Home                           

 Try Investor/RT             

 Investor/RT Tour           

 Getting Started              

 What's New                  

 Testimonials                 

Search . . .

 Pricing Summary

 Place Your Order

 Product Description

 Sales Center           

 Contact Us            

 Referrals              

 Renewals            

 Customer Support     

 Download Center      

 Videos        

 Documentation        

 Q & A                      

 Tip Of The Day        

 Tutorials                  

 Advanced Profiling

 Trading Systems    

 Scans                  

 Voices                  

 Education & Training

 Upgrade Center      

 Discussion List         

 Investor/RT Chat       

 About Linn Software

 User Exchange        

 Search

Investor/RT
What's New in Version 5.9.7

The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 5.9 Version.

Product Enhancements for Version 5.9.7
Release Date: February 7, 2003

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    
  • Intraday Data Compression
    When compressing the intraday historical database (see Control Menu), Investor/RT by default will discard all intraday data that is on the database for those instruments that are NOT marked for intraday data retention. Some Investor/RT users have requested the ability to retain intraday historical data after compression for all instruments, regardless of their intra=day monitoring/retention status. This is now an option in Setup: Preferences: Historical Data. At the bottom of the window there is now section titled "When Compressing…Delete Intraday data for all instruments not marked for intraday". This checkbox is checked by default. If you wish intraday data to be retained on all instruments when compressing, uncheck this checkbox.
  • Support for Jurik Research Indicators
    Investor/RT now supports four popular technical indicators available under license from Jurik Research:

    http://www.jurikres.com/catalog/catalog.htm#technical

    These include JMA, a responsive (no lag) moving average, RSX a smoothed no lag variation of the classic RSI indicator. VEL a price momentum indicator, and DMX a variation of the classic DI+/DI-/ADX indicator suite. Each of these indicators is accessed in Investor/RT as a "Plug-in". If an Investor/RT user has licensed these indicators from Jurik you can add any of these to your charts or use them in scans, signals and custom indicators using the PLUGIN token.
  • Darvas Box (RTL: DBOX)  Tour Info
    This new indicator implements the trading methods of Nicolas Darvas. This indicator is experimental at this time. For more information on the Darvas Box, click here.
  • Volume Profile Enhancements
    Volume Profile charts have been enhanced to provide the ability to use custom prices with Intraday Data. Before version 5.9.7, the "Use Price for last X days" option was limited only to daily data. Now, the user has the option of using "Daily Bars" or "Intraday Bars". When "Intraday Bars" are chosen, the user then can specify the number of minutes per bar that will be used. The "Assign each bar a volume of 1" option now applies to both "Daily" and "Intraday" options. As a quick example of how this might be used, let's say you wanted to profile the RSI on 5-minute bars over the last 2 days using a $10 range. In other words, show how many 5-minute bars the instrument spent with an RSI between 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, etc, over the last 2 days (or however many days you wish).

    First, you create a custom indicator that represents your RSI value (syntax of the custom indicator would just be "RSI"). Then, go to "Setup: Preferences: Price, Custom" and assign a custom price to your new custom indicator that represents the RSI. Now, in the volume profile preferences, specify a range of "10", and check "Use P1:RSI for last 2 days or Intraday Bars, 5-minutes". Also check the "Assign each bar a volume of 1" checkbox. These settings should produce your profile. You could repeat this process with any custom indicator (or other price option) and any number of minute bars (or daily bars), over any number of days.
  • PriceTime Cycles (Shapes) Indicator Enhanced
    Two new "shapes" have been added to the PriceTime Cycles (Shapes) indicator: Horizontal Zone and Vertical Zone. The Horizontal Zone option will use the price along with the height to draw a strip from the left side to the right side of the chart pane. Similarly, the Vertical Zone will use the Date/Time along with the width to draw a strip from the top to the bottom of the chart pane. These shapes are most effective when the "solid" checkbox is checked in the PriceTime preferences. As an example of how this might be used, a user might want to paint the region from $50 to $51 on his chart. This would be done with a horizontal zone with a price of 50 and a height of 1 (and with the "solid" checkbox checked.

