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Investor/RT
What's New in Version 5.7.3

The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 5.7 Version.

Product Enhancements for Version 5.7.3
Release Date: August 22, 2002

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    
  • Further Info Box Improvements
    The info box can now be dragged and dropped into position within the chart window pane. Formerly, the info box could only be moved using the keyboard shortcuts described in item #26 above. The Info box can be dragged and dropped into another pane only if you mouse down in the upper right corner to begin the drag, otherwise the box can only be moved within the same pane.

    The state of the info box (mouse pointer, current bar, previous bar) is now visually indicated by an underlined letter code in the upper left corner (M for mouse pointer, C for current bar, P for prior bar). Clicking on the letter code changes the state of the info box. This makes it convenient to change the state without having to open the preferences for the info box. When technical indicators are present in the info box, there is a 4th state called "Legend" indicated by an "L" in the upper left corner. When the info box is in Legend state, each technical indicator row in the box shows the textual description of the indicator present in that row. This can be useful when you have several indicators with the same token title. The info box is temporary displayed a bit wider so you can read more of the legend text. Click in the upper left corner to go back to the normal state you prefer after viewing the legend texts.

    When Custom Indicators (CI), scans (SCAN), and SDK plug-in indicators (DLL) are present in the info box, Investor/RT now shows the first four letters of the associated custom indicator, scan, or plug-in. If you are in doubt about the row title tokens, use the legend display described above to see the full description of the row's indicator.
  • Repeating Vertical Reference Lines
    Vertical reference lines now have a "Repeat" option. The vertical reference lines can be repeated going forward from the initial line, every N bars or every N minutes. This option can be used to view custom time reference lines as some constant time interval. You may wish to turn off the chart's standard gridlines.
  • Fibonacci Retracements: New Price Options
    Two new price options, "Open" and "Previous Close" are available in the Fibonacci Retracement indicator when the "Use Variable" option is used for specifying the beginning and or ending price of the retracement. These are especially useful in the context of "Price Projections" as you can base your price projections off the open or previous close. When the "Use Variable" price option is employed, the base trendline of the retracement correctly attaches to the properly price value (Open, High, Low, Previous Close) for the starting and ending bar of the retracement period.
  • New Drawing Options for CCI, RSI, TRIX, OBOI Oscillators
    These four technical indicators, formerly shown in charts as lines, now have five choices for drawing the indicator results: Connected Line, Continuous Line, Solid Histogram, Hollow Histogram and Custom Histogram.
  • MPD, IWA, IAA Indicators: Improved Access to RTL Indicators
    MPD, IWA, and IAA are technical indicators that use another indicator in their calculations. In Investor/RT 5.7 Rev 3, the way these indicators reference other indicators has been improved to use the RTL indicator references. This makes it possible to reference the individual component results of various indicators that have multiple results. For example, MPD can now reference the SLOWD component of the stochastics indicator, or the upper Bollinger Band (BOLU) or the lower band of the Keltner Channels Indicator, etc.
  • MS Windows Version Color Selector Improved
    Clicking on a "color selection control" in any Investor/RT setup window now pops up a smaller standard MS Windows color pallet centered where the mouse was clicked. Formerly, the pallet opened in the far upper left corner of the screen. The standard color pallet contains 48 standard color selections plus 16 user-customizable color choices. A "Define Custom Colors" button is available for expanding the pallet to full size so that custom colors may be created. If you shift-click on any Investor/RT color selection control, the MS Windows color pallet opens immediately to the full size for custom setup. To define a custom color:

    1. Click on any one of the 16 custom color rectangles to select the one you wish to setup.
    2. Click inside the color spectrum at the right to specify the basic color.
    3. Optionally click inside the intensity strip to lighten or darken the color.
    4. Click the "Add to Custom Colors" button to set the resulting color into the selected custom color rectangle.

    Any changes you make to the MS Windows custom colors will be saved permanently in the Investor/RT database so these colors will always be available for color selection in the future. Prior to 5.7.1 custom color changes were discarded when you quit Investor/RT.
  • Info Box Tool
    An Info Box has been added to the charting toolbar. Click once to select the tool, then click the mouse anywhere inside the chart to insert an "Info Box" into the chart. The Info Box will be positioned with its upper left corner at the spot where you clicked inside the chart window. The properties of the box will be the default properties specified in the Setup: Preferences: Charts: Technical Indicators window for the Info Box. The position of the Info Box within the chart window can be changed either by dragging and dropping (new in 5.7.2) or by using the keyboard shortcuts described in item #26 above.

