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Investor/RT
What's New in Version 7.0 Rev. 5

The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 7.0 Version.

Product Enhancements for Version
Release Date: February 11, 2004

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    
  • Chart Buttons for Adding Groups of Indicators
    The Chart Button Indicator has been enhanced with a new button purpose called "Add/Remove Preset Group". This button purpose can be used to create a single chart button that toggles an entire group of technical indicator presets on/off. When creating a button of this kind, Investor/RT presents a list of group names that are eligible for use. Only groups of type "Preset" can be used. To create a new group of type "Preset", use File: New: Group or click the Group button on the main toolbar and pick "Create New Group" from the ensuing list. When the "Add Group" window appears, be sure to specify the group type as "Preset". Once you have created one or more Preset groups, you can add technical indicator presets to the group using the "View/Edit/Delete Objects" window. To open this window click the Green Trashcan icon on the main toolbar or if you prefer deeply nested menus, choose Control: Data Management: Delete/Rename: Presets. When the window has Presets as the object type, you will see a list of all of your defined technical indicator presets. To add one to a group, select the preset, and click the Add to Group button. The Add to Group window will prompt you to supply the name of the group to which the selected preset is to be added. To remove a preset from a preset group, open the group using the Open Group button on the main toolbar (or choose File: Open: Group). When you see the members of any group listed, Ctrl+double-click on any member to remove it from the group. Confirmation will be requested. Having created one or more Preset Groups, you may then add chart button(s) that toggle the entire group on and off. For example, if you had a button setup for a preset group containing 3 moving average presets and a regression line preset, clicking the button will add all four indicators to the chart at once. Clicking the button again will remove all four indicators. This new facility can also be used to execute groups of "Signal Actions". While Signal Actions are not technical indicators per se, you may create presets for them and construct a group containing one or more signal action presets just like any other indicator. When a button is assigned to a preset group containing signal actions, each signal action is simple executed in turn.
  • Portfolio Improvements
    The Investor/RT Portfolio data column "Asset Class" now shows the class number and the asset class name. See item #29 above for more information on creating named asset classes for portfolios. The asset class cells are editable - you can change the class number and press enter to assign any position to a different class.

    Also, a new portfolio data column has been added. Called "% of Total Value", this column shows the percentage value of each position of the portfolio value as a whole. Note that this percentage does not consider the "Cash" in the portfolio. It is a percentage of the "Total Value" for each open position.
  • Improved Toolbar Appearance
    Cosmetic changes were made to the appearance of toolbar buttons in an effort to give the toolbars a cleaner less cluttered look. Buttons are now drawn without borders. The borders do appear when you mouse over a clickable button. Tool buttons (e.g. the trendline or Fibonacci retracement tool on the charting toolbar) will show their border when they are activated for drawing. Toolbar background color and message box background color have been revised in the MS Windows version of Investor/RT to match the standard default background color used by Windows XP.
  • Additions to Day by Day Backtesting Report
    Several new statistical results have been added to the Day by Day backtesting report, including:

    - Total Net Profit Long
    - Total Net Profit Short
    - Avg Net Prof Long/Day
    - Avg Net Prof Short/Day
    - Total Long Trades
    - Total Short Trades
    - Avg Long Trades/Day
    - Avg Short Trades/Day

    - Total Market Bias - This statistic reflects the overall bullish/bearish bias of the system. A value of 25% represents that there were 25% more long trades than short trades, while a value of -40% or (40)% means that there were 40 % more short trades than long trades.

    - Avg Daily Market Bias - The Daily Market Bias is computed as the % difference between the number of longs and shorts. These daily values are then averaged over all the days tested. A value of 0% means that there were exactly the same number of longs and shorts each day, while a value of 100% would mean that the system is either completely long, or completely short, each day (and therefore 100% biased). Unlike the Total Market Bias, this number is never negative. It simply reflects the average discrepancy between longs and shorts over all days tested.

    The number of long and short trades is also now shown for each individual day. These statistics are designed to gauge the degree of "market-neutrality" of their system, both overall, and on a day by day basis.
  • Quotepage and Portfolio Format Improvements
    Setup: Preferences: Formats now supports the specification of column widths for each column in a format. To view and/or edit the column width of any column in a format, select the column in the list on the right side and enter the column width into the list/edit box beneath the list. Notice that the list/edit box allows any number to be entered manually and in addition there is a pull down menu of commonly used column widths as a convenience. Note that column widths can be specified for custom columns as well as the built-in columns. Column widths are specified in pixels. When a format is applied to a portfolio or quotepage using the "Change Format" operation, the resulting spreadsheet will then have precisely set column widths. This applies as well to quotepages produced by RTL scans where the scan setup calls for a specific quotepage format to be used in the resulting quotepage.

    When viewing a portfolio or quotepage, issue the Save Format command (by right-clicking on any column title to access the menu) and the resulting format specification, including precise column widths will be captured in the resulting format.

