Where did the sectors I added today go? And I'm missing about 100 stocks from my consolidated watch list. I added them to 3 groups that I created, which are also gone.
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AB v 6.93 64 bit Professional Version data source Norgate, Data Updater v 4.2.2.1.
I am using AB as a data base manager for an extensive watch list of stocks that come from outside AB, primarily from screening using Zacks Research Wizard. The composite list is in both .csv and .txt formats in a folder in Dropbox.
As stated in the previous paragraph, I am using AB to manage this list in several ways, among them being categorizing the list by sector, industry group, and group. I have imported the list into AB as a .txt list of symbols in alphabetical order.
Yesterday I began working on this project. The first thing I did was create sectors to correspond with Zacks Research - 16 sectors in all. I followed the AB tutorial to do this, by which, in the AB symbols>categories. sectors tab area, I created my own list of sectors. Attached is a screen shot of the work as completed.
Next I went to my Excel (not AB) ranking of the Zacks Industry Groups that I run each week and started with the #1 ranked Zacks Industry Group for the current week. Still within Zacks, I found all the stocks in my master Watch List that are in that group.
The next thing I did was create that industry group in AB, again according to the tutorial: symbols>categories, industries tab. There are 289 Zacks industry groups, but it seemed like the most efficient way to organize my data in AB was to start with the top industry group, and when finished go to the second highest and so on.
The top rated industry group this week is Communication Infrastructure so I created that industry group in AB. I also assigned it to the sector it belongs to in symbols>category, industries tab. Next, outside AB and using Zacks Research Wizard, I found the 2 symbols in my .txt list that belong to that industry group. So within AB I selected the first of the 2 symbols, and opened the window>information per the tutorial. There I assigned the stock to the industry group I had just created.
While I had window>information open, I began to consider how I could use the 'group' information. I decided to create 3 groups, 'Master Watch List', 'Pay Attention', and 'Buy'. This will allow me to efficiently review my best trading opportunities once I am finished organizing my data. I used window>information to assign the first symbol to a group after reviewing its chart.
Now that I had everything set up the way I wanted it, I started working on my .txt master list, painstakingly reviewing the symbols in the first three industry groups from my Zacks Excel spreadsheet and categorizing them as referred to above. After several hours, I closed AB to have dinner with my wife.
The book by Howard Bandy, 'Introduction to Amibroker' states that the paid version of the program, which I have, automatically saves chart changes, so I assumed that my work would be saved automatically. However, when I came back after dinner and opened the program, none of the sectors, groups or industry groups I had created were there, and the .txt file was missing the symbols I had worked on.
So my question is: can I retrieve my work, and if not, how do I prevent this from happening again?
Correction, the symbols did not disappear, just the sector, industry group and group
I removed the broker.workspace text file from the Amibroker Data folder. If I understand the documentation correctly Amibroker will not overwrite my changes to broker.sectors and broker.industries text files. Is this right?
Now I see what is happening. Every time Norgate Data does an update it erases my entries and replaces them. How do I put a stop to this?
Hi Frantz,
This is expected - running maintenance will update all aspects of the symbol metadata including markets, groups, sectors/industries, fundamental data etc. as noted here:
https://norgatedata.com/amibroker-usage.php#maintenance
An alternative for you is to create a series of watchlists (which are simple text files with a .tls file extention instead of .txt) - the Norgate Data maintenance won't affect your watchlists (well, apart from symbol deletes).
Richard, I don’t understand. Are you suggesting a separate watch list for sectors, industry groups and groups. Please explain with more detail. Thanks.
In short if you are using Norgate Data, Norgate maintains ALL data including all categories (including sectors and industries) for you and Norgate overwrites any of changes you do.
If you don't want that to be happening, you need to convince Norgate to provide option to turn off for example sector/industry maintenance.
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Hi Frantz,
Yes - use watchlsits for the the alternative Zacks classification scheme you want to use.
Norgate controls all aspects of symbol metadata (markets, groups, sectors/industries, fundamental data) and any changes you make to those items will be overwritten. Since securities can only be a member of a single sector/industry, addiing other classifications to AmiBroker's sector/industry mechanism is not a solution.
For any alternative classification scheme you wish to use, use your own watchlists.
Wishlish for classifications: Preferably, I'd like a extensible hierarchical classification mechanism that permits a user to use any scheme they prefer (suggested many years ago) - not only GICS, or ICB, but NAICS, SIC, NACE, RBICS or other schemes relating to ETFs etc.
Cheers,
Richard.
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A simple switch to turn OFF overwriting categories would be simpler to implement in Norgate.
I pointed out many years ago, that not everyone would be happy with overwriting groups/markets/sectors/industries and some watchlists by Norgate.
Some users might prefer having their own category system.
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Thank you for the feedback, answers, and input guys! I understand how this works now. Yes, ‘a simple switch to turn off the overwrite by Norgate’ would be ideal. I’m actually surprised that it isn’t already something they make available to their users.
In the meantime, if I make Yahoo my data source will my database work be overwritten?
You can create a new database, and select "local database" as the Data source.
Then you can use Yahoo from AmiQuote, or import data from other sources too.
Alternatively, if it is permissible by your data vendor, you can export DATA from your plugin-driven database and import that into your "local DB" as well.
If you need links on how to, kindly post here
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Thanks NSM and Happy New Year
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Your work will not be overwritten, if you don't specifically ask to have it overwritten by using Tools->Update symbol lists and categories. This function is intended to overwrite categories.
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Thank you Tomasz. Happy New Year!
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