    Another technique for quickly adding or removing an Info Box is to create an Info Box "Button". First create a preset for the Info Box preferences you wish the button to use. Then add a Button to the chart setup with purpose "Add a Preset Indicator…". Pick the preset for the Info Box. The resulting button will be titled "INFO". Clicking the button to add the Info Box to the chart or remove it if present. You can override the button title and background color of course.
  • New Quote Page Column: Reception Time (Rec Time)
    The "Date Time" and "Time" data columns in a quote page now reflect the data feed provided "trade time" of the most recently received quote. This is true initially for the myTrack and eSignal data feeds. Other feeds will follow in the weeks ahead. A new data column named "Rec Time", short for reception time or received time, shows the time of day that the last quote or trade report was received according to the computer clock. Thus if you are seeing 10:40:34 as the "Time" and 10:40:38 as the Rec Time, and your computer clock is accurate to the precise second, this indicates a lag of four seconds between the time the trade occurred and the time the trade was received and processed by Investor/RT. The data column called "Lag" can be added to a quote page to show this lag time, the difference between the time Investor/RT received the quote and the trade reportedly occurred. Please be advised that the lag time is not necessarily a reflection of the data service in use. If Investor/RT is very busy computing technical indicators or doing running an intra-day scan, raw data from the data service can be received and queued for processing. The Rec Time is the time at which such queued data is actually processed and posted into the quote page. Thus the lag be reflect time spent "in transit" to Investor/RT plus any time spent waiting to be processed within Investor/RT.
  • Portfolio Reports Improvements
    A number of new "time periods" have been added to the portfolio reports setup window. The reporting periods supported originally were: this year, this quarter, this month, this week, today, last year and all years. The new reporting periods added are: yesterday, last week, last month, and last quarter. The new reporting periods make it easy to compare results of this month to date vs. last month, this week to date vs. last week, etc.
  • Date Time Control Improvements
    The Date Time control used in the Data Download window and the setup window for the DV function has been improved. The control now provides for explicit user setup of the session number to be used when setting up relative times such as "Session Start" and "Session Stop". Also, time values entered by the user are "aligned" to the end of the most recently closes session if the time specified is outside normal trading hours. Formerly, there was no user control over which session to use; session 0 was used by default for all time alignments. Obviously the session setup is only applicable when specifying date times for intra-day purposes. The menu of choices for the "Time" component of the Date Time shows the session that is being used for time alignment purposes. A new menu choice named "Specify Session…" at the bottom of the Time menu elicits a prompt for revising the session number to use. This enhancement makes the DV token in the RTL language much more functional for users who track issues in a variety of international markets with much different session times.
  • Referencing Scans/Signals/Custom Indicators in other Scans/Signals/Custom Indicators
    The RTL tokens SCAN and CI have been generalized so that either of them can be used within the definition of any scan, signal, or custom indicator. Prior to version 5.7.2, a scan (or signal) could refer to another scan or signal or custom indicator, but custom indicators could not reference other custom indicators or scan/signals. A positive side effect is that the use of SCAN and CI tokens within scans/signals/custom indicators is considerably more efficient in terms of computation resource usage. Preliminary testing on a few "worst case" examples showed at least 50 times faster evaluation of the scan using the new implementation. This change affects the way you use the SCAN token inside the definition of another scan or custom indicator. Specifically, the SCAN token is now considered an arithmetic value just like MA or any technical indicator. The SCAN token's arithmetic value will be 0.0 or 1.0 (zero for FALSE, one for TRUE). Thus if you have tokens SCANa, SCANb, and SCANc, each setup to reference a different scan, if you want to test for all three scan conditions being true you would write:

    SCANa + SCANb + SCANc = 3

    If you wanted to test for any two or more of the conditions true you would write:

    SCANa + SCANb + SCANc >= 2

    If you wanted to test for any two (but only two) of the conditions true you would write:

    SCANa + SCANb + SCANc = 2

    Notice the use of the arithmetic addition operator (+) rather than the logical AND operator here.

    You can use a SCAN token anywhere you can use a technical indicator token, just remember that the values for each bar will be either zero or one. For example you can write a scan:

    SUM(SCAN, 20) > 5

    To find all instrument for which scan condition SCAN has been true more than 5 times during the last 20 periods.
  • Paint Bars Improvements
    The Paint Bars indicator has been enhanced to add a new painting option called "Paint Background (High to Low)". In contrast to the option "Paint Background (Top to Bottom)", this new painting option uses the specified scan/signal/ci criteria to paint just the background behind the high to low price range for each bar. Further, you can now added multiple paintbars of different kinds to the same paint and Investor/RT will merge the painting effects correctly. You could have one paintbars setup to paint the entire background is a special way under some condition, another to paint the high – low background also under some other condition, and a third to paint the actual bar or candlestick in a special way under a third condition.
  • New "Histogram Coloring" Options added to Volume Analysis Indicator
    The Volume Analysis indicator histogram now has three different coloring options: Rising/Falling Prices, Rising/Falling Volume, Above/Below Average. The "Rising/Falling Prices" option uses the up color when price increases, and the down color when price decreases or remains the same. The "Rising/Falling Volume" similarly uses the up color when volume increases, and the down color when volume decreases or remains the same. The "Above/Below Average" option uses the up color when the volume is above the average of the volume of the previous 20 bars, and the down color when volume is below this average. These coloring options are used for the solid, hollow, and custom histogram drawing options.
  • Scan Marker Positioning Option: "Top of Chart"
    Scan markers can now be positioned at the top of the chart window pane, in addition to the existing options of "Beneath Low", "Above High", and "Bottom of Chart".
  • Chart Buttons for Adjusting Pixels per Bar
    The "Button" indicator has been enhanced to add another "purpose", changing the pixels per bar property of the chart window. Either a Menu Button listing several pixels/bar numbers or a single pixels/bar number button can be added to charts. This button purpose makes it more convenient and faster to make quick adjustments to the pixels per bar without using the keyboard arrow keys. For example, you could have a button with 6 and 60 choices for quickly zooming in (6 pixels) or zooming out (60 pixels) a chart.

    If you prefix the number of pixels per bar with a plus or minus sign, IRT will take this to mean "increase" (+) or "decrease" (-) the current pixels per bar. For example, a pixels per bar menu with four menu items can be defined as:

    +4,-4,16,60

    The first choice increments pixels/bar by 4, the second decrements by 4, the third and forth choices set pixels/bar directly to 16 or 60 respectively.
  • Info Box Indicator for Traditional Charts
    A new indicator titled "Info Box" has been added that provides a tabular display of an instrument's market data and optionally, the values of technical indicators displayed in the chart window. Click here for details.
  • Button Indicator Supports N Second or N Tick Periodicity
    You can now add Periodicity buttons and Periodicity menu buttons that reference periodicities expressed in seconds or number of ticks (tickbar). Specify the periodicities in any of the following formats when setting up the button preferences (where dd represents one or more numeric digits:

    Minutes and Seconds: dd:dd
    Seconds 0:dd (or simply :dd)
    Seconds dds (e.g. 30s, 45 s, s must be lower case)
    TickBars ddt (e.g. 25t or 50 t)
  • Improved Exception Handling in Macintosh OS X Version
    Investor/RT for OS X now handles system errors in the same way as the MS Windows version. A "Fatal Error" message appears giving an error code and location. When you the OK button, Investor/RT closes the database properly and stops the data feed properly before quitting. The improved exception handling means that it is not necessary to perform a Database Verify upon restarting the program after a fatal error or some kind. Please report all Fatal Errors to support@linnsoft.com . After starting Investor/RT up again the text of the fatal error message can be copied from the Message Log (File: Open: Message Log) for pasting into an email message.
  • Printing Batches of Charts using a Slide Show
    The slide show toolbar now has a "Printer" icon at the right end. This button is used to turn on and off batch printing of charts during slide shows. When the button icon is a printer with a red slash through it, slide show printing is OFF. This is the default. Click the button to toggle between on and off. When the button icon is the printer icon (no red slash), starting a slide show causes each chart that appears during the slide show to be printed (including the first one that was visible when you start the slide show).

