The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 5.8 Version.

Product Enhancements for Version 5.8.5
Release Date: November 13, 2002

• New in 5.8.5 (November 13, 2002)
• Two Color Lines For Oscillating Indicators
• New Result for TLB Oscillator: Skips
• Paint Bars Indicator Selection
• New in 5.8.4 (November 6, 2002)
• New RTL Tokens: SPB, TPB, VAU, VAD
• Momentum CD-ROM Support
• UK Stocks myTrack Tick Volume Fix
• New in 5.8.3 (October 29, 2002)
• Tick Bar Periodicity and "Special" Indicators
• Backtest Report "Divider" Option
• New RTL token SBAR (Session Bar Number)
• Setting up Custom Instruments
• Closing Partial Positions in Backtesting
• Toolbar Activation
• Choosing an Indicator
• New "Fresh Start" Option for PNF/TLB/Renko Indicators
• New Indicator: Renko
• New "Use High/Low" Option Added To System Simulator
• New in 5.8.2 (October 17, 2002)
• New in 5.8.1 (October 15, 2002)
• Maintenance Releases
• New in 5.8 (October 11, 2002)
• Changing Periodicity Using the Keyboard
• New RTL Token: DAYW (Day of Week)
• Reference Lines and Scaling
• New Result Options For Zig Zag Oscillator
• Renko Chart Improvements
• Improved Indicator/Preset Preferences Validation
• New in 5.8 Beta 3 (October 3, 2002)
• Using The Escape (Esc) Key
• Tick or TickBar Charting Improved
• Buttons for Changing Chart Style
• Adding Sounds in Mac OS X Version
• Macintosh 0S X – Support for Dual Processors, Jaguar
• Custom Price Types Using Custom Indicators
• Volume Histogram for PNF and TLB Charts
• New Scaling Option for Traditional Charts
• Two New Result Options for Signal Statistics (SSTAT)
• Selecting Elements in Charts
• New in 5.8 Beta 2 (September 23, 2002)
• Quote Pages, Formats, and Custom Columns
• Chart Popup Menu Enhanced: Drawing Tools
• User Variables as Chart Reference Lines
• Updating Technical Indicator Presets
• Candlestick Patterns: Dark Cloud Cover and Piercing Line
• New RTL Tokens: LAST#1, LAST#2, LAST#3
• New RTL Tokens: TVOL#1, TVOL#2, TVOL#3
• Day Bar Chart Enhanced
• Backtesting Reporting Improvements
• New Chart Style: Day Change Candles
• Permanently Hiding Main Toolbar
• Info Box: New Indicator Pane Option
• STAT (Scan Statistics) Enhancement
• SSTAT (Signal Statistics) Six New Result Options
• Adjusting V# Column Properties in a Quote Page
• Selecting Indicators in a Chart
• New Technical Indicator: Fisher Transform (RTL: FISH)
  

• Two Color Lines For Oscillating Indicators
  A new drawing style has been added to oscillator style indicators called "Two Color Line". The colors of "two color lines" will reflect the preference setting in "Setup Preferences: Charts: General" labeled "Color Histograms Based On". If "Rising/Falling" is selected, then two color lines will be drawn in one color when the value of the indicator rises, and the other color when the value falls. If "Positive/Negative Values" is selected, then two color lines will be drawn in one color when above the 0 (or other reference level) and the other color when below 0 (or other reference level). Two color line works a little differently for Custom Indicators. If a value is specified for either "Reference Line" or "Extreme Levels +/-", then that value will be used to determine what the colored levels. For instance, if the custom indicator oscillates between -100 and 100, and a value of 70 is specified, the extreme levels above 70 and below -70 will be painted in the second color.
• New Result for TLB Oscillator: Skips
  A new custom result has been added to the Three Line Break Oscillator titled "Skips (Bars In Line)". Skips represents the number of bars that have been spent in the current line of the three line break. High values for skips can represents stalls and warning signs that it may be time to exit the position in the direction of the TLB. The value for Skips is always 1 or greater. On the initial creation of a line, the value will be 1. The value will then increase by one for every subsequent bar in which a new line is not formed (while price remains within the current line).
• Paint Bars Indicator Selection
  The Paint Bar indicator has been enhanced so that it is clear when it is the selected element in the chart, whether the Paint Bars is setup to paint the actual bar, paint high to low, or paint top to bottom. The selection is also clear regardless of whether the Paint Bar indicator is applied to bars, candles, histogram, or line style instruments. When tabbing through elements in a chart, when a Paint Bar becomes the selected element, the painted bars, candles, or line segments will become bold. If the Paint Bar is setup to paint high to low, or top to bottom, then the painted columns will become hollow. Once the Paint Bar indicator is selected, the Enter key may be hit to bring up the preference window, or the delete key may be hit to delete the indicator (this works the same for all indicators/instruments within a traditional chart).
• New RTL Tokens: SPB, TPB, VAU, VAD
  SPB and TPB are properties that enable testing of the "seconds per bar" or the "ticks per bar" based on the periodicity of the scan or chart. VAU and VAD provide the upper and low values of the Value Area indicator.
• Momentum CD-ROM Support
  The Data Download window once again fully supports automatic lookup and import of daily historical data from the 5 year and 14 year Momentum CD-ROM in MetaStock Format. Note the MetaStock Format CD-ROM is supported on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Momentum also publishes an "ascii text file" format CD-ROM. Data can be imported manually from the ascii CD-ROM. Only the MetaStock Format is supported as a "server" data source in the data download window. For more information on the Momentum CD visit http://www.momentumcd.com
• UK Stocks myTrack Tick Volume Fix
  myTrack users following equities that trade on the London exchange using the myTrack data service will find that Investor/RT now properly reports the trade volume of each trade. Unlike US Stocks, Investor/RT no longer multiplies the transmitted trade volume by 100.
• Tick Bar Periodicity and "Special" Indicators
  Traditional charts with periodicity based on a fixed number of ticks per bar (tick or tickbar charts) can now operate with several indicators and their associated drawing tools not previously supported. These include:
  
