Insider TA Quick Start Tips

Ok, so you downloaded the INSIDER TA Demo Version, and are not sure where to start. Here are a few pointers that should set you in the right direction. If you have any questions, you can email us at support@stockblocks.com.

Help Tips

Insider TA (ITA) pops up Help Tip windows from time to time. Read what they have to say...they answer some common questions we have collected over the past year.

For additional help, there is also the Onscreen Help Guide. You can access the help guide by clicking the button illustrating a book, shown here to the left.

Demo Data Files

The ITA Demo Version works exclusively with demo files, which are all named in a special way: they all begin with an underscore character, followed by the ticker/symbol of the hosted stock data, and end with a ".DEM" extension. For instance, "_IBM.DEM", "_ORCL.DEM", and "_DEC.DEM".  The Insider TA demo software includes about 175 demo files of randomly selected stocks.

How to Load the Demo Data:

Loading a file for viewing is simple... click the button at the base of the screen labeled "Load Data File". The File Entry Panel will pop up. On the left side, you will see an entry titled "Demo stock files". Click this line. This will fill the right side of the window with all the demo files made available to you. Click the desired entry to load the data.

And where to go after data is loaded..

What do you do after data is loaded into Insider TA? This is a matter of personal choice, but here are some suggested steps...

1. Optimize the BA Yield
2. Configure the VA Rank

1. Optimize the BA Yield

Step #1.1:

The first thing you should always do is optimize the Box Analyzer (BA). Turn on the three number spinners in the lower left corner: the red Mov Ave, green BA Ave, and green BA Tag. You will observe when the BA AVE is turned on, a Box Analyzer (BA) graph is activated.

Step #1.2:

Now click the button above these three number spinners labeled "Optimize BA". Wait a few seconds while INSIDER TA optimizes their values to the best possible yield. When completed, observe the "BA % Yield" in the lower left corner of the BA Graph, and evaluate the accuracy of the green BUY and SELL tags in the box chart.

Click here for more information on effective use of BA yield analysis.

2. Configure the VA Rank

Step #2.1:

Another task you can perform is put a VA Line in the graph. Click the "VA LINE" button, and observe how the mouse icon changes to "". Now click somewhere towards the beginning of the box chart^* (the vertical position does not matter). This will generate a VA Line, which is plotted in a light blue color.

* Tip:  If the beginning of the graph is out of view, then right-click the Viewer Pan Left button to "snap" the viewport to the left-most end. The Viewer Pan Left button is in the Viewer Control Panel, shown here.

Step #2.2:

Observe how the "VA LINE" button has changed appearance. If the resulting VA Line interferes with other items in the graph (specifically, the yellow boxes), you can shift it up or down by spinning the thumbwheel that is now attached to this button.

To remove the VA Line, click the main button, but don't do that now if you plan on continuing with the following steps.

Tip:We like stocks whose VA Line is trending upwards. This corresponds to a Up Volume to Down Volume (UV/DV) ratio greater than 1.0.

Step #2.3:

Now use the stretch, compress, zoom and pan buttons in the Viewport Control Panel to manipulate the graph to your desired perspective.

Step #2.4:

Turn on the three number spinner switches labeled Rank Win, Rank:Buy%, and Rank:Sell% (put a checkmark in the boxes, as shown here). This activates the VA Rank Function graph ("VA" stands for "Volume Analyzer").

Step #2.5:

You can now adjust the number spinners from the previous step. Here, you will discover why they are called "number spinners". Position the mouse in the horizontal band beneath the display field of the Rank:Buy% button. Now press down on the left mouse button and slowly slide the mouse left or right. Observe how the digit display increases or decreases accordingly. While you are doing this, observe the horizontal position of a line labeled "Buy @ __%" move in the VA Rank Function graph. Your goal is to position the "Buy @ __%" line so that it pierces the tips of any major peaks that are observed in the purple VA Rank line.

Now repeat the above process for the Rank:Sell% button, but this time position the "Sell @ __%" line so that it pierces the valleys in the purple VA Rank Line.

Step #2.6:

The two lines you positioned in the above step are VA Rank threshold levels.

• Whenever the purple VA Rank function rises above the "Buy" line, you will observe a VA Rank BUY tag is generated. These are purple arrows in the box chart pointing up.
• Similarly, whenever the VA Rank function falls below the "Sell" line, a VA Rank SELL tag is generated (purple arrows pointing down).

Observe the resulting purple BUY and SELL tags in the box chart. If they are well placed, you have a good model for future activity. Like any technical analysis method, the system is not 100% perfect (note some of the purple tags in the above figure were not good predictors).  Historically, the VA Rank buy tags tend to be more accurate than the sell tags.  We consider the VA Rank function is best used as a confirmation tool to other analysis methods, such as the Box Analyzer.

Click here for more information on VA Rank analysis.

After completing the above steps 1 & 2...:

Keep all the switch settings from the above steps where they are! Insider TA remembers them, and automatically restores them the next time you load this particular stock.

The concept is simple: if the BA and VA RANK produced accurate buy and sell tags throughout your historical data, you will have a nice system of indicators that can aid in the forecasting of future price moves.

Scanning the Demo Data

From here, you can play with the File Scanner. As you will see, the File Scan Utility can BA Optimize your entire portfolio automatically. The following steps show you how to scan the demo files...

1. Click the File Scan button,which is illustrated as towards the lower end of Insider TA's main window.
   
   
2. The File Scan Panel appears, which has three tab pages: Scan Processing, Scan by Path List, and Scan Results. The Scan Results page is where all your scanned output will eventually get deposited.
   
   
3. Click the 2nd tab page titled "Scan By Path List".
   
   
4. In the Scan by Path List page, pulldown the menu titled "Add a path from the File Entry Panel". You should see a listing in this pulldown that specifies the path "C:\InsiderTADemo\DEMOS\*.DEM". Click this entry to add it to the list box. Observe an empty square to the left of this new entry. Click the mouse in this box to insert a yellow checkmark. This "activates" that path for scanning.
   
   Note: You could also add paths by clicking the "Add A Path" button, but this is not necessary in your case because all demo files are contained in a single directory.
   
   
5. Now return to the first tab page labeled "Scan Processing". This will pop up the Filter Panel, which is where you specify the desired scanning options.