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The Basics of Ensign |
August 10 , 2005
16:31 @Ensign_KJ: Hi, this is KJ. I will be giving the class today for new users
16:33 @Ensign_KJ: To begin with, you will need to know what the main menu is. This is the selections File Setup View Window Help which you see on the toolbar above. I will assume there are some people here who have not gotten setup yet, so lets do that quickly
16:33 @Ensign_KJ: Go to menu Setup | Connection
16:33 @Ensign_KJ: On this form, select the data feed you are using, or Ensign Internet if you are using the end of day data
16:35 @Ensign_KJ: If you need to see a post I have made previously, double click on the link that is showing in the text of the chat room. This will open that post. You can also use the white left and right arrows located at the top of the chat room to scroll back and forth between posts
16:36 @Ensign_KJ: This is what the Setup Connection form looks like for IB users
16:37 @Ensign_KJ: In the Security section, your status should be trial or subscriber
www.ensignsoftware.com/help/setupconnection.htm
16:38 @Ensign_KJ: Notice that on most forms there is a Help button located on the top right, under the Ok button. Clicking on Help will give you more information about the form you are looking at and how to use it. At the top of the Setup form are different tabs
16:41 @Ensign_KJ: Go to Setup | Computer next
16:42 @Ensign_KJ: Select the time zone you want your charts stamped with, and if you want this to match your computer clock. The daily update times should be kept as they are, same with the max # of chart bars. If you increase the chart bars, your computer may bog down during the market. This is the default setting for all new charts.
16:44 @Ensign_KJ: Each chart can be changed individually, so if there are a few charts which you want the max chart bars to be higher, you would change that in the chart properties for that specific chart.
16:44 @Ensign_KJ: Default settings that are changed will only apply to new charts. (Ensign must be closed to make sure default settings are saved.)
16:45 @Ensign_KJ: If you want a chart you have previously opened to take on the default settings, you will need to right click on the chart and select Reset to Defaults
16:45 alpri1: What about Color Dialog & Computer Clock
16:45 @Ensign_KJ: Computer Clock is if you want the time to match what it says on your computer (Most run this unchecked.) - Make sure that you set the Daylight Savings dates to match your part of the world
16:46 @Ensign_HA: There are 2 types of color dialogs - you can select which style of dialog you prefer by use the Standard style or the new Hexagon style. To see the difference in them, pick one and then go to a property form and dbl click the color square to change colors. The dialog form will show, Standard is rectangular and Hexagon uses more of a round circle of color. I like the Hexagon style, but others may prefer the older Standard style. Anywhere you see a color square on a property window, the color can be changed by dbl clicking on it to bring up the color dialog....chart background, bars, study lines etc
16:47 @Ensign_KJ: If you want your charts to print in color, you will need to select that here on this Setup | Computer form
16:49 @Ensign_KJ: Next, lets look at Setup
16:49 @Ensign_KJ: Setup | Toolbars
16:49 @Ensign_KJ: This allows you to hide or show INDIVIDUAL buttons on your toolbars...a way of customizing your program and clearing off what you do not use. If you are new, you should leave everything selected for now. I recommend adding Toolbar Labels (upper left corner). This adds text to the toolbars. This does take up space, but you can remove them once you are familiar with them
16:51 @Ensign_KJ: The other thing you can do to navigate your way around the toolbars is this:
16:51 @Ensign_KJ: Go to menu View and select Show Hints - This will give you text hint windows as you mouse over a button
16:52 @Ensign_KJ: Also on the Setup | Toolbar form, you will see a section, middle bottom, for Auto Repeat buttons. These are the buttons on your drawing toolbar with diagonal lines number 1, 2, 3. If you leave all the buttons as Draw Lines, each button will do something slightly different. Auto Repeat Draw Line 1 will be a regular line - #2 will extend forward, #3 extend forward and back. (These can be changed by changing the matching tab number.) Or you can select to have the buttons do different draw tools, as I have shown here on my form.
16:55 @Ensign_KJ: So Setup Toolbars will hide individual buttons, there is a way to hide the whole toolbar. This is found by going to menu View
16:56 @Ensign_KJ: Each of the toolbars is listed here, and unselecting them will hide the toolbar. The workspace toolbar is not visible unless you have created workspaces. Each workspace you create will make a tab on the toolbar with the name of that workspace. This allows you to move quickly between workspaces.