    The keyboard adjustment shortcuts can be used to help place the zones more precisely. The zones should be drawn behind all other elements in the chart (at bottom of element list: shift-click in scale to see this list). Proper setting of the "vertical step" option in PriceTime preferences can also facilitate use of the keyboard shortcuts.
  • Maintenance Issues
    Version 5.9.7 contains corrections itemized below:

    When a daily chart is scrolled back to some prior date you can now "replay" the data beyond that point bar-by-bar by clicking the right scrollbar arrow. A bug was fixed that caused some clicks on the right arrow to be ignored. Replay scrolling is also supported in intraday charts: scroll the chart back to the starting date/time you want to reply and click the right arrow to bring each new bar and associated technical indicator lines into view.

    Dial/Data bulk downloads operate properly again when invoked by a schedule.

    Using the Data Download button in a traditional chart window would sometimes cause a fatal error to occur with the message "Nil ctl in datectrl…". This bug is fixed. It was first introduced in version 5.9.5.

    Downloading daily historical data in the Quote.com version of Investor/RT was failing to update the last two (most current) daily bars in some cases. This has been corrected.

    When an Exponential Moving Average (EMA) is included in a chart the pane title is now color coded properly with the actual color of the EMA line.

    When a custom indicator is used within a scan, signal, or another custom indicator, it is possible to use a qualifier to refer to the value of that CI in previous bars, e.g. CI.1 or CI.5. An obscure bug was discovered that was causing Investor/RT to ignore the qualifier when determining the number of bars of data necessary to compute the CI. If there happens to be another indicator referenced in the same expression that called for more data, e.g. a 10 period moving average MA token, then the bug has no effect since more than ample bars are loaded to compute the CI. However, in very simple cases, e.g. a CI formula like "HI.1 + 1", and a trivial scan such as CI.1 > 0, the bug would cause fewer bars of data to be loaded than were needed, resulting in zero values for the CI. Interestingly, this bug surfaces only in the most simple, almost trival cases which may help to explain why it has gone undetected for so many years. This bug is fixed in 5.9.7.
  • New Chart Button Type for Keyboard Shortcuts
    Chart Buttons can now activate any keyboard shortcut that is defined in Setup: Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts. When setting up the chart button, choose "Shortcut Key" as the button purpose. Then enter the shortcut key name. You can copy/paste the shortcut name from the "Legend" window if you wish. To see the names of keyboard shortcuts that are presently defined to Investor/RT go to Setup: Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts and click the Legend button. The shortcut name must include the capital letter F followed by a number, e.g. F10. You may prefix the name with modifier words, e.g. Shift-Ctrl-F9. When creating a menu of shortcut keys just list the shortcut names separated by a comma, e.g. F2,Shift-F2,Ctrl-F2 to create a three entry menu. If you wish you can prefix the shortcut descriptor with arbitrary text followed by a color so that your menu choices are more descriptive. For example, the following text will create a more descriptive menu for the same shortcut keys:

    Open Chart A: F2,Run Scan ABC: Shift-F2,Open Quote Page XYZ: Ctrl-F2

    If you create a shortcut button (not a menu) with a long description, e.g. "Verify Historical Data: Shft-Ctrl-F2", by default the button face text will be the entire string. In such case it is recommended that you provide a brief custom title for the button, e.g. "VerHist" or "VHD" to keep the button width smaller. When you point the mouse at a button, the full text description will appear in a help tip window.

    Note that the descriptor for the shortcut key follows the colon and the text must end with the capital letter F followed by the function key number.

    Function keys F1 through F24 are available even though F13 through F24 are typically not present on most keyboards. The F13 and higher shortcut key names can be assigned to those shortcuts that will only be invoked from chart buttons.

