Preferences window

Charting tab - allows you to modify charting options

• Default number of quotations in a chart - this sets the amount of bars initially displayed in the chart. (in other words it defines "normal" zoom range)
• Blank bars in right margin - defines how many blank bars are added in the right margin (past the last available quote). This blank margin allows you to project studies (trend lines for example) into the future
• Quote selection only by CTRL+LMB - this decides how vertical selection line is invoked. When this box is unchecked - single click on the chart causes display of the selection line, when this box is checked you have to hold down CTRL key while clicking to get the selection line
• Show vertical line between days (intraday)/years(EOD) - this decides if dotted vertical line is displayed on the chart to mark day (in intraday mode) or year (in EOD mode) boundaries
• Show value labels - this decides if value lables for indicator / price chart lines should be displayed. See basic charting guide for explanation what value label is.
  
• Candlesticks - this setting provides detailed control over the appearance of candlesticks. The distinct color may be used to draw part of the candlestick or entire candle may be drawn in the same color as its interior.
  
• Drawing
  • Return to select mode after drawing - when checked current tool is deactivated after drawing and select mode is entered, when unchecked currently selected drawing tool remains active after drawing (allows to plot one study after another, note that the same effect can be achieved even if this box is checked - it is enough to hold down SHIFT key while drawing and the tool will remain active)
  • Auto-select last drawn object - this useful feature automatically selects recently drawn object. This allows to hit ALT+ENTER to display properties box immediately without need to click on the study, and allows to Copy the study via CTRL+C also without additional click
  • Snap to price % threshold - defines how far price 'magnet' works, it will snap to price when the mouse is nearer than % threshold from H/L/C price
• Miscellaneous
  • Ask for parameters of newly inserted indicators - when checked AmiBroker will automatically display Parameters window each time you insert new indicator or overlay one indicator over another.
  • Ask for confirmation when deleting indicator sections - when checked AmiBroker will ask you to confirm deletion of any overlaid indicator section (applies to indicators created via drag-and-drop). Please note that deletion of indicator section modifies the underlying formula. More on this in Tutorial: Drag-and-drop
  • Max number of chart sheets - defines how many chart sheets (tabs) should be available. More information on chart sheets is in the Tutorial section here. Note that this setting will take effect after restart.

Color tab - allows to define colors for particular chart element.

The controls provide user definable color selection for charts, grid & background.

Palette editor - allows to modify custom colors that can be referenced later via colorCustom0..colorCustom15 constants

Editor tab - controls the appearance and features of AFL editor.

• Use syntax highlighting - when checked editor automatically colorizes your code (different colors/styles for functions, constants, numbers, etc)
• Auto-change case - when checked the function and reserved variable names are automatically capitalised so if you type bARSSince, editor will change it to BarsSince
• Auto-complete - when checked you will be able to use auto-completion feature (CTRL+SPACE will auto-complete the word)
• Parameter info - when checked the editor will display parameter information tooltip when you type a function name and opening brace
• Highlight error line - when checked the formula editor marks the line of code that contains an error with a yellow background (Windows 2000 and XP only)
• Copy As HTML - when checked the AFL editor on Edit->Copy / Cut command puts not only plain text and RTF formats to the clipboard but also HTML and DwHTML (Dreamweaver HTML) formats allowing pasting syntax-colorized code to Macromedia Dreamweaver and other HTML-aware applications. Note: rarely (on very few machines) turning this on may cause problems with pasting to Outlook.
• Move edited files from Drag-drop to Custom folder - when checked the editor will automatically move manually edited formulas created by drag-and-drop mechanism inside hidden 'Drag-drop' subfolder to 'Custom' subfolder.
• Font settings - allows you to define AFL editor font face and size
• Colors and styles - allows you to define what colors and styles will be used to mark certain language elements when syntax highlighting is ON.

Data tab - allows you to define default, global values for all databases.

IMPORTANT: some of these settings may get overwritten by PER-DATABASE settings in File->Database Settings window. See explanation in Tutorial: Understanding database concepts.

• Data source: defines default data souce (for databases that do not specify other source in File->Database Settings)
• Local data storage: default setting for external databases (this setting gets overwritten by File->Database Settings). If "Enabled" then external data are cached in local files. If "Disabled" then local files do not store external data.
• In-memory cache (max. symbols) - defines how many symbols data should be kept in RAM (for very fast access) - this works together with the next setting
• In-memory cache (max. MegaBytes) - defines how many MB of RAM should be used for temporary data cache (for very fast access)
• Number of bars to load - default setting for external databases (this setting gets overwritten by File->Database Settings). Defines how many bars should be loaded from external data souce and kept in AmiBroker. Examples: 10-years EOD: 2600, 60-days intraday 1-minute: 30000 (approx)
• Limit number of saved quotations - if this option is ON AmiBroker will save database with limited number of quotations. This prevents the database from growing too much
• Max. number of saved quotations - this is the limit itself. Preferable 300 or higher for EOD databases, 3000 or higher for intraday
• Default database path - this defines the path to the database that is loaded on startup. If such database does not exist it will be re-created at startup time.

