Learn · 6 min read

Professional tools in plain words

What chart indicators, risk numbers, backtests and screens tell you, and what they don’t.

Professional terminals are famous for hundreds of functions. Most of them answer one of five questions. Cluenex now has a tool for each, built on real end of day prices.

1. Which stocks are worth a look?

A screener turns your rules into a short list. Open the Screener, start from a preset like “Quality at a discount”, then change one rule at a time.

2. What is the price doing?

Press Indicators on any stock chart for more than 25: averages, RSI (Relative Strength Index) for stretch, MACD for momentum, Bollinger Bands for unusual moves, strength against the S&P 500 and harmonic patterns (finished and still forming). Change any setting, write your own formula, and save the set as a template. They describe the past; none of them knows the future.

3. How rough is the ride?

Each chart shows Volatility, the worst fall and how long it took to recover, plus Seasonality month by month. The worst fall is the number to look at first: it is what you would have had to sit through.

4. Would a rule have helped?

The Strategy tester runs simple rules on real history, with trading costs taken off. Most rules lose to buying and holding on total return; the good ones shrink the worst fall. That trade off is the honest result of almost every Backtest.

5. What should I watch?

Alerts watch the levels you care about, so you decide calmly in advance instead of staring at the screen.

Every tool has a short code. Press /, type AAPL GP for Apple’s chart or EQS for the screener. See every code.