MA overlay doesn't match MA in TA graph

[Ilikemybu]

Mark,
I tried matching the MA overlays (7 and 29 weeks) in the TA graph. When viewing the same investment, the curves are far different. I have set the upper gragh indicator to MA and the periods to 50 and 200 (since the TA graph uses days and the MA overlay is in weeks.
Am I missing something? Is it that one is a simple average and one is a moving average? Additionally the MA average curves in the TA graph only shows the average curves for the the last 30 days for the 200, and most but not all of the graph for the 50 day.

[Ilikemybu]

TA Graph.JPG (95.54 KiB) Viewed 6670 times

ma Graph.JPG (97.96 KiB) Viewed 6670 times

[Mark]

Hi Ilikemybu,

A "week" in the moving average graphs is 5 days, so to compare a 1 week MA in the "Moving Average" graph to the Technical Analysis "Simple Moving Average", use a period of 5 days (not 7). So, a 7 and 29 week MA would compare to 35 and 145 period SMA in the TA graph (7 * 5 = 35 and 29 * 5 = 145).

There is also a slight difference between the MA and TA-SMA plots in that the MA will interpolate a price for each weekday, even when you don't have one recorded for that particular weekday. The TA-SMA will only use weekdays with a recorded price, and skips over any day without a price, or a weekend. So, you will get some differences between the 2 when you have weekdays without recorded prices. We'll have to think about making them both work the same way when it comes to missing weekday prices, but as of now, they do work slightly differently in this case.

There is another difference between these 2 graphs in terms of how they handle prices before your first recorded price. The MA graph will interpolate back, using the first recorded price. The TA-SMA will not plot a SMA unless you have the full "Period" data points recorded. Again, we will look at making these consistent...

[Ilikemybu]

Mark,
Thanks, changing the numbers really lined things up better. Couldn't you just retrieve historical prices to fill in the data so the calc would line up?
dave

[Mark]

Hi Dave,

When graphing, Fund Manager doesn't automatically retrieve data to fill in missing data in a graph. You can however, retrieve historical prices to make sure you have a full data set. There will still be a difference due to holidays on weekdays (eg: Thanksgiving).

[4Profits]

Mark,
I would vote for you to look into these graphs also for a future update to help clarify things. I would also like to have a tool to use on these and other graphs that would act like a cursor so if activate a line cursor it would display a vertical line that crosses into both charts to help line up things and possibly displays the value of each line it crosses in the color of the line where the line crosses the trends.
Thanks, Jim

[4Profits]

Mark,
I am confused.
Example 1
Using a share price and simple moving average overlay I want 50 and 200 days. Looking at the help file:
• Graph | Moving Average | Price is selected
• Will show the share price of an investment over time (NAV – Net Asset Value)
• Moving averages 0 – 6 and I select 2 and am supposed to enter the weeks to display. I have always used 50 / 7 =~ 7 and 200 / 7 =~29. But from your previous answer I guess this should be 50 / 5 = 10 and 200 / 5 = 40. But I cannot find week definition in the help file. I can sort of understand why you would divide by 5 but it seems it would be simpler to just use days and look at the history for the number of days specified.

Now looking at the Technical Analysis graph I want the top graph to show share price and a 50 and 200 day overlay like my first example.

On the upper Graph from the help file I have:
• Share Price Display set to Close = NAV lines Upper TA 1 (What is upper TA 1)
• Indicator set to Simple MA (2 Lines) = NAV overlaid 2/MA 2/Upper TA 3. ( can you explain what overlaid 2/MA 2/Upper TA 3 means)
• No explanation for Period and Period 2 but from your previous explanation I assume that Period from in my example 1 it should be 50 days / 5 = 10 and Period 2 is my 200 days / 5 = 40.

On the bottom graph I want to show a MACD graph with the same data. So, from the help file:
• MACD Signal = NAV overlaid investment 7/Lower TA 1
• Long Period – Not Listed
• Short Period – Not Listed
• Signal Period – Not Listed

So, what dues NAV overlaid investment 7/Lower TA 1 mean and what do I set my periods at?
• Long period ? __________
• Short period ? ___________
• Signal period ? __________

Any help or comments would be appreciated?
Jim

[4MoreProfits]

Mark,
Forget my comment about the vertical line I forgot I could change the cursor to crosshair which does what I want.
Jim

[Ilikemybu]

Mark,

I agree with 4MoreProfits, by your response it seems that I should use 10 and 40 for the typical 50 and 200 day MA, I also had always thought it was a 7 day week, so 7 and 29.

Also, despite retrieving historical quotes, I still get missing graph curves as shown in the top chart for Costco in my earlier message.

[Mark]

Hi Jim,

I think I see the confusion... The online help for the TA graph section you're talking about is describing the labels in the Graph Colors Dialog Box. Those aren't meant to be explanations of each item, just the labels to use for changing the colors of that item.

Yes, a "week" in the moving averages is 5 days, as there are only 5 days in a week where the markets are open, so there are only 5 pricing data points in a week. So, yes, if you want a 50 day moving average, this is 10 weeks. A 200 day moving average is 40 weeks. We'll add some clarification to the online help here.

[Mark]

Hi Ilikemybu,

Also, despite retrieving historical quotes, I still get missing graph curves as shown in the top chart for Costco in my earlier message.

Look at your recorded data in the Data Register. Use the "Prices" data type. Do you have pricing data recorded over the time period of the moving average being plotted? If so, and you can't see the line, please email me an example *.dat investment file, along with the date range and moving average settings you're using. A screenshot would be good too.

[Ilikemybu]

Sent email

[Mark]

Thanks, I got your email. In order for a SMA line to start plotting, you need X periods of data prior to the first plotted point, where X is the value you've entered for the number of periods to use for the simple moving average. So, your SMA 145 line isn't starting to plot until 8/8/22 because your first recorded price point is 1/10/22. For a simpler example, assume you plotted a SMA 5. Since your price data points (from the beginning) are:

1/10
1/11
1/12
1/13
1/14

The first plotted point would be 1/14. It can't plot on 1/13 because there aren't 5 data points on/before 1/13 to average yet.

[4MoreProfits]

Mark,
I know it can be done but where do you change the colors of the 6 MA pens? Also can you change the MA pen colors in the Technical Analysis Top Window?

[Mark]

Hello 4MoreProfits,

All of these colors are adjustable from "Options / Colors..." while in a Graph window. For the 6 MA colors, see the "NAV + DIST" or the "NAV" line names that have "MA 1-6" in their names. The "NAV + DIST" choices affect the "Price + Distributions" graph types, and the "NAV" choices affect the "Share Price" graph types (for example: Graphs / Moving Average / Share Price".

For the colors when plotting a Technical Analysis graph, see the labels in the documentation here:

https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/hel ... hanal.html

So, for example, if in a TA graph you want to change the color of the first SMA line, select:

NAV overlaid/MA 1/Upper TA 2

in the "Options / Colors..." dialog.