SETUP
1. Double-click on the b-c-trial.exe file.
2. Click "Yes" in "Setup" Dialog.
3. Select "Next>" in "Welcome" Dialog.
4. Click "Yes" if you agree to the "License Agreement."
5. Click "Next>" in "Select Destination Directory" Dialog to select the default directory.
6. Click "Next>" in "Select Program Group" Dialog.
7. Click "Install" in "Ready to Install" Dialog.
8. Click "Finish" in "Setup Completed" Dialog.

Directions for use:

1. Make sure you are connected to the Internet.

2. Click the "Best-Charts" icon on your Desktop to launch this software.

3. Analyzing stocks:
(1) Enter a stock symbol, for example, YHOO or ^DJI or ^IXIC or ACEL.OB or BEARX(mutual fund) in Symbol field on the Toolbar of this software.
(2) Click on the "W" ("Read quotes from website") button, the software gets live quote and historical quotes data of YHOO, Dow Jones, Nasdaq ACEL.OB or BEARX and calculates and displays charts and buy / sell signals, Trend and the results of Back-testing in a window.
(3) A green o on a chart indicates a buy signal.
(4) A red x on a chart indicates a sell signal.
(5) Click on the "more" button to view more charts (EquiVolume, Point and Figure).
(6) Choose menu item "Stocks->Save analysis results" to save all analysis results to C:\M-C\results.txt. Users may analyze the results further with MS Excel.
(7) Click on the "123" ("Switch between historical quotes and charts") button, to read historical quote data or charts. You should pay attention to date and live quotes.
(8) Choose menu item "Stocks->Display candlestick chart signal list" to read Candlestick Chart Signals.
(9) Click on the "BT"(Back-testing) button to test indicator performance(Past performance is not indicative of futures results.)
(10) Click on the "AIO"(All Indicator Optimization) button to seek optimal parameters of all popular indicators. It takes 1-5 minutes.

Get stock data from QuoteTracker for technical analysis.

4. Setting up a portfolio of stocks to monitor:
(1) Choose menu item "Portfolios->Edit List" in the software.
(2) Click on a List number (for example, List 1) and "OK" in "Select List" dialog box.
(3) Enter List name (for example, "hi-tech") in field "List Name."
(4) Enter stock symbols (for example, IBM YHOO ACEL.OB) in the text box.
(5) Click "OK" in "Edit List" Dialog.

5. Getting quotes for a Portfolio:
(1) Choose menu item "Portfolios->List 1: hi-tech". The software gets quotes and displays them in the portfolio list.
(2) Click on the "Pf" button to refresh the quotes.

6. Getting Charts and News for the Portfolio:
(1) Click on the "Intraday MicroCharts" button. The software gets up to 40 intraday MicroCharts and displays them in a window.
(2) Select a stock symbol from the List. Then, click the "Intraday TA Indicators" button. The software gets 16 technical indicator charts for the stock and displays them in a window.
(3) Double-click on "News" in the List. Company News is retrieved from the Internet.

7. Performing Technical Analysis for a stock in the Portfolio:
Select a stock symbol from the List. Then, click the "TA" button. The software gets live quotes and historical quote data and calculates and displays technical indicator charts , buy / sell signals, Trend and the results of Back-testing* in one window.

Click on the "TA" button to analyze next stock in the List.

8. Analyze up to 40 stocks listed in a List with one click:
(1) Display a List (for example, choose menu item "Portfolios->List 1").
(2) Choose menu item "Portfolios->Analyze 40 stocks (quotes from Web)". This software analyzes up to 40 stocks listed in the List continuously and then displays a "TAsummary" list. It takes about 1-3 minutes.

9. Alternate Method for Performing Technical Analysis (a file per stock):
(1) Please create the folder C:\M-C\HIST
(2) Get historical quotes data of a stock (for example, YHOO) at http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=YHOO
(3) Right click on "Download Spreadsheet Format" under the data list and save quotes to "C:\M-C\HIST\YHOO.csv".
(4) Enter the Symbol YHOO in "Symbol" field in toolbar of this software.
(5) Click on the "Read historical quotes from ASCII file" (H) button. This software displays charts immediately.

