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Investor/RT
What's New in Version 6.2.4
The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were
introduced in the 6.2 Version.
Product Enhancements for
Version 6.2.4
Release Date: October 1, 2003
New in 6.2.4 (October 1, 2003)
New in 6.2.3 (September 17, 2003)
New in 6.2.2 (August 29, 2003)
New in 6.2.1 (August 14, 2003)
New in 6.2 (August 4, 2003)
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Sounds Preferences: Quiet Mode
Setup: Preferences: Sounds has a checkbox titled "Quiet Mode".
When checked Investor/RT will run as if all sound events were assigned
to "no sound". You can use Setup: Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts to
define function keys that turn on, turn off, or "toggle" the quiet mode
setting on/off. When a keyboard shortcut changes the quiet mode state, a
message will appear in the main toolbar as feedback. If the resulting
state is "Quiet Mode OFF", then Investor/RT will play the "General
Error" sound to give you audible feedback that sounds are back on again.
Since Chart buttons can be setup to execute any function key shortcut,
it is also possible to add buttons to your chart(s) for turning sounds
on or off, or toggling the current state.
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Dial/Data Bulk
Download of Ticker Symbol Lists
Dial/Data (and myTrack) users who perform Dial/Data closing quote
bulk downloads using download types "Bulk Download, Stocks", "Bulk
Download, Mutual Funds", "Bulk Download, Futures" can now review a
listing of all of the ticker symbols included in these bulk downloads.
Each time a bulk download is performed, Investor/RT will process the
thousands of quotes in the downloaded bulk file, updating closing quotes
for those tickers that are setup in Investor/RT. A byproduct of the bulk
download is a text file named DialDataSymbols.txt that is stored within
the symbols directory (folder). This text file can be opened using File:
Open: File for viewing. It contains a list of every ticker whose closing
quotes were included in the most recent bulk download. This file may be
used to quickly define ALL of the symbols to Investor/RT. Note that at
the time of this writing, the bulk stocks list includes approximately
8500 stocks and index tickers. The bulk mutual funds list is even
larger, containing almost 20,000 mutual fund and money market fund
tickers.
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Auto Connect Option for
Chat Rooms
The setup window for Chat Rooms now contains a checkbox
preference titled "Automatically Connect to Chat Room". When this box is
checked, whenever that chat room is opened, e.g. via the menu or main
toolbar, or when opened as part of a layout, the connection to the chat
room will be initiated immediately upon opening the window. If this
setting is unchecked, the window will always open at the appropriate
size and screen position, but the internet connection to the chat room
will be deferred until you either click the "Connect" button displayed
inside the window, or (if the window is the front window) you press the
enter/return key.
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Further Adjustments to
Main Toolbar
As noted above, the Preferences button and Open Group button
occupy the first two positions of the main toolbar. These are now
followed immediately by the Open QuotePage, Open Chart, and Open RTL
buttons. This change was made in view of the importance of these first
five buttons and their frequency of usage.
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Quick Setup Feature
for Groups of Charts
To quickly create a "Group" of Traditional Charts, first use the
Open Chart button to open the charts you want to form into a group. Then
right-click (control-click on Macintosh) in any chart window and use the
Add to Group submenu, choosing "Add All Open Charts to Group…".
Investor/RT will prompt you with a list of group names. Pick the group
you want and click OK. The names of all open traditional charts will
then be added to the group you select.
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Quick Setup Feature for Mixed Groups - Various Window Type
The Add to Group command in the File Menu is now a submenu with
three choices:
1. Add Front Window to Group.
2. Add All Open Charts to Group.
3. Add All Open Objects to Group.
Choice 2 has the same effect as the analogous command in the Chart popup
menu described in item #33 above. Choice 3 enables you to quickly setup
a mixed group of objects based on all windows open at the time. Once you
have created such a mixed group of objects (windows), that group may be
used to quickly open that set of windows at a later time, similar to a
layout.
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Investor/RT Chat Windows
in Layouts
When a chat window (IRC Chat) is saved within a layout, opening
that layout will restore the chat window and its associated setup
information as before, however, the connection to the chat room will be
deferred until the user explicitly clicks on a "Connect" button inside
the newly opened window. Before connecting the user can edit the
preferences for the window, resize or reposition it, etc.
Note that if you have a chat window open when you quit Investor/RT, the
chat window will be saved as part of the "Last Session Layout". The next
time you startup Investor/RT, assuming you have no specific "Startup
Layout" defined, the "Last Session Layout" will be opened automatically.
The chat window will reopen without attempting to connect.
When you use the Open Menu or the Chat button on the main toolbar to
open a chat room window, Investor/RT will open the window and
immediately connect to the chat room. If you wish to open a chat room
window without connecting, hold down the Ctrl key (option key on
Macintosh) as you use the Open Menu or Chat Button. Click on the
"Connect" button to initiate the connection to the chat room.
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RTL token DAYS
Improved for use in Backtesting
The DAYS token (Days Til Expiration) has been improved so it can
be used during backtesting. As backtesting proceeds bar to bar, the
value of DAYS changes to reflect the number of days from the bar being
tested until the expiration date of the futures contract or option. The
token DAYS requires that the quotepage column "Expiration Date" show a
valid date for the instrument(s) backtested. When DAYS is used in a
scan, the result is the number of days from the present date/time until
the expiration date.
- DTN.IQ
Improvements
DTN.IQ version of Investor/RT now properly supports longer term
intra-day downloads. Tick by tick historical data is available for
download for the all during during the past 8 calendar days. Intra-day
minute interval historical data is available going back 120 calendar
days (approximately 90 trading days).
DTN.iQ now fills in the data columns "Prev Year Close" and the related
data column "%Change YTD". The prior year closing price is available for
use in the RTL language using the YRCL token. Thus the change year to
date can be calculated using the RTL formula (CL – YRCL), and the %
Change Year to Data using the RTL formula 100 * (CL – YRCL)/YRCL.