    On the Windows platform, if you have a default printer setup, the printing takes place without user interaction. This new feature is not at present as useful on the Macintosh platform since the Macintosh printing function necessitates clicking a print button in an ensuing dialog box to confirm the print operation. Under MS Windows with a default printer specified this feature can print a batch of charts for the tickers in any quote page unattended. If you have multi-linking enabled for the slide show, only the front most chart window is printed for each ticker in the slide show.
  • eSignal/myTrack Trade Time Stamping
    Investor/RT since its introduction has time stamped each incoming trade with the local time per the computer clock. This method was adopted many years ago when the actual time that a trade occurred was not always available from the data source or because the time given was insufficiently precise. Investor/RT by design displays time based intra-day charts in the time zone of the user. Of course, this local time zone is not necessarily the time zone in which the trades occur. For these reasons, the time of the local computer clock at the instant the trade report is received was used as a reliable method of time stamping the time series of trades.

    This approach has some significant disadvantages. First, if the computer clock is not set exactly accurately to the second, the time stamps will be "off" by the amount the computer clock is "off". Further, the trade may have actually occurred several seconds before the trade report is received by Investor/RT. If a trade that occurs at 9:34:59 is received and time stamped by Investor/RT at 9:35:01 even a small 2 second delay in recording the trade can effect the formation of bars when an extreme price happens to occur very close to the time a bar ends or begins. When you download historical intra-day data from the data service, the bars supplied are bars formed using actual trade times. Thus, refreshing an intra-day chart often results in different bar formations. The solution to these problems is to use the data feed supplied actual trade time, adjusted to the local time zone, to record each trade, rather than the computer clock time.

    This has been done, initially for the eSignal and myTrack versions of Investor/RT in version 5.7. We expect to continue work in this area to revise all supported data services to handle trade recording this way. With this change the reception and charting of real-time data should yield the same bar/candle formations regardless of whether the data was downloaded after the fact or whether the data shown in the chart has been captured in real-time. The computer clock is still used to determine the "current" time of day so it is still important that the computer clock be set accurately to the second.
  • Zig Zag Enhancements
    Two new options were added to the "Zig Zag" indicator preferences. First, a new checkbox labeled “Draw reference lines at X %” was added. This allows for the drawing of reference lines on each leg of the Zig Zag, at a user-specified % change level from the base of the leg. A common level for this option would be to draw the reference lines at the same % change level as specified in the "Minimum Percent Change" setting. This way, the user can quickly see when each leg of the Zig Zag has met it's minimum percent change requirement, and how far prices moved past that level.

    Also, a new "labeling" option was added, giving the user the ability to label each leg of the trendline. This option is implemented using a list box. The first selection in the list box is "No label". The next 11 selections allow for displaying beginning and/or ending price, change or percent change of each leg, bars spent in each leg, or several combinations (% change and bars, etc). A recommended setting for Zig Zag would be to display the % change of each leg, or maybe the % change and the number of bars (% change and bars). With these two new options, the user can get a clearer representation of when each leg meets its minimum required % change, and exactly how far that level is exceeded.
  • Zig Zag Oscillator – New Indicator   Tour Info
    A new indicator called "Zig Zag Oscillator" has been added. This indicator provides a way of viewing the Zig Zag information in a different form, oscillating about 0. The indicator represents the percent change at each bar of the current price from the base price of the current Zig Zag leg. When the Zig Zag is currently in an uptrend state, the Zig Zag Oscillator will be above 0. Similarly, when the Zig Zag is in a downtrend state, the oscillator will be below 0. Optionally, reference lines may be drawn at any percent change level. If a reference line value of 10% is specified, reference lines will be drawn at both 10% and -10%. It is common to draw the reference lines at the same level as the minimum percent change level, in order to clearly see when prices have reached the minimum required level.
  • New "Paint Background" Option Added To Paint Bar Indicator
    Prior to version 5.7.1, the Paint Bars Indicator had two drawing options: "Paint Bars" and "Paint Background". The "Paint Background" option painted the background of the bar/candle/line/histogram from the top of the chart pane to the bottom of the chart pane. This option has been renamed "Paint Background (Top to Bottom)" and a third option has been added labeled "Paint Background (High to Low)". This new option limits the drawing of the background to the high/low range of the bar itself. This new option gives the same information as the former "Paint Background", but uses much less painted real estate in providing that information. This new style works properly when applied to any instrument drawing style (histogram, line, etc).
  • Trendlines - New Labeling Option
    A new labeling option has been added to the Trendline indicator, providing the ability to label each trendline. A variety of labeling options are presented in a list box in the preferences for the trendline. The first selection in the list box is "No label". Each existing trendline should default to this option, resulting in no label and no change when upgrading. The next 11 selections allow for displaying beginning and/or ending prices, change or percent change of the trendline, bars spent in the trendline, or several combinations (% change and bars, etc). These new labeling options allow the user to quickly see the endpoint prices of the trendline, how much price changes within the trendline, the slope of the trendline (in price/bar) and/or how many bars are spanned in the trendline.

