scanning syntax errors inconsistent

earlberkun · February 2016

I am developing a new scan and have 2 kinds of problems. Here is the basic scan:

[type is stock] and [sma(20,volume) > 100000]
//and [SCTR >yesterdays SCTR * 1.075]
rank by [PctChange(10, SCTR)]
//and [SCTR >yesterdays SCTR * 1.075]
#past 10 days ranked
//and [SCTR >yesterdays SCTR * 1.075]

Of the six lines, I can activate line 2 and get a correct message on the syntax. (Activate means erasing the //)
Lines 4 and 6 are copies (copy and paste) of line 2. When I activate either line 4 or 6, I get a syntax error. (Only 1 line of 2,4,6 is activated at a time)
Any ideas what's wrong? I've tried restarting Windows 10 several times. I've tried running this on a MAC. Same result.

The second issue is that when I run a scan in development, it's ok initially. When I add a new line to the existing 10 lines, all of a sudden it will not recognize the new line and scans for the previous criteria only.
Any ideas here?

Thanks for any suggestions.

markd · February 2016

There may be more than one problem, but the one that I see is that the "rank by" line is NOT the last line when you activate lines 4 and 6.

The "rank by" line must always be last.

Here's Chip's blog on the subject from a while ago:

stockcharts.com/articles/mailbag/2014/06/ranking-a-group-of-stocks-by-percent-change.html?st=rank+by

and here's the link to the support page for "advanced scan syntax" which is VERY useful. They've done an excellent job updating the documentation. It's worth a look if you haven't been there recently:

stockcharts.com/docs/doku.php?id=scans:advanced_scan_syntax

I know it's hard to catch this stuff. If that is not the problem, let us know, maybe with a screen shot or quote of the error the engine gives you.

scanning syntax errors inconsistent

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