Interesting daylight savings MC note.

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bowlesj3
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Interesting daylight savings MC note.

Postby bowlesj3 » 03 Nov 2008

I am not sure if this is a problem but it is interesting. I have to give some background information before I get to what MC is doing.

I use a program called "Dimension 4" to get the atomic clock time and keep my computer time accurate. It has many if not all the atomic clocks around the world to select from and lots of parameters for varied use of the program.

Daylight savings time in your area varies depending on your local government's latest determination. So they changed it a few years back for my area so that daylight savings time occurs a week earlier than it had for many years. I eventually figured out that I have to switch my computer time zone to a different time zone for that week to get my computer to show the correct time then a week later I have to switch it back to the correct time zone which Dimension 4 thinks that I am actually shifting to daylight savings time. It does not matter what atomic clock I select the effect is the same. It is the same spring and fall. I have to run this special time zone for normally one week before I switch it back to my normal time zone and I have to do this two times a year. I haven't quite figured this part out yet since I seem to remember it being a little different in the spring than the fall.

So here is what MC is doing when I make this shift. I had run MC last week under Atlantic time zone setting and it wrote out everything okay to match my clock which was set the way it should be set. However on the weekend I shifted over to Estern Standard time and as would be expected the time scale on the bottom of the charts shifted to match my correct clock time after the daylight savings shift Sunday morning. However on Sunday during the day after this shft the print statements are still writing out the bar times as being the times that were used last week. Today it is collecting data live correctly under the Eastern Standard Time Zone setting of true daylight savings time that Dimension 4 understands.

So I figure that if anyone is interested they can test this themselves at any time when they are off-line (no live prices coming down). When you are off-line, change your computer's time zone by one hour and the MC chart scale times will change to match. However the bar times will stay as they were before and obviously you can test this with a simple print statement.

Note: I have my price bars set to local time.

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