FFcal - Plot News indicator

When I try to change or delete the Dec 16 fed funds bad data the exe crashes. I tried opening the CSV file in excel and changing it there and then going back into the exe and pressing F5 but still no news. Any ideas.

Thank you so much I love plot news

I just get errors and booted out and eventually it erased all the news I had downloaded and had me set up again but after I set up again it just errs out. Any suggestions. Thanks,

Re the Trojan Horse: This is the first report that I'm aware of, that WGET.EXE has failed any kind of virus check. If you suspect that the version of WGET.EXE in the ZIP file is bad, you can download it from either here or here instead.

Are you guys running Vista? If so, I can't attempt to reproduce your errors on my PC. I refuse to run Vista; I believe it is junk. I read somewhere that Bill Gates runs XP on his own laptop. Some time back I purchased a new PC with Vista. I copied a couple of files with a third party file manager that I always use. When I tried to find them using "My Computer", they had vanished. So I paid a consultant a large sum of money to have Vista removed and XP installed. I believe Microsoft have since realeased some service packs for Vista, but I still won't go near it.

One thing a computer friend of mine told me: never install anything under the Program Files folder. Apparently Vista does not allow you to write data to files in this area. FFcal.EXE maintains its own database (files: CALENDAR.DAT,K01,K02,K03) and also attempts to write to the ....<MT4>/experts/files/news.csv file for MT4. So you might like to try installing both Plot_News and MT4 well away from Program Files, and see if that fixes the problem.

Also, you might like to try the indicator attached to post #488, as a possible alternative.

However, if you do manage to get FFcal.EXE working error free, then to answer the question about recovering news history, you can load the complete FF calendar (archive: Jan 1, 2006 thru Aug 30, 2008). See the "Calendar Archive" section in post #1 for instructions.
[EDIT] I've attached an archive of all news events from Jan 1, 2006 thru Dec 26, 2008 - including the fixed transaction on Dec 16. Simply unzip it into the same folder as FFcal.EXE, and then see the "Calendar Archive" section in post #1 for further instructions.

Re 'Do you want to GPF?', it's a Clarion run-time error, that normally follows a more definitive error message (e.g. File not found; Access denied; etc). Simply click 'No' and follow the on-screen steps to close the application.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I can't attempt to reproduce your error(s) if they are Vista related. Perhaps somebody else has Plot_News running successfully under Vista and can shed some light.

Thanks hanover for the quick response. The trojan was an issue with a program I run, called Comodo BOClean. It's keeps IE free of Browser object changes. Once disabled , all good.
I am not running vista. XP (??? version).
I'll try again tonight to get the error message and take note of the steps that brought me to that point.
IF I can get the message again I'll post my method for freaking the thing out!!!

I'll try do those steps before I load the attached FFcal from your last post, to see how... and then install and run it again to see if any different.
Cheers,
Martin

Yes Thanks Hanover. I too am running Windows XP. after I run the step that goes and gets the news and then go into the news list find the dec 16 line with the data error and press the button to change it and then change the bad data and then press ok to save I get the error in picture 1 then if I press yes I want to GPF i get the windows crash error in picture 2. Changeing and saving the data is where my initial issue is if I keep trying or try work arounds it just gets worse from there.


I have a machine with Vista on it. I will try to update on that machine and post results.
Thanks,

PippiLong

Perhaps try the following, to clear out the Events History database, and start over:

1. Run My Computer/Windows Explorer (or whatever file manager you use), and go to the folder where you originally unzipped Plot_News. There should be files there named:
CALENDAR.DAT
CALENDAR.K01
CALENDAR.K02
CALENDAR.K03

These are the files where the Events History is stored. Delete these four files. That should hopefully reset everything.

Also, if you are able to find the file named in your error message screenshot, try to delete it also. It has invalid characters in the file name. FFcal.EXE doesn't perform any logging. You must have some other software running in the background that is doing this - I have no idea what it might be.

2. Unzip the file I attached to post #512 into the same folder as you originally unzipped Plot_News.

3. Run FFcstart.BAT. Press Esc twice (i.e. you don't need to re-run the 'Setup' process), then Alt-F9. Select the "Delete and then Import (i.e. Restore)" option. Make sure that the "Name of Import/Export file" is set to FFCALR, then click OK to restore your entire News Event History database.

This should give you all news events between Jan 1, 2006 and Dec 26, 2008, including the fix to the event on Dec 16. The database view should appear when the process is finished. Page up/down, to verify that all news events are present and correct.

4. You will probably need to adjust the time zones of the events, to those of your MT4 broker. The simplest way to do a bulk adjustment is this. Press Esc, then Alt-F9. This time select the "Rebuild" option. Type in the date range, and the number of hours you want to add to/subtract from their existing time. Events inside this date range will be time-adjusted; events outside the range will not. Click OK. (If you get the adjustment wrong, you can always repeat the process to re-adjust).