  Trendlines
  Parallel Trendlines
  Regression Lines
  Fibonacci Retracements
  Scan/Signal Markers
  Rectangle (Owl)
• Backtest Report "Divider" Option
  The backtest setup window has a new menu with five choices for the type of output divider to be used when producing reports. The default is a long line of asterisks. Options include long and short lines of asterisks or hyphens, or just a blank line between report sections.
• New RTL token SBAR (Session Bar Number)
  The SBAR token can be used in scans, signals, and custom indicators to give you the ordinal bar number of the bar being evaluated. The first bar of each new trading session is assigned a value of 1. This token takes into account the intra-day session start and stop times of the instrument being evaluated, thus it is applicable only to intra-day periodicities. SBAR is zero when periodicity is daily, weekly, or monthly. The SBAR indicator is evaluated using the time stamp of the bar (the ending time of the bar) relative to the start and stop times of session. So in a one minute chart with session starting at 9:30, the bar at 9:31 will have SBAR of 1, while the bar at 10:00 will have SBAR of 30, regardless of how many one minute bars are actually on file for that period. Sometimes, the bar data may be missing bars, for example, if a stock had a delayed opening and the first trade occurred at say 9:35:30, the bar ending at 9:36 would be the first bar of the session but its SBAR value would be 5 nevertheless. For this reason the BARNO token, previously used on in backtesting, has been given an expanded role. BARNO is the "physical" ordinal bar number of the session. So in our delayed opening example, the BARNO of the 9:36 bar would be 1 because it is the first actual bar of the session, while the SBAR number would be 6 since it is the 6th one minute time period of the session.
• Setting up Custom Instruments
  A checkbox has been added to the Custom Instrument Setup window for marking custom instruments for intra-day data monitoring and data retention. Formerly, this option had to be adjusted in a less convenient manner using the Setup: Instruments window.
• Closing Partial Positions in Backtesting
  The Investor/RT backtesting system has been enhanced to allow SELL and COVERSHORT rules to sell or cover all or a portion of the position. Formerly, these rule types could only be used to close the entire position. Thus you can backtest trading systems that take partial profits based on one signal and exit all or the remainder of the position under either the same or some other signal.
  
  The POS_SIZE token can be useful in coding signals that consider the size of the position currently held. The "Qty" is now an accepted input when specifying the setup for SELL and COVERSHORT rules. If the quantity of a SELL or COVERSHORT rule exceeds the position size, the entire position is closed.
• Toolbar Activation
  Investor/RT now remembers the state of the main toolbar and all other object toolbars when it quits. At startup, the state of each toolbar is reestablished. For example, if you have explicitly turned off the charting toolbar before quitting, upon startup Investor/RT will keep the charting toolbar hidden until you specifically request it.
  
  The Toolbar submenu in the Windows Menus can be used to enable or disable any or all Investor/RT toolbars. This submenu now shows check marks in front of the names of the enabled toolbars. When a toolbar is enabled, this means that opening its associated window type causes the toolbar to appear. If you choose an item from the Toolbar menu the checkmark is toggled on/off to the opposite setting.
  