DTN.iQ now fills in the data column AVGVOL automatically when you
connect.
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Opening/Closing Groups Using Menu/Schedules/Shortcuts
The File Menu "Close" menu items is now a submenu that mirrors
the Close menu items in the Windows menu. The Close submenu has a new
item, "Group…". Thus File: Close: Group can be used to close all of the
open windows that belong to a particular group. When you issue File:
Close: Group, a list selection window appears with the names of all
available groups, including system defined groups and subgroups.
The Preferences: Keyboard Shortcut window has been enhanced to allow
keyboard shortcuts to be defined for opening and close particular
groups. An "Open Group xxxxx" shortcut displays a list selection window
showing the members of group xxxxx. You can then click the All button to
open every object in the group, or make individual selection(s). The
"Close Group xxxxx" shortcut will close all open windows that belong to
Group xxxxx.
Similarly, Open Group xxxxx and Close Group xxxxx Actions are now
available in Investor/RT Schedules. Thus you can schedule the opening
and closing of groups of windows
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Abbreviate
Option for Chart Pane Indicator Feedback
Setup: Preferences: Charts: General has a new global option
titled "Abbreviate Indicator Feedback in Pane Titles". When checked,
indicator feedback while moving the mouse within traditional charts is
abbreviated so that more indicator values can be viewed in the pane
title bar(s).
- Custom
Instrument Setup Improvements
The Setup: Custom Instruments window has improved editing
capabilities. When viewing the setup of an existing custom instrument,
the user can click on a component item in the list on the right to
select it. This changes the title of the "-->" button, normally used to
add components, to read "Modify". The user may then alter either the
modifier or the price value for the selected component and click the
modify button to change the component's setup. In the past, it was
necessary to delete components and add them again in order to change the
multiplier or price value. Note that after modifying a custom instrument
setup, it is necessary to click the "Save" button or the "Save and
Close" button to make the change permanent.
- New
RTL Token: LAST
This token is provided principally for use in scans. The LAST
token provides access to the most recent trade price of any instrument
regardless of the periodicity of the scan. CL and CLOSE reference the
closing price of the last bar of the desired periodicity. The CL value
may in fact be different than LAST since LAST can be updated due to
after-market trading. So the purpose of this token is to provide an
unambiguous reference to the last trade price regardless of periodicity.
The LAST token, like LAST1, LAST2, etc., cannot be referenced
historically, i.e. LAST.1 is invalid, use CL.1 or CLOSE.1 instead.
Related to the addition of LAST, the CL, HI, LO, OP tokens (all
"Historical Data" tokens) will now obtain their values from the
Investor/RT database regardless of periodicity. In the past, scans run
with daily periodicity would fetch daily bar data values from the
quotepage values. Now, the values will be fetched by examining the
database. This may make some daily periodicity scans run a bit slower
than they formerly did. Using the tokens LAST, DAYHI, DAYLO, DAYOP, and
DAYVO, scans designed to run on current "quotepage" displayed values
will run faster than they will if you use CL, HI, LO, OP, and VO tokens.
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New RTL Tokens: STIME and
BARLEFT
For any intra-day bar, STIME provides access to the "session
time" expressed as the number of seconds that have expired in the
trading session. This token is applicable only to intra-day
periodicities. The BARLEFT token, when evaluated for the current bar,
provides the number of seconds remaining until the time-based bar is
completed. If the periodicity is "N ticks/bar", then the current bar's
BARLEFT is the number of ticks it will take to complete the N tick bar.
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Pair Wizard
for Quick Custom Instrument Pair Setup
A new "Pair Wizard" window is provided to facilitate rapid setup
of custom instrument pairs. A pair is a custom instrument, usually a
"difference", that is defined as the sum, difference, or ratio of two
instruments. Pairs may be defined using the general Setup: Custom
Instrument window, but the Pair Wizard can now be used to streamline the
process of creating a new pair.
The Pair Wizard window can be opened from the File Menu (File:New:Pair)
or from the Setup Menu (Setup: Pair Wizard). There is also a new button
for opening the "Pair Wizard" at the bottom of the general Custom
Instrument setup window.
A pair definition has the formula:
a * X operator b * Y
Where X and Y are ticker symbols of the lead and lag component
instruments of the pair and A and B are numbers (multipliers). A and B
default to 1. The operator can be -, +, or / for differences, sums, and
ratio pairs respectively. The pair wizard provides entry boxes for a, b,
X and Y. Radio buttons change the operator to -, +, /.
Use the tab key to tab from a to X to b to Y and back to a again if
necessary. Ticker symbols can be entered directly into X and Y boxes or
you can leave the boxes blank and tab to have the software prompt you to
select the ticker from a standard instrument selection list. Once the
tickers have been entered press Save or Save and Close to add the new
pair and view a chart of the pair.
A prompting message will appear if you enter tickers for either X or Y
that are presently unknown to Investor/RT. Press "Add" to add the
unknown ticker to the system as a stock. Newly created pairs will have
ticker symbols of the form "X operator Y" (no spaces) where operator is
-, +, or / and X and Y are the tickers of the components. When the a and
b multipliers have a value other than 1, the name of the pair custom
instrument will show the actual formula of the pair. For example, the
ticker IBM-MSFT might have a name such as IBM – 3*MSFT indicating that
pair is defined as the last price of IBM minus 3 times the last price of
MSFT.
After setting up a pair custom instrument you can call up the pair for
further editing at any time by right-clicking on the pair ticker in a
quotepage or some other instrument selector, and choosing Setup. The
custom instrument setup window now supports editing of multipliers and
price values in component setups. Simply click to select a component in
the list on the right, then change the multiplier and/or the price value
and press the "Modify" button.