    Formats defined to Investor/RT prior to release 7.0.3 will have "default" column width values for each column in the format. If you wish to revise an existing format to include more precise column width preferences, here is a simple way to do it.

    1. Open any quotepage or create a new one
    2. Right-click on any column title and choose Change Format from the menu. 3. Choose the Format Name you wish to edit and it will be applied to the quotepage.
    4. Make any column width adjustments you wish to make. The Optimize Column Widths command may be useful here also.
    5. Right-click on any column title and choose Save Format. 6. Investor/RT will prompt for a name for the new format. Enter the name of the format (the SAME name from step 3 above).

    The format will then be replaced with the revised column widths. This same technique can be used to save more precise column preferences for portfolios as well.
  • Trading Systems: Day-by-Day Backtesting Report
    A new reporting option has been added to the "Backtest Setup" window of Trading Systems. This report provides statistics that are especially useful for intraday backtesting of a basket/quotepage of symbols over multiple day periods. It can also be very useful when testing a single symbol. In addition to cumulative results of profit, trades, and shares traded, the report breaks down the results into "Per Day", "Per Trade", "Per Share", and "Per Capital Traded" statistics. Additional statistics are provided including "Max Favorable Excursion", "Max Adverse Excursion", "Best Day", "Worst Day", "Winning Days", "Losing Days", and much more. Each day can also be detailed providing the profit, trades, and shares traded on each day. Furthermore, each exit bar (or all bars) can be detailed, showing shares traded on every bar, along with the profit resulting from those trades.

    The report gives the user the ability to quickly see the average daily performance of a trading system over a period, along with the best and worst days over that period. It also provides a "Capital Required", giving the amount of capital (or buying power) that would have been required over the period tested in order to execute the system (on an entire basket of symbols if applicable). The "Max Favorable Excursion" and "Max Adverse Excursion" results report how far the balance moved in your favor, and against you, respectively. The report also provides the number of days tested, the number of symbols tested, the total capital traded, the number of trades held overnight, the number of consecutive winning and losing days, the most and fewest trades in a day, the most and fewest trades on any one bar, and the best and worst exit bar.
  • DTN Satellite D8080 Receivers - Ethernet Support
    Windows Users using DTN D8080 Satellite Receivers may now use Ethernet (TCP/IP) as the communications link to the receiver unit instead of a serial port. This feature should initially be considered as "beta". Further development work is underway to extend this capability to D8000 Satellite Receivers. Also, Ethernet connections to DTN Satellite receiver will be supported soon under Macintosh OS X version of Investor/RT. At present DTN Satellite users on Macintosh must run the "Classic" Macintosh version of Investor/RT and use a serial port to receive data.

    The Ethernet connectivity offers much faster, reliable data transfer between the receiver and Investor/RT. To utilize this capability, users must install a dedicated network interface card (NIC) and use a "Ethernet Crossover Cable" to connect the DTN D8080 receiver to the NIC. Before using Investor/RT with the new DTN Ethernet settings, it is recommended that (Windows) users install the DTN supplied Chameleon 3.1 software and get it operational to verify proper installation and setup of the DTN unit for Ethernet communications.
  • Clearing Alarms from a Chart
    The traditional chart popup menu (right-click in the chart) has been expanded include an "Alarm Setup" submenu with three choices:

    a. Using Mouse – this choice is equivalent to a click on the alarm button on the chart toolbar. The cursor changes to crosshairs and the Alarm Setup Tool is activated so you can click at the price level in the chart where you wish the alarm to be set.

    b. Using Window – this choice is equivalent to a Ctrl-click (option-click on Macintosh) on the alarm button on the chart toolbar. The Alarm setup window opens for the symbol selected in the chart.

    c. Clear – this choice is equivalent to a Shift-click on the alarm button on the chart toolbar. This new function clears (turns off) alarm monitoring of all types for the symbol selected in the chart window. A message to this effect appears in the status message area of the main toolbar. No other feedback will appear. Note that the high alarm, low alarm, and volume alarm values specified for the symbol will be retained for future reference; however, the monitoring flags for the symbol are set so that further monitoring for high, low, or volume alarm levels is discontinued.
  • Importing Intraday Data from other Time Zones
    When importing historical data using File: Import: Data (with Import Type: Tick or Minute Bar Data), there is a time "Time Shift" option that can be used to shift each imported bar's date time stamp forward or backward in time by some fixed hours and minutes offset. This feature will be useful to those who wish to import historical data that is time-stamped relative to some time zone other than their own. The time zone offset is specified in hh:mm format, e.g. -1:00 will time shift the incoming data one hour earlier. If only one number is present with no colon it is interpreted as the number of hours (plus or minus) to shift the imported bars). A list button menu is available or you can enter the shift amount in hh:mm format directly into the entry box.
  • User Variable Legend
    Setup: Preferences: User Variables now has a "Legend" button which produces a text display listing user variables and their associated titles. The text window can be left open for on-screen reference. It may be printed by clicking the Print button on the main toolbar, or using the menu at the top of the Legend text window.
  • New Setup Options for Scans
    Two new user preference settings have been added to scans: (a) Save QuotePage Option, and (b) Results QuotePage Name. These new preferences can be set by clicking the Setup button in the RTL Setup window. When the Save Quotepage checkbox is checked for a particular scan, the quotepage produced by the scan will be saved immediately. Otherwise, the results of the scan will be displayed without saving. Turning on the Save QuotePage checkbox means that the results of the scan will become immediately available to other scans or signals that make use of the QP = syntax to test for a particular instrument's membership in a designated quotepage. Another advantage of saving the results quotepage immediately is that when you close the quotepage you will not be prompted about whether to save to quotepage or not.