    The new trendline labeling capability has been implemented in both the Trendline and Zig Zag indicators in of release 5.7.1. Other trendline-based indicators will gain this feature in a future update. If you have a suggestion for indicators you feel would benefit from this labeling option, please email your suggestion to support@linnsoft.com.
  • New "State" Option for System Simulator (SSIM)
    A new "Result" option has been added to the System Simulator (SSIM) indicator called "State (In=1, Out=0)". When the system is in a position (either long or short), the result is 1, and when the system is not in a position (exited), the result is 0.
  • New "Period" Option for System Simulator (SSIM)
    A new option has been added to System Simulator that allows the user to specify how many bars will be included in the evaluation. The option is labeled "Evaluate Last X Bars". As an example, if the user specifies a setting of "Evaluate last 30 bars", then only the last 30 bars will used for SSIM. The results will all be zero up until the 30th bar back from the most current bar.
  • New "Compress" Option added to MPD
    A "Compress (Filter Out Zero Value)" option has been added to the Mixed Periodicity Data (MPD) indicator. This option simply filters out any results of 0, and then right aligns the remaining results.
  • Improved Charting Preferences Setup
    The Traditional Chart Preferences window has been redesigned as a much smaller window with a "tabbed" user interface. Charting Preferences are divided into four groups each having a tab at the top of the preferences window. This same window design appears when you access Setup: Preferences: Charts: Traditional Charts for setting up "default" preferences, as well as when you access the preferences for a particular chart. The four tabs are named "General", "View Period", "Colors", and "Options".

    The General Tab allow you to modify the chart style (line, bar, candle, etc.), the periodicity, the pixels per bar, and the chart name. In the default preferences window, you can specify the default dimensions for traditional chart windows.

    The View Period Tab also includes periodicity along with the "Lookahead Bars" count. For particular chart, this tab specifies the viewing period start and ending times of the chart. In the default preferences window, this tab is where you specify the default number of bars to view when changing periodicities.

    The Colors Tab consolidates all color preferences into a compact window. Checkboxes are provided adjacent to the grid line color and the border color controls to enable you to turn on/off grid line and border options. The options are also present in the Options Tab.

    The Option Tab includes all of the "checkbox" options for traditional charts such as the hollow candle and hollow histogram options, the border and grid line options, chart lock, etc. The new horizontal scale markings option is also in this tab.

    The new chart preferences window can be quickly accessed by right-clicking in the horizontal (time) scale of any traditional chart. Macintosh users will control-click instead. The window "remembers" which tab was most recently referenced and will open with that tab selected. Due to its smaller size, the preferences window can be conveniently positioned to the side of a chart so you can vary settings and click "Apply" to see the effects before dismissing the window. When you first open the new window, if the tab you want is not visible you can either click on the desired tab using the mouse or tap the space bar repeatedly to cycle through the tabs until the desired tab is visible.
  • Bar Time Intervals in Seconds
    Version 5.7 generalizes the notion of time-based bar charting by enabling charting and analysis of time intervals expressed in minutes, seconds, or minutes and seconds. Throughout Investor/RT, the standard "Periodicity Control" is used to display a periodicity value, e.g. 1 minute, 5 minute, Daily, Tick, 15 Ticks, etc. Clicking on a Periodicity control (or right-clicking in a chart and choosing "Periodicity" from the popup menu) opens the Periodicity Selection window. This window has been revised in Version 5.7 to enable entry of the time per bar in minutes : seconds format.

    At the left side of the Periodicity Selection window, convenience buttons labeled "15s", "20s" and "30s" have been added for quickly selecting a periodicity of 15-seconds, 20-seconds or 30-seconds. At the right side of the window there are two radio buttons, one for choosing an intra-day periodicity based on a fixed period of time ("Time per Bar") and the other for choosing a periodicity based on a fixed number of ticks ("Ticks Per Bar").

    When "Time per Bar" is selected, there is an entry box titled "Minutes : Seconds" for specifying the time allotted to each bar. Whole numbers entered into this box are considered to be minutes. Numbers entered to the right of a colon are treated as seconds. The number of seconds need not be less than 60 (e.g. 1:30 is equivalent to 0:90). The box has a pull down menu listing a variety of periodicities (e.g. 0:30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3, 5, etc.). Any number of minutes can be entered into the box followed by a colon and any number of seconds. As you enter minutes and seconds, the title of the Periodicity Selection window changes to show the resulting periodicity. Here are some sample entries and the resulting periodicity value (displayed in the window title):

    1 - 1 Minute
    5 - 5 Mnutes
    :75 - 75 Secs (1:15)
    1:20 - 80 Secs (1:20)
    0:30 - 30 Seconds
    :15 - 15 Seconds

    To request N minute bars, simply enter any whole number of minutes. Investor/RT will add :00 to your entered number automatically as you type. The periodicity control will show the chosen periodicity as "N Minutes" whenever the periodicity is a multiple of 60 seconds. If the periodicity is not a multiple of 60 seconds, the periodicity control will show "N Seconds" whenever the number of seconds is less than 60 and will show "N Secs (mm:ss)" whenever the periodicity is above 60 seconds.

    When "Ticks Per Bar" is selected there are two entry boxes available, one for entering the number of ticks per bar, the other for indicating the seconds of resolution when drawing the chart. A value of 1 tick per bar is the "Tick" (tick data) periodicity. Values above 1 are called "Tick Bars", bars that are composed of some fixed number of ticks.

    Charting Periodicities that are not multiples of 60 seconds require that Investor/RT have access to tick by tick data to compose the bars. If you have elected to compress tick data into N-minute bars after 0 days, then tick data will not be available after the close for reviewing charts of such periodicities. See Setup: Preferences: Historical to adjust the compact option. We suggest you retain a day or two of tick data if you desire to view second-interval charts for more than the current trading session.
  • New RTL Token: ZIG (Zig Zag Indicator)
    The Investor/RT RTL language has access to the Zig Zag indicator using the token "ZIG". In the language, ZIG represents the % change level that the current Zig Zag leg has achieved. By qualifying the ZIG token, the user can access the % change level that was achieved by previous legs of the Zig Zag indicator. For instance, ZIG.1 would represent the % change level reached by the next to last leg, while ZIG.2 would represent the % change level reached by the leg prior to that. ZIG.1 and ZIG.2 could never have a smaller magnitude than the "minimum price change (%)" specified in the preferences, since these legs have already been validated to the percent change level.

