You can think of the main historical testing dialog box as the control center for all of your test systems. There are four areas in the dialog box:
The Entry Condition area - This is where you will add bar patterns and indicators that you want Investigator to check for entry conditions.
The Exit Condition area - This is where you will add bar patterns and indicators that you want Investigator to check for exit conditions.
The Long / Short radio buttons - This is where you specify whether the system that will be used for testing is a long trade or a short trade.
The Hard Stop Edit box - This is where you enter the Hard Stop for the system. All systems must have a hard stop which tells Investigator to exit the trade regardless of what the other stop conditions indicate. This can save you from large losses.
Systems are created by clicking and dragging the various bar pattern or indicator buttons (icons) from the indicator palette to the entry or exit condition area of the main historical testing dialog box. Indicators are organized as described in the Indicators Overview help section. Most users quickly learn which indicators are associated with which buttons since the indicators are logically grouped by indicator type. Since there are too many indicators to appear on a single indicator palette, you can click the Next or Previous button on the current indicator palette to see the next or previous palette.
Once you’ve clicked and dragged the indicator’s icon from the indicator palette to the entry or exit condition area, the indicator’s testing dialog box appears with some defaults values. If you don’t like the indicator’s testing dialog defaults, you can always change the default values. Check and enter the parameters for the indicator that you want, and then click OK. The indicator’s icon will appear in the entry or exit condition area.
If you later want to review or change the indicator’s parameters, you can left click on the indicator’s icon and the testing dialog box will appear. If you want to delete the indicator, you can right click on the indicators icon.
After entering your entry and exit conditions, click OK and you will progress to the Entry / Exit Conditions Review dialog boxes.