    By default each scan lists it resulting instruments in a quotepage having the same name as the scan itself. You can now specify a different output quotepage name if you like by entering a name into the QP Name box. To revert back to the default behavior, leave the QP Name box blank and press OK.

    The ability to save a scan results quotepage immediately and under a user-specified named is a feature that has been available in Investor/RT for some time when scans are run as scheduled actions. Now, these settings become properties of the scan itself. When a scan is executed as a Run Scan action in a schedule, the options specified in the schedule action will override the saved properties of the scan. If the Run Scan schedule action does not specify a "Save As…" option, the scan's saved preferences will be used to run the scan.
  • DTN.IQ New Historical Data Server
    Investor/RT Version 7.0 Rev 2 released January 6, 2004 supports a new DTN.IQ History Server with improved access to historical data of all periodicities for all types of instruments. The new server is faster and the data quality much better than the "legacy" server that Investor/RT used prior to this writing. The new history server supports daily, weekly monthly, tick data, and intra-day interval data downloading. If an instrument is marked for daily data retention, but not for weekly or monthly data retention, all historical requests (even those from weekly or monthly charts) will download daily bars for the desired time period. Investor/RT will form weekly or monthly bars as needed using the daily data. However, if an instrument is marked for weekly and/or monthly data retention and you download weekly data and/or monthly data, the requested weekly or monthly bars will be downloaded and stored in the Investor/RT database directly. Downloading is support either directly from within a chart window, or using the Data Download window.

    Every download request made to the new DTN.IQ historical server results in the creation of a text file in the admin folder/directory. The name of the file will depend on the ticker symbol and the periodicity of the download. For daily, weekly, and monthly data requests, the file name will be TICKER_hist.txt where TICKER is the ticker symbol for the instrument. For intra-day interval data, e.g. 1-minute or 5-minute bars, the file name will be TICKER_bars.txt. The historical server also supports tick data downloading, in which case the file will be named TICKER_ticks.txt. Tick data downloads include trade price, trade size, and the bid and ask prices at the time of the trade.

    Here is a sample download file:
    -
    - Source: DTN.IQ. Investor/RT 7.0.1 Weekly Data Downloaded 12/10/03 12:50
    -
    CA 10/31/03 23 24.15 22.3 23.52 15341000 0
    CA 11/07/03 23.48 24.1 23.22 23.3 15693454 0
    CA 11/14/03 23.26 23.38 22.81 22.86 11155400 0
    CA 11/21/03 22.76 22.96 22.1 22.55 14269200 0
    CA 11/28/03 22.78 23.35 22.35 23.3 9934300 0
    CA 12/05/03 23.6 24.01 23.2 23.34 26828800 0
    CA 12/09/03 23.27 23.6 23.14 23.21 4018500 0

    After the download is completed, affected charts are updated to reflect the newly downloaded data. If you wish to inspect the content of the data downloaded, use the File: Open: File command to pick the file you wish to view. Look for these files inside the admin directory/folder within the Investor/RT folder. Note that these download files may accumulate over time, especially if you are tracking many symbols. There is a command in the Control Menu for eliminating all temporary download files from the admin folder. The command is:

    Control: Data Management: Delete(Rename): Temporary Files

    If you wish, you can easily setup a scheduled action to delete these temporary files once a week at a prescribed time of day. See Setup: Schedules. The "Delete Temporary Files" action is one of the actions listed under "Database Functions" in list of schedulable actions.
  • Portfolio Asset Class Reporting Improvement
    Investor/RT Portfolio positions can be assign an asset class number from 0 to 99 as a way of organizing (sorting) and reporting on portfolio percentages by asset class. The user may now provide asset class names for any of the 100 asset classes. This is accomplished by creating an ordinary text file named assetclasses.txt and placing this file into the admin folder/directory inside the Investor/RT startup folder/directory. Each line in the text file contains a 2-digit asset class number followed by a comma and the name you wish to assign to that asset class. For example if you use asset classes 1 through 6 to classify your positions, your assetclasses.txt file might look like this:

    01,Technology
    02,Retail
    03,Precious Metals
    04,Phamaceuticals
    05,Growth Funds
    06,Income Funds

    Any asset class number that is not assigned a name will appear in the Asset Allocation report with the name "Class xx", where xx is the class number. To produce an Asset Allocation report for any portfolio, click the pie chart button on the portfolio toolbar. To edit asset class numbers in a portfolio, simply add the portfolio column "Asset Class" to the portfolio window and edit the values for your positions in that column.
  • Trading System Optimization by Ticker Symbol
    A checkbox has been added to the Optimization window titled "Optimize Symbols". When checked, the symbols themselves will become optimization parameters. This feature is applicable only when the underlying Trading System is setup to backtest on a quotepage (as opposed to a single symbol). Each optimization iteration will run on a single symbol instead of a quotepage of symbols. The results will provide a column for "symbol" just as it does for any other optimization parameter. As an example, the sorted results may show that the combination of MSFT using V#1 of 10 and V#2 of 12 was the most favorable. In addition, the optimization will leave any optimized V# variables for each symbol with their optimal values for that symbol. In other words, V#1 for MSFT might be 10, while V#1 for INTC might be 13, etc. This gives the user the ability to optimize the values on a symbol by symbol basis, giving each symbol an independent set of optimized V# parameters that yields the most favorable trading results for that symbol.
  • Price Bands Indicator: New Band Styles
    Two new styles choices have been added to the Price Band Indicator: "Thick Bar" and "Thin Bar". These new bar styles draw vertical bars between the two prices (Price 1 and Price 2). The color of these bars can be customized based on whether Price 1 is above or below Price 2. The Thin Bar is drawn with a minimal width of 1 pixel, while the Thick Bar is drawn using the Pixels/Bar width of the underlying chart. These new styles can be used to create customized candlesticks (one Thick Bar for the body and one Thin Bar for the candle wicks).
  • Backtesting: Commission Accounting Improved
    Prior to Investor/RT 7.0 Rev. 2, backtesting commissions could be specified on a "Per Trade" basis, allowing the user to provide a single value for the Entry commission, and another single value for the Exit commission. Commission amounts may now be specified in the format "Per Trade, Per Share", in both the Entry and Exit commission boxes. For example, if the following was specified for the Entry commission:

    5, 0.01

    This would mean that a commission of $5 per trade, plus $0.01 per share, would be applied for trade entry. To specify a "Per Share" only commission, simply enter zero followed a comma and the per share amount. This would simply apply a commission of $0.01 per share, with no "Per Trade" commission. Conversely, if one only one amount is entered that amount is considered to be the per trade commission amount.
  • Suppressing Posting of Historical Data
    Some users have requested the ability to suppress the automatic posting of historical data that normally takes place at the end of each trading system. Effective with release 7.0.1 automatic posting will not place if the posting time is set to 12:00 a.m. (midnight) (i.e. 00:00 in 24-hour time).
  • Copying a Quotepage to the Clipboard
    The current contents of any quotepage can be copied (tab-delimited) text to the clipboard using the File: Save: Save to Clipboard command. The text can then be pasted into any text document or into the cells of a spreadsheet. To make the availability of this feature more evident, a Copy to Clipboard command has been added to the quotepage "+" menu in the upper right corner of the quotepage window itself.
  • Improved Product Registration Method
    Many Investor/RT users are now leasing the software with monthly billing and once-a-month re-registration. Registration codes are sent by email on the first business day of each month. In order to streamline the registration process, Investor/RT 7.0 introduces a simple one-step process designed to automate the transfer of registration details from the email to Investor/RT. To use the new method, simply use the Edit Menu in your email program to "Select All" text in the registration email and "Copy" the text to the clipboard. On MS Windows systems, this can be done quickly using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C. Macintosh users enter Command-A then Command-C. Then go to Investor/RT and choose Register from the File Menu. If the Setup: Preferences: Registration window happens to be open already, you can instead click on a new button titled "Paste Registration".
  • Selecting Investor/RT Database Location
    The Backup Preferences window has been expanded and renamed "Database & Backup Preferences". This setup window is accessible using either Setup: Preferences: Backup or Setup: Preferences: Database. The window has a new section at the top titled "Database Location" where the user can quickly reconfigure Investor/RT to use an alternate database. Click here for details.
  • Trading System Status Annotations in Charts
    The text annotation indicator (Annotation) can now be used to display trading system specific RTL token values when a trading system indicator is present in the chart window. For example, an Annotation setup such as:

    Entry: %ENTRY Current: %CL Target: %TARGET

    Could be used to show a message in the chart window depicting the entry, target, and current price for the trading system in the chart window. The message text will show zero values for entry and target when the trading system is out of the market.

    Trading System related tokens may also be used now in NOTE setups used within signals of a trading system during backtesting. For example the same NOTE setup above could be used in a trading signal tested on each bar to show entry, target and current price messages for each bar in the detailed report of a backtest.