    The ability to invoke keyboard shortcuts from chart buttons opens up many new possibilities. Buttons in charts can now run scans or initiate schedules. Buttons can be present for opening quote pages, charts, and other window types, or to perform various database management and utility functions. In fact, you may wish to simply create special "chart" windows whose sole purpose is to serve as a container for an array of shortcut buttons to make it convenient to access various Investor/RT functions with a single click
  • New RTL Token IAA (Indicator Adjusted Average)
    The Indicator Adjusted Average technical indicator has been added to RTL with the token IAA.
  • Multi-Linking Enhancements  Tour Info
    The multi-link feature of Investor/RT has been enhanced to allow multi-linking to occur more selectively. A related set of traditional charts can be setup with a common multi-link color code so that a multi-link operation will affect only those charts. Click here for a description of the enhanced multi-linking facility.
  • Improved RTL Statistical Functions (MIN, MAX, )
    The MIN, MAX, AVG, SUM, and STD statistical function tokens in the RTL language now permit the first parameter to be a qualified historical token. For example, MAX(HI, 5) and MAX(HI.2, 5) where formerly treated the same, each give the maximum high in last five periods. Investor/RT now recognizes the historical qualifier in MAX(HI.2, 5) and now yields the max high beginning two periods ago and looking back five periods.
  • Improved Custom Instrument Daily Data Generation
    When generating historical data for custom instruments, Investor/RT now uses an improved method to more accurately determine the daily open/high/low/close for those day for which intraday data is available for the components of the custom instruments. Formerly, daily bars were generated using only the daily historical data of the underlying components of the custom instrument.
  • Multiple Monitor Related Improvements
    Users with multiple monitors that are logically "stacked vertically" will find a new preference in Setup: Preferences: General. The settings for centering windows have been improved to include a vertical as well as a horizontal percentage. For example in a four monitor setup where Investor/RT uses all four monitors in a 2 by 2 arrangement, use a setting of %25 to center windows vertically on the "top" monitor, or a setting of 75% to center windows vertically on the bottom monitor.
  • New QuotePage Statistics (QSTAT) "Ranking" Results  Tour Info
    There are two new results for the QuotePage Statistics indicator, titled "Rank (Ascending)" and "Rank (Descending)". These results will return the rank of the underlying instrument within the target quotepage, based on the specified criteria. If a result of "Rank (Ascending)" is specified, and the indicators value is 2, then the instruments value is the second lowest value in the quotepage. On the other hand, a result of "Rank (Descending)" is specified, and indicators value is 2, then the instruments value is the seconds highest in the quotepage.
  • New Result Options for Signal Statistics (SSTAT)  Tour Info
    Four new result options have been added to the Scan Statistics indicator. Each new result option is a derivative of an existing result option, with an "N Signals Ago" variable added. For instance, the result option "Bars Since N Signals Ago" is now available in addition to "Bars Since Last Signal" to allow the user to access not only the number of bars that have transpired from the last signal, but the number of bars that have transpired from any number of signals in the past. The four results are explained further below:

    Bars Since N Signals Ago - This result gives the number of bars between the current bar and the bar at which N signals ago occurred. For example, if a value of N=3 was specified, then a resulting indicator value of 20 would mean that the third signal back occurred 20 bars ago.

    Price At N Signals Ago - This result gives the price of the bar at which N signals ago occurred. For example, if a value of N=2 was specified, then a resulting indicator value of 54.5 would mean that the price was $54.5 on the bar where the second signal back occurred.

    Highest Price Since N Signals Ago - This result gives the highest price since N signals ago occurred. For example, if a value of N=4 was specified, then a resulting indicator value of 63.5 would mean that the highest price that was reached since the bar at which the 4th signals back occurred was $63.5.

