The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 4.3 Version.

Product Enhancements for version 4.3:
Release Date: April 27, 2000

• Major New Feature: Custom Profile Chart Type (tour screenshot)
• Chart Grid Line Color Setting
• Parallel Trend Line Drawing Tool
• Function F1 for Context Sensitive Help
• Macintosh Improvement. Using the Finder to View Investor/RT Files
• Connection Dialog Box
• Saving Quick Quotes
• Detrended Oscillator Added to RTL Language
• Improved Date/Time Control
• Trend Line Break Alerts
• Improvements to Import Feature
• Improvements to Point & Figure Charts
• Changing Chart Types With Popup Menu. 
• New in 4.2

1. Major New Feature: Custom Profile Chart Type (tour screenshot)
   The Custom Profile Chart is the latest addition to the suite of available chart types in Investor/RT. A custom profile is a histogram showing a value for each of several instruments in a quote page. The value can be one of several built-in data items or calculations that are available as quote page columns (e.g. %change, high-low range, PE Ratio, etc.), or the value can be a user-specified custom indicator. The Custom Profile Chart can show a histogram value for every instrument in the quote page, or, for larger quote pages, the display can be limited to the highest or lowest N instruments ranked ascending or descending by the specified value. Like all other chart types in Investor/RT, the custom profile chart is "live". You may specify how frequently the profile is to be recalculated and displayed as market data flows in, similar to the "auto scan" feature. 
   
   To create a Custom Profile Chart, use File: New: Chart, choose "Custom Profile" from the Chart Type menu and press OK. Investor/RT will use the default preferences for the Custom Profile. Default preferences are specified using Setup: Preferences: Charting: Custom Profile. You can also access the preferences for the Custom Profile using Setup: Custom File. A custom profile window with your default preferences can also be opened using File: New: Custom Profile. 
   
   Modify the settings for a particular Custom Profile by right clicking in the histogram area (to the right of the ticker symbols) and choosing Preferences from the popup menu. Right-clicking (command+click on Macintosh) on a ticker symbol in the custom profile will popup a menu of actions for that ticker symbol (just like right-clicking on a ticker in a quote page). Double-click on any ticker symbol to open a default chart for the ticker. 
   
   Custom Profile windows can be saved using the toolbar or File: Save. Like other chart types, the names of saved Custom Profile charts appear in the Open: Chart menu for later recall. 
   
   As you move the mouse inside a Custom Profile window, Investor/RT shows the calculated value for each instrument at the top of the window. The source quote page or the data column or custom indicator used to display the profile can be changed at any time using the toolbar or the popup menu. For example, suppose you have a custom profile showing the top 10 issues ranked by %change from the open for a particular quote page. Right-click and choose "Set Quote Page" to open a selection list showing all quote pages. Pick any quote page in the selection list and click the "Apply" button to see the selected quote page profiled in the window. 
   
   Click the red-cross toggle button in lower right corner of the custom profile window to alternately show and hide the associated toolbar. 
2. Chart Grid Line Color Setting
   The grid line color in traditional time-based charts can now be specified by the user. Prior to Version 4.3 grid lines were always drawn in a light gray color. To set the default grid line color, go to Setup: Preferences: Charting: Color Preferences and click on the color control rectangle titled "Grid Line Color". Charts saved prior to version 4.3 will (unfortunately) have a blue color as the gridline color. To adjust an individual chart's grid line color, click the Preferences icon on the charting toolbar and choose "Colors". Then click on the "Grid Line Color" control rectangle to make your selection. 
   
   If you have several chart windows open and you wish to revise the gridline color on all of them, go to Setup: Preferences: Charting: Color Preferences. Make the gridline color selection and press the OK button. Investor/RT will ask if you want to apply the new settings to all open chart windows. 
   
