The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 3.5 Version.

Product Enhancements for version 3.5:
Release Date: Feb 24, 1999

• Rectangle and vertical line drawing tools for chart annotation
• Row and column highlighting in quote pages
• Tick Data Compression into Bars
• Function key shortcuts
• Scan improvements
• Day Bar Charts
• Market Profile Charts
• Volume Profile Charts
• myTrack Chat facility
• New in 3.4

1. Rectangle and vertical line drawing tools for chart annotation
   These two new charting "indicators" allow the user to mark up charts with verticals lines placed at a specific date/time or rectanges enclosing a user specified trading date/time range. Both indicators support a user comment that will display in the chart to annotate the line or rectangle. For verttical lines, the user comment appears only when the line is "selected". Both indicators have drawing tools on the charting toolbar. For example to draw a rectange, click the rectangle drawing tools, the mouse pointer will change to a pencil. Move the mouse pointer to the place in the chart to start the rectangle, mouse down and drag the mouse to the ending time and release.
2. Row and column highlighting in quote pages
   Rows and columns in quote pages may be highlighted using the highlight color specified in preferences. To highlight an instrument, right click on the ticker cell in a quote page (or portfolio), and choose "Highlight" from the popup menu. To highlight a column, right click on the column title and choose highlight from the popup menu. Options are also provided to highlighting every other column to improve the readability of the spreadsheet.
3. Tick Data Compression into Bars
   In Versions prior to 3.5, Investor/RT maintained all intra-day historical data as ticks. The user specifies the number of days of tick data to retain in the database. To view longer term intra-day charts going back more than a week or so it was necessary for Investor/RT to store and retrieve huge amounts of tick data from the database. For many users, tick by tick data is only required for the last few hours or days of trading, while 1-minute or 5-minute bar data is sufficient for scanning or viewing charts going back several weeks or months. Saving longer term intra-day ticks as n-minute bars uses considerably less disk storage space than tick data, especially for actively traded stocks and futures contracts.
   
   To facilitate longer term intra-day charting in Investor/RT, Version 3.5 incorporate a new user option for controlling the compression of tick data into a minute bars of some user specified duration. The option is part of the Setup: Preferences: Historical Data window. The checkbox is titled:
   
   [x] Compact tick data older than [ n ] days into [ m] minute bars.
   
   where the user checks the box and fills in numeric values for n and m. If the checkbox is not checked, then all intra-day data will be kept as ticks just as it was in Version 3.4 and earlier. The user specifies the tick data retention period in this window. The number n above must be less than the default tick data retention period. The recommended value for m is one. One-minute bars can be translated into minute bars of any other user desired duration for charting. If the user specifies a value greater than one, this will restrict intra-day charts to multiples of m. For example, if you retain longer term intra-day data as 5 minute bars, intra-day charts of 5, 10, 15, or any other multiple of 5 will be possible. The trade off is between flexibility and disk space. 5-minute bars take less disk space than 1-minute bars. If you only want a week or two or intra-day data then use 1-minute bars. If you wish to retain intra-day data for several months, consider 5-minute or a higher bar duration.
   
   For discussion purposes, consider this example:
   
   Default Retention Settings
   Tick Data: 60 days
   [x] Compact tick data older than 3 days into 1 minute bars
   
   Intra-day data will be collected tick by tick for each intra-day instruments for three days. At the end of each trading day when historical data is posted to the database, Investor/RT will convert all ticks older than 3 days into 1-minute bars and store the bars in the database. The ticks used to derive these bars are removed from the database. Each day the process repeats and more bars are added. Eventually, there will be bars older than 60 days on the database and these will be removed at that time.
   
   When drawing intra-day charts, Investor/RT will merge the bar data with the tick data on file to derive the chart. In this example, if you call up a 5 minute bar chart, Investor/RT will first convert the 1-minute bars to 5-minute bars. Then it will add 5 minute bars derived from the tick data currently on file and draw the chart.
   
   When you request a tick chart, ONLY the tick data on file is referenced. There is no reference to the older bar data in the case. In this case tick charts can only be viewed for the last 3 days, while intra-day minute bars charts can go back as much as 60 days.
   
   The view/edit and historical export features of Investor/RT combine the bar data and tick data. If you call up a view/edit window of 1-minute bars you will see a continuous list of bars derived first from the bar data followed by the more recent bars derived from the tick data on file.
   
   Scanning using an intra-day periodicity works just like the chart, the data scanned is derived from both the bars and ticks as necessary.
   
