XMIM is a user friendly software program designed to query a comprehensive historical database that includes, among other data series, security prices, volume, sentiment indicators, weather data and economic indicators. There are two basic types of queries that can be created within the program: the SHOW/WHEN query and the ORDER query.

SHOW/WHEN allows you to ask what happens to the data series when certain conditions hold true. The SHOW/WHEN query is an excellent research aid that allows users to understand, for example, how the price of their securities reacted historically to certain market conditions. The other type of query, ORDER, allows you to test trading ideas by placing buy or sell orders when certain conditions exist. Users often use the analysis prepared in the SHOW/WHEN query to develop trading strategies within their ORDER block queries.

A fast way to produce sophisticated queries for a new user to XMIM is to use the Query Wizard. This wizard allows the user to create queries using predefined market and date events. The Query Builder contains more advanced functionality and most of this book is dedicated to describing its features.