   The new grid line color option can be used to completely eliminate the grid lines by setting the grid line color to the same color as the chart background. To "tone down" the gridlines, choose a grid line color very close to the background. 
3. Parallel Trend Line Drawing Tool
   A new tool has been added to the charting toolbar to facilitate the draw of parallel trend lines. The new tool is located adjacent to the regular trend line drawing tool on the toolbar. The new tool operates just like the regular trend line drawing tool if the windowpane in which you are drawing does NOT already have a trend line in it. However, if the pane does have a trend line in it, all you have to do is click at the price level you want and a new trend line will appear at that precise location having the same slope as the other trend line in the window. Any number of parallel trend lines can be drawn in this fashion. The tool is automatically "de-selected" after drawing the new trend line unless you hold down the shift key when releasing the mouse. 
4. Function Key F1 For Context Sensitive Help
   The function key F1 is now equivalent to pressing the help button on the main toolbar. Function key F1 can be assigned to some other user specified action using Setup:> Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts if you like. Formerly the F1 button would simply open the help window to the contents page. Now, for both Windows and Macintosh versions of Investor/RT, F1 opens the help window to the help topic related to the current (front) window. 
5. Macintosh Improvement: Using the Finder to View Investor/RT Files
   Using the Finder to view Investor/RT files. Investor/RT text files are now created with the Investor/RT "creator" signature. Formerly text files were created with the "Simple Text" creator signature. This means that Investor/RT text files can be opened and displayed by Investor/RT by double-clicking on them in the Finder. You can also open several Investor/RT text files at one time using the Finder to select them before issuing the Open command in the Finder. Investor/RT creates most of its text file in the admin folder. Here are a few of the special files kept there that may be of interest:
   

   File Name	Description
   dialdata.dat	latest current quotes download from Dial/Data
   dialdata.hist	latest historical download from Dial/Data
   iqhist.txt	latest DTN.IQ daily historical download
   iqbars.txt	latest DTN.IQ intra-day minute bar download
   iqticks.txt	latest DTN.IQ tick data download
   Message log	the Investor/RT message log file
   Irtlog.txt	Investor/RT Internet log showing latest Dial/Data login transcript
   Market Pulse.txt	latest market pulse report downloaded from myTrack
   XXX_bars.txt	atest ticker XXX intra-day bars downloaded from myTrack or eSignal
   XXX_hist.txt	latest ticker XXX daily bars downloaded from myTrack or eSignal
   XXX_ticks.txt	latest ticker XXX tick data downloaded from eSignal

   In a related improvement, the Macintosh applications I/RT Database Maintenance and I/RT Database Verify have been improved to produce their output files with the Investor/RT signature. These two file, called dbmaint.txt and dbverify.txt appear inside the Investor/RT Folder (not the admin folder). Double-clicking these files will show you the report of the most recent database maintenance or database verification. 

6. Connection Dialog Box
   When Investor/RT is connecting to an Internet remote host or resolving a domain name, if the connection attempt or domain name resolution takes more than a few seconds, Investor/RT will open a small modal dialog box to inform the user that a connection attempt is in progress. The modal dialog ensures that no menu commands or other user actions can be initiated until either the connection is made or the user presses the dialog's cancel button. This dialog box will not be seen at all when the Internet is responding quickly to Investor/RT requests. If there is a delay however, the dialog will appear and handle all user interface updates while the connection attempt is in progress. In the past, Investor/RT would appear to be locked up if there was a delayed response or no response from the Internet. The cancel button or dialog close box terminates the connection attempt. 
7. Saving Quick Quotes
   Quick quotes for particular instruments that you wish to appear in the list of quick quotes must be saved explicitly using the File: Save command. Formerly, Investor/RT would save quick quotes automatically when the quick quote window was closed. This often resulted in a build-up of unwanted items in the quick quote menu. To clear unwanted quick quotes from the menu, use the Delete command in the Control: Data Management menu. To add a new quick quote to the menu, open a quick quote window, set the window to the desired instrument and issue the File: Save command. 
   
   Investor/RT remembers the screen location of each saved quick quote window. When opening a quick quote window using the Open Menu or the list of quick quotes, Investor/RT will create the quick quote window at the screen location and window size it had when it was last saved. Quick quotes can be requested for any instrument using the right-click popup menu in quotes pages, portfolio, or instrument selection lists. In this case, a the quick quote window is centered in the Investor/RT task window. 
8. Detrended Oscillator Added to RTL Language
   The Detrended Oscillator technical indicator is available for use in scans, custom indicators, and trading signals. The RTL token is DTREND. For more information, click here.
9. Improved Date/Time Control
   The "Date/Time Control" is widely used in various windows within Investor/RT. The control is a simple rectangle containing a date and time. The user can tab or click the mouse on any of the numbers in the date or time. The selected number is underlined and displayed in bold face type. Type in a new number or use the up/down arrow keyboard keys to adjust the date/time accordingly. When the control is active, up/down icons appear at the left side of the control. Click the up or down icon to increment or decrement the selected "number" in the control. The control accepts a right-click (command-click on Macintosh) anywhere inside the rectangle and responds by popping up a menu of useful dates for quickly setting the date of the control. The menu choices are listed below. The popup menu is useful in the Data Download window when specifying the beginning date for a historical data download. It may also be useful in setting the "Viewing Period" of charts or the "Backtesting Period" when testing trading systems. The "Normalized price" technical indicator preferences window is another example where the popup will be useful in setting the "base period" for this indicator in daily charts.
   