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Revised Naming
Convention for RTL Tokens
When entering RTL tokens for indicators either the underscore character_
or the pound sign # can be used as a delimiter to form a token suffix,
e.g. MA#01 > MA#02. Investor/RT will interpret this formula as two MA
tokens named MA#01 and MA#2 and prompt you for setup information for the
moving averages. Prior to 6.2 only the underscore could be used in this
way, e.g. MA_A < MA_B.
The # is also a special character in RTL that can be used to form a
token that contains numeric digits. Any token that ends with one or more
digits MUST have a # before the ending digits, e.g. V#1, the built-in
user variable token, or MA#50 a user-specified MA token where the 50 may
indicate the MA is a 50 period moving average. Note that when a token
name ends with a # and some digits, you MUST use a period to enter a
bars back qualifier, e.g. MA#50.1 is the previous bar of the MA#50
moving average, while MA#501 would be treated as a new MA token
altogether with the name MA#501.
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New Revert
Command for Charts and QuotePages
Traditional charts and quotepages now have a "Revert" command.
Revert is in the File Menu and it also appears in the chart popup menu
as well as the quotepage "+" menu. The Revert command essentially
reverts the chart or quotepage back to its last saved state. So if you
open a chart for example, and change various preferences or add
indicators, the Revert command will restore the chart to its original
form. For quotepages, any unsaved preference changes, format changes or
row/column modification will be reverted to the last saved definition of
the quotepage.
There is one exception. Reverting a chart does not remove any indicators
that may have been added with a scope of "This Chart, This Instrument".
If you have Investor/RT setup to add trendline based indicators using
this scope, those indicators will remain even after any other changes
are reverted back to their original state.
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Main Toolbar Button Order
Revised
The "Setup Preferences" and "Open Group" Main Toolbar Buttons
have been moved to the far left of the main toolbar. Access to
preferences windows is more convenient using this toolbar button rather
than the Setup Menu. A click on the preferences button displays the
preferences topic menu immediately, whereas using the Setup Menu
requires a click in the menu bar and further mouse movement(s) to reveal
the Preferences submenu. New users and some veteran Investor/RT users
may now "discover" this more convenient button since it is in a more
prominent and accessible location than before.
As an alternative to the preferences popup menu, the Alt-Y keyboard
shortcut (command-Y on Macintosh) displays a standard selection list
window with the most recently referenced preferences topic highlighted.
Pressing Alt-Y followed immediately by the enter key opens that same
window again. The standard list selector also responds to keyboard
characters by selecting the preference topic that begins with that
letter, e.g. the three keystroke sequence, Alt-Y, Q, and enter key, will
open the QuotePage default preferences window. When more than one
preferences topic in the list begins with the same letter, pressing that
same letter again advances the selection to the next topic whose name
begins with that letter. The up and down arrow keys are also recognized.
The preferences list selection window can also be accessed quickly with
the mouse by shift-clicking or right-clicking on the preferences button
on the main toolbar. Power User Tip: If the Ctrl-key (Option-Key on
Macintosh) is held down while shift-clicking or right-clicking on the
Preferences button, the most recently opened Preferences topic window
will be opened immediately, bypassing the selection list altogether.
Just to the right of the Preferences button is the Open Group button. It
provides quick access to recently referenced charts, quotepages, other
recently opened windows, and any user defined groups. The Groups button,
like the Preferences button, is now in a more prominent toolbar position
in consideration of the importance and frequency of usage of this
powerful new feature.
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New Indicator:
Equi-Indicator (EquiVolume)
Tour
Info
The "Equi-Indicator" is a flexible implementation of the more
common EquiVolume indicator. While the EquiVolume indicator bases the
width of each bar on the volume of that bar (wider bars for larger
volumes), the Equi-Indicator allows the user to base the width of each
bar on the magnitude of any indicator. For example, the user may choose
to base the width of the bars on the range (height) of the bars. This
would be accomplished by basing the Equi-Indicator on the indicator
"Custom Indicator" with the syntax of the custom indicator being "HI -
LO" or simply "HLR". Similarly, the width could be based on the number
of ticks in the bar, the distance of price from a moving average, or the
CCI or RSI value, to list just a few possibilities. Click here for more
details. or visit the Linn Software web site at:
http://www.linnsoft.com/tour/techind/equi.htm
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Bull
and Bear Power - New Livshin and Gimelfarb Methods
The Bull Power and Bear Power indicators, formerly based solely
on the "Elder-Ray" calculation method, have been enhanced to support two
additional methods. These are the "Livshin" method and the "Gimelfarb"
method. For more information see the Bull Power or Bear Power page on
the web site at:
http://www.linnsoft.com/tour/techind/bull.htm
http://www.linnsoft.com/tour/techind/bear.htm
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Performance Improvements
Calculating technical indicator values, whether the indicator is used in
a chart or in an RTL formula, or referenced by a custom column, is a
major factor in overall system performance. The ability of Investor/RT
to tend to the incoming real-time data in a timely fashion can be
impacted by computationally intensive indicators, especially if they are
setup to recalculate tick by tick or on every price change. In version
6.2 the indicator recalculation methods used by Investor/RT have been
optimized using a variety of techniques to minimize the amount of
calculation time spent on the initial calculation of charted indicators.
As real-time price updates occur or new bars are formed in the chart,
the recalculation of indicators has been streamlined to focus the
recalculation on just the last bar, or last two bars when a bar is
added. The result of this optimization work is a dramatic reduction in
computer processor usage for indicator recalculation. Many indicators
now recalculate in less than one millisecond as can be seen by examining
any chart's "calculation statistics" (choose "Calculation Statistics
from the chart's right-click menu).
