More Good Features of Fonestock

Actually when using this software I kept discovering neat features left and right.  For example, if I click on the small "i" that appears at the right side of the stock info for one of my stocks in my watchlist, another screen will pop up.  This screen allows for several technical indicators to be run simultaneously.  This software provides a benefit that none of the other software packages I used provided:  Using Fonestock allows you access to thirteen (13) different technical indicators!  If you recall from my previous posts, these technical indicators can be like your friends that can tell you when certain stocks are entering trends or when it may be a good time to buy or sell a stock.  For each technical indicator you will be told whether the results are "bullish" or "bearish."  To simply these terms, bullish means that the stock is moving upwards whereas bearish means the stock is moving downwards.   Also, the terms bullish and bearish could be used in reference to how optimistically or pessimistically a stock is currently being viewed. 

Clicking on the “Functions” button at the top of your screen will take you to another selection of options from which to choose from to analyze your stocks.  First of all my clicking on the functions button in the upper left hand corner from the intraday chart or from within the indicator charts, you will be able to compare one stock to another stock or indices. You may wish, for example, to do this to compare a competitor’s stock to your own or to see how your stock is doing in relation to the market is it being sold under.   

Fonestock allows for up to six different stocks or indices to be compared at one time.  Keep in mind if you compare more than a couple, you will need to remind yourself of which color represents which stock or index.  

The chart button allows for the candlestick chart to be displayed.  I have found no other free app thus far on the Apple apps store that is provided such detailed information as candlestick charts in their free software packages.  The candlestick charts can be resized by simply “pinching” the screen.  Furthermore, recall those thirteen (13) technical indicators I mentioned earlier?   

You can also choose to display that same information in chart form (two charts at a time) below the candlestick chart by simply clicking on one of the two charts and then selecting which indicator chart you would like to be displayed.  You can choose from Volume, RSI, KD, MACD, Bias, On Balance Volume, Psychological Line, Williams%R, Momentum, Oscillator, AR/BR, ADX/DMI, and Tower.  

You can easily change the display of this information by clicking the function button at the upper right hand corner of your screen and selecting from viewing a daily, weekly, monthly, or 5-minute chart.  Furthermore, these indicators can be adjusted through the “setting indicator parameter” under the functions button in the upper right hand corner of the chart window.  For those that have a good understanding of statistics and technical indicator analysis, this is a valuable tool in determining the right moments to trade certain stocks.

One thing I noticed that I did not like was that the software only provided bid and ask prices for those stocks being traded on Taiwan exchanges, any stock I am following currently on other exchanges cannot for some reason display the bid or ask prices. 

Furthermore, when I go to view the “quote” screen from my intraday data chart, I can only see those Bid & Ask prices with additional info for those stocks traded on the Taiwan exchanges.  More company “profile” information also seems to be available for those companies traded on the Taiwan exchanges as well.  Although this information seems much more plentiful than other software that I have surveyed. 

 

The software also includes a portfolio feature that is in a sense an extension of your watchlist.  Your watchlist can give you quick real-time overviews of what is going on with your stocks but your portfolio can help you keep track of all these in one place, especially in relation to your gain or loss of money! Stocks are added to the portfolio in a similar manner, as with the watchlist except this time you will need to indicate the stock name, price and number of shares.  You will need to manually enter this information.  Just for fun I added a few shares of Apple’s stock in which in my imagination I purchased for $50 a share. J You can view your portfolio in relation to today, price, change and gain/lost.  Also if you do actually end up trading this stock that you have bought later on, you will be able to view your realized gain and loss by keeping track of it right within the Fonestock software.

 

Another missing feature of most software packages is that of alerts.  I did not really see many of the other packages providing any alert functions or features.  Here from the “my alerts” menu (which can be accessed at all times by pressing the corresponding button at the bottom of your screen) you can simply add an alert by providing a few details about a stock including symbol, criteria (can choose between price, volume or any of the technical indicators previously outlined), a trigger and how you should be alerted in relation to this trigger.  For example I have entered the Citigroup Inc. symbol and 40 as the trigger for the criteria of price.  I can now choose whether to be alerted when the price falls to, rises to, reach upper bound or reach lower bound in relation to this 40$ price trigger.  I set the trigger to Price falls too.  After saving and turning the trigger on, I’ll now be alerted if the criterion I set is reached in relation to this stock. I can be alerted either by sound or by vibration.  Histories of alerts that have been triggered are also saved for you to view as needed.