  For quote pages and portfolios, the toolbar can also be toggled on or off by clicking the small plus sign just above the vertical scroll bar located in the upper right corner of the window. For all chart window types, the chart's popup menu has a toggle toolbar command. Toolbars for other window types can be activated or turned off using the Toolbar submenu of the Windows menu. The alt-H (command-H on Macintosh) keyboard shortcut alternately shows and hides the main toolbar and the toolbar associated with the front window.
• Choosing an Indicator
  When adding an indicator to a traditional chart using the Add Indicator window, or when choosing an indicator for setting default preferences, Investor/RT now displays a "Choose Indicator" panel on the right and the list of all available indicators on the left. If you are familiar with the indicator you wish to add or edit, type the first letter of the indicator and the list of indicators will scroll to that alphabetical section. The Choose Indicator panel also has an array of letter buttons. You can click on any button to scroll the indicator list to the desired section. When you move the mouse pointer over any button (without clicking), Investor/RT shows a list of indicators whose names begin with that letter in a text box beneath the letter buttons. This technique can be used to search for the indicator you want without scrolling the indicator list. When you see an indicator of interest, click on the button to go to that section of the list. Once you are scrolled into the list of indicators, if you wish to return to the Choose Indicator panel, tap the spacebar. This scrolls the list back to the top item, which is "Choose Indicator".
  
  The Choose Indicator panel will be especially useful to new users of Investor/RT who are unfamiliar with the wide array of technical indicators and drawing tools available in the software.
• New "Fresh Start" Option for PNF/TLB/Renko Indicators
  A new "Fresh Start" checkbox has been added to four indicators: Point and Figure, Three Line Break, TLB Oscillator, and the new Renko indicator. This option forces the indicators to start fresh upon each new trading session. If fresh start is unchecked, Investor/RT considers gaps that may occur from session to session. These gaps can result in exaggerated reversal requirements. By starting fresh each session, the indicators reflect only the current session's data. The "fresh start" option may eventually become an option for other Investor/RT indicators.
• New Indicator: Renko
  Stand alone Renko charts have been a part of Investor/RT for several months as an option in PNF charts. A Renko Indicator has been added for use in traditional charts. It provides a way for the Renko boxes to be viewed and stretched across a time based chart. This allows the user to see exactly which bars were used to create each Renko box. Renko Charts are essentially PNF charts with a reversal criteria of 1, and with each box drawn in a separate column (while PNF draws X and O letters instead of boxes, and stacks them vertically). RENKO is also available in the RTL language for use in scans, trading signals, and custom indicators.
• New "Use High/Low" Option Added To System Simulator
  A checkbox titled "Use High/Low For Targets/Stops" has been added to the System Simulator indicator. This option checks the high and low prices when determining if a target or a stop/trailing stop level was reached. If this option is unchecked, only the closing price will be used to determine if the target/stops were reached.
• Changing Periodicity Use the Keyboard
  When a traditional chart window is the front window, typing alphabetic letters causes Investor/RT to open a dialog for switching the ticker symbol in the chart. In similar fashion, typing numeric digits opens the Periodicity Selection window. The digits you type are interpreted as the periodicity you want; press the enter key to switch to the entered periodicity. For example, if the chart is presently in 5 minute periodicity and you want to change it to 15 minute, just type the digit 1, then the digit 5, then press enter. The first digit you type causes the dialog to appear and the second digit (5) is added to the right of the 1 giving 15. Press enter and the chart switches to 15.
  
  Tick/TickBar vs. Minute Bars The digits you type are interpreted as minutes or the number of ticks per bar depending on the state of the chart when you being typing. If the chart is currently in ticks per bar, you can change to a different ticks per bar by typing the number and pressing enter. Similar if the chart is displaying some minute interval (or even daily/weekly/monthly) and you begin typing digits, the digits are interpreted as minutes. As you type you can also, of course enter a colon followed by the number of seconds, e.g. 1:30 to get a one minute and 30 second bar.
  
  Letter Codes Once the periodicity selection window is open you can type special alphabetic letters (D, W, M, I, or T). The letters can be typed in lower or upper case. D, W, or M, switch the chart to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, respectively. So, if you have an intra-day chart open and you wish to change it quickly to Daily, type any numeric digit followed immediately with D, and hit enter (e.g. 1D<enter>) and the chart will switch to Daily Periodicity. Note that the only reason for typing the numeric digit first is to cause the Periodicity Selection window to appear. Typing a T switches to "Ticks per Bar" so you can continue entering the number of ticks per bar you want. Similarly, type M to switch to time per bar, so you can enter the minutes (and seconds if you like) of time for the bar.
  
  If you are adjusting minutes per bar or ticks per bar in intra-day charts, this new capability makes it a snap to manipulate the periodicity of the chart rapidly with the numeric keypad at the right side of the keyboard. Just enter the digits and press the Enter key on the numeric keypad.
  
  On the Windows platform, once the periodicity selection window appears and the focus is directed to the minutes or ticks per bar entry box, you may use the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to pick a periodicity from the built-in list of choices.
  