    Lowest Price Since N Signals Ago - This result gives the lowest price since N signals ago occurred. For example, if a value of N=4 was specified, then a resulting indicator value of 43.5 would mean that the lowest price that was reached since the bar at which the 4th signals back occurred was $43.5.
  • Data Download Window Improved
    The window has been reorganized to improve overall appearance and to make clearer the distinction between downloading data for a quote page vs. for a single instrument. The windows now indicates which download options are available depending on the choice selected in the "server" list at the top right of the window.
  • Trendline Slope in "Degrees" or "%Change/Bar
    Prior to Version 5.9.4, the user could specify a constant slope for trendlines only in units of change/bar. Version 5.9.4 adds the ability to specify a constant slope in units of "Degrees" or "%Change/Bar". If units of "Degrees" are specified, and the user specifies a slope of "45" for instance, then the trendline will always be drawn at a 45 degree angle from the starting point specified, regardless of the height of the chart, the pixels/bar, the scaling, etc. If units of %Change/Bar are specified, then a slope of 1 will result in a trendline which increases by an average of 1%/bar from starting point to ending point.
  • Labeling Trendline Slope in Degrees
    A new labeling option has been added to trendlines and all trendline-based indicators. The option is titled "Slope (Degrees)". It gives the actual slope of the trendline in degrees. The result can be anywhere between -90 or +90. A flat, horizontal trendline would show a slope of 0 degrees. A positive sloping trendline that covers equal screen space vertically and horizontally (between begin and end points) would have a slope of 45 degrees. A negative sloping trendline that covers equal screen space vertically and horizontally (between begin and end points) would have a slope of -45 degrees.
  • Scheduling Data Management Functions
    A new database function action has been added to enable the Investor/RT user to schedule periodic deletion of temporary files. Investor/RT uses various temporary files when downloading historical data and performing other functions. These files are stored in the admin directory (folder). The Delete Temporary Files function will delete any such files that are no longer needed. This function can now be scheduled to run daily or once a week after the close using Setup: Schedule. The Delete Historical Data command is located under the Control Menu, under Data Management, in the Delete submenu.
  • Time and Sales – Bid/Ask Sizes
    Three new data columns are available for display in time and sales windows: bid size, ask size, and +/-. Access the time and sales preferences by right-clicking in the time and sales window to activate these columns. Note that Investor/RT does not retain bid and ask sizes nor the +/- values historically. These columns will show values only for the realtime collected ticks displayed in the time and sales window. The values when present will accurately reflect the bid/ask sizes and direction at the time each trade occurred. If you close a time and sales window and open it again later, all bid/ask size and +/- cells will initially be empty and will begin filling in for new ticks only.
  • Delete Historical Data Improvements
    The Delete: Historical Data facility (in the Control Menu under Data Management) has been improved to more easily enable deletion of all data before or after a specified date.
  • Scan Quote Page Display Improved
    Scan Quote Page Display Improved. Scans that run continuously on a schedule repeatedly replace the quote page of scan results with the current result. This replacement of the scan quote page was formerly done by deleting the former window and creating a new one to replace it. Investor/RT has been improved to recognize when the scan result quote page is already open and to replace the window contents without creating a new window. This results in less screen flicker and less interference with user interface activities when such scans run.
  • Backtesting: Rule Quantity "All"
    Recently Investor/RT backtesting was improved to allow closing of a portion of an open position (see item #37 in the help topic "What's New in 5.8"). User experience with this new feature has indicated a need to specify an exit rule quantify of "All" to exit the remainder of a position regardless of the number of shares/contracts or dollar size remaining in the position. The rule quantify popup list now has "All" as the first choice in the list. When an exit rule specifies "All" as the rule quantity and the rule is triggered, the remainder of the position will be closed out regardless of whether the position size is expressed in dollars or shares/contracts and regardless of whether the position size is the entire position opened or some remainder due to partial closing rules triggered earlier. Note that "All" can be used as well to open a new position. The position size in this case will be obtained from the backtest setup maximum position size specified by the user.
  • Maintenance Issues