   Importing tick data or minute bar data from text files or from Internet data services (DTN.IQ, Signal Online, or myTrack) works as follows. The imported tick data or bar data is first loaded into the database as ticks. The imported data will be available for tick charts and/or intra-day minute charts for the remainder of the trading session. After the end of session when Post History occurs, the tick data that is older than 3 days (in this example) will be merged with the bar data on file. During this merging process, any bars already on file will be replaced by the newly imported bars having the same minute interval. 
4. Function key shortcuts
   A wide array of common Investor/RT actions may now be initiated by a function key. The setup and assignment of function keys to Investor/RT actions is done in the Setup: Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts window. Function keys F1 through F24 are supported. Some keyboards have F1-F12 keys, others have F1-F15. The user may assign actions to function keys when pressed in combination with other modifier keys. On the Windows platform, the two modifier keys Ctrl and Shift may be used. For example F2 alone, ctrl-F2, ctrl-shift-F2, and shift-F2 can each be assigned to a different action. On the Macintosh platform the command key, option key, and shift key may be used as modifiers. Thus there are eight combinations for each F key.
   
   When the Keyboard Shortcuts window appears, first select the F key you wish to setup and check mark any modifier keys for the shortcut. The current definition for that combination will be displayed or "No Action" will be shown if that combination is not yet setup. Then specify the action to be performed when that combination of keys is pressed. To save the shortcut, you must press the Apply or OK button. A confirmation message appears in the message area of the main toolbar. The Apply button saves the shortcut and leaves the window open, while OK saves the shortcut and closes the window.
   
   The actions include: Add, Open, Save, Setup, Sort, and Run. Each action presents a list of other options. The Add action is used to add frequently used technical indicators to charts. The Open action is used to open any named object, e.g. a particular chart, quote page, layout, etc. The sort action is used to sort quote pages or portfolios (ascending or descending) by a particular data column, e.g. percent change. The Run action is used to run scans. The Setup action is used to access frequently used preferences windows or any of the setup windows under the Setup menu. The Save action is used to save the current object or save the current layout.
   
   The Keyboard Shortcuts window has a button titled "Legend". Click this button to see a text display of every function key shortcut along with a description of the associated action. It is recommended that you setup a key, e.g. F12 to invoke the "Open : File : Shortcut Legend" Action. Also setup shift-F12 to invoke the "Setup: Preferences :Keyboard Shortcuts" action. Then you can press F12 whenever you wish to view a list of your shortcuts, or press shift-F12 when you want to define or modify a shortcut.
5. Scan improvements
   Three new scan tokens have been added: HLR (the high-low range for any bar) , OCR (Open-Close Range for any bar), and BAS (the current bid/ask spread )The OCR token always returns a positive range value measuring the distance in price between the open and close. Since HLR and OCR are historical tokens, they can be qualified with a number to refer back in time. BAS is a primitive property of an instrument representing the current bid ask spread. It cannot be referenced historically. For example, the scan:
   
   HLR > HLR1 and HLR1 > HLR2 and HLR2 > HLR3
   
   will identify bars showing three consecutive periods of increasing high-low range.
   
   In concern with this, the STAT technical indicator in the scan language has been enhanced to allow statistics to be calculated on the historical values of the high-low range. For example, you can define STAT to be the maximum hi-lo range during 30 periods. Then the scan request:
   
   HLR >= STAT
   
   will identify bars where the current period's trading range is the maximum range during 30 periods.
   
   The scan BAS >= 1 / 4 will find all issues having a bid ask spread of .25 or greater.
   
   Each of these new data columns may, be displayed in quote pages and may be used to rank (sort) the quote page.
6. Day Bar Charts
   A day bar chart is a special chart window showing the current daily bar for an instrument. This is a convenient way to keep your eye on a graphical representation of the day's session. The day bar shows the open, high, low, and current price numerically and graphically. The bar is color coded as up or down based on either the open or previous session close. Optionally, the time of the high and low are shown. The day bar updates tick by tick. Think of it as a magnification of the last bar in a daily bar chart.
7. Market Profile Charts
   The Market Profile displays a horizontally positioned histogram that graphs a time-price relationship for trade in a security. Each half-hour of the day is designated by a letter. If a certain price is traded during a given half-hour, the corresponding letter is marked next to the price. The first half hour (or portion thereof) of trade will be noted with the letter A, the second half-hour will be noted with the letter B, and so on. The open price for the day is marked with the letter O. As price moves up and down each letter is marked only once at each price level.
   
   This method of graphing time spent at each price will often form a bell curve. The most dense portion of the bell curve is called the value area. In general, look for price to gravitate toward the value area and away from the extremes.
8. Volume Profile Charts
   The volume profile study creates a histogram that displays the volume for a security at each price it traded throughout the day. Most notable is the price at which the most volume has traded--this is called the "volume weighted average price" (VWAP).
   
   Market makers and institutional traders are under pressure to offer executions to their customers which are better than the VWAP. This pressure is in the form of revenues generated by commissions. One of the best times to watch the VWAP is at the end of the day, when market makers may bid up a stock or sell it off to better position their executions. In general, look for trade to gravitate toward the VWAP.
9. myTrack Chat facility
   myTrack users may now communicate live with other myTrack users and with Track Data personnel using the built-in "chat" facility in Investor/RT. This feature of Investor/RT is designed to operate similarly to the chat feature in myTrack software for windows. Macintosh users can now participate in myTrack chat sessions using Investor/RT. For details on using this facility click here.