One last feature of the Fonestock software that I would like to review is Marketmovers, which is located under the “More” screen that can be accessed at any time by clicking on the on the “More” icon on the lower right hand corner of your screen.  Marketmovers is a very interesting feature of the Fonestock software package that allows you to select a portion of or an entire exchange to locate the top dollar gainers, dollar losers, percent gainers, percent losers and finally volume actives.  This tool can be used to quickly and efficiently point your attention to a stock that is experiencing some drama change in the market.  You can also easily set the data count, so that from 10-200 stocks can be displayed for your review.

Lastly, of course there is a settings area that allows for the connection to automatically be established when you launch the program, input your user name and password (for paid accounts), register, easily access the Fonestock website, turn on or off the audio alerts, and adjust your auto fetch settings. 

I really think that I have located a gem here with my discovery of Fonestock and I am looking forward to continued exploration with this software as my guide.  I think the best part of all is the ease and intuitiveness of this software.  I found it very user friendly and easy to teach myself how to utilize all the features I have described in these past few articles.  Now that I have had my chance to play around with the software, I can really begin to get to work!

What's next after my free trial period of Fonestock?

In my last post I mentioned that you could register and access all software features, including real time quotes for free for a month merely by registering on the Fonestock website or directly through the Fonestock software. It’s easy to do so. From the “more” menu you can click on “setting” after that you'll need to click on “register” and then input your information to open a Fonestock account. Keep in mind that this is just opening an account and you are not required to pay anything just yet. You are just getting yourself ready to enjoy the free 30 days trial of the software with real-time quotes. Later you can use this account to either from the same “more” and “setting” menus in the software register and pay for the paid service or you can go on the Fonestock website to pay.

If you prefer to do everything from the Fonestock website, this is also an available option for you. Just log onto the English website and click on “product,” then “software,” and finally “buy it.” When you reach the “buy it” page you’ll be prompted with some choices. Fonestock software allows you access to stock information from Taiwan, China, and United States indices. Fonestock also provides four different subscription plans: monthly service, monthly service with automatic billing, bi-annual service, and annual service. Each of these service plans have the option of allowing you access to Taiwan, China, and United States indices or any combination of the three. To see the different prices of the packages, simply click which options you’d like to have access too and your shopping cart will automatically be updated with the correct price. Keep in mind that if you choose the monthly service with automatically billing you will continue to be billed automatically each month until you contact Fonestock to cancel the service. After deciding on which package you'd like and adding it to your cart, you’ll first be prompted to log into your account. You should already have an account at this time but if not you still have the option of opening one. Then you need to choose confirm & checkout. Here you will be prompted with the contents of your shopping cart for review. You can make changes before going to the next step, which will ask you to enter your up-to-date contact information. Before this step, you also have the option of saving your shopping cart contents and then come back later to check out. After confirming your contact information, you'll need to enter your credit card information to pay for your subscription purpose. Tha's basically it.

Now that's out of the way, I can get back to introducing some of the features I've discovered that I enjoy about this software.

Single clicking on one of the stocks will take you to a basic stock chart. The chart will present you with some basic information including bid, ask, and last prices as well as what the stock opened for on that day as well as the highest and lowest prices it has sold for today. You can see the actual change in price or percentage as well. The last bit of info provided is the volume in number. The charts in themselves are the most interesting but if you are one of those people that like numbers that is fine as well. This software will suit anyone's needs because it provides both charts and numbers for all the information displayed. At the bottom you will be able to see all the numbers clearly and at the top you are presented with a line chart that shows the progression of the stock price as well as a bar chart that shows the progression of the volume. Simply tilting your iPhone sideways alerts the software to increase the size of the charts and to hide the text. Either in this tilted mode or in the normal vertical mode, a single click on the line chart will allow you to see minute per minute intraday data.

If you slide your finger on your screen from the right to the left, a volume distribution chart will be displayed for you.

