Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make a binary package for Qtstalker ?

No. Binary packages are so problematic now that they are a nightmare for maintainers. I will leave it up to the distributions to provide binaries and support them. Besides, learning how to compile from source makes you a better person, brings world peace and makes you more attractive to women.

Qtstalker is now included in the Debian distribution thanks to the efforts of Marco van Zwetselaar. Marco is the maintainer for the binary package.

There are also RPM's available from Redhat and other RPM based distributions. Use rpmfind to locate them.

What platforms are supported ?

Currently, Linux compatible, FreeBSD and Mac OS X systems are supported. Some people have tried with some success on Solaris, IRIX and most unices. I'm afraid I cannot support any other platforms other than Linux compatible systems simply because I do not have the time or resources to maintain other operating systems for testing. So, if you want to port it, I can help as much as I am able. Due to ethical and political feelings, I will not help or support anyone trying to do a win32 port. The goal of this project is not to provide win32 users more gold bars for their prisons. So endith the lesson...

My favorite indicator(s) are not included in Qtstalker, what can I do ?

Bribes of beer or cash tend to work best, but you might also try asking me. I would be glad to create a plugin for you provided you supply me with a formula and you agree to include it into Qtstalker under the GPL. Another option is if you don't want to GPL your formula, you may contract me to write a proprietary plugin for you for a fee.

Of course, you can always develop the new indicator yourself. Just copy the C++/Qt code from an existing indicator that does similar things. Please consider contributing the new indicator back to this project. Everyone benefits.

Using CUS enables script-based access to functions of other indicators and provides some logic to enable new indicators to be created.

Another option is to contribute to the TA-Lib Technical Analysis Library project. Qtstalker provides access to the library.

What versions of documentation are available?

The CVS (i.e. next version in development) has the most up-to-date documentation. The website reflects CVS.

Each released version has its own copy of the documentation in the "docs" directory. This is usually installed at /usr/local/share/doc/qtstalker/html/ so use your web browser to view its index.html file. The "Help" items in the application also refer to this local documentation.

I'm a day trader, how come there is no intraday charting functions ?

There is currently basic support for tick data limited to a HH:MM:SS resolution. However, there are currently no quote plugins that download free tick data. (AFAIK there are none) It is left up to the user to provide quotes from a data service on an individual basis. You may use the CSV quote plugin to import ascii files with tick data.

Does Qtstalker handle stock splits ?

Yes, but they have to be handled manually using the edit chart dialog. Another method is to delete the chart that had a split, create the chart with the yahoo plugin and then update the data. This will pull in all the new corrected data. NOTE: the yahoo quote plugin allows the user to use the 'adjusted' price, however this is not the actual trading price but an adjusted one for chart sanity.

Where does the name Qtstalker come from ?

Well if you really must know...The Qt part comes from the GNU/Linux tradition of prefixing an X app with the GUI toolkit used. The stalker part is just cheesy word play stemming from the idea of "stock search" or "stalking stocks". I also just like the word "stalker".

In english, Qt sounds like 'cutie' which is slang for 'a cute woman'. So now we have 'cutie stalker' which in all honesty was completely unintentional. Now if someone were to write a 'cutie stalker' indicator plugin we just might really be on to something ;-)

Why don't you make this into a KDE app ?

I want to keep things as simple, efficient and portable as possible. Qt does everything I need.

There are alot of plugins I don't use taking up space. How do I get rid of them ?

If you are sure there are plugins you don't need, then all you have to do is delete them from the /usr/local/lib/qtstalker/* directory. Simple as that. Be sure you don't delete the directory itself, just the plugin *.so file.

Why don't you use SQL for data storage?

Two reasons, speed and simplicty. Once again I cite the KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) philosophy. You can't beat Berkeley DB btree functions for ease of use and speed. Using SQL would just add another layer of requirements and speed penalties. It also means more administration hassles for the user to set up accounts, tables, logs etc. Why complicate things? With DB, each chart is it's own compact, flexible, dynamic, self-contained db. Blows SQL away in this respect.

Upgrading from version 0.29 to version 0.30 problems.

With 0.30, qtstalker has removed the built in version of Berkeley 2.7.7 and now requires the user to install a version equal to or greater than 4.1.  This was done to resolve upcoming issues with 64 bit systems. Unfortunately the Berkeley DB 4.* files are not backwards compatible with 2.7.7. What this means is that any charts created with qtstalker 0.29 or earlier will not work with future versions of qtstalker.

There was also a restructuring of the chart storage directories in order to better organize and increase app performance. This will also cause confusion for the user, and render many charts unavailable for update. Any user groups created will also be broken due to directories being moved around.

The simplest way to fix this is to delete your ~/.qt/qtstalkerrc file and your ~/Qtstalker directory and all of its contents. Yes this means you will lose all of your data and settings. There have been so many changes and improvements since 0.29 that it would be too difficult and complicated to create an upgrade workaround that would be prone to errors in implementing it for each user. We are talking hours of work for some.

What happened to most of the indicators? They seem to be missing.

Many of the indicators that were once individual plugins in previous versions of Qtstalker have been replaced by the TA-Lib plugin. This plugin now contains most of the indicators you will use. Have a look at the docs for the TALIB indicator for a more detailed description.

For example, there is no longer an MA indicator, so
Instead of the old: sma20 := MA(MA,Close,20,SMA)
Now use: sma20 := TALIB(SMA,Close,20)