    Here is a list of trading system related tokens that may be used in Annotation setups or NOTE statements. In item #26 below, these token may also be used in custom indicator formulas.

    ENTRY Entry price of current position
    STOP Stop price
    TARGET Target price
    GL Gain/Loss ($) of current position
    GLPCT Percentage Gain/Loss of current position
    POS_STATE Position State 1=Long, 2=Short, 0=No Trade Active
    POS_SIZE Position size, negative when short, zero when no trade active
    POS_COST Position cost ($)
    DAYSOPEN Number of days the trade has been open
    BARSOPEN Number of bars the trade has been open
    MINOPEN Number of minutes the trade has been open
    TNUM Trade number since the beginning of the charting period
  • Creating Custom Indicators using Trading System Tokens
    The tokens list above may also be used to create custom indicator formulas. The resulting custom indicators can be added to a chart that also contains a trading system indicator. Similarly, if a chart is open running a trading system on a particular ticker symbol, variable trading system related data can be shown in a quotepage using custom column setups where each custom column uses a custom indicator that references trading system related tokens. For example, consider the custom indicator formula "CL – ENTRY", a measure of how far price has moved plus or minus from the entry price of a trade. If you have a chart window open with a trading system, you can setup a quotepage containing a custom column to show CL-ENTRY. Note that any ticker symbols in the quotepage that do not have a trading system indicator running will always have ENTRY of zero. If you wish to only show non zero distances from the entry price you can revise the CI formula to read:

    (CL – ENTRY) * (POS_STATE != 0)

    This formula will produce the result zero when POS_STATE is zero, otherwise it will calculate the distance between the current price and the entry price of the trade. In the custom column setup, color coding rules could be used to show a blank (nothing at all) when the CI is equal to zero, show the value with a green cell background when the CI is positive and a light red background when the CI is negative.
  • Volume Profile Improvement
    A checkbox has been added to the Volume Profile preferences entitled "Count Only Price Changes". This option is available when the "Count Bars/Ticks" option is checked. When the "Count Bars/Ticks" option is checked, each bar/tick is assigned a volume of "1" instead of using the actual volume of the bar/tick. This way, each bar/tick gets equal weighting with respect to the profile. If you also check the new "Count Only Price Changes" option, then each price will get a volume of "1" only when price changes to that price. For instance, if an symbol was trading at 10.01, and then a trade came in at 10.02, then 10.02 would have a volume of 1 added to it's profile bar. However, if trades continued to tick at 10.02, no additional volume would be added. If price then changed to 10.01, then back to 10.02, both those prices would get an additional volume of 1. Whenever price changes TO a certain price, that price gets a volume of 1. Here are two examples of trade sequences:

    Sequence #1: 10.01, 10.02, 10.02, 10.02, 10.02, 10.02, 10.02, 10.01, 10.01, 10.01, 10.01
    Sequence #2: 10.01, 10.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.01

    In sequence #1, prices 10.01 and 10.02 would both have a volume of 1, while in SEQ2, both 10.01 and 10.02 prices would have a volume of 5.
  • Import/Export of QuotePages and Trading Systems
    The File Menu's Import and Export menu items now support import and export of quotepages and trading systems. File: Export can be used to export the definition of the front quotepage window or trading system window. An export command is also available in the "+" menu at the upper right corner of each quotepage. The trading system setup window now has an Export button also.

    When exporting a quotepage, the resulting definition text file will contain definitions for the quotepage itself, plus definitions of all scan/signals, custom indicators, custom columns and technical indicator presets that are used directly or indirectly by the quotepage. Quotepage definition files also contain definitions for each instrument (symbol) in the quotepage. The recipient of a quotepage export file can import the file using File: Import: QuotePage. There is a new user preference in Setup: Preferences: Import/Export that controls whether or not any incoming ticker symbols that are not yet defined to Investor/RT will be added or ignored. If the "Ignore…" checkbox is checked, an imported quotepage will show only those tickers that are already defined to Investor/RT on the recipient system. The quotepage may even be empty if none of the exported symbols exist on the recipient system. If the "Ignore…" check box is unchecked, any ticker symbols in the quotepage export will be added to the recipient system. Note that any custom columns imported this way may not being showing values until sufficient data has been downloaded or collected for the imported ticker symbols. Note also that after importing a quotepage setup, you can use the quotepage menu "Save Format" command to give a name to the format of a newly imported quotepage. Thus, the format of an imported quotepage can be easily applied to other existing or new quotepages using the user-specified name.

    Trading system export files contain definition text for the trading system rules and preferences along with all signals and custom indicators that are referenced directly or indirectly by the trading system's rules. Trading systems can be imported using File: Import: Trading System.

