Holy Surprise Price Adjustment, Batman!
I did a double take on x-dividend day for NRZ. NRZ pays about 11%, and I am used to seeing a price drop on x-dividend day. NRZ in ProTA 3.25 showed the price drop, but NRZ plotted in ProTA 4.2291 did not! After a few minutes of consternation I figured out that ProTA 4 adjusts all previous prices for the dividend. That is, in ProTA 4 all prices were adjusted down by 11%. I checked another dividend stock, and it showed similar price adjustment on x-dividend date. From a technical analysis standpoint this is a good thing IMHO, because you don't have a big step function in price on x-dividend date. But if, like me, you have line studies and text notes on a chart, these things are left hanging in the air, because they are not adjusted with the price. I think this price adjustment has to be a handshake between ProTA and the data provider. How would ProTA 4 know to make the adjustment if it didn't receive notice from the data provider? I don't know. The other explanation is that ProTA 4 recollects all previous dates on all stocks every time you update the quote file. WOW!
Anyway, if you want to preserve line studies like trendlines and horizontal lines, and text notes, you need to do that in ProTA 3.25; otherwise, the bar charts on dividend paying stocks will slowly migrate away from your trendlines and notes. Be warned that in from the the next OS forward, Apple is no longer supporting ProTA 3.25. It may work, or it may not. |