16:57 @Ensign_KJ: Notice that under menu View, there is a selection for Dock All Toolbars. You can move toolbars around by grabbing the vertical gray bar located on the left edge of each toolbar. Pull the toolbar up or down a level, right or left, or pull it off completely to have a floating toolbar. You can drag the toolbars to the side and the will snap into vertical position. This makes your screen space very customizable
16:59 @Ensign_KJ: To reposition floating toolbars quickly, select Dock All Toolbars
17:00 @Ensign_KJ: Also on under menu View, I recommend selecting Show Clock. This will appear in the top left corner of the Ensign program border. This is important because when you refresh a tick-type chart, the clock will change to a tick-counter. Often people open a brand new tick chart, which is blank, they do a refresh and assume after 1 sec that it is not working. If you look where the clock is, you will see the # of ticks as they stream in
17:02 @Ensign_KJ: Lastly, under menu View, it says Full Screen CTRL+F
17:02 @Ensign_KJ: This is a hot key for resizing the active window. Since Ensign is able to open multiple windows at once, you need to be aware that only one of those windows is active at a time, or has "the focus". You can visually tell which window is active or in focus by paying attention to the borders around that window. There are two shades of blue.. the light blue means it is inactive, and the dark blue is the active window in focus. To give a window focus, simply click on it once. You may see other colors depending on your windows settings.
17:05 @Ensign_KJ: You can change these window settings by going to menu Window and setting the Window color. The commands you put into the computer will apply to the window in focus. The window that is in "focus" is the window that will post when you use CTRL-J
17:07 @Ensign_KJ: Since we are discussing windows, lets look at menu Window
17:07 @Ensign_KJ: The first three options are for organizing your screen... you can use these in setting up a workspace. There are options for closing all windows, or just the active one. Use this drop down menu under Window to manage screen size... minimize, normalize, max. When a window is normal, the min/max buttons will appear on the top (blue) border of the window. When the window is maxed, those max/min buttons move to the top toolbar. With all windows closed, this is where to change the workspace background color.
17:10 @Ensign_KJ: This is an example in normal window size. The following post will show where the max/min buttons are once you have maxed the window
17:11 @Ensign_KJ: When the screen is in max position, you can actually make it bigger by pressing CTRL+F. See what happens when I do this
17:12 @Ensign_KJ: The toolbars are removes. Use CTRL-F to get back down, and then the max/min buttons from there.
17:12 @Ensign_KJ: Ok -- lets start talking about charts
17:12 @Ensign_KJ: Go to Setup | Charts
17:13 @Ensign_KJ: The Setup Charts form is the default setting. This applies to NEW charts you open. Old charts will retain their properties unless given the command to reset to the default settings
17:15 @Ensign_KJ: On the left, you can define different properties. The look of the chart can be customized in the Chart Colors section - Right now, mine is using a White Theme
17:17 @Ensign_KJ: If I select Custom, then it allows me to change the background color by double clicking on the color box. As for bar colors, only the top box will normally show on your chart. Bearish and Bullish bar colors will show when you put a Color Bar Study on your chart. To do so, right click on the chart and select Color Bars. Under Chart Type, not only can you choose bar, line, or candle, but you can use the many types of candles unique to Ensign
17:19 @Ensign_KJ: Let me briefly talk about candles, then I will continue with info on the Setup Charts page - Once Setup Charts is open, click on the tab at top that says Candlestick
17:20 @Ensign_KJ: This allows you to select the up and down colors, as well as whether you want a frame on the candlesticks
www.ensignsoftware.com/help/candlesticks.htm
17:21 @Ensign_KJ: On the website help pages, the link for Candlesticks will guide you on how to setup your candlesticks in the many ways that they can be formatted
7:22 @Ensign_KJ: Under Setup Charts, the lower right corner is a section called Values - tick & bar spacing and right margin are self explanatory
17:23 @Ensign_KJ: The entry I have for Color Bars is 3 - Don't just imitate this - Let me tell you what it is for. This automatically applies a color bar study to my charts, and the #3 means that it uses the third study on the color bar list - I know many of you are not aware of that
7:24 @Ensign_KJ: Scroll speed is the # of seconds each chart will show before the next chart on a quote page will scroll open, and then the next and so on. To set that up, open a quote page, open a chart for one of the symbols, and then look at the main menu. When a chart or a quote page is open, the main menu will change to add these options - Click on menu Chart, and select Auto Scroll.