The database view should appear when the process is finished. Page up/down, to check that the times have been adjusted correctly. Press Esc when finished.

I've never used Comodo BOClean. Most virus checkers look for 'signature strings', i.e. a set of machine-language instructions within an executable program that looks like it might be attempting to do something suspicious. If it finds one, it checks it against its virus/trojan/malware database. Then if it finds a match, it reports it.

Some of these strings may be harmless, which means that the virus checker gives a 'false positive' result, i.e. reports trouble that doesn't really exist. However, please don't get me wrong: viruses can cause massive damage and I would take any trojan report very seriously. But I think that it's unlikely that WGET.EXE contains a trojan, as it is widely used. The ZIP file in post #1 has apparently been downloaded more than 1,600 times, and nobody else has reported a trojan.

I run firewalls and AVG anti-virus running on both of my PC setups (Win-98 and Win-XP). I have not had any viruses or trojans reported in at least 4 years. I am a professional programmer by trade, and these computers are used for work only. My wife has her own PC and we don't have any children. Hence I think it's very unlikely that the ZIP file contains a trojan, but please feel welcome to download WGET.EXE from either of the links I provided in my earlier post.

Hanover,


Thank you the file deletion and loading of your new calendar events file did work I just need to work on converting the time zones appropriately. Thank you Thank you.

From this point on will the new downloads each week just go get future events such that that bad data event will not effect it in the future?

Also when I first run the FFCstart.bat file a black screen appears for less than a second and it says file not found. so I believe when the bat file tries to copy the FFcempty.bat and FFcsetup.bat file and start them it is not done. It has done this since I first used it. Would that cause my problems of not being able to edit the bad data in the news file? Which I have never tried to do before. Where is it trying to copy the files and what are they used for?

I had copied and unzipped the autoplot news file under a subdirectory under my documents folder. It is not under the program files subdirectory.

Thanks you so much for your help,

PippiLong

hi
my ffcal worked nice until 16 Des but it isn't work now.
data is saved in news file but not show in chart.
any suggestion...

Kohzadi,

Read post #506 Hanover describes how to fix bad data fron the forexfactory feed.

Thanks,

PippiLong

Thank you the file deletion and loading of your new calendar events file did work I just need to work on converting the time zones appropriately.
Fixing the time shift isn't as difficult as it seems. I look for an obvious price spike (e.g. non-farm payroll) and see where the news object ('billiard ball') appears. Say the spike is at 08:30 and the object is at 06:30. The object needs to be advanced by 2 hours, so I would enter 2 into the "Rebuild" parameter.

From this point on will the new downloads each week just go get future events such that that bad data event will not effect it in the future?
The 'bad' news event will be re-loaded if you re-load the data for the week involving Dec 16, in which case you would need to re-apply the fix. Otherwise all should be fine, unless FF calendar supplies more data that causes MT4 to choke, in the future. Unfortunately I can't anticipate the nature of the bad data before it happens, so I can't write a program fix.

Also when I first run the FFCstart.bat file a black screen appears for less than a second and it says file not found. so I believe when the bat file tries to copy the FFcempty.bat and FFcsetup.bat file and start them it is not done. It has done this since I first used it. Would that cause my problems of not being able to edit the bad data in the news file?
No, it's completely unrelated. Since you're not running Vista, I don't know what caused your problem. Mine works fine here.

Which I have never tried to do before. Where is it trying to copy the files and what are they used for?
These files are used for the initial setup only. After you've set up your time zones and folder locations, they don't matter.

I had copied and unzipped the autoplot news file under a subdirectory under my documents folder. It is not under the program files subdirectory.
Program files subdirectory only causes problem if running Vista, at least as far as I know. With Vista, Microsoft locks you out of areas of your own computer. A big raspberry to Mr Gates from me.

Thanks you so much for your help,
You're welcome.

Thank you David.
Happy New Year !

Constin

Attached is the complete FF calendar of news events for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Unzip the file into the folder where you first installed Plot_News. Then follow the instructions in the "Calendar Archive" section in post #1. (Of course you will be using the @[email protected] file that you unzipped from the attachment below. This is the file that contains all news events from 1/1/2006 to 1/3/2009). Choose the date range that you want to import CAREFULLY, if you don't want to overwrite news events that already exist in your database.

When you have finished importing the news events, you will probably need to adjust their time zones, to those of your MT4 broker. The simplest way to do a bulk adjustment is this. Press Esc, then Alt-F9. This time select the "Rebuild" option. Type in the date range, and the number of hours you want to add to/subtract from their existing time. Events inside this date range will be time-adjusted; events outside the range will not. Click OK. (If you get the adjustment wrong, you can always repeat the process to re-adjust).

