dear David,

So wonderful we have forum like this, and thanks for your detail explaination. I agreed that trading by news is so exciting and needs special attention.

Alright, my idea with news trading is we are able to presume of which trend could be followed by comparing forecast value against previous one, so then we can judge either we place long or short accordingly.

Anyway, I should thank you again and again because with your tools, especially, you provide it for free for all of us, is so helpful to me and all of us here.

Good luck and have a nice day, my warm regards to you.
Joko Kendil Trading For Live
  • #355
  • Aug 27, 2008 11:28am Aug 27, 2008 11:28am
Hello
i face a problem with my .CSV file yesterday it was running well but today and all of sudden the shape of CSV file changed from its normal look into that shape in attached Pic !!
As you see if i need to open the csv file now it asks me to select a program to open with but in past it was open automatically ????

how i solve this problem ?
regards
Attached Image
  • #356
  • Aug 27, 2008 2:05pm Aug 27, 2008 2:05pm
Hi Ahmed,

Not sure what you're using the news.csv file for. Its main purpose is to provide the data used to plot the symbols on your MT4 charts.

Here's what I think might have happened. You've installed other software that's changed the program that auto-opens csv files. Normally these files are opened by Excel.

Assuming you're running Windows XP, the following might solve your problem, but proceed carefully (do this at your own risk):
Run "My Computer". Choose Tools/Folder Options..... then select the File Types tab. Find the CSV extension in the scrolling box, and click the Change... button. Choose "Microsoft Excel" from the options, and then click OK to save it.

If you're running Windows Vista, then I don't know how to do it.

Hope this helps.

David
  • #357
  • Aug 27, 2008 2:44pm Aug 27, 2008 2:44pm
Quoting jokokendil
Dear David,

So wonderful we have forum like this, and thanks for your detail explaination. I agreed that trading by news is so exciting and needs special attention.

Alright, my idea with news trading is we are able to presume of which trend could be followed by comparing forecast value against previous one, so then we can judge either we place long or short accordingly.

Anyway, I should thank you again and again because with your tools, especially, you provide it for free for all of us, is so helpful to me and all of us here.

Good luck and have a nice day, my warm regards to you.
Jokokendil (and Jodie), you might like to try the following, especially if you have downloaded several months worth of news events into the Events History database:

On the screen shown in the attachment, do the following:

1. Check ON H4 and D1 charts in the red area of the screenshot. Also, make sure that you have a wide date range (e.g. 1/1/2006 to 12/31/2009) entered (see red area).

2. Change the description in the blue area to the news announcements that you want to view. For example, if I want to view a history of "Previous" and "Forecast" values in Core Durable Goods, I type CORE|DURABLE into the description area. For more info on how to use this, see point 3 in this post.

3. Click the PREVIEW button (green area) to make sure that only the news events you want are being displayed. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have the desired news events. Then click OK to process.

4. Re-attach the Plot_News indicator to your price chart, and switch to a D1 chart. Now only the Core Durable Goods events are shown. Hover the mouse cursor over each one, to see what the "Forecast" and "Previous" values were, and observe what effect this had on price before the event, and the effect that the "Actual" had after the event. Then drill down to lower time frames (e.g. H1, M15, M5 etc) for each event to get a detailed view on how price moved. The second screenshot shows a daily GBPUSD chart with only Core Durable Goods highlighted. However, don't forget that there might also be other news events, and a host of technical factors, that are also contributing to the price movement!!

To restore Plot_News so that it will display all news events, click the "Plot_News format" button (see the black area of the screenshot below). This automatically resets all of the parameters to their default values. Click OK, and reattach thye Plot_news indicator to your MT4 chart(s).

I hope that the above is helpful to you. It allows you to see what effect an individual news event had on price. But you need to have enough history loaded to make it worthwhile. Clicking the PREVIEW button will tell you exactly which news events will be highlighted on your MT4 charts.

Thank you for your kind comments, and good luck with your trading.

David
Attached Image(s) (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: joko1.jpg Size: 295 KB
Click to Enlarge Name: joko2.gif Size: 24 KB
  • #358
  • Edited 2:10pm Aug 29, 2008 1:19pm | Edited 2:10pm
The attached file contains a complete archive of the FF calendar (7,726 news events) from 1/1/2006 thru 08/30/2008.

