The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 5.1 Version.

Product Enhancements for Version 5.1 Rev. 1
Release Date: November 16, 2001

• Chart Buttons Enhancements  (more)
• Chart Auto Scaling Enhancement
• New Technical Indicator: Price Projections  (more)
• New Technical Indicator: Bar Lines  (more)
• New Technical Indicator: Value Area  (more)
• New Technical Indicator: T3  (more)
• New Technical Indicator: Relative Vigor Index  (more)
• Chart Price Scale Font Size Option added
• Dynamic PNF Box Size Using A Scan
• Adding New Instruments Using The Instrument Selector
• RTL Tokens For Logarithms
• S&P 500 Ticker List Updated
• Chart Viewing Period Drawing
• Fractional Years in View Period
• Chart Buttons Feature Added
• Scheduling Dial/Data Downloads
• $DEMO - Simulated Data Generator
• Text Window Improvements
• Live Message Log Window
• Maintenance and Fixes

• Comprehensive "What's New Reference Guide"  Last updated:  March 2007 Download Zip File     View  PDF
  What's New In Investor/RT By Version
  									9.0
  8.9	8.8	8.7	8.6	8.5	8.4	8.3	8.2	8.1	8.0
  7.6	7.5	7.4	7.3	7.2	7.1	7.0	6.2	6.1	6.0
  5.9	5.8	5.7	5.6	5.5	5.4	5.3	5.2	5.1	5.0
  4.9	4.8	4.7	4.6	4.5	4.4	4.3	4.2	4.1	4.0
  3.9	3.8	3.7	3.6	3.5	3.4	3.3	3.0

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• Chart Buttons Enhancements  (more)
  Buttons now resize appropriately when you change the ticker or periodicity. Different icons are used for periodicity vs. ticker menu buttons. Deleting a button shifts the other buttons over. A bug was fixed that caused problems when button help was active. To edit a button, right-click on it and choose "Edit.." The Edit Button window appears, showing an image of the button to remind you wish button you are editing being edited. In the Edit button window, if you make a change and click Apply, the button is updated on the chart itself and the image in the Edit Button window also reflects the change
  
  Two new special button types have been added. The first is called a ticker prompt button. Any ticker symbol button that has a ticker ending with a question mark is a ticker prompting button (the ticker could be simply ? or ??? or whatever, any text you want ending with a question mark. Clicking on a ticker prompt button causes a simple prompting dialog box to appear into which you can type a ticker symbol and press the enter key. The dialog auto capitalizes as you type the symbol. The key here is that the ticker you type in can be either an existing ticker or a brand new ticker symbol previously unknown to Investor/RT. When you press the enter key, if Investor/RT determines that the ticker is not yet defined to the system, a new instrument will be created, inserted into the chart and a dowload from the historical server will be initiated automatically. In essence, the prompting button gives you the ability to type in tickers without regard to whether those symbols have been setup. New instruments will be created as required. Investor/RT will attempt to ascertain the security type by inspecting the ticker, e.g. tickers with digits or the myTrack ` grave character in them are setup as Futures, otherwise Stock is the security type.
  