    Users of the Trading System Deployment (charting) feature of Investor/RT Professional can create charts containing the new Trading System Indicator. Exporting of charts containing a trading system indicator will create an export file containing the definitions of (a) the chart setup, (b) the trading system rules, (c) all signals used by the trading system or otherwise included in the chart, (d) all other RTL objects referenced by the chart, and (e) all technical indicator presets (setups) referenced by indicators in the chart, e.g. chart buttons. All of this definitional information can be imported into another Investor/RT system via this single export file.

    With the addition of these import/export types, Investor/RT now has all of the capability needed to enable Investor/RT users to share sophisticated workspaces. Importable setups now includes: charts, technical indicator presets, scans, signals, custom indicators, custom columns, quotepages, and trading systems. The export files are cross platform ASCII text files that can be used interchangeably by MS Windows and Apple Macintosh users of Investor/RT.
  • Tick Data Retention Override Feature Added
    The History Retention Preferences window (Setup: Preferences: Historical) now permits each ticker symbol to have its own unique tick data retention preference. The global default retention period for tick data is specified at the top of the window. In the override section, you can select a ticker from the list and its current settings are shown. You may enter an override value for the number of days of tick data to be retained for any instrument. The number of days may be zero or any value less than or equal to the default Intra-day retention period. For example, you may have tick data retention set by default at 0 days, i.e. no tick data except for the current session, but then override selected ticker symbols for tick data retention as needed. This way you only incur the overhead of tick data retention on those symbols you override while most symbols will have their tick data compacted into bar data at the end of each trading session. Investor/RT users are advised to check the History Retention Preferences after upgrading to the 7.0 Release to verify that the default settings for intra-day and tick retention are set appropriately.

    Note that the Intra-data default setting specifies the total number of days of intra-day data (either tick or bar data) that will be maintained by default for each instrument. The Tick Retention setting specifies how many of those days will be maintained as tick data before compaction into bar data begins. Thus the tick retention should always be less than or equal to the intra-day retention. The new override feature gives the Investor/RT user the flexibility to specify total intra-day and tick data retention settings uniquely for instruments of special interest.

    The historical retention preferences for instruments can be shown in quotepage by adding the appropriate column names to the page setup. All of these column names begin with the word "Retain", e.g. "Retain Intra" and "Retain Tick" are the column names for the intra-day total retention and the tick data retention respectively. There are columns for daily, weekly, and monthly retention as well. These values are editable in the quotepage. So for example, you could open the .All Symbols quotepage, add Retain Intra and Retain Tick. Click on those columns to sort the page to quickly identify which symbols have the highest retention periods or which ones are different from your default setup.

    Each of the five retention options (daily, weekly, monthly, intra, and tick) has a corresponding RTL token (HRD, HRW, HRM, HRI, and HRT, respectively) which may be used to scan for tickers having certain settings or to SET the preference setting using a scan. For example the scan:

    IF TICKER = "ES*" THEN SET(HRT, 3) ELSE SET(HRT, 0);

    Will set the tick data historical retention preference of all symbols (in the subject quotepage) to zero except those that begin with the two letters "ES". The ES instruments will retain 3 days of tick data.

    Similarly, the scan "HRT > HRI" could be used to see if there are any tickers whose tick retention exceeds the intra-day retention period, so that these may be corrected. Remember, the tick retention must be less than or equal to the intra-day overall retention period.
  • New Scheduling Actions for Importing Data
    Schedules may now be used to automate the import of current quotation and/or historical data from user-specified text files. These new actions will be useful to those who wish to input current quotes or historical prices from other sources into Investor/RT on a periodic or once-a-day scheduled basis.

    The "Import Current Data" action allows scheduled import of a user designated file name. The action setup includes the specification of a "format" to inform Investor/RT of the content and order of the incoming data fields. Current data flows immediately into the system for display in quotepages, portfolios, etc. Historical data is not affected by the import of current data, however, the price values imported via current quote import will be posted to the database at posting time of each trading session.

    The "Import Daily Data" action is used the schedule import of daily historical bars from a single user-specified file. Again a format must be specified and this input format may include only the ticker, date, open, high, low, close, and optionally the open interest data items. Unlike current quote import, the daily historical bars are posted directly to the historical database. The input file can contain one or more lines per ticker and each line must contain the date of the bar data. If more than one line per symbol is included, the lines for a given symbol must be in ascending date sequence. If the most recent (last) line of data for a ticker symbol has a date that is more recent than the last updated date of the corresponding instrument in Investor/RT, the imported price and volume data will also update the instrument data displays (quotepages, portfolios, etc.)

    Finally, the "Import Intraday Data" action is used to schedule import of historical intraday tick data or bar data of any periodicity from a single user-specified file. The "Date Time" data column must be part of the format specified and must of course contain not only the date but also the time of each line of tick data or bar data in the imported file.