Intraday tab - provides settings for intraday charting

• Custom time intervals - allow to define your own N-minute or N-hours intervals (available later from View->Intraday menu)
• Custom N-tick chart settings - allow to define your own N-tick charts (available later from View->Intraday menu)
• Align custom minute bars to regular market hours - when checked AmiBroker will trim pre-market custom interval bar so new bar will begin exactly when trading hours start. Trading hours can be set per-database in File->Database Settings->Intraday settings. Let's say that we have 45-minute bars. Without this setting we would bet bars starting at 9:00, 9:45, 10:30, 11:15 etc. When this is turned on and trading starts at 9:30 we have guarantee that bars will be aligned to 9:30: 8:45, 9:30, 10:15, 11:00
• Time compressed bars shows:
  • time of FIRST tick inside bar - when selected the bar gets the time stamp of the very first trade inside given time slot (bar)
  • time of the LAST tick inside bar - when selected the bar gets the time stamp of the very last trade inside given time slot (bar)
  • START time of the interval - when selected the bar is time-stamped with start time of the time slot (bar). Lets say that 30 minute bar covers 9:00:00..9:29:59. When this is selected AmiBroker will display time of this bar as 9:00
  • END time of the interval - when selected the bar is time-stamped with start time of the time slot (bar). Lets say that 30 minute bar covers 9:00:00..9:29:59. When this is selected AmiBroker will display time of this bar as 9:29:59
• Realtime chart refresh interval - defines interval between automatic chart refreshes in real-time mode. By default charts are refreshed every 3 seconds but in very volatile market you may prefer to set it to 1, so charts are refreshed every second in real-time mode.
  
  New in 4.90: To enable 'every tick' chart refresh in Professional Edition, go to Tools->Preferences, Intraday tab and enter ZERO (0) into "Intraday chart refresh interval" field. (note Standard Edition won't allow to do that).

  Once you enter zero, AmiBroker will refresh all charts with every new trade arriving provided that the formulasyou use execute fast enough. If not, it will dynamically adjust refresh rate to maintain maximum possible refresh rate without consuming more than 50% of CPU (on average). So for example if your charts take 0.2 sec to execute AmiBrokerwill refresh them on average 2.5 times per second.

  Note: built-in Windows Performance chart shows cumulated CPU consumption for all processes, to display PER-PROCESS CPU load use SysInternals free software http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

• Price data tooltips
  if checked small tooltips will appear when you hover over the chart displaying selected bar date, prices / indicator values
• Show interpretation in tooltip
  if checked data tooltips will include also interpretation text that is normally displayed in the Interpretation window.
• Data tip auto-hide timeout
  defines how many seconds data tooltip should remain on the screen if you don't move your mouse.
• Add full name to ticker in the ticker box
  when checked the ticker box displays not only symbol but also full name of the issue
• Add full name to ticker in the tree
  when checked the workspace tree displays not only symbol but also full name of the issue
• Full-name tooltips in symbol tree
  when checked then full name of symbol is displayed in the tooltip that appears when you move your mouse over symbol in the symbol tree.
• Data-tip auto-hide timeout
  defines time in seconds how long data tooltip (that shows values of indicators) will be displayed when mouse cursor does not move
• Thousand separator
  defines thousand separator for number displayed on charts and all list-views.
• Decimal places in RT quote window
  defines how many decimal places should be displayed in Real Time quote window.
• Axis font
  defines font face and size to be used for chart axis and text tool
• No minimum size for resizing dialogs
  when checked it allows to size dialogs below the minimum size (so some controls become invisible)
• Display plugin activity
  when checked AmiBroker displays information about accessing data plugin in the status bar
• Case sensitive ticker symbols
  when checked ticker symbols are case sensitive. In other words INTC and Intc and iNTc are considered DIFFERENT. This is required for some Canadian symbols for example. Please use with caution. If your exchange do not use case-sensitive tickers please make sure it is UNCHECKED.
• Auto-arrange charts
  if this option is on chart windows are scaled and arranged to fit the screen after every opening/closing chart window.
• Auto-tile multiple chart windows
  when checked multiple chart windows are always tiled vertically on every resize of the main application window.
• Ask to save changed data
  when checked AmiBroker asks if you want to save modified data on exit. When unchecked AmiBroker saves modified data without asking.
• Save on exit: Preferences, Templates, Layouts
  controls which settings should be saved automatically on exit

Alerts tab - It allows to define e-mail account settings, test sound output and define which parts of AmiBroker can generate alerts via AlertIF function.