Investor/RT has very flexible recalculation frequency controls for
technical indicators that essentially enable the user to control how
often each indicator's last bar values will be recalculated. The
performance improvements in version 6.2 will permit tick by tick or
"every price change" recalculation frequencies to be used for many
indicators. Indicators that were formerly limited, for example, once a
minute, might now be recalculated every few seconds with no performance
impact.
The following technical indicators have been optimized as of Beta
Release 1:
Accumulation Distribution
ADX
ADXR
Arms Ease of Movement
Aroon
Automatic Trendlines
Balance of Power
Bollinger Bands
Candle Codes
Candlestick Pattern Recognition
CCI
Center of Gravity
Color Study
Custom Indicators
Detrended Oscillator
Directional Indicator DI+/DI-
Elder Force Index
Fisher Transform
Keltner Channels
Linear Regression Acceleration
Linear Regression Forecast
Linear Regression Slope
MACD
Momentum
Moving Averages of All Types
MPD Mixed Periodicity Data
Normalization
Open Interest
Oscillator and Summation
Paintbars
QuotePage Statistics
Random Walk Indicator
Range Expansion Index
Rate of Change
Rate of Change Summation
RSI
Signal Markers
Signal Statistics
Stochastics
Time Series Forecast
Triple Smoothing
TRIX
True Range Index
Volume/Price Percent Change
Volume Analysis
Williams AD
Williams %R
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- MPD
Custom Results - Looking Inside Bars
Several new "Custom Statistical Results" have been added to the
Mixed Periodicity Indicator. These custom results give the user the
ability to see what's "inside" of a bar, by giving access to data of a
smaller periodicity or timeframe. For instance, on a 1-minute chart, you
can get a look inside each 1-minute bar at the tick data that composed
it. Similarly, you could look inside each 30-minute bar at the 1-minute
bars that composed it, or inside each monthly bar at each daily bar that
composed it.
The new custom results include Sum, Average, Maximum, Minimum, First,
Last, and Count. Each result is further explained below. As a relatively
example, let's assume we have added MPD (with Mix Periodicity: 1-minute)
to a 10-minute chart. One specific 10-minute bars has the following
characteristics: High = 99.5, Low = 98.8, Open = 99.0, Close = 99.3. In
the MPD, we'll choose a Data Source of "Instrument Data: Close". "Align
Data To Proper Date/Times" is also checked. Each 10-minute bar is
composed of 10 1-minute bars. Therefore, within our 10-minute bar above,
we have 10 1-minute bars with the following closing prices: 99.1, 99.3,
99.2, 99.1, 98.9, 98.8, 99.1, 99.4, 99.5, and 99.3.
Sum: Sums all the "data" values within the bar. In the example above,
each 10-minute bar is composed of 10 1-minute bars. The closing price of
the 10 1-minute bars would be summed for a result of:
99.1 + 99.3 + 99.2 + 99.1 + 98.9 + 98.8 + 99.1 + 99.4 + 99.5 + 99.3 =
991.7
Average: Averages all the data values within the bar. In the example
above, each 10-minute bar is composed of 10 1-minute bars. The closing
price of the 10 1-minute bars would be averaged for a result of:
(99.1 + 99.3 + 99.2 + 99.1 + 98.9 + 98.8 + 99.1 + 99.4 + 99.5 + 99.3) /
10 = 99.17
Maximum: The Maximum of all the data values within the bar. In the
example above, the maximum value is 99.5 (which corresponds with the
"high" price of the 10-minute bar).
Minimum: The Minimum of all the data values within the bar. In the
example above, the minimum value is 98.8 (which corresponds with the
"low" price of the 10-minute bar).
First: The first data value within the bar. In the example above, the
first value is 99.1 (the closing price of the first 1-minute bar within
the 10-minute timeframe). Notice that this first value (99.1) did not
match the opening price of the 10-minute bar (99.0). If, however, a data
source of "Instrument Data: Open" would have been chosen, then these two
values would have matched at 99.0.
Last: The last data value within the bar. In the example above, the last
value is 99.3 (the closing price of the last 1-minute bar within the
10-minute timeframe). Notice that this last value does match the closing
price of the 10-minute bar.
Count: Count of all the data values that exist within the bar. In the
above example, the count is 10, and the count would always be 10 in this
case on all bars except the current forming bar (for which the value
will build from 1 to 10 as the bar forms). This custom result might be
more effective when using an MPD periodicity of "tick", providing the
ability to "count" the number of ticks inside each 1-minute bar, each
15-second bar, each 30-minute bar, or even each Daily bar.
Although the example above is relatively straightforward, the ways in
which these new results can be used are essentially countless. Instead
of a data source of "close", a user can choose any technical indicator,
including volume or custom indicators, or any other instrument data,
including custom prices. Also, the ability to "Mix Ticker" remains,
giving the user to count to display the number of times MSFT ticked
inside each 1-minute bar of INTC, on a 1-minute chart, for instance.
Here are some other examples of how MPD could be used with the new
custom results.
- Show the highest (maximum) volume of all the ticks (trades) within
each 15-second or 1-minute bar. The "Maximum" result would be used with
a periodicity of "Tick" and a data source of "Instrument Data: Volume".
- Show the number of ticks that were used to compose any time-based bar
(1-minute for example). The "Count" result would be used with a
periodicity of "Tick" and a data source of "Instrument Data: Close"
(data source is really irrelevant here, but using this one would be most
efficient).
- Show the average of the closing prices all the daily bars that compose
a monthly (or weekly) bar. The "Average" result would be used with a
periodicity of "Daily" and a data source of "Instrument Data: Close".
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Groups: Organizing Charts, QuotePages, Signals, and More
A Group is simply a named collection of objects and (possibly) other
groups, called subgroups. Objects are things you work with in
Investor/RT, e.g. charts, quotepages, scans, signals, custom indicators,
preset, etc. Groups give the Investor/RT user a facility for organizing
collections of objects into named categories and subcategories. Instead
of going through a list of 200 chart names looking for the one you want,
you can setup one or more groups with appropriate names to hold shorter
lists of charts.
