Override-decimal-precision

btw you can define your own StepValue:
https://www.wealth-lab.com/Support/ApiReference/Parameter

QUOTE:
(BTW, you may wish to change maxMalue to maxValue in the tooltip.)

Done, thanks.

An IEEE 754 double value (which is used for a WL7 double parameter) has a resolution of 15 to 17 significant digits.
(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-precision_floating-point_format)
So the smallest possible step depends on the magnitude of the value.
From 1.0 it is about 1e-15.
From 1000.0 it is about 1e-12.
And so on.

What does it mean?
This means: For all practical applications the possible smallest step size is "small enough" i.e. very, very small compared to the start value.

The thing is that both on the Chart and on the Optimize tabs the display is only up to 2 decimal places so everything is getting rounded up/down making it hard to figure out.

Is there a way for me to change the display to (at least) 4 decimal places. In WL6, one could specify under Preferences how many Decimal Places for Prices and Indicators to display.

In WL7 the decimals in the price chart are controlled by the market/symbol. The indicator pane decimals adjust as needed to display required decimals, although I notice that the current "value marker" for the indicator does not respect these decimals, so I will fix that. I'll also work on the optimizer tab decimals because I see they do not adjust accordingly as you mentioned.

👍

Most markets' decimal places appear to be locked, can't be changed:


Instead of unlocking them, may just be simpler to have the minimum number of decimal places for Prices and Indicators be selected in Preferences perhaps? The way this would work is the precision displayed would be the larger of this value or default value preset under Markets.

I tagged this with Feature Request, you can vote for it in the Wish List.

Are you able to modify the title to, say, something like:
Minimum stepValue for a double (Added: Feature Request for Greater Decimal Precision?
I'm afraid with the current title it'll never get voted upon lol.

QUOTE:
Are you able to modify the title to, say, something like

Done.

Can one of the developers please simplify the title (again!) to either
Override decimal precision
- or -
User-selectable decimal precision.

They are simpler, to the point and non-confusing.
TIA.

QUOTE:
Instead of unlocking them, may just be simpler to have the minimum number of decimal places for Prices and Indicators be selected in Preferences perhaps?

Given that you can simply "Create a Copy" of a market, specifying your own Decimals for the copy, do we really need this request?

Given that the solution exists and there hasn't been enough community interest in half a year, I believe it'd be best if we decline the request. IMO introducing such overrides may bring confusion.

Just saw this.

QUOTE:
...simply "Create a Copy" of a market...

If one creates a Copy of a market does one have to do it every time you open the app or will the copy automatically update if anything changes in the parent (source)?

A Copy is not a clone so it will not be updated automatically. It retains its own settings.

In any case you don't have to create a copy every time you open WL8!

Seems like its not the clean, robust, set-and-forget solution a user would desire.

Wish the developers would allow a user to set decimal precision for display purposes - and, perhaps, also in other places e.g. when one copies backtest results to a text file the decimals are up to 14 (fourteen) places, that's way too much.

This is still an active item in the wish list, so eventually we will get to it.

It's marked as Declined, perhaps you can re-activate it? (and vote for it, too lol)

Ok I reactivated it. It isn’t something I’d personally vote for because I’m perfectly satisfied with how WL8 handles the decimals currently.

I think such requests without community interest in 1 1/2 year only stack up the queue and potentially bring more complexity and confusion which scares away new users.

@Glitch:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-sec-poised-allow-half-penny-stock-pricing-2024-09-18/
SEC voted today (9/18/24) to allow half-penny stock pricing. Implementation date is Nov-2025.
Half-penny pricing implies 3 decimal places. You may wish to implement it well before the Nov'25 deadline.

P.S. 4-decimal places is even better, esp when it comes to indicators and Bond Yields. To have the yields truncated to 2 decimal places is a travesty.

P.P.S. Even the years-old WL6 displays indicators to 4 decimal places and security prices (including bond yields) to 6 decimal places.

Doing it for all US Stocks would be a problem (and unnecessary), but you can specify any precision you want for any particular instrument (like bond yields) in Markets & Symbols.

Thanks for the heads up for half-penny pricing. Probably just a quick edit to adapt, but it's going to be uncomfortable looking at 3 decimals, imho.

1. All US Stocks will have to migrate to sub-penny pricing when the rule becomes law (penny stocks already use 4 decimals, you can see this on your broker's API e.g. IB).
2. Markets & Symbols | US Stocks is locked so there's no way to set it to 4 decimals for all symbols.
3. Personally, I favor 4 decimals (at the very least) instead of 3 for stock prices too (and forward-thinking exchanges will likely jump straight from 2 to 4 decimals) - as well as for indicators.

Even if you set a symbol to desired # of decimals (dec) to override the market's default there are a couple of issues you may not be aware of but ought to be able to verify easily on your PC:
1. When that is the main symbol being plotted (in the "Price" pane) it'll display your desired # of dec (but see #2 below) but if it's called as an external symbol and then plotted in its own pane it defaults to the market's default (e.g. 2 dec).
2. The trailing zeros are removed e.g. yesterday's (9/18/24) close for US Dollar index was 100.596001. If I plot it to 6 dec I see all numbers but when I change it to 4 dec the price gets truncated to 100.596 i.e. trailing 0 gets removed. I believe it's important to show the full decs as it lets the user know what the setting is.

Using WL8 B100.



I was happy to see the US Markets will now display 3 decimals wef this build!! Hopefully, 4 decimals very soon... :)
-------------------

A few points, though:


1. This is the S&P 500 index close on Friday, 9/20/23 (5702.5498), WL6 chart on left and WL8 on right. WL6 displays 4 decimals but WL8 is still only showing 2 deci, not 3 as per new setting. Don't know if this is due to rounding or whether some other setting needs to be tweaked somewhere?
2. Please give users the option to display trailing zeros, should they so choose.
3. Please ensure that when a symbol is called upon via 'GetHistory' it follows the deci places of the parent market or, if set, that on the Symbols tab. When plotted, currently they only show 2 decis.
4. Please have indicator decimals either be set separately (ideally) or atleast follow the plotted symbol's; currently, they only display 2 - not even 3 as one may have expected from the new Market setting.

TIA.

Thanks, we have it in the request list, so we will get to it in due course.

#3. I just realized that when plotted as an external symbol the plot is (most likely) following the indicator decimal setting, not necessarily the market/symbol's decimal setting.

QUOTE:
we have it in the request list

Were you talking about setting Indicator decimal places, or something else?

A new Q:
I made a copy of the US Stocks market, set decimals to 4, and while it may be assigned temporarily to a chart (from the status bar) as soon as the symbol is changed it reverts to US Stocks market. Is there a way to set it as the default market? More importantly, would you recommend it or advice against doing so?

I was talking about this topic as a #FeatureRequest. We can roll the indicator decimals into the request.

Ok, thanks.
As long as I can remember, indicator decimals used to be settable under Preferences in all WLab versions before WLab 7.

I’m aware. It was just a failed attempt to reduce complexity.

I hear you.

It's not a failed attempt. Just mouse over any stock that split in the past.
It displays 3 decimals where required, but just not a third zero. I didn't change anything to do it that way, but personally I like that for US Stocks. (Yes Sammy, I'm aware that you want to see all the zeroes, ad nauseum.)

I meant failed to please everyone. This 24 year exercise has taught me that’s impossible 😅

So true.
That's why we have Preferences - so users can adjust things to their liking.