  The second special button type is called a mutli-link button. Any button setup as a ticker symbol or a ticker symbol menu button can be a multi-link button. To make the button a multi-link button simply add a plus sign to the end of the ticker, e.g. MSFT+. A button for MSFT+ when clicked does a "multi-link" of MSFT into all unlocked chart windows. You can add plus signs to the end of ticker is a menu as well so that choosing such an entry from a menu performs a mutli-link instead of just inserting the ticker into button's chart window alone. Another way to multi-link using chart buttons is by using the shift key when you click. If the shift key is down when you click on a ticker button or when you choose from a ticker menu button, Investor/RT reverses the meaning, that is, if the button is a plain button, shift-click performs a multi-link. If a button is a multi-link button (e.g. IBM+) then shift-clicking on it will NOT do the multi-link, it will only insert the symbol into the button's chart window alone.
• Chart Auto Scaling Enhancement
  Right-click in the vertical scale area of a traditional chart to access the vertical scale settings. A new auto scaling option is provided, titled "Automatic Scaling based on instrument data only". When this auto scaling option is chosen, Investor/RT figures the vertical scale bounds for panes containing instruments using only the high/low extremes of the instrument itself. Technical indicators are not considered in the scale determination. This forces the focus of the chart to be on the price range of the instrument. Indicators that happen to have values in that price range will show as they normally do, while indicators with values outside the instrument's data range will not be visible.
• Chart Price Scale Font Size Option Added
  The vertical scale settings window also has a "Small/Medium/Large" choice box for the font size to be used when drawing the price values on the vertical axis. Each pane in the chart can have its own setting. The font size used in the top most pane of the chart is also used when drawing the time scale horizontal axis. When the pixels per bar setting is very small (below 3) Investor/RT forces small font size in the horizontal scale drawing.
• Dynamic Point and Figure Chart Box Size Using A Scan
  Users of Point and Figure charts know that you can calculate and assign a specific value for the PNF box size for each instrument. That way, when you change instruments in a PNF chart, the box size of the instrument changes to reflect the new instrument. This is accomplished using the SET(BOXSIZE, ...) command in a scan. When box size is set this way in a scan, Investor/RT now checks to see if there is a PNF chart window already open for the ticker(s) as their box sizes are set and each of the open PNF charts is recalculated and displayed using the new box size.
• Adding New Instruments Using The Instrument Selector
  The "instrument selector" is a miniature spreadsheet showing lists of tickers that are setup within Investor/RT. The instrument selector appears a various places in the program, including the quick quote window, the order desk, the chart "replace instrument" window, etc. The instrument selector has been improved so that pressing the insert key on the keyboard prompts for entry of a new ticker. The prompting dialog is the same dialog mentioned in item #7 above in connection with the use of "ticker prompt buttons" in traditional charts. You can enter a brand new ticker, previously undefined to Investor/RT, and the instrument selector responds by adding a new instrument to the system and that new instrument becomes the current selection in the instrument selector. Note that when entering brand new ticker symbols you can optionally follow the new ticker with a comma and the session number to use for the new instrument. If the ticker is not followed by a session number then the default session specified in Setup: Preferences: Instruments is used for the new instrument.
• RTL tokens for Logarithms
  RTL now includes two functions for calculating the logarithm of some expression. LOG(expression) calculates the natural logarithm of expression, while LOGT(expression) calculates the base 10 logarithm of expression.
• S&P 500 Ticker List Updated
  The import file listing the stocks in the S&P 500 Index has been updated. The file is named S&P500 and is located in the symbols directory/folder. Use File: Import with Import Type set to "Ticker Symbols" to add these tickers and create a quote page containing these 500 stocks in Investor/RT.
• Chart Viewing Period Drawing
  The "Viewing Period" is a property of each chart. It expresses the date/time range for the chart. Live intra-day charts have a view period expressed either as "begin date/time to present" or more commonly "Last N Days". In either case, there is a specific date/time at which the chart "begins". Bar data in the chart will always begin on or after that begin date/time and proceed to the present. In the past, Investor/RT chart drawing functions would draw the chart window the same for time periods BEFORE the view period begin date/time as after. This has been a source of some confusion. A chart will NEVER show any bars before the view period begin date/time, even if that data is available in the Investor/RT database. To make this more evident visually, Investor/RT 5.1 Rev 1 draws grid lines and time scale values only for the range of date/times reflected by the view period preferences. If the chart has a view period of say "Last 2" days, all bar data on file for the past 2 trading sessions will show in the window. If you adjust the pixels per bar so that more than 2 days of "time" is visible in the chart window, you will notice the new visual effect. A thin vertical line drawn in the scale color marks the beginning date/time of the viewing period. No grid lines or time scale notations are shown to the left of this line. This makes it clearer that no bar data should be expected before the view period's beginnning date/time. If there is sufficient room to the left of the view period begin time, a message indicating the view period's beginning date/time is displayed in the blank area of the chart.
• Fractional Years in View Period
  Traditional chart preferences "Last N Years" viewing period option now supports entry of factional years, e.g. use 1.5 for a year and a half.
• New Technical Indicator: T3
  This is a new smoothing indicator. It uses multiple exponential averages and is designed to be more responsive to price moves. More information will be provided in the help system and the on the Linn Software web site in the tour section.
• New Technical Indicator: Relative Vigor Index
  This is a new oscillator that is described in the forthcoming January 2002 issue of Stocks and Commodities Magazine. More information will be provided in the help system and the on the Linn Software web site in the tour section.
• New Technical Indicator: Value Area
  The Value Area Indicator provides an automated band representing the volume-weighted Value Area. The Value Area bands represent the prices between which a certain percent of the volume was traded. The Value Area preferences have a setting for "Standard Deviations". A standard deviation setting of 1 will result in bands containing 68% of the volume. A standard deviation of 2 will result in bands containing 95% of the volume. The Value Area is of special interest to Market Profile users, and will give these users a way to depict this Value Area on a chart. The Value Area may be drawn using the current sessions data, the previous sessions data, or both. In addition to the bands, the value area indicator also draws a horizontal reference line at the volume-weighted average price based on the session specified. To select the Value area indicator, click (or double-click) on the horizontal line representing the volume-weighted average price (the middle line).
• New Technical Indicator: Price Projections
  The Fibonacci Retracement tool has been enhanced to provide a new Price Projection option. This option allows the user to specify one price, and automatically draw multiple horizontal lines any percent level above or below that price. A new checkbox in the Fibonacci Retracements preferences entitled "PriceProject" turns on this option. When Price Projections are turned on, the indicator only considers the ending price specified, and uses the percent levels specified in order to create horizontal lines those percentages up and/or down from the end price. The base line (price) can the be dragged up or down and the corresponding percent reference lines will be recalculated and redrawn accordingly.
• New Technical Indicator: Bar Lines
  The Horizontal Reference line tool has been enhanced with a new option entitled "Bar Lines". This option gives the user an automated tool that draws horizontal reference lines at 6 levels: current open, current high, current low, previous open, previous high, previous low. This option comes with a periodicity control that dictates the periodicity of the bars used to determine the current and previous levels. For instance, if you specify a periodicity of "Daily", then your previous open will be the open of the previous day, and your current high will be the high of today. If you specify a periodicity of 30 minutes, then your previous low will be the low of the previous 30 minute bar, while your current open will be the open of the current 30 minute bar. Each horizontal reference line is labeled with a description and value. (eg. 33.75 PrevOp) This option also comes with an additional color, allowing the user to specify different color for current versus previous lines.
• Chart Buttons Feature Added
  Chart Buttons enable you to add push buttons or menu buttons to any chart window. The buttons enable you to quick change either the ticker symbol or the periodicity of the chart in which the button reside. Buttons can be added to any window pane in a chart window, using the "Add Indicator" toolbar button. The Setup for the "Button" indicator allows you to specify whether the purpose of the button is to change chart periodicity or to change the instrument in the chart. Further, you can specify whether the button will operate as a toggle button (push button) or whether it will activate a popup menu. If you choose the "Menu" option, you can enter one or more menu items separated by commas, otherwise you enter only one ticker symbol or periodicity. For example, to create a menu button of your favorite instruments your item list may look something like this:
  
