MASTER INDEX
  SEARCH
  CHARTS
  MAIN TOOLBAR
  SETTING PREFERENCES
  TECHNICAL INDICATORS
  WHAT'S NEW
  ALARMS
  BACKTESTING
  CONFIRMING TRADES
  CUSTOM COLUMNS
  CUSTOM INDICATORS
  CUSTOM INSTRUMENTS
  CUSTOM PRICES
  DATA FEEDS
  DATABASE
  DOWNLOADING DATA
  FEED STATUS
  HEARTBEAT
  HELP
  MULTI-LINKING
  MULTI-PERIODICITY
  INSTRUMENT SETUP
  NASDAQ LEVEL II
  NEWS TICKER
  NEWS BROWSER
  OPTIMIZATION
  OPTIONS ANALYTICS
  PLACING TRADES
  PORTFOLIOS
  PRESETS
  PRINTING
  QUICK QUOTES
  QUOTE PAGES
  REALIZATION
  RTL LANGUAGE
  SCANS
  SCHEDULES
  SCOPE
  SYSTEM STATUS
  TICKER TAPE
  TIME AND SALES
  TRADING NOTES
  USER VARIABLES
  VERTICAL SCALE
MASTER INDEX
DICTIONARY
FEEDBACK

Web Research Menu and Control Panel

Investor/RT's Web Resource feature has been greatly enhanced in version 5.0 Rev 1. Now, users can create as many customized links as they want, and access them using the quotepage popup menu, keyboard shortcuts, schedules, and a new Web Research Control Panel window (discussed below). Scheduled web research gives the user the ability to popup as many ticker symbol specific web pages as desired (each in their own browser window) by simply clicking a ticker symbol in a quotepage, then hitting a shortcut key. This feature is discussed further below.

Custom links can be created by going to "Setup Prefs: Web Research". Links can be created, edited, deleted or tested at the bottom of this page. Each link has a name and a URL, or web address. In the URL field, specify the web address that you would like to access when clicking on the corresponding name. Many web sites have ticker symbol specific information. If you access one of these pages, and closely inspect the web address, you will notice that in many cases, the ticker symbols in imbedded somewhere in the address. And by simply editing that ticker to another one, you can access ticker specific information on any ticker. If your Internet address requires the specification of a ticker symbol, then insert three asterisks  (***) in the URL where the ticker symbol is to go. Then, the ticker symbol that you right click on will automatically be inserted into the address when accessed.

For example, if you go to the Island site http://htmlgritch.island.com

and enter the ticker symbol INTC, and click "Get Quote", you will get the following web address...

http://htmlgritch.island.com/SERVICE/QUOTE?STOCK=INTC

And the result is a level II page for INTC. In order to access level II on any other stock, you would simply substitute the ticker symbol in for INTC.

Therefore, in order to create your custom link in Investor/RT, you would just insert *** in place of INTC, and Investor/RT will automatically plug in the ticker symbol when appropriate. The Link preferences would look like this...

Name: Island Level II
URL: http://htmlgritch.island.com/SERVICE/QUOTE?STOCK=****

Once you've created your link, it can be used in a variety of ways: Web Research Popup Menus, Web Research Control Pane, Shortcut Keys, and Schedules.

Web Research Popup Menus
One way to access your links is through the popup menu accessible by right-clicking (control-click on Mac) on a ticker symbol in quotepage. The menu item is titled "Web Research". The first element in the Web Research menu is titled "Control Panel", which we will discuss below. The next two items are user customizable submenus. The titles of these submenus and the elements in each submenu can be configured using the "Setup Preferences: Web Research" window. This window is also accessible by choosing the "Setup" choice at the end of either custom submenu list. When an link is chosen from the submenu, the web browser will come up and access the appropriate web site. If a *** was involved in the link, then the ticker symbol will be substituted in the URL and the resulting web page will be ticker symbol specific. Unfortunately, this feature is not yet fully implemented on the Mac due to limitations we are encountering with the number of popup menu levels. We hope to have that resolved by next release.

Web Research Control Panel
This window can be accessed by clicking on the "Control Panel" button on the Web Resource Preferences window, or by choose "Control Panel" from the quotepage Web Research menu of the quotepage popup menu, or by "Web Research" from the chart popup menu. This window is setup identical to the custom menus, and can be edited by clicking the "Setup" button at the bottom of the window. If the link related to the button involves a ticker symbol, the ticker symbol should be inserted in the field labeled "Ticker" at the top.

Web Research Keyboard Shortcut
A new keyboard shortcut has been added titled "Web Research". When selected, the available custom links are listed below. The selected link will be opened when the shortcut key is activated. The ticker symbol will be pulled from whatever object is front most in Investor/RT. If a chart in the front, the ticker symbol will be pulled from the chart. If a quotepage or portfolio is in front, then the selected ticker symbol will be used in the link.

Scheduling Web Research
Web Research has also been added as a new action for schedules. The action is similar to the way web research keyboard shortcuts work. By providing the ability to open web links as scheduled actions, the user can now open as many ticker symbol specific web pages (all in separate browser windows) as desired with one click. Simply create a schedule that is activated by say the F4 key. Then add as many web research actions as you like, each one opening up a new web research link. Then, for example, click on INTC in a quote page; press the F4 key, and many distinct web pages relating to INTC will appear.