    ZIG, however, may not yet have reached its required threshold. The following scan would test the current leg for validation on a 10 % change Zig Zag:

    ZIG >= 10 OR ZIG <= -10

    The following scan will find those instruments that have just recently been validated:

    (ZIG > 10 AND ZIG < 10.5) OR (ZIG.1 > 10 AND ZIG.1 < 10.5 AND ZIG > 0.5)

    The first part of this scan, "ZIG > 10 AND ZIG < 10.5", finds any instruments whose current leg is between the 10 and 10.5% levels. The second part of the scan, ZIG.1 > 10 AND ZIG.1 < 10.5 AND ZIG > 0.5, finds instruments whose current leg is actually a very small negative value, but whose recently validated leg is between 10 and 10.5%.

    The Zig Zag indicator can now be selected by clicking on an endpoint of any trendline that composes it.
  • Shape Drawing Tool Added
    The "Price Time Cycles" indicator has been more appropriately renamed the "Shape" indicator, and assigned a button on the chart toolbar. The toolbar button makes it easier to add a Shape to the desired location on a chart. The button depicts a red square and a blue circle, and is fourth from the bottom in the right column. First, click on the toolbar button and the cursor will change to a pencil with a square beside it. Drag a rectangle in the chart around the region you would like to place your Shape. Once the Shape is in place, it can be moved by dragging the small dot which is either in the center, or lower left corner of the shape (depending on whether "Center on Coordinates" is checked in the Shape preferences).

    It is recommended that you then work with the Shape indicator preferences to come up with combination you of settings you would use most often. To open up the preferences for the Shape, just double-click on the small dot on the Shape indicator. Some may prefer a rectangle while others prefer a square. Some like blue repeating rectangles while others just want a single green ellipse. Once you’ve settled on your preferences, you should make this your default settings. Again, open up the preference window, and choose "Presets: Make Default". Now, each time you use the toolbar to add a Shape to your chart, the shape will inherit these default settings.

    There are a number of ways to adjust the Shape indicator directly from the keyboard. A detailed table on these options, along with other information on the Shape indicator, can be found at:

    http://www.linnsoft.com/tour/techind/shape.htm
  • Keyboard Shortcut for Scan/Signal/CI-Based Indicators
    For any indicator built upon a scan, signal, or custom indicator, the user can quickly access the underlying scan, signal, or custom indicator using a keyboard shortcut. First, select the indicator in the chart, then press the keyboard combination "Ctrl-Up Arrow" (Option Up-Arrow on Macintosh). The setup window for the underlying scan, signal, or custom indicator will appear, allowing you to make adjustments to the syntax. Click "Save" to apply the change to the chart. This shortcut saves several steps formerly required to make such changes. The indicators to which this shortcut applies are: Scan/Signal Markers, Custom Indicators, PaintBars, Scan Statistics, System Simulator, and Color Markers. System Simulator actually involves two scans/signals. In order to adjust the "Entry" scan/signal, use "Ctrl-Up Arrow". In order to adjust the "Exit" scan/signal, use "Ctrl-Down Arrow". On Macintosh use the Option key for "Ctrl".
  • Volume Profile Enhancements
    Volume Profile Charts have been enhanced with a new checkbox labeled "give each bar a volume of 1". This options is only available (active) when the "Use Price for last X days" (use daily data) option is checked. When "give each bar a volume of 1" is checked, each day will contribute a volume of only 1 to the histogram, instead of the actual realized daily volume. This has the effect of giving each day equal weighting. This new option can be combined with the new price type (CL – CL.1) to provide a bell shaped distribution curve of the daily change in price. By assigning each bar a "volume" of 1, and using change (CL – CL.1) as the underlying price, the histogram show the number of bars (days) at each range of change. For instance, if you choose to display the last 500 days, with a range of 0.50, then the column showing 0 to 0.50 might be 26, representing 26 of the 500 days had a change (from previous close) between 0 and 0.50.
  • New Price Options
    Four new price options have been added to the list of price options that appear throughout Investor/RT (instrument setup, technical indicator preferences, etc.). The four price options are listed below with a brief explanation of each:

    CL – OP (Change from open)
    CL – CL.1 (Change from previous close)
    CL – DAYOP (Change from open of session)
    CL – DAYCL (Change from previous session close)

    While the tokens CL and OP represent the close and opening prices of the current bar, CL.1 represents the closing price of the previous bar, and DAYOP and DAYCL represent the opening and closing prices of the session (day). DAYOP and DAYCL values will change only once per session (day). CL – DAYOP represents the change in price from the opening price of the session. While CL will constantly change throughout the session, DAYOP stays constant and only changes on the first bar of each day. CL – DAYOP will essentially reset to 0 each session, and build from there. CL – DAYCL will reset to the daily gap. If price does not gap, then CL – DAYCL will reset to 0. However, if price gaps up 2 for instance, then CL – DAYCL will begin the first bar of the day at a value of 2.
  • Custom Histogram Drawing Style
    Many existing indicators, including Custom Indicators and Statistics, provide several options for drawing style, including Connected Line, Continuous Line, Solid Histogram, and Hollow Histogram. A fifth option has now been added to this list called "Custom Histogram". Custom histogram has two new features. First, the user is given control over a constant width for the histogram bars. The width can be anywhere from 1 to 10 pixels. While solid and hollow histograms have a dynamic width that changes based on the pixels per bar setting (in chart preferences), custom histograms have a fixed width, independent of the pixels per bar. Also, if multiple custom histograms exist (overlaid) within the same window pane, they will automatically be stacked horizontally in a way that allows them all to be visible. For instance, if 3 custom histograms were added to a single window pane, each with a width of 3 pixels, and the chart was setup with 9 pixels per bar, then the histogram bars would line up side by side, and each would be clearly visible.
  • Horizontal Reference Line "Repeating" Option
    A new option has been added to horizontal reference lines giving the user the ability to repeat the reference line throughout the chart at a specified distance apart. The preference is a checkbox labeled "Repeat every ___". As an example, if the reference line was drawn with "Specific Price: 50.0" and the repeating option was checked with a setting "Repeat every 2", then reference lines would be drawn at 50, 52, 54, etc., as well as at 48, 46, 44, etc. The repeating reference lines will exhibit the same characteristics as the primary (base) reference line (color, hide price, compact, show text, etc.). This new option can be used to draw customized horizontal gridlines throughout any chart pane. If you prefer not to show any text (label) on the reference lines, then check "Hide Price" checkbox and uncheck the "Draw Text" checkbox.
  • Chart Slide Show Improvements
    The traditional chart slide show feature has been revised so that it “locks on” to the front chart when you start the show. The slide show proceeds with that same chart even if you open new chart windows and/or activate (bring to front) other chart windows. When the slide show is paused (stopped) by pressing the pause button on the slide show control window, the slide show releases its associated chart window. When you resume the slide show it will once again lock onto whatever chart window is in front. If you close the subject chart while a slide show is in progress, the slide show will continue with the next front chart window it finds. If there is none, Investor/RT will prompt you to select a chart from the list of saved chart objects. The slide show control window title now shows the title “Slide Show in Progress” when it is active. The slide show delay between charts is specified in Setup: Preferences: Charts: General.
  • Custom Instrument Improvements
    The Custom Instrument Setup window has been enhanced to facilitate automatic generation of historical data when you define or modify the definition of any custom instrument. If the box titled “Generate historical data on save” is checked when you save the custom instrument definition, Investor/RT will generate both daily and intra-day data using the historical data then on file for the underlying components of the custom instruments (see item #2 above). 