The ZIP file contains a CSV file that can be loaded directly into Microsoft Excel, and/or be edited using a text editor.

The dates/times of news events are New Zealand time (currently GMT+12). If you are planning on using these in Plot_News, you will need to modify these news event times to those of your MT4 broker, including all necessary adjustments for Daylight Saving time.

To import the CSV file, in full or in part, into Plot_News' Event History database, proceed as follows:

1. Unzip the file into the same folder where you installed Plot_News. (To install Plot_News, see post #1 in this thread).

2. Run FFcstart.BAT, and press Esc, then Alt-F9.

3. Choose the "Delete and then Import (i.e. Restore)" option.

-- Enter the desired date range (format: MM/DD/YYYY). Make absolutely certain that you have this correct, as it will delete all news events in your existing Event History database, and replace them with those, that fall within the same date range, from the import file.

-- Set the "Name of Import / Export file" to FFCALR

-- Click OK. Verify that the events have been imported correctly into the Events History database.

Note that you can re-run this process (press Esc, then Alt-F9 again), and choose the Rebuild option, to adjust the news event times back or forward any number of hours, for all events within your specified date range.

David
Attached File(s)
File Type: zip FFCALR.ZIP   125 KB | 674 downloads
  • #359
  • Aug 30, 2008 9:47am Aug 30, 2008 9:47am
Quoting hanover
The attached file contains a complete archive of the FF calendar (7,726 news events) from 1/1/2006 thru 08/30/2008.

David
Absolutely I'm thanking you very much.
I is very important data not available anywhere in the world, but you provided it to all of us here.

Let me try it David, if still there is something I don't really understand then I'll let you know.

Best wishes.
Joko Kendil Trading For Live
  • #360
  • Sep 2, 2008 4:30pm Sep 2, 2008 4:30pm
Hi David, all,

David is providing a really great tool and service to all of us, and for that I thank him. I use his Plot_News indicator on my M1 chart (and others) to see the news arrows. However, the one problem with his Plot_News.mq4 program is it only runs once when you attach it, or once when you change chart timeframes, or once when you Compile the program. On an M1 chart especially, but on any timeframe, as price moves extremely up or down the chart, the arrows to the right of the current bar (i.e. future time) go off my screen, either too high or too low to see! So while they exist, it doesn't help alert me to a news event if I can't actually see the future arrow!

My workaround was to hit "Compile" frequently throughout the day. This would readjust the news Arrows. The past arrows would snap close to the price of the past bar. The future arrows would snap close to the then-current price.

I got tired of hitting "Compile" all the time. I moved the code into the "start()" section of the code so now it updates automatically! However, as there's no need to waste CPU doing the same calculations and adjustments with every tick, I perform the updates only once-per-new-bar. I've been using my version for a few weeks and it's working great.


Another new feature is a simple one but helpful. We are supposed to run FFcal.exe at the start of the week when the market opens. I added a reminder to the program to display a text near the most recent bar. If you have no future news arrows, the reminder simply says:
REMINDER: Run FFcal.exe to get future events

I am always certain to run FFcal.exe so I have future news arrows! Nothing says I can't run FFcal.exe additional times per week to get the results, and also to get any changes to the times or any new news events, but at least I have been reminded to run it no less than once per week.

(By the way, after you run FFcal.exe, the reminder text will go away with the NEXT new bar, or simply by changing timeframes, or... you can just delete it manually. In my M1 chart, I just wait a minute for the next bar, but for longer TF's I just delete the text. See picture).

David, if you like the update, would you kindly add a link to this indicator in Post #1, or if you like, you may rename it to "Plot_News.mq4" (or keep my name) and put it in the next official zip file.

Thanks,
Pips4life (Kent)

P.S. The program contains a full Disclaimer, but neither David nor I assume any liability whatsoever resulting from use of this program. Use at your own risk!
Attached Image
Attached File(s)
File Type: mq4 P4L Plot_News.mq4   17 KB | 683 downloads
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