Both programs share the same code base, the same gui, and use the same data files. If you start with ProTA and later upgrade to ProTA Gold, all of your ProTA files and preferences will continue to work without modification in ProTA Gold.

ProTA Gold adds the following capabilities to ProTA:

Custom Indicators. In addition to the 50+ indicators already built into ProTA, ProTA Gold includes a simple, yet powerful language to create and administer virtually any custom analysis or trading rule you can think of. No programming necessary - if you can type formulas into Excel, you're ready to write custom indicators in ProTA Gold.

Database Scanning. Use ProTA Gold's formula language to define criteria, then scan your entire database for securities that meet the criteria. A criteria can be as simple as simple a single comparisons such as Close > MA(50) or be as complex as a multi-conditional test involving other custom indicators or trading models you've already written.

System Testing and Optimization. ProTA Gold includes a simple interface for specifying your own trading models. With access to the entire ProTA Gold Language for your buy/sell rules, you can define just about any trading system that can be codified into logical rules.

When you download ProTA or ProTA Gold from our web site, you are actually downloading the full, commercial version of the program. You can run the program without a registration code in Trial Mode.

Trial Mode is fully functional and will not expire, though your analysis is limited to the 32 tickers that are installed with the starter database. Purchasing a registration code allows for an unlimited number of tickers.

However, with a Dial Data account (or any other vendor that provides updates throughout the trading day), ProTA can display today's current data as it is imported to the program. For example, ProTA's Dial Data downloader includes an option to repeatedly refresh your database every 2 minutes during trading hours. The refresh will repeatedly update today's data with the current quotations.

So while it is not possible to view an intraday time series such as 5 minute Bars, it is possible to have your Portfolios priced out with real-time data. It is possible to view charts where today's bar is repeatedly refreshed with the current, intraday OHLC data. And it is possible to update your scans and system tests with the updated real-time data.

ProTA software includes a fully automated interface to Dial Data, a leading internet-based data provider. Once your account is established, ProTA automatically keeps your database updated each evening and throughout the trading day.

For all other sources, ProTA's Universal Text Importer provides one-step, drag and drop importing for virtually any web-based data vendor providing tab, comma or space delimited files.

Please see our data vendors page for some suggestions.

I am in the process of updating our International Support page as well as our data vendors page for issues that specifically affect users outside of the USA.

There are very few remaining issues that are specific to international usage. I've added 3 FAQ's on this page that are of specific interest to users outside of the USA:

Dates/Numbers settings

Managing more than one database

Trading in multiple currencies

Operational Questions

Step 1. Obtain Custom Indicator files from a 3rd party. For example, BeeSoft hosts a growing library of free indicator files right here. You can also share your creations with other ProTA Gold users.

Step 2. Drag the Custom Indicator files into the Custom Indicators folder at ~/Library/Application Support/ProTA/Custom Indicators.

Step 3. There is no step 3! You can now use the new indicators in charts, scans, system tests exactly as you would use any other indicator.

• Exporting Portfolio cells: Select the rows to export, then right click (control click) to choose one of the Copy commands. Then Paste into a spreadsheet or other application.

• Exporting System Test Results: Click in the table, then Copy or highlight text in the lower pane, then Copy. Paste into a spreadsheet or other application.

• Exporting a Plotted Indicator: Click any plotted line in a chart to select it, choose Copy, then Paste into a spreadsheet or other application.

• Exporting a chart graphic: Choose Print Chart from the File menu, click the PDF button in the lower left, then choose Save as PDF. (The settings for chart printing are located in the Suites panel of the Preferences window.)

Preferences. The Preferences window controls how Dates and Numbers are displayed to you throughout the program - in charts, portfolios, etc. You should set the Preferences window to your preferred local format the first time you use ProTA, and then probably never revisit these settings again.

Universal Text Importer (UTI). Each text import window offers the ability to specify a custom Date and Number format. Configure the UTI window such that the Dates and Numbers settings match those of the underlying file you are about to import.

If you are tracking multiple countries/multiple exchanges, it is possible ticker symbol ABC might be used for a unique security on each exchange. There are 3 possible workarounds:

1. Each OS X user account maintains its own ~/Library/Application Support directory. You can create a second OS X account to track country #2 while tracking your primary country in your main user account.

2. If your needs are modest, it is possible to store your primary tickers in the Stock section of the TickerPicker, then add the second country's tickers to another section, such as the Misc section. ProTA will always find the right security when ticker symbols are unique, but in the case of redundancies, the Stock section will always be favored if a Type is not provided.

3. ProTA stores all of its work files in a folder named ProTA at ~/Library/Application Support/ProTA. You can establish a database for one country, then quit ProTA and swap in a different ProTA folder for use with the second country. I recommend frequent backups if you use this approach - it is easy to lose track of the folders with frequent swappings.

Please email support@beesoft.net for additional assistance.

Nitty Gritty

With ProTA Classic, I noticed that many users would add a Change - Since Purchase column to a Portfolio in order to compute the P&L or percent P&L since entering a trade. But the Change column is documented to compute the change in a price field (Open, High, Low Close) since the specified date. It is not intended to compute the change from the intraday purchase price you have manually entered. The OS X 3.0 version corrects the error such that the Change column now computes its cells as described in the User Manual.

So how do you properly compute the Change or %Change from your Purchase Price?

Change: Add a P&L column, Since Purchase, Per Share.

%Change: Add an ROI column, Since Purchase, Per Share.

As an example, assume a Portfolio with just 2 rows of trade data. The first row was a trade made in US$, the second trade was made in C$. If you'd like the entire Portfolio priced out in US$, double-click the second row and enter the current US$/C$ exchange rate in the Multiplier field (you'll have to obtain the exchange rate yourself). The Multiplier is used in all extended cell calculations such as Cost Basis, Sales Value, P&L, etc.