    Version 5.9 Rev 2 and 3 reflect a variety of fixes and general maintenance. DTN users will find support for a new market status indicator (quote page column "Mkt Status"). A trading holiday related bug was fixed that caused daily charts to report the wrong date for 12/31/2002 when pointing at the bar. Rare crash bugs were fixed in the IWA, MPD, and QSTAT indicators. Chart buttons referencing automatic trendlines now toggle the trendline on/off properly. A crash bug was fixed concerning the use of presets for buttons and info box indicators in charts. An obscure (and rare) bug concerning downloading data from myTrack when the user incorrectly specifies the "posting days" for the trading session was fixed. User error messaging was improved in a variety of area. When updating to 5.9 Rev 3 from 5.9 Rev 1 or earlier the "Print Prefs" file is automatically deleted. The presence of this file was causing a crash at startup when upgrading. Custom Column setup window now has built-in help. A rare crash bug in the "Instrument Selector" was fixed. Time and Sales windows opened as part of a layout were being opened with a cell selected for editing. This prevented new ticks from updating the time and sales display. A cell is no longer selected so that updating begins immediately. When using Setup: Preferences: Quote Page, if the resulting preferences were applied to all or all open quote pages, the column widths of each affected quote page were incorrectly set very wide. This has been corrected. However, any quote pages affected by this bug will have to be corrected individually using the "Optimize Column Widths" command in the quote page popup menu or toolbar. When any one of the four "pin to..." toolbar positioning options is used, Investor/RT now correctly keeps the entire toolbar visible when its associated window is close to the edge of the screen. A bug was fixed in the portfolio cash adjustment function that prevented a "Set New Balance" operation from properly updating the portfolio cash balance. RTL token LRF was sometimes returning the value of the regression line when the token setup called for the value of either the upper or lower band. This has been corrected.
  • myTrack Startup Quote Fix
    Version 5.8 Rev 3 released in November 2002 changed the way Investor/RT timestamps each incoming trade for charting purposes. Formerly, the local computer clock time was used to time stamp each tick. Version 5.8.3 began using the myTrack transmitted trade time (adjusted to the local user's time zone). This change enabled Investor/RT charts to more accurately reflect the precise trading times of each intraday bar. Unfortunately however, this change introduced an unintended side effect concerning the startup quote Investor/RT receives from myTrack for each instrument. When Investor/RT connects to myTrack it requests a current quote for all active instruments. This quote contains "background" information such as the current trading session open price, high and low price thus far in the session, 52 week high and low, etc. The time stamp of this quote, being earlier in time than the latest real-time trade, resulted in Investor/RT disregarding the data as an "out of sequence trade". The symptoms of this problem include incorrect open prices, incorrect high/lows. If Investor/RT was running at the open, the software would compute it's own open price and keep track of the intraday high and lows thereby masking the problem. However, anyone starting Investor/RT after the open would be more likely to have an incorrect open, high, or low price. Version 5.9 Rev 2 corrects this problem. It properly updates the open, high, and low when the startup quotes come in from myTrack.
  • Support for eSignal International Exchanges Historical Data
    The eSignal version of Investor/RT now supports the International Tick Server, enabling eSignal users who track issues trading on international exchanges to obtain historical tick data and minute bar data for those issues. This feature is activated automatically in Investor/RT if you define ticker symbols that trade on international exchanges. This feature should be considered experimental at this time. Please report any problems to support@linnsoft.com.
  • eSignal Intraday Historical Data Improvements
    Investor/RT for eSignal has been improved for better performance when downloading intraday tick data or minute bar data from the eSignal tick server(s). The Feed Status window for eSignal has been updated to show the number of days of intraday data available for downloading at the present time. This number typically will be 30 to 60 days. If you initiate a download request from a chart window. Investor/RT will automatically trim back the requested period so it falls within the number of days shown in the feed status window. When using the Data Download window make sure the number of days of intraday data requested does not exceed the number shown in the feed status window
  • Quote Page Statistics Indicator (QSTAT)
    This new indicator allows the user to calculate a variety of statistical results for any quote page of symbols, on any available technical indicator. The current list of available statistical results include Average, Sum, Maximum, Minimum, Percent of Average, Percent of Total, Percent Difference from Average, Relative Strength, Instruments with Data (Bars). For instance, you can calculate the average volume for a quote page of symbols that contains the Nasdaq 100. You can calculate the average percent change on a quote page that contains the S&P 500. You can calculate the maximum, minimum, average, or total spread on a quote page that contains all optionable stocks. You can calculate the average (maximum, minimum) MACD (RSI, CCI, FASTD) for a quote page that contains the DJI 30. You can calculate how many instruments in a quote page evaluated TRUE for a given condition (using scan as the indicator). The possible combinations are expansive. As this indicator can be added to a chart, these values can be seen historically for all of the past bars. In order for this to work accurately, you must ensure that you have complete data on each of the symbols in the quote page. You can verify this after adding the Quote Page Statistic indicator (QStat) to your chart by pointing to each bar. The feedback you see for each bar in the pane title for QStat will show how many symbols in the quote page had bars on file for that time slot.

