The following variables which are listed at the beginning of the query can be modified to customize the Best Match Analog. The variables with ** can be set to more than 1 symbol.

Sometimes it is beneficial to test correlations against multiple instruments. For example you can compare the recent price pattern for the NASDAQ index to the historical prices for Amex, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, & Russell 2000. The “PatternSymbol” will be set to NASD and all four of the indices will be listed for the “AnalogSymbol”. You can also edit the correlation time period. So for this query, “CorrelationTimePeriod” and “CorrelationNeutralDays” are set to 50. This will take just the last 50 days of NASDAQ instead of 65 days used in the queries above.

   LET 
     PatternSymbol = NASD

   LET 
     AnalogSymbol = XAX, DJIA, SPX, RUT

   LET 
     ATTR PatternDatapoint = BAR of PatternSymbol 
     ATTR AnalogDatapoint = BAR of AnalogSymbol 

   LET 
     ATTR CorrelationTimePeriod = 50 

   INITIALIZE 
       PatternStartDate = construct_date ( 1, 1, 1990 ) 
     AND 
       PatternEndDate = construct_date ( 0, 0, 0 ) 
     AND 
       CorrelationNeutralDays = 50 

The results show the best analog match for each of the symbols listed.

You can take a closer look at each result by selecting the Options button at the bottom of the Graph window and selecting 1X1 in the Graphs per Page pull-down menu.

Another option for running the Best Match Analog over multiple symbols at once is to set “AnalogSymbol” to a file that has a list of symbols in it. If you had a file saved as list.trade with the following content you can set the variable to the file name as shown below.

   LET 
     PatternSymbol = NASD

   LET 
     AnalogSymbol = FILE "~/user/list.trade"

Alternatively, it is possible to set “AnalogSymbol” to a category in the MIM database. This allows you to run the query over all of the children in that category. For example, if you wanted to compare the NASDAQ index to all equities that trade on the NASDAQ exchange you can set the variables like so.

   LET 
     PatternSymbol = NASD

   LET 
     AnalogSymbol = TopRelation:Equities:GlobalInsight:Nasdaq:Tickers

If you want to compare NASDAQ 100 index to all the constituents of the NASDAQ 100 then you can set the variables like this.

   LET 
     PatternSymbol = NASD

   LET 
     AnalogSymbol = TopRelation:Equities:UnitedStates:Constituents:Nasdaq:Index_NASD100

Up to this point all of the examples have correlated the most recent 50 or 65-day price movement. However, it is possible to modify the Best Match Analog query to use a historical time period instead of the most recent. You might want to do this if you find a good analog match and then wish to continue to watch the analog as time passes. For example, if you found a good correlation for Natural Gas Futures contract on 6/1/2006 and you wanted to check on the progress to see if the trend continued to match, you can run the analog again for that date and see how the price behaved afterwards. The variable “PatternEndDate” is set to construct_date (0, 0, 0) which refers to the last trading day. If you edit this to a historical date, this resets the ending date for the correlation period. In this example you are correlating the 50-day period prior to and including 7/1/2007.

   LET 
     PatternSymbol = NG

   LET 
     AnalogSymbol = NG

   LET 
     ATTR PatternDatapoint = BAR of PatternSymbol 
     ATTR AnalogDatapoint = BAR of AnalogSymbol 

   LET 
     ATTR CorrelationTimePeriod = 50 

   INITIALIZE 
       PatternStartDate = construct_date ( 1, 1, 1990 ) 
     AND 
       PatternEndDate = construct_date ( 7, 1, 2007 ) 
     AND 
       CorrelationNeutralDays = 50 

This allows you to compare the movement after the analog match. This way it is possible to see if the pattern continued to be correlated.

   LET 
     ATTR CorrelationThreshold = 0.94