What's New!

This page is used to describe changes that take place from release to release of the Stock Picker Pro.  To print this information, use the print icon on the Stock Picker Pro Help Window.

For SPP product support contact Quotes Plus: support@quotes-plus.com

12/12/06 - V6 Build 17413 replaces build 16492

General Information:

Stock Picker Pro is a subset of the larger HighGrowthStock Investor software. It contains the same Designer, Warehouse and Filters used for creating and analyzing lists of stocks. Below are several links to information that can be valuable to Stock Picker Pro users.

HGSI Learning Center: Documents and Video

http://www.highgrowthstock.com/LearningCenter/Default.htm

HGSI Yahoo Board: Active discussions about stock investing

http://www.highgrowthstock.com/Forum/forum.htm

HGSI FREE weekly report and video: Current market analysis using HGSI software plus videos

http://www.highgrowthstock.com/WeeklyReports

HGSI mailing list: An opt in/out list that is only used to provide announcements about the product and newsletter availability.

http://www.highgrowthstock.com/MailingList/mailinglist.htm

NEW - QP3 Beta Charting Option.  Added a new menu item on the Warehouse under the tools menu that lets the user choose between original QP Charting and QP3 Beta Charting. The default is the original QP Charting.   (contact Quotes Plus support if you have any trouble support@quotes-plus.com

NEW - ETF Groups (Exchanged Traded Funds also known as Index Funds)

1. Group Database > HGS Reference Groups > Industry Monitors 200 > Fin-ETFs ALL

All ETF securities are now consolidated into one Industry Group "Fin-ETFs All".  

2. Group Database > SmartGroups > ETF

All ETFs are classified into 5 major Sectors and 29 investment categories. ETFs are organized following the Morningstar structure making it easy to cross reference ETFs for more detailed information.

NEW - Bollinger Band Field for Warehouse and Filter.

Chart Indicators > Other

• %B 1-Dy Chg

Note:  This field is used by Ian Woodward and Ron Brown to show the ebb and flow of the Major Market Indexes using the Visual Filter Back Test(VFB) (HGSI Charting).  For examples of its usage contact Ian at ian@highgrowthstock.com or Ron at ron@highgrowthstock.com. The following was provided by Ian Woodward.

Introduction of a Unique HGSI Filter Function:

We are well aware that “Volatility” plays a very important part in the fortunes made and lost in the stock market.  %B provides a vehicle for measuring Volatility.  

We recently studied the Bollinger Band relationships between %B and Bandwidth leading to the W&B Bullseye Indicator.  This enhanced the Ready, Set, Go criteria (featured in the August 2006 HGS Investor Newsletter) for selecting candidate stocks to buy and sell, and enabled further indicators to evolve.

Intense evaluation around the recent precipitous fall since May 11, 2006 for two months across all markets showed that it is accompanied by an equally large 1 Day drop in %B (over 0.40), thereby demonstrating large Volatility.

The provision of a new unique filter factor allowing “%B 1-Dy Chg” to be inserted in filters and views has helped to capture the ebb and flow of the Major Market Indexes in “picture form” using the Visual Filter Back Test (VFB) feature.  They work best with large Indexes, but can also provide useful information for Sectors, Industry Groups and even stocks.  It is used for both up and down swings in Volatility.

New - Group Database HGS Reference Group

Exchange Indexes reference group with a copy of the HGSI version of the ALL NYSE, ALL NASDAQ, ALL AMEX and ALL Securities indexes.  Useful for using various index charting indicators.

Improved - Added error box when using | or comma(,) when making a QuoteTracker portfolio with the Add To Quote Tracker features.

Changed - A/D Letter Rank now no longer sorts/ranks in raw A/D rank order to work correctly with SA.  If users wish the numerical ranking order they will need to sort on the numerical A/D ranking and should use it in any combo rankings as well.

IMPROVED - Export/Import of  Warehouse Views, Warehouse Combos and Filters.