    Let's call our chosen indicator result "IND". A brief description of each statistical result option follows.

    Average: This represents the average of IND for all the instruments in the quote page.

    Sum: This represents the total summed values of IND for all the instruments in the quote page.

    Maximum: This represents the maximum value of IND for all the instruments in the quote page.

    Minimum: This represents the minimum value of IND for all the instruments in the quote page.

    Percent of Average: This represents the percentage of the underlying instruments IND value compared to the Average. (100 * IND / Average)

    Percent of Total: This represents the percentage of the underlying instruments IND value compared to the Total. (100 * IND / Total)

    Percent Difference from Average: This represents the percentage difference of the underlying instruments IND value compared to the Average. (100 * (IND - Average) / Average)

    Relative Strength, Instruments with Data (Bars): This represents the percentage of IND between the Minimum and Maximum values. This value will always be between 0 (at lowest end of range of values) and 100 (at highest end of range of values). (100 * (IND - Minimum) / (Maximum - Minimum))

    Notice that the first four options (and the last option) apply to the quote page as a whole, while the next four options apply to the specific instrument as it relates in some aspect to the cumulative values of the group (quote page).

    Quote page Statistics can also be accessed in the RTL language using the token QSTAT. This gives the user access to QSTAT in custom indicator, scan, and custom columns. But adding QSTAT to a custom column, you can quickly see how each instrument in a quote page performed relative to the performance of the overall quote page using any available indicator (including custom indicators and scans) as a basis.
  • Downloading Historical Data using Schedules
    A new action has been added to Schedules called "Download Data". The action gives the user the ability to schedule a download of either 1-minute or daily data, on any quote page, for any number of days. Since the schedule can be setup to be run using a shortcut key, it gives the user the ability to quickly download a given amount of data on a quote page by simply pressing a key.

    Here is one scenario where this new action could be very useful. Let's say you have a large quote page of 3000 stocks which you like to run a scan on each day to narrow your intraday watch list down to 50 or so stocks. You can setup two schedules, and run them in the morning or evening while the session is closed. The first schedule will simply download the last 1 day of daily data on your large quote page. This schedule would have the single action of "Download Data - Daily - 1 Day". Once this schedule has completed, you'd run your second schedule. This schedule will begin by running a scan that unmarks all symbols for intraday monitoring (Run Scan - "!SET(MON, -MON_INTRA)"). You'll run this scan on your ".All Symbols" quote page. It then initializes the intraday database to help keep the database size to a minimum (Database Functions: Initialize Intraday Database). It will then run the scan which results in a smaller quote page for intraday watch (Run Scan - ???). This can be an scan you wish which runs on daily data to narrow your 3000 symbol quote page down to a manageable intraday group. It then saves this resulting quote page (Keyboard Shortcut - you'll have to first create a keyboard shortcut that does "Save: Current Object" and use this. It can then run a scan that marks all the symbols in this smaller quote page for intraday monitoring (Run Scan - "!SET(MON, MON_INTRA)"). You'll run this scan on the quote page that resulted from the previous scan. It will then download 6 days of 1-minute bars to prime each of those instruments for analysis (Download Data - 1-minute - Last 6 days).
  • Initializing Databases using Schedules
    Two options have been added to the "Database Functions" action of schedules: "Initialize D/W/M Database" and "Initialize Intraday Database". These functions remove all "daily weekly monthly" or intraday data from the database. These scheduled actions can be used to keep the database size to a minimum. They are especially useful for users whose intraday watch lists change from day to day, and need to delete all intraday data each day, and download fresh on the new list of symbols (see help title "Download Data Scheduled Action" for additional information).
  • New RTL Token: AMA – Adaptive Moving Average
    The Adaptive Moving Average indicator now has the token AMA in the RTL language. Adaptive Moving Average were formerly possible using the MA token, but the AMA token provides more specific control over the preferences for the adaptive moving average than was possible using MA.
  • New RTL Tokens for Backtesting:  BTBAR, BTCNT
    Two tokens were added to the RTL language to enable backtesting signals to consider which bar number is being tested. BTBAR is the bar number being tested. BTBAR will be 1 for the first bar tested during the backtest. BTCNT is the bar number of the last bar to be backtested. Thus a signal that includes the expression BTBAR = 1 would be true only when the very first bar is being tested. Similarly, the signal BTBAR = BTCNT would be true only when the last bar is being tested. These tokens have to purpose except during backtesting.
  • Show Open Price Option for Scan/Signal Markers
    The "Show Price" feature of the Scan/Signal Markers indicator has been enhanced to allow the user to show the "Open" price on marked bars. This new option is added to the existing options of showing "Close", "High", "Low", and "DateTime".
  • Instrument Only Option for Range Based Scaling
    All Range-Based Scaling options now have the option to be "Instrument Only". In the vertical scale preferences (double-click in the vertical scale to access these preferences), the third Scaling Method is range-based scaling. To turn on "Instrument Only" for this method, just select "Instrument" from the first list (which also includes "Automatic" and "Manual" options). This "Instrument Only" method is used to force the chart pane to consider only the data of the instrument, and exclude any indicators which may scale outside the range of the instrument and skew the pane's scale.
  • Using Font Styles
    Fonts for Investor/RT quote pages have always supported various styles (bold, italic, underline, etc.). The font name, font size, and font style are all saved properties of each quote page. Support for styles elsewhere in Investor/RT has not included "style", only the font name and font size. Investor/RT Version 5.9 now supports retention of font styles generally. For example, the font setup for both the Annotation and Info Box indicators in charts now retain the style. Time and sales, news, view/edit, and text window font style preferences are now retained. When viewing text windows, e.g. message log, backtesting reports, etc. the menu button at the top left of the text window has a Style submenu.
  • Charting Custom Instrument Components
    When viewing charts of custom instruments it may be desirable to quickly call up charts on the underlying component instrument of the custom instrument. A command has been added to the chart popup menu for this purpose. Right-click in the chart window and choose Chart Components to open default charts on each of the component instruments that make up the custom instrument in the chart. The new menu item has not effect unless the instrument in the chart is a custom instrument. The charts that will appear will be in the format dictated by the default chart in Setup: Preferences: Charts: General.
  • Quote Page Popup Menu Improvements
    The "Plus Button" in the upper right corner of each quote page, formerly used to toggle the quote page toolbar on and off, can be click to choose from a popup menu of quote page functions. The menu pops up over the "Toggle Toolbar" item to make the former purpose of the button just as accessible. The menu has items for saving or changing the quote page format, for saving the quote page or creating a new quote page, or for changing the window to another quote page. You can also get to the quote page preferences window quickly or call up the "Add to Quote Page window, a helper window to ease the setup of quote pages. The menu item at the bottom of the new popup menu, "Mouse Shortcuts", opens a help topic with further details on using the mouse to perform useful functions within a quote page. Click here to review this help topic (Mouse Clicking in Quote Pages) now. The popup menu obtained by right-clicking on any quote page column has been reorganized with column specific functions listed at the top (add column, delete column, resize column, etc.
  • New Chart Button for Setting User Data
    The Chart Button indicator has been enhanced to add a new button purpose: Set User Data. A Set User Data button has an associated word or phrase. Clicking the button inserts that word into the User Data of the instrument in the chart. For example, one way to use this new facility is to add buttons to the chart with the words BUY, or SELL. As you quickly cycle through charts in a slide show, you can click the appropriate button to "mark" certain instruments as BUY or SELL just by clicking the appropriate button. After you review all you charts you can easily obtain a list of all of the BUY stocks by running the scan: USERDATA = "BUY", or the SELL stocks with scan USERDATA = "SELL".