    A “Save and Close” button has been added to the the window. This button has the combined effect of saving the custom instrument definition, generating historical data if requested, and closing the setup window.

    A View Chart button has been added to facilitate viewing a chart of the custom instrument currently being setup. For example, you could define a new custom instrument, click Save to save it and generate historical data, then click View Chart to see a chart, revise the definition, save again, view the revised chart, etc.

    The instrument selector has some features that may be of interest when working in the Custom Instrument Setup window. If you right-click on the ticker or name column title in the instrument selector, a popup menu appears for changing the list of tickers in the selector. You can, for example, choose “.Custom Instruments” and the instrument selector will list all of (just) your custom instruments. If you double-click on any custom instrument ticker in the instrument select, the definition of that custom instrument will be displayed in the setup window. Double-clicking on an custom instrument is equivalent to single-clicking to select a custom instrument and then clicking the “Select” button. Thus you can double-click on any custom instrument and then click view chart to see both the definition and chart window.

    Finally, a new button titled “View Custom Instrument Summary” has been added to the bottom of the custom instrument setup window. Clicking this button opens a text window showing the formulas for all of the custom instruments defined to Investor/RT. Here is a sample of what the text window looks like:

    Custom Instrument: Testing 456, Session 6
    TEST456 = 5.41522 MSFT+ 0.577433 CA+ 7.33491 CSCO+ 0.331131 NTAP+ 0.48169
    ---------
    Custom Instrument: My Index, Session 6 MYINDEX = ADBE+CA+COMPX+CSCO+IBM+IP+JNPR+MSFT+NEWP+NTAP+ORCL+QQQ+SBUX+T+VNO
    ----------
    Custom Instrument: Ratio plus a constant, Session 6
    CAIBM = 4 CA+IBM+ 15.5 +INDU(lo)
    ----------
    Custom Instrument: Focus Stock Index, Session 6
    $FOCUS = ADBE+CSCO+ORCL+QQQ+IBM+T+CA+MSFT+SBUX+VNO+JNPR+NTAP
    ----------

    Note that multipliers of 1.0 are implied when the multiplier is not shown. A number followed by a ticker means that number times the price of that ticker. The close price is implied if the ticker is not followed by a price indicator, i.e. INDU means the last price of INDU while INDU(lo) means the low price of INDU. When the price indicator is 1.0, the multiplier becomes a constant so its value is listed in the formula without a ticker. See the third example above.
  • Candle/Bar/Histogram Borders
    In 5.7 Beta 1, we changed the drawing of candlestick charts to add a thin border around the candle, along with drawing the candle wicks in that same border color. The border color was formerly based on the scale color. We have made this border color optional, and given the user control over the color of that border. There is a new checkbox in the chart preferences window titled "Candle/Bar Border" (between the candle and bar color controls). To the right of this checkbox is a color control which specifies the border color. If this checkbox is checked, candles borders and wicks will be drawn in the color specified to the right of the checkbox. If this checkbox is unchecked, candles will be drawn without borders.

    The border option was expanded to include not only candlesticks, but also bars and histogram style instrument drawing. The same rules apply. When the "border" checkbox is checked, the bars or histogram will be drawn with a border in the color specified. If the checkbox is unchecked, no border will be drawn.
  • New Instrument Drawing Styles: Wickless Candles and Bi-Color Line
    Two new instrument drawing styles have been added to traditional charting. The first is called "Wickless Candles" and is drawn just as its name implies. The body of the candle (a rectangle) is drawn vertically representing the close at one extreme and the open at the other. The wicks (highs and lows) are not drawn. The same rules that apply to drawing Candlesticks and % Change Candles will also apply to Wickless Candles. Borders will be drawn if applicable, and the fill color will be representative of up or down candles. The "Hollow Up Candles" option also applies to Wickless Candles.

    The “Bi-Color Line" style is very similar to the "Continuous Line" style except it uses two colors. Each line segment, connecting prices, will be drawn based on whether price increased or decreased from the previous price. If price increases, the segment will be drawn in the up color. If price decreases, the segment will be drawn in the down color.

    All drawing styles, including the new ones, work hand in hand with the "Paint Bars" indicator. Regardless of whether the style is histogram, line, candle, or bar, or any derivation of these, the Paint Bar color will be represented.