At the highest level there is an unnamed group which is the collection
of all the top level groups. Each top level group can in turn have any
number of subgroups. There are (at present) four pre-defined top level
groups. These are named:
.Recent Charts
.Recent Items
.Recent QuotePages
.Recent RTL
These are system-defined groups which, like system-defined quotepages,
have names beginning with a period. These groups are used by Investor/RT
to keep track of various objects you have opened or closed recently. For
example, each time you open a scan or signal or custom indicator, the
name of the object is added to the .Recent RTL group. Similarly,
recently referenced charts and quotepages are listed in the .Recent
Charts and .Recent QuotePages groups, respectively. The .Recent Items
group keeps track of the last objects you have opened regardless of
type. When viewing lists of objects in groups, Investor/RT will list the
objects in "last-in-first=out" (LIFO) order, e.g. the most recently
opened chart will be listed first in the .Recent Charts group. Setup:
Preferences: Groups opens a window where you can specify how many items
to maintain in each of the four .Recent groups. You specify here whether
you wish the .Recent groups to list items that you have recently opened,
or only those you have recently closed, or those that you have either
opened or closed recently.
Creating Groups and Subgroups. The groups concept is well integrated
into the Investor/RT user interface. First, there is a Groups button on
the main toolbar. Its icon looks like a file folder. Clicking this
button shows you a list of your groups including the system defined
.Recent groups. These are all called "top level" groups. Right-clicking
the Groups button on the main toolbar opens the "Add Group" window. When
creating a new group using this window, you can specify if the group is
to be a subgroup and if so, the group to which it will belong. There is
also a checkbox for specifying that the members of the new group should
be listed alphabetically. If you uncheck this checkbox, the items will
be listed in the order that the members were added to the group, with
the most recently added member listed first.
The File Menu has group-related menu items in various places:
File: New: Group – opens a window for defining a new group/subgroup.
File: Open: Group (Alt-4) - lists the top level groups.
File: Open: Recent Items – lists the items in the .Recent Items group.
File: Add to Group - opens a window for adding the front object to a
group.
The Open Menu has a Groups submenu. It lists all of the top level
groups, e.g. Open: Group: .Recent Charts will show the list of recently
opened chart objects.
When you click on a button on the main toolbar to open a quotepage a
chart or an RTL object (scan/signal/custom indicator) Investor/RT will
present a selection list of names. At the top of the list will be the
appropriate .Recent group name, e.g. the group name .Recent Charts will
appear at the top of the list of charts you can open. Double-click on
the .Recent group name and the selection list will be replaced by the
list of items in that .Recent group.
The Delete/Rename facility allows you to view, rename or delete groups.
It also has a powerful "Add to Group" facility for quickly adding lists
of objects of various types to a particular group. See the section Using
the Delete/Rename Window to Setup Groups below for details.
Traditional chart windows and quotepages have "Add to Group" commands in
their popup menus. To add a particular chart to a group, open the chart,
right-click in the chart and choose Add to Group. A dialog box will
appear listing the group names. Pick the group and click OK to add the
chart to that group. Note that the dialog box has both Apply and OK
buttons. You can add any chart to several groups by clicking Apply, then
changing the group, and applying again, until you are finished. For
quotepages, click the "+" button in the upper right corner of the
quotepage above the vertical scrollbar and choose Add to Group. All
other types of objects are added to groups using the File: Add to Group…
command (or the Delete/Rename window as discussed below). First open the
object, e.g. a scan or signal, and choose File: Add to Group to add that
scan or signal to one or more groups. Note that the File: Add to Group…
command always operates on the front window.
Navigating Groups. When you click the Groups button on the main toolbar
(Alt-4 is the built-in shortcut) you will see a standard Investor/RT
selection window showing you all of top level groups. At the top of the
list is a special item titled " …Create New Group" you can click on to
add a new group.
Double-click any group name (or select the group name and click OK or
Apply to "open" that group. The list selection window will then show the
contents of the selected group. The name of the group whose members are
listed appears in the lists window title. Items in the list can of three
types:
Command Items – listed first and prefaced with …
SubGroup Names – listed next. Subgroup names are shown in brackets
(Windows) or are prefixed with bullet (Macintosh) to distinguish them
from member objects.
Objects – listed last, e.g. chart names, quotepage names, the member
objects of the group.
Double-clicking an item in the list or selecting it and clicking Apply
or OK "opens" that object. If the object is a chart name, that named
chart window will open. If it is already open, it will be brought to the
front. If the object is a subgroup, the list selector will "navigate"
down a level to show you the contents of that subgroup. Only one list
selection window can be open at a time.
When viewing the contents of a group in a list selector, Investor/RT
adds one or more command item as choices at the top of the list. The
command items are:
Add to Group – used for adding the front window to the listed
user-defined group. This command does not appear when a .Recent group is
listed.
Create New Subgroup – used to add a new subgroup to the listed
user-defined group. This command does not appear when a .Recent group is
listed.
View Parent Group – used to navigate up one level to the parent group of
the listed subgroup. This command does not appear when viewing the list
of top level groups since there is no parent group.
You can double-click on any of these command items to initiate the
effect, or select the command with the keyboard or with a single click
and then click Apply or OK.
When viewing a list that contains one or more member objects you can
click the "All" button at the bottom of the list to open each of the
listed objects.
Deleting Objects and Groups. A future release of Investor/RT will
introduce a special window for organizing, renaming, and deleting groups
and objects from groups. In version 6.2 any object or group can be
deleted by selecting it in the list selection window and holding down
the ctrl-key while clicking Apply or OK. Macintosh users hold down the
option key instead. You can also ctrl-double-click to delete an object
or a group from the list. Confirmation will be requested when deleting a
group. Deleting a group implies that all of its subgroups will be
deleted as well. The delete/rename window, discussed below can also be
used to delete groups.