  Finally, pressing the <esc> key causes Investor/RT to dismiss the periodicity selection window without making any change to the chart's periodicity.
• New RTL Token: DAYW (Day of Week)
  The RTL token DAYW can be used to create day of week conditional scans, signals, or custom indicators. DAYW evaluates to a number between 0 and 6 with 0=Sunday, 1=Monday, 2= Tuesday, etc. The DAYW can be used in trading signals when backtesting to base trading actions on the day of the week.
• Reference Lines and Scaling
  An option checkbox was added at the bottom of the "Reference Line" indicator. It is titled "Include Reference Line when Auto-Scaling". The purpose of this option is to specify whether you want the value of the horizontal reference line to be included when computing the range of values shown in the vertical scale. When checked, the reference line value will be included thus making the reference line visible in the resulting automatically scaled window pane. If unchecked, the value of the reference line will not be considered, thus the reference line may appear or not depending on its value. The default preference can be set in Setup: Preferences: Charts: Technical Indicator: Reference Line. Each instance of the indicator can be adjusted individually by right-clicking on the reference line in the chart or using the Edit Chart Element button on the chart toolbar.
  
  By default, all horizontal reference line setups created before version 5.8 in charts or indicator presets have this option unchecked, i.e. the line will NOT be included in scaling decisions. You must explicitly turn on the checkbox to force the line's value to be considered in scaling decisions. Reference lines created in the future using the horizontal reference line drawing tool will take on the default setting specified in Setup: Preferences: Charts: Technical Indicators.
• New Result Options For Zig Zag Oscillator
  A "Results" option has been added to the Zig Zag Oscillator indicator. This option will default to "Zig Zag Percent Change" which is the result that Zig Zag Oscillator has given in prior releases of Investor/RT. Four new choices provide access to a variety of data elements regarding the Zig Zag Oscillator. Each result option is discussed below:
  
  Zig Zag Percent Change This result represents the percent change of the current price (close) from the previous pivot price.
  
  Retracement Level This result represents the retracement level of current price in respect to the last leg of the Zig Zag.
  
  Pivot Price This result represents the price of the last Zig Zag pivot point.
  
  Previous Pivot Price This result represents the price of the next to last Zig Zag pivot point.
  
  Direction This result represents the direction of the current Zig Zag leg. A value of 1 represents the current leg is upward trending, while a value of 0 represents that the current leg is downward trending.
• Renko Chart Improvements
  Renko Charts have been improved to draw in the classic box style, as opposed to using the X's and O's that Point and Figure charts use. Renko charts can be created by simply clicking the "Renko Chart" checkbox option in the preferences of Point and Figure Charts. A Renko Chart indicator can be simulated in traditional charts by simply adding the Point and Figure indicator with a Reversal Criteria of 1.
• Improved Indicator/Preset Preferences Validation
  Investor/RT 5.8 incorporates improved validation of technical indicator preferences and preset preferences before using them to add indicators to charts. The improved method will eliminate side-effects when a particular indicator is enhanced in the future to include new options. Presets or chart setups that already exist for indicators in such cases will now be assigned proper default values for the newly added settings whether or not user the actually opens the setup for the indicator. Further, preset preferences will be updated automatically on the database if necessary. The new preferences management feature will assure that ongoing enhancement or refinements to existing indicators will not give rise to unexpected side-effects to charts and presets that were created and saved before upgrading to a new release.
• Using the Escape (Esc) Key
  The escape key (esc) is used consistently throughout Investor/RT as a shortcut for dismissing (closing) the front window. When prompting dialog appear, hitting the esc key is equivalent to clicking the "cancel" button in the dialog box (if present). Preferences windows, quote pages, charts, portfolios, etc. can all be closed with the esc key. In Version 5.8, the esc key has an additional purpose when the front window happens to be a chart, quotepage, portfolio, view/edit, or time & sales window. When any of these windows are in front, hitting the esc key will first eliminate the "selection" in the window. If there is no selection, the window will be closed. So, for example, if you have just clicked into a chart to select an indicator and you selected the wrong indicator you can esc the remove the selection. If you are editing a cell without a quote page, portfolio, or other "spreadsheet" type window in Investor/RT, hitting the esc key will restore the cell to its original value and remove the selection from the cell. Once the selection is removed, a second esc will close the window.
• Tick or TickBar Charting Improved
  Those using charts having a periodicity of tick (1 tick per "bar") or TickBar (N ticks per bar) will notice a big change in Version 5.8. Ticks or tick bars used to be drawn in the chart in accordance with a fixed time scale horizontal axis. The display of these kinds of charts has now been greatly simplified and "de-coupled" from the time axis so that the ticks or tick bars are drawn compactly, one after another. The time stamp of each tick bar will be the time of the last trade making up that bar. The time axis will be labeled, but the time spacing will not necessarily be even since the time between bars (or ticks) depends on the velocity of trading which usually varies throughout the trading session.
  