  IBM,APPL,MSFT,QQQ,INDU
  
  Note that the list is comma separated and contains no spaces, just the tickers. If one of the items in the list is a hypen, that menu item will appear as a separator line when you use the menu button.
  
  Similarly, a periodicity menu button could be created like this:
  
  Tick,1,3,13,60,-,Daily,Weekly,Monthly
  
  Note the separator between the intra-day and Daily/Weekly/Monthly periodicities.
  
  After a button is in place in the chart window, click on it to choose from the popup menu. If the button is not a menu, then it's face will show the ticker symbol or periodicity it represents. Clicking on it will simply switch the ticker or periodicity to that shown on the face of the button.
  
  If you right-click on a button (that's command-click for Mac users) then you will see a popup menu allowing you to add new buttons, edit the button, or delete it. Menu buttons show an icon image indicating the presence of a menu. Specific ticker or periodicity buttons show the ticker or periodicity instead.
  
  Use this handy feature you can easily create a user interface that has just those tickers and/or periodicities that you use in your trading so you can easily switch to exactly what you want. If you do this setup on your default chart, then all of your charts will have these buttons.
• Scheduling Dial/Data Downloads
  Dial/Data current quotes download is a new action under the action category "Database Functions". The user can specify a quote page for the download. This feature will be useful to Dial/Data and myTrack users in automating the updating of closing prices as a regularly scheduled event.
• $DEMO - Simulated Data Generator
  Investor/RT provides a test data generator via the special ticker symbol $DEMO. $DEMO can be setup as a stock, future, index, or option, and can be assigned to whatever trading session you like. During the trading hours of its associated session, $DEMO trades once per second with random incremental price moves. When $DEMO is present in a chart, clicking the download (refresh) button in lower right corner of the chart window generates new random data for the visible viewing period. If you have automatic downloading turned on $DEMO will generate new data as needed to fill the chart window. Similarly, requesting daily, weekly, monthly or intra-day downloads of any minute interval using the Download Data window creates random sample data for the requested download period. You can use $DEMO anywhere you can use any other real ticker symbol, e.g. in charts (all types), quote pages, time and sales windows, quick quote windows, ticker tapes, portfolios, backtesting, etc. Non intra-day sample data is always generated as daily bars so that daily, weekly, and monthly charts will all reflect the same data. Similarly, downloading one minute bars will cause all minute interval charts to reflect the same data regardless of interval.
  
  This feature operates in all versions of Investor/RT including the demonstration version and does not require an internet connection or an active data feed. Real-time ticks of $DEMO will be generated once a second. Your can turn off $DEMO intra-day ticks processing by either deleting the symbol or by setting its security type to Unknown, by reassigning the $DEMO instrument to a session that is closed. When the $DEMO security type is set to unknown, no live ticks will be generated but charting functions and data creation via the download button will still be effective. Charts will not update live unless the security type of $DEMO is set to stock, future, option, index, future option, etc.
  