NOTE: Fixing the time shift isn't as difficult as it seems. I look for an obvious price spike (e.g. non-farm payroll) and see where the news object ('billiard ball') appears. Say the spike is at 08:30 and the object is at 06:30. The object needs to be advanced by 2 hours, so I would enter 2 into the "Rebuild" parameter.

For info on daylight saving, follow the appropriate links from here. Or go direct to the main World Clock here, choose your city, and then select the link "See time changes/daylight saving time in other years".

Happy New Year

Hanover,

I was wondering if I could ask you a question about MT4 platform because you are so knowledgeable and helpful but do not want to infringe on your generosity. Thank you for your generosity. Just let me know to look elsewhere if this is inconveniencing.

I do not know how to write an indicator but am fairly able to figure out prgramming code eventually with work.

I was wondering if it is possible to export objexts that have been drawn on a chart? And then ideally if an indicator could then draw them on a chart.

For example I have drawn some support and resistance lines, labels, and fibos on a chart and would like to share them with others. To save as a template and send and them copy them to hardrive apply to chart is a hassle.

Ideally the indicator could eventually draw the lines for me but right now I think it requires judgement and can't see how it could be mechanical but hope to figure that out.

If so what would be the process, get the drawings in outside CSV filw which is the read by the indicator?

Also are you aware if something calculated by an indicator (such as ATR) can be DDE linked into an Excel spreadsheet? I know spot rate, high, low, close can be but can anythign else.

Thank you very much,

PippiLong

I was wondering if it is possible to export objexts that have been drawn on a chart? And then ideally if an indicator could then draw them on a chart.
For example I have drawn some support and resistance lines, labels, and fibos on a chart and would like to share them with others. To save as a template and send and them copy them to hardrive apply to chart is a hassle.

Templates
A template is the simplest way to do this, unless you want to get into programming. However, the limitation of a template, with regards to objects, is this:
-- with an indicator, the template stores the parameters, colors, style etc. So if you save a template with a blue EMA(10) in it, and then apply the template to another chart, you will get a blue EMA(10) plotted in the other chart, with all of the adjustments necessary because it is a different currency pair/timeframe.
-- but with an object (or line study), the parameters saved in the template (along with the color etc) are the time/price co-ordinates. So if, for example, you have a trendline drawn between (2009.01.07 10:30, 1.3536) and (2009.01.07 17:45, 1.3597) on a EURUSD, M15 chart, and you apply the template to a different currency pair, then MT4 will try to draw the trendline using the same co-ordinates, which will likely be meaningless.

MQL4 Programming
All programming does is automate a manual process. So instead of using the menus, toolbars etc to drag indicators or objects onto your charts, you can use scripts or indicators to perform the same function (note: the difference between a script and an indicator is that a script executes only once, while an indicator re-executes itself every time there is a new tick, until the indicator is removed from the chart).

It doesn't matter whether you drag the indicators or objects onto your chart manually, or whether you use a script or indicator, the same parameters are used. You simply create an object using MQL4's ObjectCreate() command, and then set the parameters using the ObjectSet() command. The benefit from programming is that the parameters can either be fixed, or calculated to suit a strategy/algorithm. Using the previous example, you could program a trendline between (2009.01.07 10:30, 1.3536) and (2009.01.07 17:45, 1.3597) and the result would be the same - meaningless if the script was applied to anything other than a EURUSD chart. That is what I mean by "fixed".

However, you could calculate the parameters according to any algorithm you choose, to suit whatever your trading strategy is, e.g. draw a trendline between (X1,Y1) and (X2,Y2) where X1 is the time when the lowest price in the last 50 candles occurred, and Y1 is the candle low at that time; and X2 is the current candle, and Y2 is its low. Now you have a trendline that will adjust itself to whatever price chart (currency pair/timeframe) it is applied to. How you calculate the parameters X1,Y1, etc is entirely your choice; you can write a script/indicator/EA to execute any aglorithm, or (in the case of an EA) place buy/sell orders according to any strategy. The algorithm can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be (and your programming expertise allows).

I don't teach programming. The on-line help (press F1 over any MT4 keyword like ObjectCreate, to see what parameters it takes) will help you with syntax, but the concepts behind programming (loops, conditional statements, functions, variables, arrays, data types, expressions, etc) are esoteric, and it takes experience and practice to learn how to use them to implement your algorithm. There is a tutorial available here.

If so what would be the process, get the drawings in outside CSV filw which is the read by the indicator?
I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with this, whether you simply want to copy the objects to another MT4 chart (in which case, see my comments above) or copy to another charting package, or software.