   Menu Item	Description
   Now	The current date and time
   Today	The current date (no time)
   Yesterday	The date of the prior trading day
   Week Ago	The date five trading days ago
   Month Ago	The date of the trading day one month ago
   Three Months Ago	The date of the trading day three months ago
   Six Months Ago	The date of the trading day six months ago
   Year Ago	The date of the trading day one year ago
   Beginning of this Week	The date of the preceding Monday
   Beginning of the Month	The first trading day of the current month
   Beginning of the Quarter	The first trading day of the current quarter
   Beginning of the Year	The first trading day of the current year

10. Trend Line Break Alerts
    The preferences for the "Trend Line" technical indicator now include an "Alert" checkbox. When checked, Investor/RT will alert the user when the price breaks through the trend line. If you want trend line break alerts for an existing trend line, right + click on the trend line and check the alert box. If you want trend line alerts to be in effect for all newly drawn trend lines, use Setup: Preferences: Charting: Technical Indicators and checkmark the Alert box in the preferences for the Trend Line indicator. 
    
    Investor/RT will note which side of the trend line the current price is on when the trend line is first drawn and will watch for breaks to the other side of the trend line. The alert will consist of an alert sound and the display of an alert window describing the trend line break and showing the price of the issue. The alert sound will the be "High Alarm" sound when the break is above the trend line or the "Low Alarm" sound when the break is to the downside of the trend line. See Setup: Preferences: Sounds to configure the particular sounds. 
11. Improvements to Import Feature
    Historical import of daily or intra-day data using the File: Import command has been improved to support the import of multiple files at one time. In cases where the imported file(s) do not contain the ticker symbol on each line, the files often are named with the ticker at the beginning of the file name. Investor/RT can now extract the ticker symbol from the file name and use that ticker to import the data. The new options are available as checkboxes in the File: Import window. 
    
    When importing multiple files at one time, the user is prompted to select the folder. Every file in the folder will be imported in turn using the specified import format. If the "Get Ticker from File name" checkbox is checked and the user specified format does not contain the ticker symbol field, then I/RT will attempt to extract the ticker from the beginning of the file name. The ticker may be the entire file name or the file name may begin with the ticker (usually all uppercase) followed by a delimiter character such as a space, comma, period, left parentheses, or underscore character. If the extracted ticker symbol is not yet defined to Investor/RT, the software will ask the user to supply a defined ticker or cancel. 
12. Improvements to Point And Figure Charts
    Point and Figure Chart have a new option called "Use Highs and Lows". Prior to version 4.3, Investor/RT would always use the closing price of each bar when computing the PNF chart. When the Highs and Lows option is checked, both the high price and low price of each bar are used when formulating the X's and O's. When the chart is in an up (X) column, the high is considered first to see if the up column should be extended. Then the low price is tested for reversals. Similarly, the low is considered first in a down (O) column. 
    
    The grid lines and scales have been improved to draw the X's and O's inside rectangles that represent the user specified box size. This provides a more traditional "graph paper" look and feel to the Investor/RT PNF charts. Each box is labeled with the price value of the X or O. 
13. Changing Chart Types with Popup Menu
    The behavior of the "Set Chart Type" menu within the chart popup menu has been changed in Version 4.3. When changing the chart to a new window type, the existing chart window will remain open and a new window of the requested type will open. For example, choosing "Set Chart Type: Market Profile" using the popup menu inside a point and figure chart results in a new window displaying the market profile of the same instrument. The point and figure chart remains open as well. Candlesticks, bars, lines and histogram charts all use the same window type, thus no new window will be created when switching among these chart types.