Using Keyboard Shortcuts. Setup: Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts can be
used to assign a function key combination for opening any particular
group. For example, you could setup F2 to "Open: Group: .Recent Charts".
Whenever you wish to re-open (or bring to front) a chart you opened
earlier, just press F2 and the list of recent charts will appear.
Double-click on the chart name you want and it will appear. Note that
"opening a group" means simply to show you the contents of the group in
a list selection window so you can selectively open one, several, or all
of the objects in the displayed list. To open one object in the list
simply double-click it. To open several items in the list, select each
item in turn and click Apply. To open all of the items in the list,
click the All button. The list selector can also be navigated with the
up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to move the highlighted selection
up or down. When a name or command is highlighted, press enter to "OK"
that item or press shift-enter to "Apply" that item, leaving the list
visible for another selection. When a list selection window is in front,
you can type a character on the keyboard the advance to the first name
in the list beginning with that letter.
Using the Delete/Rename Window to Setup Groups. The Delete/Rename
facility is accessed by clicking the Green Trash icon on the main
toolbar (or via the Control: Data Management submenu). This window can
be used to view, delete, or rename many kinds of Investor/RT objects.
This window has a new "Add to Group" button just below the "View"
button. You can select one or more objects of any type in the list of
object names (on the left) and add them to any group by clicking the Add
to Group button. You will be prompted to pick the group to which the
item(s) will be added. The Delete/Rename window now lists "Group" as one
of the types of objects. Choose "Group" from the "Object Type" menu and
the list box on the left will list the name of all groups. Each top
level group and each subgroup, regardless of level is listed. You can
delete groups by selecting one or more of them and clicking the Delete
button at the right. Renaming of groups will be supported in a future
release of Investor/RT.
Another interesting use of the Delete/Rename window is to use it as an
always available selector for your groups. Open the Delete/Rename
window, choose Groups as the object type. Then resize the window so that
only the list of group names is visible. Position the window at some
convenient location. Whenever you wish to access any of your groups or
any of the .Recent Groups, simply double click on the group's name. A
list selection window will popup showing you the contents of that group.
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Scrolling: PNF, Price/Time Profile, and Volume Profile
A scrolling technique has been implemented for Point and Figure
(PNF), Price/Time Profile (PTP), and Volume Profile (VP) Charts.
Scrolling will only be available when the chart window is not big enough
to display the data it contains. Vertical scrolling is done using the up
and down arrow keys on the keyboard. For PTP and VP charts, the up and
down arrow keys will scroll one bar (row) at a time. For PNF charts, the
up and down arrow keys will scroll one box size at a time.
Horizontal scrolling was also implemented for PNF charts. To scroll back
in time, press the left arrow key on the keyboard. The chart will scroll
back one column each time the left arrow key is pressed. To scroll
forward in time, use the right arrow key.
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Viewing Data Feed Status
With the introduction of "Groups" into Investor/RT the "Feed
Status" button on the main toolbar has been replaced by the Groups
button. The Feed Status display is not a frequently used feature and
quick access to groups was deemed to be a more useful purpose on the
main toolbar. For quick access to the feed status display you can do any
of the following:
a. Right-click on the main toolbar feed heartbeat button (Macintosh
users: control-click)
b. Choose "Status" from the data feed menu.
c. Setup a function key shortcut for "Open: Feed Status"
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Exchange
Specific Trade Monitoring with eSignal
eSignal uses a convention where stocks ticker symbols suffixed
with an equal sign and an exchange code letter will provide real-time
and intra-day historical data based exclusively on the designated
exchange, e.g. the ticker IBM=N will only carry trades that occur on the
NYSE. This feature is very useful to "pair traders" for example, where
custom instrument ratios or spreads on NYSE stocks are often used. By
using =N suffixed ticker symbols as the components of the pair, the
custom instrument will in turn reflect only the trades that occur on the
NYSE. If you use IBM=N it is also useful to be able to view
daily/weekly/monthly charts of the same ticker, however eSignal's
historical server does not provide daily data on such tickers. Thus
Investor/RT has been enhanced so that daily bar data requests for
tickers like IBM=N will be passed to eSignal as IBM, without the =N
suffix. When the daily bars come into Investor/RT from the eSignal
historical server, they will be stored with IBM=N suffixed ticker. This
makes it possible to track exchange suffixed ticker in any periodicity
with ease.
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Custom Instrument Setup
Improvements
The Setup: Custom Instruments window has been enhanced to provide
for quicker selection of an existing custom instrument for viewing or
editing. As you type letters into the custom ticker entry box, if a
custom instrument symbol is formed, the window responds by showing the
setup for the custom instrument you typed in. Further, to the right of
the custom ticker entry box is a small button with 3 periods as the
button title. Clicking this button pops up an instrument selection
window listing all of the custom instruments that are presently defined
to Investor/RT. Double-click any custom instrument in the list (or
select a row and press enter) to select that that custom instrument for
viewing or editing. The popup window is a standard instrument selector
window, but it only lists custom instrument tickers. This means you can
type the first letter or two of the custom instrument you want to
identify it and then press enter to select it. Press esc to dismiss the
selector window without doing anything.
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Canceling charting tool
drawing
If you click the right-mouse button inside a traditional chart
window while any drawing tool is active Investor/RT will cancel the
drawing operation (even if it is in progress) and deactivate the drawing
tool returning you to the arrow cursor. Note that after deactivating the
tool, another right-click will be required to popup the chart menu, the
normal function of the right-click. The message "Drawing Tool Cancelled"
will appear in the message area of the main toolbar. Macintosh users
with a single button mouse can control-click to deactivate the drawing
tool and cancel the drawing operation. Note the pressing the esc key on
the keyboard has the same effect as a right-mouse click when a drawing
tool is active.