Also are you aware if something calculated by an indicator (such as ATR) can be DDE linked into an Excel spreadsheet? I know spot rate, high, low, close can be but can anythign else.
I've never attempted to do anything like this. I believe it can be done, but I suspect the programming involved could be complex. You might be able to find examples and/or discussion by using the Search facility on the http://www.mql4.com/ site.

Hanover,

Thank you very much for you reply to my question above.

I updated my news today and noticed the bad data in the federal funds rate line again this month. Last time I was unable to change it through your program. I tried again this time and same thing happened error message, lock up, when I ran FFCstart again and pressed F9 events were all gone. At the end of a long post to you describing the errors and the thought that it can't wirte to the database file I decided my path name might be too long. I have plot news stored under quite a few folders. I am running Windows XP.

So ...... I moved it and yes .... that was the problem. I moved plot news under my c: root directory and it ran flawlessly. Yeah!!! So hopefully this will help others that had my same problem last time there was bad data.

I rebuilt my events database by downloading the calendar file from your previous post. Not the christmas present post because that just had data up through 8/2008 but the one before. It had data up through 12/26/2008. Then I ran the F5 utility such that it grabbed data from FF for the last 6 weeks. And it looks good.

Thanks,

PippiLong

Hanover,

I used the F5 utility to save the events history to a CSv file and the date and time downloaded was 6 hours off. In the F5 screen it had the appropriate number hours in the no of hours your local time is ahead of your MT4 time field. I also changed that number and re-downloaded and the date & time never changed. How do you get the right time in the output file?

I just put a formula in Excel to convert it but there are some other people that want to do it but don't know how to put a formula in Excel to convert it.

Thank you,

PippiLong

Pippi,

Oops, looks like I blundered with the data in the 'Xmas gift' ZIP. Sorry about that.

The ZIP attached to this post should contain all news events from 1/1/2006 thru 1/30/2009, with the Federal Funds data fixed. So it can be imported as described in posts #515 and #520. Don't forget to adjust the times to your MT4 broker (these are currently set to Alpari, GMT+1). More info in #515, #520.

FFcal.EXE allows up to 99 characters to be entered for the total of the path/file names. Different versions of Windows may impose other restrictions, I don't know. (I think with Win-98, it's 64 characters max.)

The time output to the CSV export is always the MT4 broker time, not your local time. I could possibly change the program to make it selectable (if I can find space on the F5 screen to add another field, LOL). The way it's currently designed to work, local time can be displayed only in the pop-up help 'bubble' on your MT4 charts.

Perhaps it's time for a new version of the software, in any case. This problem with the Federal Funds data is becoming a nuisance. I'll try to find some time to make a permanent fix.

David

Hi David,

I still love this calendar tool and I really miss it when data problems occur. Unfortunately, in the past I have not been able to edit the database to fix the strange extra characters like "&lt;" or "&gt;" or "&amp;". Maybe my problem was the extra long filename, but...


Rather than fix the data, I fixed the Plot_News.mq4 file so it will handle any such strange characters or any extra ";" delimiter. To be sure, the best fix would be for you to change the code which creates the news.csv file, to find-and-replace any of the problem characters and to prevent any unwanted ";" delimiter characters. However, so as not to require you to change your code, I went ahead and made some changes to the Plot_News.mq4 file.

The problem with any extra ";" delimiter in the file is that it just throws off the sequence of the data. If any one line contained an extra delimiter, it then threw off every bit of data following that problem, thereby preventing the display of all future news events. I fixed this issue by using the function FileIsLineEnding to be certain to parse the entire line regardless of any extra delimiters. This fixes the main problem in that future events are unaffected and will display normally. In addition to this, I put in some hacked code to search-and-replace 3 sets of strings on the 2nd description line:
&lt to <
&gt to >
&amp to + (because an "&" is invisible I made it a "+")

Inside this file, I have labeled it version 1.1. The changes are my fix to the extra delimiter problem, and to make "RemindToRunFFcal = TRUE" by default, instead of false. That feature has been working flawlessly for me, and it immediately lets you know when there is a data problem such as the one that occurred today after the USD Funds Rate event.

Kent (pips4life)

Many thanks for this fix, Kent. Ultimately, I'd prefer to make the fix at source, since it would mean that the (fixed) data in the News History database will match the data that's being plotted on the MT4 charts.

However, it may be some time until I get around to doing that, so in the meantime (obviously) anybody is free to download the v1.1 in your previous post. It usually takes me about 30 mins to re-assemble and update the ZIP in post#1, but users can easily download v1.1 from your post in the interim.

Judging by the lack of response here whenever there's a data error, I don't think there's very many folk using Plot_News now. Maybe just you, me and PippiLong.

Many thanks for helping out once again.

David