    Borders will not be drawn, even when turned on, under certain pixel/bar settings. Each drawing style needs a certain minimum pixels/bar of space in order to have room to accommodate the borders and still clearly see the colors within. For Candlestick and histogram styles, borders will be drawn at 6 pixels/bar and higher. For bars, borders will be drawn at 23 pixels/bar and higher. Also, borders will not be drawn under the following circumstances: the chart is a candlestick chart, the chart contains a "Paint Bars" indicator, and the "Hollow Up Candles" option is checked. Under those circumstances, hollow candles that should be painted MUST paint the border in order differentiate the candle. Therefore, these candles will not be drawn with a border.
  • Custom Horizontal Scale Markings
    An option has been added to the traditional chart preferences to allow the user to control the spacing of the horizontal scale markings on intraday charts. The option is a checkbox that reads "Custom Markings Every X [Bars/Minutes]". The user may choose increments of minutes or bars for the spacing. This option only applies to intraday (x-minute) charts. If the checkbox is checked, the horizontal scale markings, which are labeled with time and associated with vertical gridlines (if applicable), will be drawn at the user specified distance. A marking will always be drawn prior to the first bar of each trading session. If the user specifies a custom marking interval of every 20-bars on a 3-minute chart, then the first marking will occur at the 20th bar of the day, or 60 minutes into the session. Subsequent markings will be drawn every 60 minutes throughout the session.

    If there is insufficient room to draw the markings at the interval specified (based on the pixels/bar setting), Investor/RT will then double the interval until it has room to draw the time associated with the marking in the horizontal scale. If the user would like for the chart to draw markings as frequently as there is room, then a setting of "every 1 bars" should be specified. If, however, the user would prefer to see only one marking per session, at the session open, then a setting of "every 999 bars" should be specified. If the custom marking option is unchecked, then Investor/RT automatically decides on a reasonable interval for drawing the horizontal scale markings.
  • Trading System Simulator
    An indicator named "System Simulator" (SSIM) has been added to Investor/RT. SSIM gives the user the ability to quickly chart a simple trading system. SSIM has settings for Entry and Exit (a group box for each). The Entry is controlled by a single Scan/Signal. SSIM will enter into a position when the Entry Scan/Signal hits true. An "orientation" option dictates whether the system is "Long" or "Short". If the system is "Long", then SSIM will go long when the Entry signal is true. If the system is "Short", then SSIM will go short when the Entry signal is true.

    Similarly, the Exit section has options for an exit Scan/Signal, a target, and a stop/trailing stop. Any or all of these three options may be used to control when the system exits open positions. The "Target" option allows you to specify a target based on an arithmetic relationship to the price of the entry bar. For instance, a target of "Close + 2" could be specified to exit when the price increases $2 from the closing price of the entry bar. Or a target of "High * 1.05" could be specified to exit when the price increases to 5% above the high of the entry bar. When the system is short, targets like "Close + -2" and "Low * 0.95" might be used.

    The Stop/Trailing Stop exit option works similarly to the target option. The user may specify either a "Stop" or a "Trailing Stop". If a "Stop" is specified, the stop will be computed only once. The stop value is based on a user-specified relationship to the price of the entry bar (just like the target was computed). "Trailing Stops", however, may change value on each bar, but may only move in the direction of the current price. For instance, if a long system used a trailing stop of "Low + -1", then each bar would check to see if $1 less than the current low was greater than the existing stop value, and if so, replace the stop with this stop. In a long system, the trailing stop can only increase (never decrease), while in a short system, the trailing stop can only decrease (move closer to current price action).

    SSIM will undergo quite a bit of enhancement in the coming releases. Currently, the only "result" option available is to show "Gain/Loss". This "Gain/Loss" option represents the cumulative gain or loss based on all trades made throughout the chart (based on the viewing period). The result may be drawn as a line or a histogram. In coming releases, more "result" options will be added. Also, a "price multiplier" option will be added to simulate buying or selling a given number of shares on each trade. Currently the system assumes trading a single share each trade (raw price change of one share for gain/loss). And a "lookback period" will be added to give the user control over how many bars will be used in evaluation ("last 100 bars" for example).
  • Mixed Periodicity Data (MPD) Enhancements
    MPD has been enhanced to mix more than just periodicity, and the mixing of periodicity is now optional. MPD can now mix any or all of the following three: periodicity, ticker, and data source (either instrument data or indicator results). A checkbox has been placed in front of the "Mix Periodicity" control to give the user control over whether or not periodicity is mixed. If this checkbox is unchecked, the periodicity of the underlying instrument (in chart or scan) will be used. Mixing the ticker symbol is also optional. If the "Mix Ticker" checkbox is unchecked, the underlying instrument will be used. If the checkbox is checked, then the user can specify the ticker symbol from which data will be drawn (case sensitive). The data source can now be either "instrument data" or "indicator data". Instrument data includes price and/or volume options such as high, low, ohlc/4, etc. The indicator option gives the user access to any of the built-in indicators, including custom indicators. The "Indicator Preferences" button allows the user to specify the preferences for the indicator selected.

    The MPD data is built by first retrieving the data based on combination of ticker and periodicity settings specified. Then this data is used to compute the final result based on the data source chosen. The results may then be "stretched to proper data/times" if applicable, and if the periodicity is mixed.
  • Custom Indicator Enhancement
    A checkbox has been added to the Custom Indicator dialog titled "Oscillate About". This option is provided for oscillator/histogram style custom indicators that oscillate around a value other than 0. If this checkbox is checked, the resulting histogram will be drawn to oscillate about the value specified, instead of oscillating about 0 (the default).
  • Histogram Style Enhanced
    Several enhancements were made to the "Histogram" instrument drawing style of Traditional Charts. First, two colors are provided to allow for both an up and down color. The histogram will be drawn in the up color when the value increases, and in the down color when the value decreases. Also, a "Price" option is provided to give the user control over which price the histograms will be based upon. Histograms honor the new "Border" color option in the chart preferences. If the "Border" option is checked, a thin border in the color specified will be drawn around the histogram blocks. The borders are drawn ony when the pixels/bar is six or higher.
  • Vertical Scaling Improvements  Tour Info
    Vertical scaling options for traditional charts have been substantially improved in this release. New features include logarithmic scaling, range-based scaling, user-specified scaling interval markings. Click here for details.
  • Custom Instrument Data Generator
    Investor/RT now has the ability to derive historical data of any periodicity for a custom instrument using the historical data of the components of the custom instrument. Custom Instrument data generation is accomplished in a chart window by clicking the data download button in the lower right corner of the chart window. Investor/RT will notice if the instrument in the chart is a custom instrument and will derive historical data for the chart’s periodicity and viewing period. If automatic data downloading is turned on, simply inserting a custom instrument into the chart will cause data to be generated for the custom instrument. Similarly, you may use the Data Download window, accessible from the main toolbar, to request data generation for a particular custom instrument. First specify “Historical Data” as the download type and select the periodicity and starting date. Use the “One Instrument” box to specify the custom instrument. Note that data is generated for the custom instrument using the data currently on file for each component instrument. The data download window can also be used to generate data for a list of custom instruments in a quote page. This feature only applies to quote pages that consist entirely of custom instrument tickers. The built-in system defined quote page, “.Custom Instruments”, is one such quote page. You may create user-defined quote pages listing any number of custom instruments and reference such pages from the data download window to generate historical data for the entire list.

