Right now it is 1 scan per portfolio. We're working on being able to do more than 1 - probably 3 max. Then you will be able to set different timeframes on each scan.
AFAIU, there are two ways to do scanning: 1. Server side - something like Trade-Ideas. Pro: you can scan the whole universe of stocks. Con: you can only run the scans that the server has pre-programmed (and probably combine such scans). So cannot do full customization. 2. Client side - like Medved Trader. Pro: you can customize the scan as much as you want, it is just (in case of MT - C#) code, using any built-in indicators with any parameters you want, any timeframe, any candle frequency, etc. Con: you only are running the scan on the data that is being streamed into the program. Granted, some data sources allow for quite a lot of tickers to be streamed (like 1500) but still. I don't think there is a way for a third way that combines the pros of the two methods above. I was musing for a while about making a service like that where you would be able to upload a fully customized scanner and run it on the full universe of stocks, but I think the cost would be too much and not enough demand for it to justify it.
So then someone would be able to do the following on the same scan code: If (close on 5min and close on 15 min > 100...). From what I understood from you it will be one scan using Close on 5min and another one using Close on 15min and they both run at the same time
That's true. I prefer custom scanning. Yes unless you follow a certain number of stocks/sectors with certain criteria that you follow constantly, one would need 1500 and maybe more depending on strategy and capitalization
Yes one scan could run on 5 min candles and the other scan could run on 15 min candles and you would see both results in the table. Since alerts are triggered inside the scan and not outside it, alerting on the combo of the two would not be possible as it is. We'd have to figure out some way to be able to specify an alert if both scans returned something... In general, doing multiple timeframes in one scan is a problem because you have to precalculate the candle data for the scan, and you obviously calculate it for a particular timeframe.
Traders that use our scanning capability usually pre-screen a list of stocks that they then scan in real time during markets.
Yes if there is a way to combine results from multiple scans would be a great improvement for Medved. Tradeideas is capable of combining indicators from multiple timeframes
I emailed letting them know that I intended to purchase a paid version. They stated they don't support custom SMA values free or paid.