On all the import and export dialogs we now use the standard file names and extensions show below to make it easier to identify which file is to be imported to which HGS tool. E.g. when you have combos to be imported the file name "Warehouse Combo.cmb" will be visible when you navigate to the location where the file was downloaded/exported to on your computer.

• Warehouse Views.whs

• Warehouse Combos.cmb

• Filters.flt

IMPROVED - Group Performance Analysis

• Remembers if the "Exclude Indexes" option was selected the next time the GPA is started.

• Defaults GPA options to "Round all share counts to whole integers" and "Compare vs S&P500"

• If a filter was on when running GPA and that filter excluded the S&P500 it would negate the "Compare vs S&P500" option. This option now works as expected.

• GPA Short percentages now correctly computed
  See Investopedia for algorithim

NEW - 20 DMA fields for Warehouse and Filter.  

Index Indicator > Moving Averages

• % Index Above 20DMA

Technicals > Moving Averages

• 20 DMA

• 20 DMA 1-Dy % Ch

• 20 DMA Slope

Technicals > % Close

• % Cl/20 DMA

NEW - Bollinger Band Fields for Warehouse and Filter.

Chart Indicators > Other

• Bollinger %B

• Bollinger Bandwidth

NEW - Save As HTML in the Warehouse. There is a new Save As HTML option under the File menu that saves the Warehouse view as a "friendly" HTML file (similar to the Designer GPA report).  Drag and drop the saved Warehouse HTML file onto an Excel spread sheet or into Access for further analysis or report. Color coding of various fields is preserved so you will have an exact replica of the Warehouse view.

NEW - Global Security Search.  ALT-Space in any of the windows brings up a search box by first jumping to the All Securities folder and removing any filter applied. You can right mouse click and use Back to return to the group you were in.

NEW - News/Private Message announcement system. This is a customer service communication improvement feature that allows Industry Monitors to send important messages directly to users of the software when they do a nightly update. The messages are sent via web pages that open in the user’s browser.

NEW - Sectors by Stock added to HGS Reference Groups. This new group shows all of the component stocks within the sector.  To get this information in the past you would have to make a User Group and collect all the securities from within the various industries that make up a sector. This new group compliments the previous Sectors by Industry group.  

CHANGED - Sectors HGS Reference Group.  The Sectors group has been renamed to Sectors by Industry to compliment the new Sectors by Stocks.

Usability Improvements:

• HGSI filters out the symbol INDEX if it appears in the Quotes Plus database.  The symbol INDEX is reserved for internal use of HGSI.  It is the symbol assigned to all indexes generated by HGSI

• The sort caret in the Warehouse and Designer now will color match your windows settings.

• The group property page in the Designer no longer has an apply or context help button.

• Improved the scrolling for the dialog boxes in Charting "Choose/Create View and Warehouse "Choose/Create Combo Ranking" when there are long lists.

• Larger group drop down in ranking window

• View drop down in the Warehouse is much wider

04/05/06 - V6 Build 16492 replaces build 15482

***GENERAL FEATURES***

IMPROVED - Multi-monitor support when dragging HGSI windows between monitors.

***DESIGNER FEATURES***

IMPROVED - Exchange Traded Funds (ETF)

Most names for ETF's in the Quotes Plus database have replaced by the HGSI software using a cross reference table containing more friendly names. If you use any of the Quotes Plus tools for ETF's, the names will not be exactly the same.  

IMPROVED - Additional backup files created for User groups.

We now keep 5 extra backups of the user groups when doing the nightly update. They are:

1. imgroup.bak  (the most recent groups)

2. imgroup1.bak (older)

3. imgroup2.bak (much older)

4. imgroup3.bak (even older still)

5. imgroup4.bak (the oldest)

In the event of lost user groups, select the backup most likely to contain the lost user groups.