    Set User Data menu buttons are available as well, e.g. setup one button as a menu button and use "BUY,SELL,NEUTRAL" as the button text to get three menu choices for setting the instrument's user data.

    If the text of a Set User Data button begins with a plus sign, e.g. +BUY, then the text BUY will be appended to the user data text that already exists for the instrument. If the text begins with a question mark, Investor/RT will prompt you to enter the user data text. The prompting window will show the existing user data for the instrument so you can replace it entirely, edit it, or append text to it as you wish. If the text begins with something other than + or ?, Investor/RT will replace the current user data with the text specified for the button.

    When using this facility it may be useful to add an Annotation box to the chart window with the annotation text %USERDATA. This will cause the current user data of each instrument to appear as text in the chart window as you switch tickers.
  • New Indicator: Fibonacci Extensions
    A new indicator called Fibonacci Extensions has been added to Investor/RT. A drawing tool button for this indicator is on the chart toolbar. The Fibonacci Extensions tool is similar to the Fibonacci Retracements tool. The Fibonacci Extensions indicator requires a third point. The extensions and retracement levels are drawn from this third point, but based upon the distance between the first two points. A common use of this tool is to first connect two points that represent the endpoints of a major trend (or wave). Then choose the third point to be the endpoint of a retracement of that trend. Extensions are then drawn in the direction of the initial trend, from the third point, using the distance between points one and two as a basis for the extension levels. For example, suppose the initial trendline moved in price from 100 (point 1) to 110 (point 2). Then, price retraced to 105. The 0% extension line would then be drawn at 105 (105 + 0%*(110 - 100)). A 100% extension line would be drawn at 115 (105 + 100%*(110 - 100)). A 50% extension line would be drawn at 110 (105 + 50%*(110 - 100))...and so on.

    The Fibonacci Extensions toolbar button and drawing tool work much like the Andrew's Pitchfork drawing tool. First, click on the Fibonacci Extension button on the toolbar. Then, click three times, once on each of the points that are involved in the Fibonacci Extension. The first click should be on the starting point of the initial trendline. The second click should be on the ending point of the initial trendline. The third click should be on the ending bar of the retracement period.

    As with Fibonacci Retracements, there is a great deal of flexibility for all three price points (Begin, End, and Extend Prices). Each price level can have "Use Bar" or "Use Price" selected. If "Use Bar" is selected, the endpoints will snap to the extreme prices of the corresponding bars. If "Use Price" is selected, the exact price at each mouse click point will be used.