  Charts having a tick bar or tick periodicity can no longer be mixed with "minute interval" charts. There is no longer a fixed time axis in such charts. Most technical indicators can be added to tick and tick bar charts. Some indicators, such a trend lines, whose implementation currently requires a fixed time axis, cannot be used with tick or tick bar charts. Some of these restrictions will be lifted in time as we re-implement the special case indicators using the new time independent horizontal axis needed to present tick bar and tick charts compactly.
  
  Mixing two or more TickBar periodicity instruments in the same chart window, will give you a nice looking chart, but remember, the time axis is no longer fixed and the times of the bars will not necessarily "match" up. The amount of time it takes to produce a bar of one instrument will rarely if ever be the same amount of time to form a tickbar of the other instrument. You could even mix a 50 TickBar chart of an instrument with a 30 TickBar chart of another instrument. Both sets of tick bars would be right aligned in the chart window and associated technical indicators will line up with the instrument bars, but the bars of the two instruments themselves will rarely have the same time. The labels on the horizontal time axis will reflect the times of the bars of the primary instrument in the chart. The primary instrument is the first instrument found in the highest pane that is higher in the pane order than any other instrument in that pane.
  
  Another key restriction on tick bar and tick charting is that horizontal scrolling is not (yet) supported. The number of tickbars shown in the chart can be expanded and contracted by changing the chart window size, or by adjusting the pixels per bar setting using the up/down arrow keys on the keyboard. Lookahead bars are supported in tick and tickbar charts. If you wish to examine tick bars or tick charts for a period of time in the past you can easily do so by setting the chart's view period to the desired ending time. The chart will then show tick bars derived from the ticks leading up to that user-specified ending time. Charts with a specific ending time are "static" charts, i.e. they do not update further in response to incoming data.
• Buttons for Changing Chart Style
  A new button purpose, "Change the Chart Style" has been added. Chart buttons of this type can be created as pushbuttons or menu buttons. Each of the styles supported by Investor/RT has a two letter abbreviation that can be used to identify the style(s) associates with a particular button, e.g. CA for candlestick, or BA for bar, or LI for line. When the change style purpose is selected, the setup window for the button will show a menu of available styles. Choosing a style from the menu will add that style to the entry box defining the pushbutton or menu button. To create a menu button for quickly changing the chart from bar to line to candle, enter the styles codes as:
  
  BA,LI,CA
  
  or
  
  Bar,Candle,Line
  
  Investor/RT uses the first two letters of the word (not case sensitive) to identify the style you want.
• Adding Sounds in Mac OS X Version
  The Macintosh Classic version make all sounds in the "System" file available for use in Investor/RT alerts and other places (see Setup: Preferences: Sounds). Under Macintosh OS X there are no system sounds, just a few sounds included by Investor/RT directly. You can add more sounds, including your own custom sounds to Investor/RT by dropping "snd" files into the sounds folder inside the Investor/RT Folder. The name of the sound file should not exceed 32 characters. The file must be of type "sfil" and must contain a valid Macintosh "snd" resource. Several sample sound files are included in the latest Investor/RT installer for OS X.
• Macintosh 0S X – Support for Dual Processors, Jaguar
  The Macintosh OS X Version of Investor/RT is now compatible with OS 10.1.x and OS X 10.2.x (Jaguar). Recent improvements to the cross-platform software development tools Linn Software uses have eliminated a problem when Investor/RT is running on dual-processor hardware.
• Custom Price Types Using Custom Indicators
  A powerful new feature has been added to Investor/RT to allow the user to access Custom Indicator values anywhere that the "Price Type" options are available. Throughout Investor/RT, you will find places where a list of prices are presented. These prices include market data prices such as Close, High, Low, Open, and computed prices values such as Hi+Lo/2 or Op + Hi + Lo + Cl/4, etc. These price lists are found in many technical indicator setup windows, in the instrument setup window, in Point and Figure, Three Line Break, and Volume Profile Chart preferences, and many other places. Anywhere you see a price option, there will be eight new custom prices at the end of the price type list. Each of the custom price types in the list can be assigned to any Custom Indicator you have created. A new preferences window is available (see:  Setup Preferences: Prices, Custom). This window allows you to assign each Custom Price to a Custom Indicator (PriceOne through PriceEight). In price list menus, you will see menu items of the form "P1:CI_Name" where "CI_Name" is the name of the Custom Indicator. These Custom Prices will open up new possibilities for existing technical indicators (such as SSTAT, SSIM), and will enhance the charting capabilities of Investor/RT in many way (e.g. Point & Figure, Three-Line Break, Volume Profile).
• Volume Histogram for PNF and TLB Charts
  Point and Figure and Three Line Break charts have been enhanced with an option to show volume histograms for each column/line. A checkbox in the the PNF/TLB preference windows labeled "Show Volume" is used to select this new feature. When checked, a volume bar will be drawn behind each PNF/TLB column depicting the amount of volume traded during formation of the respective column.
• New Scaling Option for Traditional Charts
  A new option, "Use Last X Bars", has been added to the vertical scaling preferences. This option allows the user to specify automatic scaling based on any number of the most recent bars in the chart. For instance, if "Last 20 Bars" was specified, the chart would automatically scale based on the maximum and minimum data values of the last 20 bars only. This option is built into the range based scaling option. To access this option, check "Automatic range-based" scaling based on "Last X Bars". Then specify the number of bars on which you'd like your scaling to be based in the box to the right.
• Two New Result Options for Signal Statistics (SSTAT)
  The list of result types for the Signal Statistics indicator continues to grow. Two new results have been added:
  