    All three of these import types are equivalent to using the corresponding functions in the File: Import window.
  • Trading System Indicator: Custom Bands
    The Trading System Indictor (TSYS) now has a new custom band option.  This option is labeled "Draw Band Between Values 2 and 3" and gives the user the ability to draw a solid or hollow band between any of the available price values.  A typical usage for this new feature would be to draw a band between the system's stop and target values.  Combining a "stop-target" band with a Profit Band (drawn between Entry and current price) produces a nice visual representation of the trading system's state, showing both historical and current state.  This setup also works well when drawn behind an instrument, where the instrument is drawn as a connected line.  The custom band also has a "hollow" option.  When "hollow" is checked, only the borders of the band will be drawn for each bar.
  • Trading System Indicator: Executing Signal Actions
    The setup window for the trading system indicator has a checkbox titled "Execute Trading System Signal Actions". When this box is checked, a trading system running in a chart will execute user-specified Signal Actions whenever a rule having an associated signal action signals "true" on the last completed bar in the chart.

    The Trading System Definition window has been enhanced to allow any trading rule to have an associated signal action. Note that signal actions associated with trading rules have no bearing on backtesting or optimization of trading systems. The Signal Actions associated with trading system rules specify actions to be taken in the context of a trading system running inside an updating chart under control of a the trading system chart indicator.

    To associate a Signal Action with a particular rule, follow these steps:

    1. Click in the Trading Rules section of the Trading System Definition window to select a rule.
    2. Click the "Signal Action" checkbox and choose a Signal Action from the list menu to the right of the Signal Action checkbox.
    3. Click the "Modify Rule" button to apply the change to the rule.
    4. Note that the text description of the rule now reflects the Signal Action name at the end.

    To turn off a Signal Action for a particular rule, follow these steps:

    1. Click on the rule.
    2. Click to uncheck the Signal Action checkbox.
    3. Click the Modify Rule button.
    4. Note the text description of the rule no longer shows a Signal Action.

    To the right of the button listing the Signal Actions there are buttons titled "..." and " + ". The "..." button is used to view (or edit) the setup of the selected Signal Action. The + button is used to create a new Signal Action. You will be prompted for a name for the Signal Action. The newly added Signal Action will then become the selected Signal Action for application to the currently selected rule. Click "Modify Rule" to associate the Signal Action with the rule.

    Using this new facility, it is possible to operate fully automated trading systems or fully automated simulated trading systems inside Investor/RT charts using the Trading System Indicator. Automated trading systems can be created using Signal Actions that communicate with Ninja Trader software to submit brokerage orders. Simulated automated trading systems can be created using Signal Actions that have associated "Trading Orders" that open or close positions in Investor/RT Portfolios.
  • New Schedule Actions for QuotePages
    Three new choices are available a schedulable actions in the Setup: Schedules window. The list of actions is now shown in alphabetical order.

    The "Import Current Data" action allows scheduled importation of a user designated file name. This action will be useful to those who wish to input current quotes from other sources into Investor/RT on a continuous or once-a-day basis.

    The "Recalc QuotePage" action causes the user specified quotepage to recalculate ALL custom column calculations for ALL instruments in the quotepage.

    The "Sort QuotePage" action causes the user specified quotepage to be recalculated and sorted on the designated custom column name.
  • Improved Historical Data Retrieval
    Internal improvements were made to the database retrieval functions in Investor/RT to speed up the retrieval of historical data when the "Last N Bars" of data are needed. The performance improvements at present apply to all periodicities: daily, weekly, monthly, tick, and tickbar, and any time interval periodicities, e.g. 1 minute, 15 seconds. The most significant speed improvement will be in the area of RTL related data retrieval, e.g. scans, signals, custom indicators and technical indicators that call upon them in charts, custom columns, backtesting, optimizations.

    Note that if you have charts with a view period of "Last N Days" where N is typically much smaller than the number of days of data on file, you can speed up the opening of such charts by expressing the view period in bars instead of days. For example, a 5 minute chart with a view period of "Last 250 bars" will open faster than the same chart with "Last 2 Days" especially if you have say 6 months of intra-day data on file. The form chart grabs the last 250 bars from the end of the database while the later has to search through all of the data on file to find the starting point for the data retrieval.
  • New Traditional Chart View Period Settings for Tick/TickBar
    Prior to the development of "Last N Bar" retrieval capabilities (see item #11 above) traditional charts containing ticks or tickbars were limited to view period setting expressed in hours, e.g. "Last 4 hours". Tick and tickbar traditional charts can now have a view period expressed as "Last N ticks" or "Last N tickbars". Charts having this periodicity will open substantially faster than the "Last N hours" type in proportion to the number of days of tick or intraday interval data that is kept on the database.
  • Backtesting Improvement: Cost Basis for Futures
    Investor/RT has been improved to enable the user to specify the margin requirement per contract for any future type. To setup this dollar amount, open the Setup: Futures window, choose the type of future you wish to update and click the "Setup" button. The "Futures Definition" window will open. Enter the margin requirement per contract and press OK. The margin amount specified for futures of this type will be used to compute a "cost basis" for each position taken during backtesting. This will provide a more realistic accounting of average position size when backtesting futures. If you attempt to run a backtest on a futures contract for which a margin requirement has not yet been setup, Investor/RT will prompt for the margin requirement, update the future definition, and continue the backtesting.
  • RTL Language Enhancement: Using V# variables as token qualifiers
    Prior to version 7.0 historical qualifiers were required to be numeric constants, e.g. in the signal formula CL.5 < MA.5 the constant 5 is used to signify that the close is to be compared with the moving average 5 bars ago. Version 7.0 introduces variability for historical qualifiers using V# variables. Thus a signal or scan formula may be written as CL.V#99 < MA.V#99. When the signal is evaluated for a particular instrument, RTL looks up the present value of V#99 for that symbol and uses that value as the historical qualifier. This feature is extremely valuable when formulating trading system signals for backtesting with optimization. The optimization setup and test various values for V#99 to determine which values are superior.