    Fibonacci Extension share the same flexibility as Fibonacci Retracements regarding "Show Price", "Show %", "Extend Left", "Extend Right", "Text on Right", etc. Also, both retracements and extensions in both time and price may be drawn.
  • New Documentation: What's New Reference
    We have prepared a new document called the What's New Reference. This Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF) file is a compendium of all of the What's New help topics. The document is at this time more than 200 pages long. It has a detailed, searchable table of contents. Clicking on a table of contents entry takes you directly to the text of the corresponding item. Further, the entire document is searchable by keyword or phrase. It is an excellent way to look up a description of some feature and all of the enhancements made to that feature in ensuing releases of Investor/RT. The document can be downloaded from www.linnsoft.com\dl . Scroll down to the bottom of the Quick Download Center web page and click to download the Windows (.zip) or Macintosh (.sit) file. This document will be updated periodically as new releases of Investor/RT are issued on an ongoing basis.
  • Marking/Unmarking Instruments for Intraday
    The "Mark Intraday" button on the quote page toolbar can now be used to either mark or unmark an entire quote page of instruments for intraday data monitoring. Clicking this toolbar button with no particular row (ticker) selected elicits a dialog asking if you wish to either Mark or Unmark all instruments in the quote page. Clicking "Cancel" dismisses the dialog with no action. Click "Mark" or "Unmark" to cause every instrument in the quote page to be marked or unmarked for intraday monitoring.
  • Chart Button Improvements
    Chart buttons add convenient push buttons and menu buttons to any chart window. As the use of this feature has become more extensive, some Investor/RT users have found that too many buttons present in the same chart window pane can obscure the actual graphs within the pane. Investor/RT now has a convenient way to create a "button pane" if desired. By placing all (or most) of your buttons in a dedicated pane, they will not interfere with the instrument and indicator graphics in other panes.

    To create a button pane, right-click on any existing button and choose "All to Button Pane". All of the buttons in the pane will be moved to a new pane at the top of the chart window. This pane will NOT have a pane title bar, thus the buttons will appear just like a toolbar strip across the top of the chart window. When adding new button to the chart, direct them to this button pane to keep all chart buttons arranged neatly at the top of the window.

    Arranging the order (left to right sequence) of buttons within a pane has been made much easier. When a chart pane contains two or more buttons, right-click on any button in the pane and choose "Adjust Order…", the last item in the menu. The Order Chart Pane Elements window will appear, listing all of the graphic elements in the pane, including all of the buttons. Each button in the list will begin with BUTN. Make sure that the Apply All Changes Immediately check box is checked, so that as you adjust the top to bottom order of the BUTN's in the list, the changes are immediately reflected visually in the button arrangement in the chart window itself. You can move the Order Pane… window off to the size to you can see how the arrangement actions affect the appearance of the buttons arrayed in the chart pane. The buttons will be drawn from left to right using the top to bottom order shown in the Order Pane… window. Note that some buttons may be designated as "Display at Top" buttons. You can have a mixture of buttons in a pane, some arrayed at the top of the pane and others arrayed at the bottom of the pane. If you have one of more "Button Panes" in the chart, each button pane will be sized tall enough to show only a single row of buttons. There is no top/bottom distinction for buttons in a button pane. Note also, that a button pane may have some unused blank space to the right of the array of buttons in the pane. There is no restriction on how you use this space. You can add more buttons as needed or add an annotation indicator to display some values of interest there for example.
  • Quote Page Sorting Lock
    A quote page preferences checkbox titled "Disable Sort" has been added to enable the user to lock a quote page so its row order may not be changed. This option will be useful for quote pages when the arrangement of rows in the page is important to the user. For example, you may have a list of custom instruments in a quote page, each followed by the component instruments of the custom instrument. Sorting such pages by any column would undo the careful ordering of the rows. Checking the "Disable Sort" checkbox will lock the row order so any attempt to sort the page, e.g. by clicking on any column title, will issue a prompting message informing the user that the page has sorting disabled. One of the buttons in the prompting message is "Enable" so you can unlock the quote page to enable sorting if you wish.
  • Intraday Crosshairs Tool Improved
    Improvements were made to the chart crosshair tool to eliminate crosshair residue when moving the crosshairs in actively updating intraday charts. The crosshairs can be activated using the button on the charting toolbar, or by holding down the shift and ctrl keys as you move the mouse pointer around inside a traditional chart window. Macintosh users hold down the shift and option keys to call for crosshairs.