  Bars From Signal To Highest Price
  Bars From Signal To Lowest Price
  
  These result types give the number of bars from the signal to the highest price since the signal (or lowest price since the signal). They may be useful in identifying divergences.
• Selecting Elements in Charts
  Some minor changes have been made to the way candlesticks are selected in charts. Investor/RT now requires that the mouse pointer be aimed at a candlestick body when you click to select an instrument graphed as candlesticks. Formerly, a click anywhere in the high/low range of the candle would select the instrument. The intent of this change is to eliminate false selections of the instrument when the user's intent is to click to select a technical indicator. When there is a click in the chart, Investor/RT always tries to first to determine if the click is on an indicator in the chart pane. If not, instruments are considered. So for example, if you have a technical indicator line that happens to run through a candle wick, a click that misses the indicator will only select the instrument if the click was within the candle body (open to close range). 
  
  When clicking in the chart to select an element, if you accidentally select an element you did not intend to select, pressing the esc key will remove the selection (see item #18 above). Of course, you can always simply click again to replace for former selection with a new one. It is not necessary to de-select before clicking again.
• Quote Pages, Formats, and Custom Columns
  Version 5.8 makes it possible to create quote page formats containing one or more "custom columns". Such formats can be created using Setup: Preferences: Formats. Notice that all custom columns are listed in the list of "Available Items" that can be added to any format. All custom columns are listed prefixed with $CC: followed by the name of the custom column to distinguish them from the built-in data columns.
  
  If you already have a quote page setup with custom columns and you wish to save that page's list of columns as a format, simply right-click on any column title in the quote page and choose "Save Format…". Macintosh users with a one button mouse use control-click. You will be prompted for a name for the format and the Setup: Preferences: Format window will then show the newly saved format.
  
  Right-clicking on any column title in a quote page now offers a change format command in the resulting popup menu. A list of format names appears. You can pick any format name and click Apply or OK to change to the selected format. The Change Format button on the quote page toolbar can also be used for this purpose.
  
  One of the interesting side-benefits of being able to include custom columns in formats is that the resulting format can be used as the output format for any scan's output quote page. For example, if you run a scan that includes RSI criteria, you could specify an output format that includes an RSI custom column that color codes various RSI levels appropriately in the resulting quotepage.
• Chart Popup Menu Enhanced: Drawing Tools
  Right-clicking in a traditional chart window invokes a popup menu containing a new "Draw" submenu. The Draw submenu enables you to activate any of the 15 drawing tools on the chart toolbar. For example, choose Draw-->Reference Line-Horizontal to activate the reference line tool. The cursor will change to a pencil. Click at the price level at which you wish the reference line to be drawn. The drawing tool is turned off after adding the new references lin unless you hold down the shift key when clicking. The shift key tells Investor/RT to keep the tool active so you can continue adding another line. All drawing tools work this way with the shift key.
• User Variables as Chart Reference Lines
  User V# variables are often used in conjunction with horizontal reference lines to establish key reference prices levels. The value of the V# variable can be revised by the user manually by editing the number in a quote page or the V# value can be computed using a custom column or a scan that runs periodically. The quote page and charting components of Investor/RT now feature better synchronization of V# variables and Reference Lines. Specially, when you edit a V# variable in a quote page, any open chart windows containing reference lines pegged that that V# variable will be redrawn instantly to reflect the new price level entered. Conversely, if you drag and drop a reference line within a chart to some other price level and the reference line is pegged to a particular V# variable, the value of the V# variable will be updated to reflect the new value resulting from the drag operation. If a quote page containing a V# variable as a column happens to be open when you adjust a reference line pegged to that V# variable, the quote page will update instantly to show to revised value of the V# variable (for the row containing the charted instrument).
• Updating Technical Indicator Presets
  A new submenu item has been added to the Preset popup menu to make it faster and easier to update the preferences of an existing preset. The "Replace Preset" submenu lists the existing preset names for the indicator being edited. Choose the preset you wish to update and the current indicator settings will be applied to that preset. In prior versions, it was necessary to do a "Create Preset" and (carefully) type in the exact name of the preset to be replaced.
• Candlestick Patterns: Dark Cloud Cover and Piercing Line
  A Dark Cloud Cover candle pattern is a bearish reversal signal. In an uptrend a long up candle is followed by a down candle that opens above the up candle high. It then closes well into the up candle real body. In Investor/RT 5.8 we have revised the pattern matching to require that the current candle close "inside" the prior candle body range and below the midpoint of that range. If the current down candle closed outside the previous candle body this is technically known as a bearish engulfing pattern and should not have been flagged as a dark cloud cover. Prior to version 5.8, Investor/RT flagged the pattern as both a dark cloud and a bearish engulfing pattern.
  