NEW - Designer Group Import/Export

• To Export: Select A User Group to be Exported > File > Export User Groups > Save As

• To Import:  Select A User Group to be the location of the imported groups > File > Import User Groups > Open

NEW - Group Performance Analysis Report

Computes the profit/loss of a group of stocks over a user defined period of time and presents the results as a HTML Report.  It assumes you will purchase the entire group of stocks and will close all of them on the same date.  Generates a friendly HTML report that can be opened by Microsoft Excel and Access for further analysis.

Features:

• Variable date settings, past, present, future

• HTML report opens in Excel and Access

• Option for fixed number of shares or Equal Dollar

• Option for six purchase/sale price points (Best price, Worst price, Median price, Typical price, Open, Close)

• Option for Long or Short purchases

• Option to analyze one or several groups at a time.  When several groups are used the results are ranked showing the greatest % change at the top of the list

• Option to round fractional shares

• Option to Compare vs S&P500

Make sure you read the help section under Designer -> Group Performance Analyzer for the subtle details of this report.  Click for more details about the Group Performance Analysis tool.

NEW - Woodward and Brown Smart Groups

Questions about SmartGroup ScoreCard Investing should be addressed to Ron Brown at Ron@HighGrowthStock.com or Ian Woodward at Ian@HighGrowthStocks.com.

• Added - HGS 100
  This SmartGroup provides our best call on the top 100 stocks that have both strong Fundamental and Technical characteristics out of the 8000+ stocks in the HGSI database. For the full description, filter and combo ranking details download the description from the HGSI Learning Center http://www.highgrowthstock.com/MemberArea/LearningCenter/Default.htm

• Deleted - Movers and Shakers
  Replaced by the HGS 100

• A new category was added to separate the Woodward and Brown SmartGroups looking for price appreciation (Long) and the SmartGroups looking for price depreciation (Short).

• A new SmartGroup for shorting has been added, 4 and 9 Day Crossover. A movie explaining the new group is available in the HGS Learning Center at www.highgrowthstock.com.

• Descriptions have been added to the properties description for each of the W&B SmartGroups.  A right mouse click on any of the groups will display the menu for Group Properties.

• Documentation for each SmartGroup has been updated and available in PDF format for download from the HGS Learning Center at www.highgrowthstock.com.

NEW - Research additional stock information from the Internet

Select any security in the Warehouse or Designer, and do a right mouse click to bring up a Web Menu that will take you to various web sites for more information about the security.

***WAREHOUSE AND FILTER FEATURES***

CHANGED - % Pr Ch Bgn-Wk now uses Monday Open instead of Friday close.

NEW - Warehouse View Import/Export

• To Export: Tools > Options > Select Views to be exported > Export

• To Import: Tools > Options > Import

NEW - Warehouse Combo Import/Export

• To Export: Tools > Combination Rankings > Select Combo to be exported > Output

• To Import: Tools > Combination Rankings > Import

NEW -Make a WarehouseView from a previously made filter

Build a filter and then make a companion Warehouse View with that filter attached using the Make View From Filter

Tools > Options > Choose/Create View dialog > Make View From Filter Button > Select the Filter > Click OK > Click OK

(See Help for "Make View From Filter" under the Warehouse)

NEW - QEPSDate Filter Column

Format is like a date so "04/2005" is April 2005.  You can also do the full thing "04/15/2005" but all QEPS dates are the first of the month, so using days may get you into trouble.  You can also use numbers.  Numbers are relative from the last close of the stock.  So a number like -90 means 90 days ago.

(See Help for Data Fields > Fund-Earnings > Quaterly EPS)

NEW - Filter Preview

Preview your filter results to avoid logic errors when building new filters or making changes to existing filters.  The list of stocks are displayed in a special drop down preview window on the Edit Filter Dialog.  The list will automatically update itself with each filter new or change made to a filter.  The columns can be sorted just like the Warehouse, by clicking on the top of the column heading.

(See Help for Filters > Filter Preview)   

NEW - Warehouse Edit View Dialog

• Warehouse Views can attach a combo rank for that view.

• Warehouse Views now have check boxes to control if they set a view filter and a view combo

• Warehouse Views now have comments.

