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This week’s Trading Tutors article is aimed at those using HUBB Financial software products, whether that be ProfitSource, OptionGear, ValueGain, the flagship Integrated Investor or the free HUBB Investor (www.hubbinvestor.com ).
Finding the stock, futures contract or currency pair you are looking for can sometimes present a challenge when using a new software program or trading platform. One thing I have noticed recently is that often new Users aren’t aware of a feature that makes this job rather easy, especially when looking for FX pairs and futures contracts. It’s called the Navigation Bar (or Nav Bar) for short and it can be added to any chart or quote list.
First you need to ensure the Nav Bar is set-up correctly. To do this, first close any open chart pages or quote lists. Then go to File > Settings > Nav Bar.
Figure 1
Now make sure the boxes for the instruments you want are checked as shown in figure 2.
Figure 2
Next open any price chart – say Apple (AAPL) – via Charts > New Price Chart. The button to add/remove the Nav Bar is highlighted in Figure 3.
Figure 3
The Nav Bar will open automatically to Apple’s (AAPL) location in the sector tree. Here you can now browse the various sectors and sub-sector lists within the stocks section. To open a chart simply double click on a stock/instrument.
Figure 4
click to enlarge
The Nav Bar is especially useful for browsing Forex (short for foreign exchange and also known as FX) and futures. FX pairs are grouped by ‘base’ (first) currency and most offer quotes for conversions in both directions. ie. AUD/USD and USD/AUD.
Futures contracts are grouped by category as shown in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5
For those unfamiliar with the various types of charts available for futures contracts, you can learn more about them in Aaron Lynch’s article ‘Spot 1, Spot V or Just Spot the Dog’. For now however, the easiest way is simply to use the charts ending with ‘SPOTV’ that do not have ‘day’ or ‘night’ brackets. Examples of symbols for major futures contracts are:
Gold = GC-SPOTV
Silver = SI-SPOTV
Oil = CL-SPOTV
S&P 500 = SP-SPOTV
DOW JONES = DJ-SPOTV
SPI 200 = AAI-SPOTV
Coffee = KC-SPOTV
Corn = NC-SPOTV
US Dollar = DX-SPOTV
Aussie Dollar = AD-SPOTV
Yen = JY-SPOTV
Euro = EC-SPOTV
There are obviously many more major futures contracts from each category than are listed above. The main thing to note is that most contracts have a two character “root symbol” which is the section before ‘-SPOTV’. This makes them easier to recall and guess than is often thought on first inspection.
However, I digress somewhat. So coming back to the Nav Bar and in conclusion, next time you aren’t sure of the symbol for a stock, future or currency, this is a quick and easy way to track it down.
Happy trading
Jordan Craw
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