  A similar revision was made to the Piercing Line Pattern: . In a downtrend, a long down candle is followed by a gap lower during the next period. The next period then has a long up candle which extends past the midpoint of the previous candle real body. This bullish signal will now be triggered only when the current candle closes within the prior candle body price range and above the midpoint of that range.
• New RTL Tokens: LAST#1, LAST#2, LAST#3
• New RTL Tokens: TVOL#1, TVOL#2, TVOL#3
  Six new tokens have been added to the RTL language to enable access to the previous three trade prices and trade volumes at those prices. These tokens are NOT available historically. They can be used in real-time scanning or real-time custom column calculations. They should not be referenced in backtesting signals as these values are available only as instantaneous values during the live trading session. For example, the following scan can be run regardless of periodicity to find issues that have been rising steadily in price:
  
  CL > LAST#1 and LAST#1 > LAST#2 and LAST#2 > LAST#3;
  
  Note that these six new tokens have names that end with a number. The general rule in Investor/RT is that token names cannot end with a numeric digit. The exception is that any token that has a # as part of the token name can have 1 or more numeric digits immediately following the # as part of the token name. Thus V#99 (user variable 99) is a valid token, as is LAST#3. If you have several MA tokens (say 5, 10 and 20 period moving averages) in a scan you can call them MA#5, MA#10 and MA#20. Then you can qualify them historically by suffixing the token with a period and the qualifier, e.g. MA#5.1 is the previous bar value of MA#5, the five period moving average.
• Day Bar Chart Enhanced
  The Day Bar Chart has been enhanced with several new features. A new option has been added to transform the single bar into an intraday bar based on a user specified number of minutes (last X minutes). If, for instance, "last 10 minutes" was specified, then the bar will reflect the most recent 10 minutes of data. This window of data will move once per minute, at the end of each minute interval. For instance, between 11:09 and 11:10, the 10 minute bar will show data starting from 11:00 up to the most recent tick. Once 11:10 comes, the start time will move to 11:01 and remain there until 11:11, at which time it will move one minute ahead to 11:02.
  
  Also, two new time options were added. A checkbox labeled "Show Time With Open and Close" gives the user the option to see the times at which the opening and closing ticks occurred, in addition to the option to show the time that the high and low occurred. Also, checkboxes labeled "Hide Hour" and "Hide Seconds" give the user the option to decrease the width of the time label if hour our seconds is not desired. Also, the ability to show seconds with the time is a new feature in 5.8.
• Backtesting Reporting Improvements
  The backtesting report formatting has been improved and several new statistics have been added to the consolidated report. The consolidated report now appears at the beginning of the report, followed by the summary reports for each instrument tested. These reports are best viewed in a "mono-spaced" font so that the report columns line up properly. Investor/RT will now use a standard mono-space font to display these reports regardless of the user font setting in Setup: Preferences: General. Backtesting reports are now displayed without word wrap to avoid distorting the report formatting. If you change the font or increase the font size (using the menu control in the upper left corner of the report) you may resize the report window wider to see the full text of each line in the report.
  
  The new backtesting statistical measures include:
  
