Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Easter egg hunting with ThinkOrSwim?

I've received a few emails asking if I know more about thinkscript than what is provided in the documentation. The answer is yes. In the coming weeks I will post some interesting facts and conclusions about the application that we all run on our computers.

One such question comes up in the native TOS PivotPoint study. TOS's hidden PivotPoint code. "why does TOS hide their PivotPoint code". If it's a simple (Hi+Lo+Close)/3 calculation as John Person describes why hide the code? It's all here: http://www.nationalfutures.com/pivotcalculator.htm

http://mediaserver.thinkorswim.com/notices/Release_020609.html



Can't wait? You want to find out if you can find any Easter Eggs hidden? OK. Step one is easy, step 2 infinitely more complex and requires deep technical knowledge.

Step 1:
If you don't already have Wireshark. Download and install this utility. It allows you to examine the data that is sent to and from the servers that you communicate with on the Internet.
In this communication stream you can find a lot of useful information about what data is sent and received, vs. what data you see on the application.

http://www.wireshark.org


Step 2:
The second step is to run your financial software package on ReactOS. ReactOS is the OpenSource Windows Operating System. The advantage of doing this is that you can also be running a kernel level debugger hooked directly into the software that you are running and set breakpoints to enhance discovery.



Look for my upcoming articles about various aspects of the TOS software platform and the traders edge.
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