• New mini-bar button to toggle the view combo (just like the filter one).

• Combo rank in use is displayed in the Warehouse title bar.

NEW - Append To Group

It works like the Make Group From List, except it doesn't change the group to the new group (since it doesn't make a new group).  It will remember the group you used last and start it every time. "Append To Group" can be found on the File menu in the Warehouse and Ranking.  

TIP: One way to use this feature is to scan through a group of stocks using Warehouse Views that have a filter attached. Then use the Append To Group to merge the stocks from each view into a common group.  

NEW - Added the 20 DMA fields for all the various Warehouse and Filter categories:

• % Index Above 20DMA

• 20 DMA

• 20 DMA 1-Dy % Ch

• 20 DMA Slope

• % Cl/20 DMA

NEW -Added 3 month and 6 month price change fields for all the various fields we offer for percent change computations.

• % Pr Ch 3-Mo

• % Pr Ch 6-Mo

• Pr Ch 3-Mo

• Pr Ch 6-Mo

• Ind % Pr Ch 3-Mo

• Ind % Pr Ch 6-Mo

• 3 Mo Ch vs. S&P 500

• 6 Mo Ch vs. S&P 500

NEW -Added the companion data fields to the % Price change. The price change data fields let you create filters that will find specific dollar amount price changes over a variety of different time frames. They can also be used side by size the the same data field for % Price Change in a Warehouse View.

• Pr Ch 1-Dy

• Pr Ch 5-Dy

• Pr Ch 10-Dy

• Pr Ch 15-Dy

• Pr Ch 21-Dy

• Pr Ch 12-Mo

• Pr Ch Bgn-Wk

• Pr Ch Bgn-Yr

• Pr Ch Qtr

NEW -Added Industry Group % price change data fields.

Track  short term changes in the IM 200 Industry Group indexes using Filters and Combo Rankings.

• Ind % Pr Ch 1-Dy

• Ind % Pr Ch Bgn-Wk

• Ind % Pr Ch 5-Dy

• Ind % Pr Ch 21-Dy

• Ind % Pr Ch Qtr

• Ind % Pr Ch Bgn-Yr

• Ind % Pr Ch 12-Mo

• Ind % Pr Ch 10-Dy

• Ind % Pr Ch 15-Dy

What they do: When used in the Warehouse with a stock symbol and Industry name, these fields will give insight to the Industry Group strength over the period of time selected. So if the Computer Software industry group has a 21% "% Pr Ch Qtr", and you have the "Ind % Pr Ch Qtr" visible as a column for any security in the Computer Software industry group you will see the 21%.

It lets you filter/combo on the percent change of the industry group rather than the stock's own performance. The table below is sorted on Ind % Pr Ch 5-Dy

Click for more details on the Industry % Price Change

NEW -Added the Dave Landry Bow Tie indicator.

The Bow Tie has two states, Alert and Signaled.

The Alert occurs when the 10 SMA, 20 EMA, 30 EMA moving averages 3 days ago are lined up in proper downtrend order (10-SMA < 20-EMA < 30-EMA) and today they are in proper uptrend order  (10-SMA > 20-EMA > 30-EMA). This is what makes the chart of these moving averages appear like a bow tie, twisted in the center.

The Signaled state occurs if the low today is lower than yesterday's low.

The trading system based on this says once the Signaled state has been met, place a buy order one tick above today's high good for tomorrow. Continue to work the order above today's high good for the next trading day until filled or the stock trades back to its 20-EMA. Cancel the order if the stock pulls back to the 20-EMA.  If filled place a protective stop below the lowest bar of the setup or no more than 5% away from entry.

NOTE 1: There is a detailed explanation of the Dave Landry BowTie trading system in the HGSI Help system.  See Data Fields > Charting Indicators > Other > BowTie.  For the most complete description of the BowTie trading system see the book Dave Landry on Swing Trading.  