As with the other line chart and bar graph, turning your phone sideways will allow you to view a larger scale version. Clicking on the date button allows you to choose to view today, yesterday, two, three, four, or five days ago data. You can also click on the “period” button to change the view to that of either a 5, 10 or 15 day data period. Clicking with your finger on the chart will allow for a line to pop up on your screen that will help you to see the price or volume for any given day that is displayed on the chart. Wherever your finger moves on the chart will allow the numbers to be automatically updated.

Classic City Resort Hotel in HuaLien (Trip Part 2)

After our day at the farm we made it to our hotel and checked in. We heard the hotel is the newest one in Hualien and also the safest. It is located next door to the local police office! We were still waiting on our teacher so we decided to walk around and get something to eat. Dinner was included at the hotel but we were starving. We just ate a chain dumpling place and found out it was the first time that RuoYi had eaten sour & spicy soup and pot stickers in Taiwan. She usually eats at home with her family. So surprising.

After that we made our way to a bowling alley and enjoyed a game. It was here we discovered that DaFu was an experienced bowler and that RuoYi had never bowled before in her life. Still, RuoYi managed to be in second place when the scores were tallied. After this we had a drink and HaoYi treated everyone. I can’t recall what DaFu had but I still hear RuoYi raving each day about the Plumb Coca Cola she had. Unique but very delicious.

We were really tired after that so we went back to our hotel to take a shower and rest. Our teacher was very late so when he finally came we really didn’t feel like doing anything else. He tried to force us to go to the night market but refused. We finally went downstairs in the hotel and had our dinner, which was disgusting. Then we went out to buy some snacks and some alcohol at the local grocery store. We went back to the room and enjoyed a unique game of UNO. After that we went to bed.
Maybe now is a good time for me to talk a little bit about the hotel, Classic City Resort, that we stayed in. The rooms were very tiny, especially the bathroom, but they were all very nice and clean. The bed was very comfortable and the price was pretty affordable. I think we paid a little over $3000NT (US$90) for the night.



The staff seemed very nice and was informative and friendly when we asked them questions. The location of the hotel is a bit far away from the night market (where you want to go for Hualien snacks) and the train station. You’d need to walk about 30 minutes to get to the night market and maybe another 30 minutes to get to the train. They do however have some connections with some travel agencies and booked a tour for us that was cheaper than what we had originally planned on taking before arriving in Hualien. I would consider this hotel in the same category as Just Sleep but Just Sleep was a much nicer experience for me, especially in consideration of food. The room sizes, however, seemed similar. Classic City Resort’s breakfast was a buffet but I can’t say it was very appetizing. I even thought their coffee tasted bad. I still tried to eat it though in order to get my money’s worth. We could choose our main course for our dinner with some side items that were on the buffet. We all chose the steak, which we couldn’t finish because the portion was very huge but tasted terrible. I think the best thing I ate was the soup that was most likely a powder.

Shin Guang Jau Feng Recreational Farm

My Chinese language teacher made a decision for our class to have a class outing. I really didn’t have time for the outing because I have been busy with my part-time work and Chinese courses but I’m really glad that I decided to go in the end; this trip really helped me to grow closer to my classmates.

My Chinese class originally had six students. Besides me, there is DaFu from Japan, HaoYi from Canada, JinSong from Vietnam, RuoYi from Thailand and Marcus from Germany. Marcus ended up having to drop out of the class and currently RuoYi and DaFu come when they can because they are soon going to being their first semester as undergraduate students in Taiwan. JinSong & Marus could not make it to join our trip.

I guess my grammar is the worst out of all the students but Marcus was not really around enough for me to tell much about his Chinese language ability. Anyway, I am trying to slowly improve and recently I take more changes to practice my speaking. I meet with my tutor more often and am trying to get all my homework done in time so I can hand it into my teacher for grading. I think all the students really enjoy the class and we pretty much have a fun time now that we've grown accustomed to one another. We always joke around during class and give the teacher a hard time. He's a nice guy though and can joke around with us as well.

The trip we took was to Hualien. We chose Hualien because it was the only place in Taiwan that all of us had never been to. Well HaoYi had gone but when she was a child and she couldn’t recall the trip at all.

I really can’t tell you all the places we went to in Hualien because I really felt a lot of the places looked the same and many of them reminded me of my hometown in Kentucky. Maybe it was all the mountains and the greenery.