    Investor/RT uses precise date/time synchronization during the data generation process so that the “price” of each component is determined for each bar, even when the time series of each component do not completely overlap or when there are gaps in the time series of one or more of the components. The generated historical data will begin with the first date/time that all component instruments have in common for the desired periodicity. Generation will proceed forward in time to the current time based on the periodicity specified. The “session” of the custom instrument is used to determine the time span of each day’s trading when producing historical bars.

    The data produced by this process is a time series of prices. For daily charting, the resulting instrument data is best views as a line or connected line since there is no open, high, low to use for drawing bars or candlesticks. When generating intra-day data, we recommend using one minute periodicity in the data download window so that the output time series will have a value for each minute. When viewing this data is one minute charts, view it as a line. Higher periodicities, e.g. five minute can be viewed as bars or candles since Investor/RT produces open,high,low,last five minute bars from the one minute data.
  • New Traditional Charting Styles % Change Bars, Lines, Candles
    Three new charting styles have been added for tradition charting, including % Change Candles, % Change Bars, and % Change Line. With these styles, prices are transformed into percent change values. These percent change values are based on the percent change from the closing price of the first bar in the chart (which is based on the viewing period in chart preferences). If we call this base price "BASE", and the current price "PRICE", then each value will be computed as follows: 100 * (PRICE - BASE) / BASE. BASE will be a constant throughout the chart for each candle/bar/line element. For % Change Candles and % Change Bars, the open, high, low, and close values are all computed using this % change method. In order for a technical indicator to use these "% Change" prices, the user must specify a "price" within the technical indicator preferences of "% Change". For instance, in order to overlay a moving average on top of % Change Candles, the user must specify a price of "% Change" within the MA Preferences window. Not all indicators have the price option available to them, so not all indicators will work in this way. By default, the indicators will operate on the true price values of the instrument.
  • New Options Added to MPD (Mixed Periodicity Data)
    The Mixed Periodicity Data indicator has been enhanced with two new options. First, a checkbox has been added labeled "Mix Instrument" which allows the user to access another ticker (in addition to another periodicity). If this checkbox is checked, a text box is enabled where the user must type in the ticker symbol desired (case sensitive). MPD will then access the data for the periodicity and instrument selected, and right align it to fit the actual data in the chart. Another option has been added to MPD as a checkbox labeled "Stretch data to proper date/times". When this checkbox is checkbox is checked, the data is expanded to match the actual date/times of the underlying instrument in the chart. One use of this option would be to draw tiered vertical reference lines at the high or low of the day, within an intraday chart. To do so, open an intraday chart and add MPD with the preferences "Daily", "High", and check "Stretch". Similarly, the 30-minute high horizontal lines could be overlaid on a 1-minute chart.
  • Order Execution via myTrack Brokerage
    Investor/RT users with myTrack brokerage accounts will soon be able to place trades directly from Investor/RT. The order execution software has been in private beta testing for several weeks and is now ready for public beta testing to any interested Investor/RT myTrack users upon request. To request access to Investor/RT Version 5.7 with myTrack order desk enabled please email support@linnsoft.com and instructions for obtaining the installer will follow.
  • On Balance Volume Improvements  Tour Info
    On Balance Volume (OBV) was enhanced with several new options. A checkbox labeled "Cumulative" was added. The "Cumulative" option forces the OBV to consider all previous data when calculating, as opposed to only the previous period. The OBV values accumulate throughout the chart. If the "Cumulative" option is unchecked, the user may specify a period over which the OBV will be calculated.

    A new "Normalized" checkbox option is available which results is an oscillator that ranges between extreme values of -100 and +100. The OBV is normalized by first dividing the result by the total volume, and then multiplying by 100. When "Cumulative" is checked, the total volume is the sum of the volume of all previous bars. When "Cumulative" is unchecked, the total volume is the sum of the volume of the bars in the previous period. A normalized result of +100 would mean that each bar over the period was an up bar, and therefore all volume was considered up volume. Similarly, a value of -100 would mean that each bar over the period was an down bar, and therefore all volume was considered down volume. A value of 0 would represent an even mixture of up volume and down volume over the period.

    Also, the OBV can now be drawn as a histogram (hollow or solid) or a line (continuous or connected).

    OBV uses the formulas based on the options selected...

    Not Cumulative, Not Normalized
    SUM{UVOL, Period} - SUM{DVOL, Period}

    Cumulative, Not Normalized
    SUM{UVOL} - SUM{DVOL}

    Cumulative, Normalized
    100*(SUM{UVOL} - SUM{DVOL})/SUM{VOL}

    Not Cumulative, Normalized
    100*(SUM{UVOL, Period} - SUM{DVOL, Period})/SUM{VOL, Period
     
  • Center of Gravity (COG) Drawing Options Added
    The Center Of Gravity (COG) indicator was enhanced to provide drawing options of histogram (hollow or solid) or line (continuous or connected).