NOTE 2: To see the BowTie on an HGSI Chart, use 3 individual moving averages overlaid on the HGSI price indicator using the settings shown above.  

01/18/05 - V6 Build 15482 replaces build 15385

NEW - Woodward and Brown SmartGroups (tm)

Woodward and Brown is a new section of the HGS Designer SmartGroups(tm). Now you will be able to watch their groups as well as read about them in the FREE Weekly and subscription monthly HGS Newsletters.  To receive the FREE newsletter sign up for the HighGrowthStock Investor announcement email.  The free newsletter is written for HGSI users but has many topics applicable to StockPickerPro customers.  http://www.highgrowthstock.com/ProductInformation/mailinglist.htm

These are the new Investment Candidate SmartGroups from Woodward and Brown:

     Growth Prospects

     ERG 240 Balanced Stocks

     HGS Daily Review

     FAB 7

     MOSTLY GREEN Under 7 million

     Movers and Shakers

SmartGroup contents are updated daily during the daily updating of market information.  We use Woodward and Brown filters and Ron Brown's new Combo Ranking, to bring the strongest 25 stocks to the top of the list as investment candidates for your consideration.

NEW - Dollar Volume data field added to the Warehouse and Filter. The 50 day moving average for volume (50 DMA Vol) multiplied by Last Close. Volume alone can vary greatly without much significance as a result, some investors use Dollar Volume as an estimate of liquidity.  Using dollar volume provides a view of the amount of money traded and who were the big money movers.

IMPROVED - The filter dialog has a new button call Load List.  It loads a list of stock symbols as rules into the filter.  The load occurs starting with the first blank rule in the filter, so you can load multiple lists and they will append.

IMPROVED - The HGSI Charting annotation tool for Fibonacci lines now include the following additional percentages:  11.8%, 76.4%, 138.2%, 150%.  

The entire list is now: 0%, 11.8% 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8% 76.4%, 100%, 138.2%, 150%, 161.8%, 261.8%, 423.6%

12/05/04 - V6 Build 15385 replaces build 15144

NEW - SmartGroups (tm)

SmartGroups are daily lists of top stock selections generated by the Designer HGS Group Database software.   The lists are updated daily and organized into a variety of HGS Groups as shown below.  

New SmartGroups will be added from time to time.  In the future, the feature will be extended to let users create their own SmartGroups but for now the groups are created by Industry Monitors and distributed as part of the HGS Group Database.

A right mouse click on a SmartGroup in the Designer followed by selecting Properties will provide a brief description of the group.

Using SmartGroups saves you time by giving you a starting foundation that you can use "as is" or further analyze by applying other SPP tools to shape your final investment decisions. Below is an example showing the SmartGroup for the Movers and Shakers Candidates.  The group is being further analyzed in the SPP Warehouse using the Scorecard View sorted on ERG.  The possibilities for finding good candidates are endless with HGS Investor SmartGroups(tm).

NEW - Warehouse and Filter Data Field

Description:

Earnings - Price Ratio  also known as the "earnings yield", this ratio is the inverse of the "Price - Earnings Ratio.  

Earnings yield is often used to compare the attractiveness of stocks, bonds, and money market instruments.

One benefit is this avoids the problem of zero earnings in the denominator of the price-earning ratio.

Filter category:  Fund-Earnings > PE

NEW - Warning message

Below is a new message that you may see if you have multiple copies of SPP on your hard drive.  The message is to warn you that the SPP database you are about to use is not at the same level of data update as the Quotes Plus database.   Pressing the OK button doesn't cause any action to be taken.

IMPROVED - IM200 Indexes will now display the sector for the index when viewing a group of IM200 indexes in the Warehouse.  You can also run a filter Sector = "whatever" and run it against the IM200 Indexes.  Seeing the sector for an IM200 index let you group indexes by sector.

05/26/04 - V6 Build 15144 replaces build 14715

NEW - Metastock Utilities to Export and Update Metastock files (See Help file for Metastock Utilities)