The first day we took the Toroko Express from Taipei to Hualien. It’s quite comfortable and much better than what I’ve expected. This Taiwan Railway train requires you to purchase a seat so no one can buy a standing ticket to disturb the passengers. Our teacher could not join us because he has something else to do that day so we ventured to Hualien on our own. Before the trip I was not really familiar with DaFu but with a 2 hour train ride ahead of ourselves, we eventually found ourselves chatting about our lives. We mostly gossiped about the language teachers at National Central University.

After arriving we went straight to the bathroom and then received a call from the driver the travel agency arranged for us. He was in a rush and drove crazily to the Shin Guang Jau Feng Recreational Farm. I consider it more of a zoo than a farm. We rented a golf cart and drove around the farm for about two and a half hours seeing animals and not being able to attend any of the live shows because of bad timing.

I suggest you not to eat any of their dairy products because the ice cream tasted like cheese (so weird!) but we all finished our ice cream (which was hard as a rock) because we didn’t want to waste the money. For those that are going here (even though I’d recommend you not to go…ha) please do not buy any souvenirs until you get to the gate of the place where there is a sort of small museum and coffee shop. The first floor is filled with all the same stuff you can buy on the “farm” but this way you don’t need to carry it around with you all day long. One last thing, it looked pretty bad there. I heard it's been hit strongly by typhoons so that could be one reason but it just looked not very well taken care of to me.

More to come in the future….

Reflections on My Time As an Exchange Student

This is a reflection essay regarding my experience as an exchange student at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. I was an exchange student when I was receiving my Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language from Murray State University. These are some of my thoughts regarding my experience a few years ago.

Every semester, dozens of students leave their families, friends and routines behind to experience life in another country. Everyday you hear about someone that has studied abroad or plans to in the future. This kind of experience is becoming more common, but often those who attempt to take part in this type of cultural exploration do so leaving the country without a unique experience. When I first began my plans for Taiwan, I assumed this trip would be like the last five taken in the past three years.

My other trips were often sheltered by my acquaintances and friends. This time things were going to be different - I would be totally independent.

Go alone. It may sound scary, but being alone in a foreign country can be the best way to experience the culture. Of course you may want to exchange cultural experiences with other foreigners living and studying abroad, but the true experiences are those gained by diving into the culture by self-exploration.

Try the local cuisine. When I meet people from the States who are working or studying in Taiwan, I can almost immediately categorize them by the food they eat. People entering McDonald's, Pizza Hut or Subway are missing out. The ones having a real cultural experience are those scurrying to the night markets and consuming such delicacies as stinky tofu, pearl milk tea (milk tea with tapioca balls), phoenix claws (chicken feet), pig blood rice and chicken buttock kabob! Part of this is their open-mindedness about the culture and their interest in exploration. And I have tried all of the above mentioned.

Go out by yourself. Go off the beaten path and explore on your own. It's okay to visit the tourist attractions; but after this, go down a few dark alleys relying on your intuition, rather than your friends, to locate something exciting. Sometimes the things that the natives think are boring will be interesting and exciting to you.

Leave no rock unturned. The month of July is the ghost month of the lunar Chinese calendar. My friend's mother celebrated by offering food to her dead ancestors in remembrance. After praying, we burnt ghost money for the relatives to use in the afterlife. My friend did not accompany us during these endeavors of remembrance because she may have felt it would be boring, but it helped me understand the way in which some Taiwanese respect and remember their deceased loved ones. It reminded me of the way Americans place flowers upon gravestones.

Get lost. Sometimes getting lost can be an adventure. You may discover a small cafe that has the perfect cup of tea or a wonderful small boutique that specializes in unique traditional gifts. Once I took a walk looking for somewhere to study and do some journal writing. I accidentally happened upon a small, uniquely decorated cafe. I was treated wonderfully and given free fruit with a nice note inviting me back.

Learn the language. If you are studying in a non-English-speaking country, try your best to learn some of the language. Students who study abroad in the United States speak our language to communicate, so why shouldn't you do the same in their countries? Nothing is more irritating than a person who has lived in a country a year or longer but cannot say more than "hello" or "goodbye" in the native tongue. And if you are proficient enough in the language, try to have a conversation with someone. You may make a great friend and find someone who can help you unearth the best buys and unique attractions.