  Avg Gain/Trade - Total gain (or loss if negative) divided by the total number of trades made.
  Avg Position Size - Average size of all positions entered during the backtest.
  Avg % Gain/Trade - Average Gain/Trade times 100 divided by the average position size.
  Avg % Gain/Bar - Average % Gain/Trade divided by the average bars per trade.
• New Chart Style: Day Change Candles
  A new chart style has been added to traditional charts called "Day Change Candle". The prices of these candles (open, high, low, and close) are computed by subtracting the previous day's close from the actual prices. For instance, if we refer to the previous day's close as DAYCL.1, then the high of each bar will be HI - DAYCL.1, while the low of each bar will be LO - DAYCL.1, etc. In other words, the prices will reflect the actual change from a single price (the previous day's close). The shape of the candles will be almost identical to the shape of standard candles. The difference will be in the scale values, as well as the gaps between the last bar of each day and the first bar of each day.
• Permanently Hiding Main Toolbar
  You can hide the main toolbar by right-clicking (Mac users control click) in the message area of the toolbar and choosing Hide Toolbar from the popup menu. If you quit Investor/RT with the main toolbar hidden, the main toolbar will remain hidden the next time you startup.
• Info Box: New Indicator Pane Option
  An Info Box can be setup within a chart pane to show (1) all technical indicator values (2) a particular pane's indicator values, or (3) no indicator values. In the Info Box setup window, when "One Pane's Indicators" is chosen, the user may specify "AUTO" which means "use the pane that the info box resides in", or a particular pane number. Thus you could have an info box in pane #1 that shows the values of several indicators in Pane #3 by choosing 3 as the pane number. This add more flexibility when setting up info box technical indicator content.
• STAT (Scan Statistics) Enhancement
  The STAT (Statistics) Indicator has been enhanced to provide more flexibility when this function is used in intra-day charts and scans. Specifically, when you call for say a Maximum High or a Minimum Low and specify a "From" date/time, Investor/RT now permits you to specify that the max high or min low is to be obtained with from that time to present or from that time forward for a specific duration or time expressed in bars or minutes. For example, you could setup a STAT token to find the Maximum High from the current trading session start time plus 30 minutes. This gives you the high of that 30 minute period regardless of the intra-day periodicity in use. In prior versions of Investor/RT, the "From" date/time option always implied from the date/time specified "to present". This new option will be useful to Investor/RT users who track overnight session data and want to grab the high or low for the day session trading period only. Just specify the day session start time and the amount of time following that from which to obtain the statistic.
• SSTAT (Signal Statistics) Six New Result Options
  Six new results options were added to the Signal Statistics (SSTAT) indicator. Each of the result options described below is based on the idea that a good measure of a signal is the favorable versus adverse price action that takes place in the bars immediately following the signal. The new result options help to measure the price potential, in both the favorable and adverse direction, over the period that follows the signal.
  
  Maximum Gain Since Signal - Then maximum potential gain, based on the highest high achieved since the signal occurred relative to the entry price on the signaled bar. This result provides a value on each bar following the signal, and resets at each signal.
  
  Maximum Loss Since Signal - Then maximum potential loss, based on the lowest low achieved since the signal occurred relative to the entry price on the signaled bar. This result provides a value on each bar following the signal, and resets at each signal.
  
  Max Favorable Excursion - Look Ahead - This result looks ahead from the signaled based on the period specified, and finds the maximum potential gain achieved over that period, based on the highest high reached during the period. This result appears only on the signaled bars, showing a value of 0 on all other bars.
  
  Max Adverse Excursion - Look Ahead - This result looks ahead from the signaled based on the period specified, and finds the maximum potential loss achieved over that period, based on the lowest low reached during the period. This result appears only on the signaled bars, showing a value of 0 on all other bars.
  
  MFE Period - Bars to MFE This result shows how many bars forward from the signal at which the MFE (Maximum Favorable Excursion) price was reached. In other words, it represents how many bars from the signaled bar that the highest high occurred over the period specified.
  
  MAE Period - Bars to MAE This result shows how many bars forward from the signal at which the MAE (Maximum Adverse Excursion) price was reached. In other words, it represents how many bars from the signaled bar that the lowest low occurred over the period specified.
• Adjusting V# Column Properties in a Quote Page
  If you have one or more V# user variable as columns in a quote page you can easily adjust the column title or the precision of the display format by right-clicking on any cell in the V# column. Macintosh users control-click. This takes you to the Setup: Preferences: User Variables window for that V# user variable. Make the adjustments and click OK. The quote page will then reflect the changes.
• Selecting Indicators in a Chart
  Selecting an indicator in a chart is usually quite easy, just click on the indicator line and the line becomes "selected". The line is drawn thicker as visual feedback that the selection was made. If you have a "Select Object" sound setup in the Sounds preferences panel then that sound is played as well. Sometimes, a chart filled with many indicators can become congested to the extent that selecting a particular indicator becomes difficult. In such cases, you can of course use the tab key to cycle the selection one by one through the indicators in the chart until the line you want becomes highlighted (thicker). This can be tedious, however, if there are many indicators in the chart.
  
  Investor/RT 5.8 introduces a new chart element selection method that will be useful in such cases. If you hold down the ctrl key (or option key on Macintosh) while you move the mouse pointer inside a chart pane, as the pointer passes over any indicator line or instrument in the pane, that line or instrument will become selected. As you continue to move the mouse "off" of that indicator, the element will no longer be selected. Further, the main toolbar status message area will provide feedback as you move the mouse pointer, showing the name of the element that is currently selected. When the mouse pointer is not pointing to any particular chart element, the message "No Selection" will be displayed.
  
  So for example, if you want to select a particular indicator line to edit the properties of the indicator, move the mouse (with ctrl key down) in the vicinity of the line until the line becomes selected. Then right-click or press the enter key to see the selected indicator's preferences, or press the Delete key to eliminate the indicator.
  
  This new tool provides an excellent way to experiment and learn through experience where the mouse pointer must be placed in order to obtain a selection for any particular indicator.