  By default the initial price of $DEMO is 100. If you adjust the trading price in a quote page, the simulated trades will pick up from there. If you reset the last price of $DEMO to zero in a quote page, the next tick starts off at 100 with $DEMO reset to security type stock. Downloading intra-day data causes all tick data to be discarded and fresh sample data to be generated using 100 as the starting price.
  
  An effort has been made to make the tick flow realistic. Randomly, two-thirds of all trades will be unchanged ticks, 1/6 up-ticks and 1/6 down-ticks. As we receive feedback from Investor/RT users regarding this feature we expect a user preferences window for $DEMO to be added in the future so that, for example, you could simulate up trending markets, down trending, etc. When $DEMO is setup as a stock, random trading volume is assigned to each tick, bid, ask, and bid and ask sizes are also simulated.
  
  There are numerous uses for this new facility.
  
  1. Generating long term sample data for testing trading systems
  2. A tool for experimentation with studies, drawing tools, trading signals, etc.
  3. New or prospective users of Investor/RT can learn to use the software using $DEMO any time of day for demonstration or educational purposes.
  4. A testing tool for literally any facet of Investor/RT that uses historical data of any periodicity.
• Text Window Improvements
  IRT text windows (news, message log, backtesting reports, etc.) now contain a toolbar button in the upper left along with the name of the file or report being viewed. The toolbar provides access to editing commands (cut, copy, paste, etc.), font and size selections for the text, plus some useful command such as "open" and "mail". The open command allow you to select another file to view, the mail command takes the text selected in the window and emails it using the built-in email feature of Investor/RT. You are given a change to address the email (to address defaults to support@linnsoft.com) and type in a subject before actually sending the mail. The Mail All command selects all the text in the window and mails it. All standard editing shortcuts now operate within text window (ctrl-X for cut, ctrl-V for paste, ctrl-C for copy). Mac users use the command key instead of ctrl, of course.
• Live Message Log Window
  The message log is a text window that can be opened using the File Menu or by double-clicking on the main toolbar message area. Many messages that appear only briefly on the main toolbar are logged. Any new messages that arrive are now added to the text window at the bottom. Using the Mail command cited in item #3 above, you can now select messages in the message log window and easily mail them to support with a single command.
• 5.1 Maintenance and Fixes
  Maintenance specific to InterQuote: A bug was fixed in the InterQuote version for Windows that prevented NASD Level II data reception. Downloading of daily historical data for indices is now fully supported. Downloading of historical data for Canadian stocks is now supported. The user must set the requested exchange code for any Canadian stocks to either TSE or CAN in order to download daily historical data.
  
  A bug in the myTrack version that affected European users downloading futures intra-day data was corrected. The problem was related to the translation of U.S. time-stamped bar data to time zones at GMT + 0 and eastward where the bar data in question passes over midnight.
  
  Some maintenance was done on the QFeed version, now called the Quote.com version of Investor/RT, to enable reception of several dozen items of fundamental data on equities.
  
  Some maintenance was on on the eSignal version to enable proper operation of Investor/RT with the eSignal servers using a proxy server. Also, a bug was fixed that was causing an unnecessary disconnect and reconnect to data manager at startup.
  
  The "Draw Bands Only" option for the Bollinger Bands technical indicator now omits the drawing of the moving average center line as it should.
  
  Traditional charting of instruments belonging to overnight trading sessions (sessions that span midnight) has received some attention and a few minor bugs have been fixed.
  
  The reference line price point (open + close)/2 now works properly.
  
  A bug was fixed in Setup: Trading Systems window were double-clicking in a blank area of the trading rule action list would cause a fatal error.
  
  Some problems having to do with scans and custom indicators were fixed so that technical indicator tokens operate more consistently when applied to other technical indicators. For example, the custom indicator BOLU(MFI) could be used to apply the Bollinger Band calculation to the Money Flow Index. Further nesting of indicators is now supported more fully, e.g. MA(BOLU(RSI))) would yield a custom indicator showing an upper Bollinger band of the RSI indicator, then smoothed by the moving average specified by MA. Technical indicator tokens in RTL can also be qualified by a price designator. For example, the token MA performs a moving average of the subject instrument according to the price option setup in the preferences for the MA token itself. If you write MA(HI) or MA(MID) you instead get the MA calculation applied to the specified price of the instrument regardless of what the MA specifications say. MA(MID) is equivalent to writing MA( (HI+LO+CL)/3). Note that the price designator can be qualified, e.g MA(CL.5) will apply the MA function to the closing prices of the subject instrument shifted left 5 bars.