- New RTL
Tokens
RTL has long used the 2 character tokens OP, HI, LO, CL, and VO
for referencing bar data items open, high, low, close, and volume,
respectively. If you wish you can now use the full spellings OPEN, HIGH,
LOW, CLOSE, and VOL interchangeably with their two letter abbreviated
counterparts. For example, the scan HI – LO > 3 AND CL > OP and CL.1 >
CL can be written equivalently (and less cryptically) in long form as:
HIGH – LOW > 3 AND CLOSE > OPEN and CLOSE.1 > CLOSE;
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Running Multiple
Instances of Investor/RT
Multiple instances of Investor/RT can be run simultaneously by
installing the software multiple times, each into its own directory
folder. Each instance of Investor/RT will be launched from its own
directory folder and will operate independently using its own database
stored within that folder. A new preference setting has been added to
the Setup: Preferences: General window allowing each running instance of
Investor/RT to have its own user-specified "task window title". The
user-specified text will be appended to "IRT " and the resulting title
will appear in the title bar of the Investor/RT task window in the MS
Windows versions of Investor/RT. The instance specific name will be
viewable in the MS Windows task bar and in the "Alt-Tab" window as you
switch among running applications.
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Traditional
Chart New Popup Menu for Indicators
Prior to Version 6.2, right-clicking on an indicator in a
traditional chart would open the setup for the indicator to enable the
user to edit the properties of the indicator. In Version 6.2, the
right-click (control-click on Macintosh) instead pops up a short menu
for operating on the indicator. The choices are:
Add Button – A button is added to the chart window for the selected
indicator. See items #18 below for details.
Duplicate – A duplicate of the selected indicator is created. For "stand
alone" type indicators (e.g. MACD, RSI, CCI) the duplicate appears in a
new pane at the bottom of the chart window. For "overlay" indicators
(e.g. MA, Trendlines, etc.) the duplicate is added to the same pane as
the original. In either case, the preferences for the duplicated
indicator will appear so you can adjust them immediately to distinguish
the newly added indicator from the original. When duplicating, the
resulting duplicate indicator becomes the "selection" in the chart
window, thus the arrow keys (up/down/left/right) on the keyboard can be
used afterwards for many indicators to make preference adjustments. When
duplicating Info Boxes or Annotations, both of which are "overlay"
indicators, the duplicated indicator is drawn slight offset from the
original so it is visually apparent that a duplicate is present. The
arrows keys can be used to move the Info Box or Annotation in any
direction. For all other overlay type indicators, the duplicate will be
coincident with the original unless you change some preference setting
that alters the drawing of the indicator to make it different than the
original. If you duplicate an indicator and change your mind and wish to
delete it, simply cancel the preferences dialog and press the delete key
on the keyboard (or click the green trash icon on the chart toolbar) to
delete the selected (duplicate) indicator.
Delete – The selected indicator is removed from the chart.
Edit – The preferences window for the selected indicator will open.
Double-clicking on an indicator will open the preferences for the
indicator also.
Export Data – The data values of the indicator are exported to a text
file and the text file is opened for viewing. The user is prompted for
the name and location for the export text file.
Show Data – The data values of the indicator are displayed in a text
window. The display is the same as that produced by the Export Data
command, the only difference is that there is no prompting for the
export file name and location.
Bring to Front – The selected indicator will be drawn on top of all
other graphic elements in the chart window. The pane drawing order can
also be edited by right-clicking on the pane title.
Send to Back – The selected indicator will be drawn first, before
(behind) any of the other graphic elements in the chart window. The pane
drawing order can also be edited by right-clicking on the pane title.
Help… – The help topic for the selected indicator is displayed. Help is
a submenu with three choices for viewing either the built-in help topic
or the web site help page for the indicator, or both.
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Automatic Button Setup
for Indicators
When you right-click on an indicator and choose "Add Button",
Investor/RT will make a technical indicator preset using the preferences
of the selected indicator and a button will be added to the chart window
for toggling the selected indicator on or off. This new feature saves
several setup steps, making it a snap to quickly add buttons to your
charts for any indicators present in the chart. The added button will
have a default title of the indicator "token", e.g. MA for moving
averages, MACD, CCI, etc. You can right-click on the button and choose
"Edit this Button" to color code the button or give it a more
descriptive title if you wish. The "presets" that are automatically
created by this convenience function are assigned unique names that
include an indication of the preferences for the indicator. For example,
if you right-click on a moving average line and choose Add Button, the
MA button that is then added to the chart will be associated with a
Moving Average preset having a name like "Button SC10" indicating the
preset was created for use with a button and the preset preferences are
for a simple 10 period MA on the closing price. Note that the presets
that are created in this way are available for use in other areas of
Investor/RT, just like any user defined preset.
There is also an "Add Button" command in the more general right-click
popup menu that appears when you right-click on "white space" in the
chart window. Thus you can for example, either click to select an
indicator, or press "Tab" repeatedly until the indicator you want is
highlighted, then right-click anywhere and choose Add Button to create a
button for the selected technical indicator.
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Export Indicator
Values Feature Enhanced
Right-click on an indicator in a traditional chart and choose
"Export" to create a text file showing the values of the indicator for
each bar. The export text file now shows all of the values for
multi-valued indicators, e.g. MACD, Stochastics, etc. Formerly only the
primary value was shown for each bar. The export function can also be
invoked by selecting the indicator and choosing "Export Indicator Data"
from the chart popup menu.