7:26 @Ensign_KJ: Also on Setup Charts form, under Values, it says Double Click . This is the default time/tick frame which a chart will open from a quote page
www.ensignsoftware.com/help/keyboard.htm
7:29 @Ensign_KJ: The L/R Bar Shift is the number of bars your chart will move when you use a hot key - Shift < or Shift > Look at the post I made, under Chart Control Keys
17:30 @Ensign_KJ: Ok, that is it for Setup Charts
17:30 @Ensign_KJ: As we said, this is the default for your charts. Each charts remembers changes you make to it. Every symbol and time/tick combination equals a new chart. So ES Daily will not look the same as ES 5 min, unless you set it that way
17:31 @Ensign_KJ: To change the properties of an individual chart, press CTRL+P keys or double click on the chart to open Chart Properties. If you want to have the settings for this chart revert to the default settings, click the reset button, center bottom
17:33 @Ensign_KJ: Notice that it is here where you can alter the max number of bars for an individual chart
17:34 @Ensign_KJ: Another thing to know is the Chart Position. This is roughly found above the reset button. If you click Remember, then you can resize the chart by grabbing the edges of it to make it smaller, larger, rectangular etc, and the chart will always open that way. It will also open in the same place on the screen that you have placed it
17:36 @Ensign_KJ: Notice that under the OK and Help buttons, there is a FONT button-- often overlooked. This is where you can change the color and size of the majority of text.
17:36 @Ensign_KJ: On the left edge, the Information for the chart is listed. This will tell you if you have Day session hours, and what they are, or if you also have evening session. Let me show you where to go to alter this info regarding sessions
17:38 @Ensign_KJ: Go to menu Setup | Symbol Properties
17:38 @Ensign_KJ: Select the symbol you want by clicking on it to highlight it. To the left of the symbol list is a form with roughly two columns. One column says Day Session, with hours for open and close, next to that is Evening Session. Enter in those hours if the symbol has second session hours which you would like to see on your chart
17:40 @Ensign_KJ: For futures, the months which the symbol trades in are listed. These are the contract months that you will need to use. The format is root, space, month and year. For example, ES U5 is the current contract - Or you can use ES #F which is the continuation contract - This means that is uses the current contract automatically, without you specifying what it is. This is great when it comes time for roll-over. But not good if you wish to keep a library of past contract charts.
17:42 @Ensign_KJ: Back to our charts...To apply a study, you can simply use the hot-keys on your keyboard or you can right click on the chart and select Studies
www.ensignsoftware.com/help/keyboard.htm
17:44 @Ensign_KJ: If you are a beginner, and not sure what studies to begin with, you can do the following:
Go back to Setup | Charts, and click on Studies tab at top
17:45 @Ensign_KJ: You can choose to display only studies for your level, basic intermediate or advanced or you can manually select to have certain studies shown, and others hiding. Highlight the study and use the left/right arrows to move a study into the Not Shown column. Or use the blue up/down arrows to organize the order of your studies list. Once a study is on your chart, you will need to know how to alter the properties
7:46 @Ensign_KJ: To do so, you will go to the Study Properties form. For some studies, you can get there by carefully placing your cursor on one of the study lines and clicking. The best way, and you need to know about this, is to go through Chart Objects. Right click on your chart and select Chart Objects, or use Objects button on toolbar, or CTRL-O. Chart Objects will list alerts, lines, studies, markers, etc on your chart. Highlight the object in the list and press Delete to remove something, or Delete All to clean off your chart completely. If you have a study listed, double click on the study, or click once to highlight it then press the Properties button on the right side of the form. (If show detail is checked, there is added information (click on help button for further explanation. Also the report will list all studies with settings, GVs used etc. At the top of the window it tells you how many objects are on the chart and the memory requirements for that one chart only.)
17:51 @Ensign_KJ: The parameters of the study are in the upper left corner, for the MA this means how many bars each line will average. The location of the study can be chosen -- on the study, in a sub window. As well as the type of data you want it to use -- close price? open? - On the left, select the Study Mode and Formula. This is a simple MA, but you can turn it into exponential, weighted, etc.
17:54 @Ensign_KJ: In the center of the form is a section called Study Lines. This allows you to select the color of the line, and the thickness/type of line. The check boxes next to 1st Average and 2nd Average will hide the lines if unselected.
7:55 @Ensign_KJ: Use the tabs at the bottom of the form to save different settings for this study. The tab that is showing when you close the form will be the settings used
17:56 @Buffy: I usually click on the tab before making changes but if you forget then click on copy tab and click on a tab number. Now the tab will have those settings.
17:56 @Buffy: Great job KJ and the link for the archived class will be added to recommended reading
17:56 @Ensign_KJ: Thanks everyone for sticking around. I hope this helps give an idea of how Ensign works
7:57 @Ensign_HA: Thank you KJ for the excellent class, and thank you to those who attended.
17:57 @Ensign_KJ: : )
17:57 @Ensign_HA: All should have found something education and helpful with this review.
17:57 @Buffy: very nice kJ - even I learned something :-)
17:58 @Ensign_KJ: see you all tomorrow.. I am in the New Users room if you have questions about any material. But I must go now... so email me kJ@ensignsupport.com or catch me in my room
17:58 @Ensign_KJ: bye!!
18:00 aw: thanks for session