E-mail settings page now allows to choose among most popular authorization schemes like: AUTH LOGIN (most popular), POP3-before-SMPT (popular), CRAM-MD5, LOGIN PLAIN. Version 5.30 allows also to use SSL (secure connection) used by GMail for example. For more information about setting up with GMail see Tutorial: Formula based alerts.

Enable alerts from checkboxes allow you to selectively enable/disable alerts generated by Automatic analysis, Commentary/Interpretation and custom indicators.

Keyboard tab

- keyboard tab has been moved to Tools->Customize dialog

AFL tab

• Multi-threaded charts - enables multi-threaded execution of AFL in charts/indicators. Multi-threading allows to maximize speed and utilisation of modern multi-core / multi-CPU computers. For example on 8-core Intel i7 CPU your charts will run upto 8 times faster than in version 5.30. In version 5.40 the AFL engine has been completely rewritten from ground up to allow multiple instances of the engine running simultaneously. This enables not only multithreading but also enhances responsiveness of entire application, as even badly-written user formula used in a chart is not able to lock or slow the rest of the program. Multi-threading is ON by default. It can be turned off by unchecking this box but it is strongly discouraged. Multi-threading should be turned ON if you want AmiBroker to operate at full speed.
• Catch system exceptions in Indicators and commentaries - when checked all exceptions (run-time errors) are catched by the indicator drawing code, so no Bug Recovery window appears. Instead exception information is displayed inside chart pane. It is recommended to have this turned ON especially when you use real-time data
• Stop parsing on first error - when checked parser stops further code analysis on first encountered error so only one (first) error is displayed in the formula editor error list. If it is unchecked then parser will list all errors found. It is recommended to turn it off.
• Enable loop termination by Shift-BREAK - when checked AmiBroker will allow to break any for(), while() and do-while() loop by pressing and holding down SHIFT and BREAK(PAUSE) keys on your keyboard.
• Check Shift+BREAK key every - defines how often keyboard state should be checked when loop is executed. Note that specifying small values will make loop execution slower.
• Endless loop detection threshold - defines the number of loop iterations after which AmiBroker will terminate the loop with "Possible Endless loop detected" error message. This is useful in situations when the code has infinite loop (due to mistake of the formula author) because it won't allow AmiBroker to hang due to infinite looping
• Standard include path - the default path to use when #include statement uses < > braces instead of ""
• Formula tree root path - the root path of Formula file/directory tree displayed in the Charts tab of Workspace window
• Show hidden folders - determines if formula tree should show subfolders with "hidden" attribute (drag-drop folder is created as "hidden" by the setup program)

Debugger tab

The Debugger settings are as follows:

• Limit BarCount to - defines maximum number of bars in arrays (BarCount) used during debugging (by default it is 200 bars)
• Bar interval - decides if debugger uses Base time interval or current Chart interval. The default is "Use base time interval" because there can be no chart open at all!
• Auto-scroll to first changed item - when this is ON, the "Arrays" list in the Watch window is scrolled automatically to first array item that has changed (so you don't need to locate elementsm that changed manually)
• Keep debugging state - when this is ON, AFL editor saves the debug state (breakpoints and watches) and bookmarks in the .dbg file along with the formula when closing the editor and restores the state when formula is reopened. Note that .dbg file is automatically deleted by AmiBroker when there are no breakpoints, no bookmarks and no watches.

Currencies tab

This page allows to define base currency and exchange rates (fixed or dynamic) for different currencies. This allows to get correct backtest results when testing securities denominated in different currency than your base portfolio currency. For more details please check Tutorial: Pyramiding and multiple-currency support in the backtester.

How does AB know whether I want the fixed or dynamic quote?

There are following requirements to use currency adjustements:
a) Symbol->Information, "Currency" field shows currency different than BASE currency
b) Appropriate currency (defined in Symbol) has matching entry in Preferences->Currencies page
c) the dynamic rate "FX SYMBOL" defined in the preferences EXISTS in your database and HAS QUOTES for each day under analysis range.

What is "INVERSE" check box for in the preferences?

Let's for example take EURUSD.

When "USD" is your BASE currency then EUR exchange rate would be "straight" EURUSD fx (i.e. 1.3).
But when "EUR" is your BASE currency then USD exchange rate would be INVERSE of EURUSD (i.e. 1/1.3).
Opposite would be true with FX rates like USDJPY (which are already "inverse").