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New Features

ScanVest 2 is powered by BodhiGold data and is designed for the intermediate to advanced user. You need to have a basic knowledge of (or the inclination to learn about) technical and fundamental analysis. The release of ScanVest 2 has seen the inclusion of a lot of new features to the software as well as a more stream-lined interface. Some of these features include:

 Accounts

The ability to set up multiple trading accounts much like you need to do with real brokers. You might use more that one broker, i.e. one for stocks and another for futures, each with different brokerage.   More Info 

 Multiple deposits and withdrawals

Much like your real trading account you need to be able to add more funds or withdraw some of the funds you have. With ScanVest 2 you can do this easily through your Account editor.

 Jobs

Jobs allow you to run multiple scans at once, create different jobs for different purposes. For example, you could have one job that includes all your scans that you run on a weekly basis and another job for scans that need to be run daily. Jobs are easily created and edited through the Jobs editor (Edit>Jobs). Jobs replace the convoluted system to achieve similar results in ScanVest 1.

Action tab

The Action page tells you what you need to do, after you have run your scan, to follow your scan. For example, based on your settings, the following actions might need to be taken -

1. "Buy 1200 XYZ tomorrow at open" or "Buy 1200 XYZ when the prices rises to $14.30" (conditional trade based on target price).
2. "Sell XYZ tomorrow at open" or "Sell BHP when the price falls to $13.20" (conditional trade based on target price).

Next time you scan, if the above conditions were met then ScanVest will assume the action has taken place and handle accordingly.
Note: in ScanVest 1 the above would have been immediately added into the Positions tab and flagged accordingly ~ this is no longer the case. The Positions page only reflects what should have happened not what might happen.
The Action page is to be used as a guide not a feit-a-comlie.

 Chart tab

By selecting Capital and Cash you can see the day by day effect of your scan to your cash on hand and value of capital (portfolio and cash).

 Default Stoploss

With every entry strategy created a default stoploss, 20% below the open price, is set (see Action page). This can be modified to suit individual traders needs. This stoploss is used as part of the risk management position sizing mechanism.

 Fixed Percent Risk

ScanVest 1 only had one position sizing method: Fixed Dollar Size. ScanVest 2 introduces a second method Fixed Percent Risk which is the most common, yet probably least understood, risk management method. By knowing your risk, default stoploss & overall capital, ScanVest 2 can calculate the number of shares to buy and advise you through the Action page.

When using Fixed Percent Risk you also have the following position size protections -

Maximum Risk:

This is the maximum size of any position as a percentage of overall capital. Position size will be reduced to be kept within this limitation.

Minimum Size:

This is the minimum size of any position as a percentage of overall capital. This ensures that the parcel size is not too small, for example you may wish to ignore parcel sizes of less that $2,000. If your initial capital size is $200,000, setting this to 1% will ensure parcels less than $2,000 will not be taken, further as your capital grows your minimum parcel size grows as well.

Volume Size:

This is the maximum size of any position as a percentage of average daily volume over the last 5 trading days. This is to protect you, in a backtest, from the system buying unrealistic numbers of shares. For example, if a particular share has an average daily volume of 1,000 and the system tries to buy 10,000 then the parcel size will be reduced to fit within this amount.

 Targets

In ScanVest 1 when all conditions were met the trade would be executed. In ScanVest 2 we have introduced Targets which allow you to delay the execution of the trade until a specific price is met. For example you may wish to delay a purchase until price direction is confirmed (e.g. close price greater than the highest high in last month).
Targets also form the basis for the instructions specified on the Action page.

 Position Editing

ScanVest 2 allows you to edit each and every position. For example, ScanVest might have told you to buy 3,000 XYZ and you actually only bought 2,700. You can edit the position that ScanVest automatically generated to reflect exactly what you did.

Note: by reducing one ScanVest assumes that you have spent the money elsewhere and may reflect this. To prevent this from happening you may need to withdraw the spare cash.

 Position Seeding

Allows you to seed your existing positions into a new scan and thereby affording the same protection covering new purchases to your old purchases.

 System Synopsis

The System Synopsis has gone through a major overhaul designed to deliver more accurate and useful statictics for you.
For starters ScanVest now uses unit pricing as the basis for all statictical calculations. This was required as a result of the new trading Accounts system allowing for multiple deposits and withdrawals.
Note: the number of units only change when a deposit or withdrawal is made.

Years: number of years has been modified to reflect the most recent of the first trade (first position in Positions page) or date of first deposit.
Compound profit: this is the average annualised compound profit which enables the direct comparison of other investments that report using a compound profit figure.

 Mix Periods

In ScanVest 1 every scan was based on a single period either Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly. With ScanVest 2 you can use conditions of different periods within the same scan. For example, you might have a Daily scan where all conditions would be based on daily data but want to use one condition based on weekly data.

 Auto naming

Scans and Strategy names are automatically generated for convience when testing.
Adding 3 scans would automatically create "Scan1", "Scan2" & "Scan3" which can be renamed later if required. Adding 3 buy long strategies would automatically create "BuyLong1", "BuyLong2" & "BuyLong3".
Copying "Scan1" 3 times would automatically create "Scan1-1", "Scan1-2" & "Scan1-3" giving you a hirarcial history of where a scan came from.

 Constants

Constants have been added to allow the changing of a single value in one place. For example, say you have a few scans and use 1,000,000 in many places as a volitility minimum. If you wanted to increase this to 1,200,000 you would need to go into every place you use this and edit it. Alternatively you could set this up as a constant and would only need to edit it in one place.

 Copy and paste conditions

Ctrl-C (copy) and Ctrl-V (paste) can now be used on conditions for faster editing of the conditions.

 Filter

The filter has been enhanced to make it easier to read and edit and also easier to expand in the future.

 Condition on/off

ScanVest 2 gives you the ability to switch individual conditions on or off. For example say a particular strategy had 10 conditions and you wanted to run a back test with one switched off. In ScanVest 1 you would have had to delete that condition in ScanVest 2 all you need to do is disable it.

 Brokerage

Brokerage has been enhanced to allow a fixed amount up to a dollar value then the greater of a second fixed amount or a percentage of the overall trade. For example $19.95 up to $10,000 then the greater of $29.95 or 0.11%.   More Info 

 Functions

Some new functions have been added and some old ones made redundant.