Pack carefully. Do some research on the Internet or chat online to find out how much certain things cost. Sometimes it is easier to buy the product after you arrive. I buy certain personal care products in the States while certain clothes and food are very cheap here. Also, leave plenty of room in your luggage for souvenirs. Do not overpack - especially with clothes. Pack clothes that easily mix and match.

Write about your experiences. Remember, this is your time to study but also your time to have fun. Being abroad allows a person to open up and do new things. Write about your experiences and share them with others.

Leave America behind. Do not enter a country thinking you know everything about it. Even after visiting Taiwan five times, I still have a lot to learn. Once I had a problem with my visa, and I pushed to have the details about the problem explained and corrected immediately. This is not the way things are handled in Taiwan. I felt bewildered and confused, but eventually everything was fixed. Do not enter another country with the mindset of, "In America, we ..." Things are done differently all over the world, but this doesn't make them wrong.

I cannot specify everything one should do while studying abroad, but the most important thing that I have learned is to be independent. Do not be afraid or get nervous. If a misunderstanding occurs, the world is not going to end. The worst that could happen is that you get the wrong food or get lost and get to experience something new! Take a confusing situation and make it a learning experience. Do not let anxiety or apprehension cause you to miss out on a wonderful experience.

Being independent has allowed me to feel confident in myself and my experiences. I am not following some prepackaged tour program, I am creating my own experience. I'm in control, and that's part of the fun. Studying abroad is about having experiences and learning about the culture. Exposure to another culture may help you visualize something about yourself of which you had no idea.

I Have Found a Real Gem -- Fonestock

As I promised I am back with more stock software information. This time up for review is Fonestock, a software package also available free-for-download from Apple's app store as well as from other venues. As the saying goes, if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all...well in the case of Fonestock there is a lot then that I have to say! I may end up splitting my comments for this software into two different posts in order to not overwhelm you.

I want you to be able to digest all the information and freely ask questions about specific features of the software.After using this software package and a few others for the past three or four weeks, I have been drawn back to this one again and again. This is why I have decided to stick with using Fonestock to help me track my future stock market interests. Not only does this stock software offer free real time stock quotes without the necessary to pay any fees, but it is very easy to use and provides a lot of information that the other software packages I reviewed did not make available. These real time quotes are available for one month for free.After that, if you like their software you will need to pay the registration fees to continue receiving the service.You will only need to register the software in order to be able to access real time quotes, before that you will only be able to receive delayed quotes.Still, this software seems much safer than other software packages because the registration process only requires you to submit a driver’s license number but not a social security number for software registration.The only drawback that I can find with this software is its weak news provider.

It took me a minute or two to realize that I could link to the news from the intraday chart by clicking on “related news” from the functions button located at the top upper right hand corner of the interday chart screen.Unlike other software packages, unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to link directly from my watchlist. You can, however, like other software packages search the news directly from the main screen you are presented with when you open the software.The news

in Chinese, on the other hand, actually seems to be real news articles detailing events that could impact the stock market.Actually though, I don't really find this as much of a drawback. I can still search for info on any certain stock from within their news provider window.Let me go into a bit more detail about some of the features of the software and why I like it so much.

First of all, I feel the background black color contrasts well with the text and charts, making it easy to read in any environment. The charts are probably what finally drew me to make the decision to stick with this software as my final choice for stock apps available on the iPhone. The first feature that you will first encounter is the Watchlist, here you can create your own personal list that you can follow in real time. There is also a feature that allows you to see all the stocks you are tracking together in a single listing as well.Unlike some of the other software packages, you do not need to know the stock symbol in order to add a company. Knowing the company's name will allow for easy searching of the company and then adding it to your personalized watchlist.

I added a few stocks from some companies from both a Taiwan and a USA exchange and created a list. You can call your list anything like, here I have labeled the list as "My Holdings." When I tap on my "My Holdings" list I'll be taken to a screen that will give me some detailed information about each stock including the symbol, last price, change, change%, etc. and then I can click on any of these headings to rearrange my list either ascending or descending according to the just-clicked heading. You can also while editing your list has the ability to edit the headers as well. More to come tomorrow...