Creating new trading signals

Stockworm provides many pre-defined technical signals as a starting point for stock analysis. These pre-defined signals also provide a great starting point for the creation of your own trading signals (just modify them as desired and then click "save as" and assign a new name). If you would like to start with a blank slate, click the 'create new signal' quick link -- this will start you off without any indicators and you can create formulas from this point.

Choosing technical indicator lines

As an introduction to custom trading signal creation, let's look at the example signal definition shown above. Note that this signal is based on moving averages. The indicator lines are defined and assigned names in the 'indicator lines' section. In this case, the first line is the 'fast ema' line from the moving averages indicator and the second line is the 'slow ema' line from the same indicator. You can edit the line name as you wish as long as the name is composed of alphanumeric characters and as long as the name starts with a letter (not a number). Make sure that when you change a line name, the new name is reflected in the formulas.

Long and/or Short formula creation

Once you have specified all of the lines that your formula(s) will use, you can define the long, short, or long and short formulas (depending on the 'specify formula for' setting). The formulas can be as complex as you like, using multiple lines, functions, and operators to achieve the desired signal. The example shown above is rather simple, with a buy signal being issued when the fast ema is greater than the slow ema and a sell signal being issued when the opposite is true. Using the trading signal syntax, you can create virtually any formula which suits your investing style.

Saving custom trading signals

Once you have a trading signal that you would like to use in charts, screeners, or the autoinvestor, you should save the trading signal using the links provided at the top of the signal form ('save', 'save as', etc.). After you have saved a trading signal, it will appear in the 'my signals' tab on the signal list page.

Convenience Features

A few convenience features appear at the bottom of the signal definition page:

The first table, entitled 'save signal and ...', allows you first save the current signal and then to chart stocks or screen for stocks with your saved signal. To chart stocks, simply type in a list of symbols of interest and then hit 'submit'. To perform a screen using the current signal, select either the default signal screener or one of your previously saved screeners which contain trading signals and then hit 'submit'.

The second table, entitled 'quick syntax reference' provides a quick list of all of the available operators and functions, along with help icons for each item. The full syntax is described in the next manual page.