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Volume Profile
Scrolling and Other Enhancements
An option has been added to the Volume Profile chart titled
"Minimum Bar Height". This controls the minimum height (in pixels) that
each bar is drawn. In prior version, the minimum height was a constant 2
pixels. Now that scrolling has been implemented (see below), the user
may want to limit the minimum size of each bar. In general, the bars
sizes are dynamic, and expand vertically to fit the full height of the
window. As the window is enlarged vertically, the bars will increase in
height. Conversely, if the window height is reduced, or as more prices
are reached and therefore more bars created, the height of each bar will
be reduced. This new setting limits the reduced size to a minimum height
in pixels.
Scrolling is now available in Volume Profile and Price/Time Profile
charts via the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard. If the chart has
grown too large to fit into the existing window, the user can scroll up
or down to see the remainder of the chart. The up arrow key scrolls up
one bar and the down key scrolls down one bar at a time. The "Page Up"
key scrolls the chart up one full page, while the "Page Down" key
scrolls the chart down one full page. Similarly, the "Home" key scrolls
the chart to the top, while the "End" key scrolls the profile chart to
the bottom.
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Chart Crosshairs Tool Improved
The crosshairs tool has been improved to eliminate occasional
trace lines. The price value of the crosshair displayed in the vertical
scale area of the chart is sometimes obscured by scale prices. For this
reason, the price value is now also displayed at the top of the vertical
crosshair along with the date and time of the bar. The crosshair tool
can be turned on/off in any of three ways:
a. Click the crosshair button
in the charting toolbar.
b. Press a function key
assigned to the crosshair tool. Use Setup: Preferences: Keyboard
Shortcuts to define the shortcut key.
c. Hold down the Shift and
Ctrl keys while moving the mouse pointer inside any traditional chart
window to invoke crosshairs. The crosshairs will disappear when you
release the keyboard keys and move the mouse. Note: Macintosh users hold
down shift and option keys.
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ZigZag and ZigZag Oscillator Supported in Tick/Bar Charts
These two indicators are now supported in traditional tick charts
and ticks per bar periodicity charts.
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Adding
Preset Annotations to Charts Using Buttons
Chart buttons may now be created for the purpose of adding
annotations quickly to a specific bar in a chart. Here are the steps:
1. Using the Annotation preferences, setup the annotation text, colors,
etc. and check the box titled "Attach to Bar:". Save the preferences as
a preset using the Preset menu button at the bottom of the Annotation
setup window.
2. Add a "Button" indicator to the chart and set the purpose of the
button to "Add/Remove Preset Indicator". From the list of preset names,
choose the preset saved in step 1 above.
When you click this button in the chart window, Investor/RT will notice
that the annotation to be added to the chart is to be attached to a
particular bar, so the annotation drawing tool will be activated
automatically so the user can then click on the bar to which the
annotation will be attached. If the charting toolbar is visible, you
will notice that the Annotation tool will be "depressed", to indicate it
is active. The cursor will change to the annotation cursor (a pencil
with some text next to it), and a prompting message will appear
temporarily in the chart window saying "Click where you wish to place
the annotation". When you click the mouse while pointing to a particular
bar in the chart window, an edit box will appear there showing the text
of the annotation (the text you specified in the annotation preset). You
may edit the text if you wish, and/or press the enter key to complete
the process. The annotation text is then attached to the subject bar. It
will scroll with the bar as the chart window scrolls automatically or
under user control.
Note that Annotation presets can also be assigned to chart buttons with
the "Attach to Bar" option unchecked. When such a button is pressed,
Investor/RT will not activate the annotation drawing tool since there is
no need to specify a bar location. Instead, the particular annotation
preset will be added "as is" and centered in the chart window pane. If
the button's annotation is already present, it will be removed from the
chart. This kind of annotation preset button may be useful for quickly
toggling a text note on or off in the chart. The text may be just a
message of some kind or it could be an RTL tokenized string that you
only want to be visible at certain times.
Note that there are two distinct behaviors depending on whether the
annotation preset is setup to be attached to a particular bar or not.
Attached annotations always activate the annotation drawing tool and
always add a new annotation to the chart. When the Annotation drawing
tool is activated and you change your mind about adding the annotation,
press the esc key or click the right-mouse button to cancel the
operation without adding an annotation. Annotation presets that are not
setup for attachment to a particular bar are toggled on or off in the
chart.
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Regression Line:
Labeling Options Added
The preferences for the linear regression indicator has a "Label"
option with various choices for labeling the end points of the
regression line. When a regression line with labels is selected
(highlighted) in a chart window, using the left/right arrow keys on the
keyboard to move the regression line end points causes the labels to
update dynamically as the indicator changes location in the chart.
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Vertical
Reference Line: Repeating Option Added
Vertical reference lines have a new "Repeat every <N> <Period>"
option. The preferences window allows <N> to be set to any number and
<Period> to be set to Bars, Minutes, or Days. When Repeat Every N Days
is specified, a checkbox titled "Consider Weekend Days" can be checked
if you wish non trading days to be included in the Every N Days
repetition, otherwise only trading days are considered.
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Groups Included in
Cross Reference Report
The database cross reference report (see Control Menu: Database
Utilities) now includes listings of each member object cross referenced
to the name of the group to which each member belongs.
-
Groups Included Selection
Lists
Appropriate group names are listed at the top of various
selection lists. For example, clicking the chart button on the main
toolbar opens a selection list of available charts. The names of all top
level groups that can contain charts are listed at the top. This
includes the ".Recent Charts" group, the ".Recent Items" group, and any
user defined top level groups that can contain charts. In this example,
the user defined group names could be either "Mixed" groups or groups
setup specifically to contain charts. Group names are also listed in the
quotepage selection list, portfolio, scans, signals, custom indicators,
etc. Double-clicking on a group name shows the members within the group.
|
The chart above shows MPD added to a
5-minute candlestick chart of MSFT (showing the last couple hours of
trading on 7/9/3). The histogram in the lower pane shows number
of ticks within each 5-minute bar (tick volume), using the MPD
preferences displayed below.
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