How to add ETFs to a symbol list

[Chris White]

The ETF Trading Bandit comes with a default set of 20 symbols that match the ETF symbols described by Larry Connors and Cesar Alvarez in their book 'High Probability ETF Trading'.

These symbols reside on your hard drive in a symbol list text file called 'symbols.txt', the exact location of this file is as follows:

{Documents}\EdgeRater\ETF Trading Bandit\Symbol Lists\Symbols.txt

To add other ETF symbols for use in the Bandit you have 2 options:

1. Add symbols to the existing Symbols.txt file
2. Add a new symbol list file to the Symbol Lists directory.

You can add symbols to the existing file or create a new file using either windows text editing programs such as notepad or by using the user interface in ETF Trading Bandit. If you use the interface in ETF Trading Bandit the end result is a file in the Symbol Lists directory.

The contents of the default symbols file is as follows:

Code: Select all

DIA, Diamonds Trust (ETF)
EEM, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (ETF)
EFA, iShares MSCI EAFE Index (ETF)
EWH, iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index (ETF)
EWJ, iShares MSCI Japan Index (ETF)
EWT, iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (ETF)
EWZ, iShares MSCI Brazil Index (ETF)
FXI, iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (ETF)
GLD, SPDR Gold Trust (ETF)
ILF, iShares S&P Latin 40 Index (ETF)
IWM, iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF)
IYR, iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate (ETF)
QQQQ, PowerShares QQQ Trust (ETF)
SPY, SPDR S&P500 (ETF)
XHB, SPDR S&P Homebuilders (ETF)
XLB, Materials SPDR (ETF)
XLE, Energy Select SPDR (ETF)
XLF, Financial Select SPDR (ETF)
XLI, Industrial SPDR (ETF)
XLV, Health Care Select SPDR (ETF)

As you can see a symbol list file is formatted with one symbol per line (note uppercase symbols are necessary) as follows:

Symbol, Description

To use the ETF Trading Bandit user interface to add symbols to the default symbols.txt file you can do the following:

Use the 'Edit Symbols' button to add symbols to an existing list

editlistbutton.png (78.13 KiB) Viewed 8752 times

When you click 'Edit Symbols' the following dialog box will appear which will allow you to enter new symbols:

Add a symbol using the 'Edit Symbols' dialog

Editsymbolsdialog.png (43.17 KiB) Viewed 8753 times

It is also possible to add a completely new symbol list file using the 'Manage Lists->New Symbol List' button. After a new file is added you then need to add symbols to it in the manner described above.

Note that once a new list has been added or if symbols have been added to an existing list you then need to press the 'Update List Data' button to get the latest EOD data for those new symbols.