10. Analyzing historical quotes in other folder (ASCII file: txt, csv, prn ... ):
If you have saved historical quotes in other folder, you may set historical quotes file path in order that this software can read historical quotes from this folder directly.
(1) Choose menu item "Stocks->Set historical quotes file path ... ".
(2) Enter the file path in "historical quotes file path" dialog box.
(3) Choose menu item "Stocks->Options ... ". Select "Specified File Path" for Historical Quotes File Path in Options dialog box.
(4) Enter the stock symbol in "Symbol" field.
(5) Click on the "Read historical quotes from ASCII file" (H) button. This software displays charts immediately.
* The data format ought to be:
Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume
20050205,17.83,18.15,17.65,17.79,6493400
20050204,17.83,17.86,17.50,17.75,5960700
or
Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume
5-Feb-05,17.83,18.15,17.65,17.79,6493400
4-Feb-05,17.83,17.86,17.50,17.75,5960700
(with/without header row: Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume)

11. Analyzing end of day quotes (a file per trading day):
Another way to analyze the stock:
(1) Please download stock end of day quote data and save them to C:\M-C\EOD\ folder, for example,
C:\M-C\EOD\20020828.txt C:\M-C\EOD\20020829.txt ...
(2) Enter stock symbol in "Symbol" field on the Toolbar.
(3) Click on the "Read end of day quotes from ASCII file" button.
(4) If you have downloaded 5 day end-of-day quotes, the software can display charts.
* The data format ought to be:
Symbol,Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume
^DJI,20021108,8585.75,8668.91,8503.36,8529.71,0
^IXIC,20021108,1376.37,1389.77,1354.28,1358.37,0
^GSPC,20021108,902.10,910.15,891.61,894.10,0
A,20021108,14.00,14.45,13.83,13.88,651100
AA,20021108,23.41,23.97,23.00,23.27,1677800
AAC,20021108,0.19,0.19,0.19,0.19,1000
AACE,20021108,8.15,8.15,8.00,8.00,2600
(with/without header row: Symbol,Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume)

12. Intraday charts analysis for US stocks:
(1) Choose menu item "Stocks->Options ... ". Select 1 min, 10 min, or 20 min ....
(2) Enter the stock symbol in "Symbol" field.
(3) Click on the "W" button to download intraday quotes and analyze them.
* The data format is:
"date","time","open","high","low","close","vol"
050218,1030,14.670000,14.840000,14.630000,14.700000,1502561
050218,1130,14.710000,14.950000,14.650000,14.920000,1246614
050218,1230,14.920000,15.000000,14.820000,14.820000,2623704
(with/without header row: "date","time","open","high","low","close","vol")

15. Comparing Stock Charts:
(1) Select command "New" and "Tile" from the menu "Window" to compare charts of a stock.
(2) Select command "New" from the menu "File" and select command "Tile" from the menu "Window" to compare charts of several stocks.

16. Change the parameters of the technical analysis algorithm.
(1) Choose menu item "Stocks->Change Parameters of Indicators->Change Parameters Set 1″.
(2) Enter new parameters.
(3) Click on the "OK" button.
(4) Choose menu item "Stocks->Options ... ". Select "Parameters Set 1" for Indicators Parameters Set in Options dialog box. Then the software analyzes stock with new parameters.
(5) Choose menu item "Stocks->Change Parameters of Indicators->Change Parameters Set 5" to change parameters of EquiVolume, Point and Figure.

17. Optimal parameters:
(1) Save Optimal parameters:
(a) Analyze a stock.
(b) Click on the AIO button.
(c) Choose menu item "Stocks->All Indicator Optimization->Save Optimal parameters ... ".
(2) Use Optimal parameters: Choose menu item "Stocks->All Indicator Optimization->Use Optimal parameters in file ... " and then select a file. The software will find stock symbol in the file. If the symbol is found, the software use optimal parameters in the file for the stock. The default is opd.txt.
(3) Delete Optimal parameters: Choose menu item "Stocks->All Indicator Optimization->Delete Optimal parameters ... ". Enter stock symbol and select a file. Optimal parameters for the stock in the file will be deleted.

18. Multi-AIO:
(1) Choose menu item "Stocks->Multi-AIO ... "
(2) Type Number of Quotes for Multi-AIO in the fields in Multi-AIO dialog and click OK. This software will optimize the parameters of all Indicators for these Number of Quotes.

19. Buy / Sell signal forecast and estimation: Choose menu item "Stocks->Signal forecast and estimation .. ", enter a change%, for example, 6 or -6 in Signal forecast dialog box, click OK and then this software will forecast charts and buy / sell signal change next trading day according to change% supposed by users.

20. BBI indicator is number of "Trend: Bullish" of other indicators. Choose menu item "Stocks->Weights for BBI" to change the weights of incicators.

21. Click on button "Market Snapshot", "Market News" und "Market Update", you can read many good articles on markets and stocks.

22. There are many useful links in the menus "Markets" and "Stocks".

23. Options
Choose menu item "Stocks->Options" to change the settings.

24. If there is not C drive on your computer, this software will create a folder \...\M-C2. It has the same function as C:\M-C . You can find the folder M-C2 with Windows Explorer.

FAQs: If you have any questions regarding this software, please post your questions in our Stock Forums

Best-Charts team