    When the formulation <token>.V#<number> is used in an RTL expression, <number> must be a valid V# variable number. V# variable numbers begin with V#1 and have a maximum of V#512, although the maximum may be lower than V#512 depending upon the preference setting in Setup: Preferences: User Variables.

    When evaluating the formulation <token>.V#<number> The "value" of V#<number> must be zero or higher. If the value is not a whole number, just the whole number portion of the value is used, e.g. if V#99 is 5.9 when MA.V#99 is evaluated, the result is MA.5, MA five bars ago. Negative values for V# variables result is no qualification, e.g. if V#99 is -3.0 when MA.V#99 is evaluated, the result is simply MA, as if no qualifier were used at all.
  • Trading System Indicator  Tour Info
  • New RTL Token TARGET: Trading System Target Price
    This token can be used in Signals designed to operate with trading systems. V# variables can be used to keep track of trading price, of course, but using TARGET explicitly in your trading signals can make your overall trading system rules more readable. TARGET is simply a built-in variable you can SET, e.g. SET(TARGET, expression). Similarly, a exit signal might be written:

    CL >= TARGET; exit when target price is hit or exceeded
     
  • New RTL Tokens for Fractals: FRACU and FRACD
    The tokens FRACU and FRACD signify the completion of Up Fractal and Down Fractal formations. To detect the completion of an Up Fractal formation, use the syntax FRACU = 1. To detected the completion of a Down Fractal formation, use the syntax FRACD = 1. Note that when the Fractals indicator is drawn in a chart window, the marker denoting the fractal formation is draw at the actual peak or trough of the fractal formation. When testing for fractal formations using RTL however, you test for the bar that completes the formation, not the bar you see at the "center" of the formation in the chart. For example if you have a five bar fractal in a chart you will see a marker above the middle bar of the five bar series that represents the fractal formation. If you add a signal to the chart with the formula FRACU + FRACD > 0 you will see that signal's marker at the end of each five bar up or down fractal formation.
  • New Backtest Detailed Report of NOTE/SHOW Output
    The SHOW and NOTE tokens, when included in RTL signal formulas, cause output to be produced in the backtest detail report. These tokens provide an excellent way to "debug" a trading system since you can see the values of bar data, V# variables, and technical indicators in the detailed report for each bar tested during the backtest run. Investor/RT now produces an additional report file, similar to the detailed report, but containing only the specific lines of output produced by SHOW and NOTE statements. This additional report, called the User Notes Report will be displayed upon completion of the backtest only if the Detailed Report option is checked in the backtest setup. If a trading system's rules contain no SHOW/NOTE statements, or if the backtest produces no SHOW or NOTE output, the User Notes Report will be empty and will not be displayed.
  • New Indicator and RTL token: POS
    The Position indicator (RTL token: POS) gives the user access to a variety of results relating to the position of a bar/tick within the session, or within the overall data series. The Position indicator can be especially useful in backtesting for closing positions on the last bar of the session (use "POS = 1" with result of "Bars From End of Session"). Each "Result" option is described in detail within the indicator setup window. Select any result and the detailed description will appear in the text box below.
  • Trading Orders within Signal Actions
    Signal Actions can now include "Trading Orders". At present, a Trading Order can execute a simulated trade in a user-specified Investor/RT portfolio. For more information on Trading Orders, click here.
  • RTL Setup Window Enhanced
    The RTL Setup window now has a toggle button in the top left area of the window that can be used to expand and minimize the window. When minimized, the RTL setup window becomes a thin window showing just the menus of available scans, signals, or custom indicators along with a push button for an action. The action or purpose of the button depends on the RTL type that is selected. When the RTL type is "Scan", the button's title is "Scan". Clicking it runs the scan. Thus you can use this window in its minimal state to pick a scan and click to run it. You can, of course, have several of these minimized RTL windows open at one time so you can have scans you run often all setup and ready to run with a single click of the scan button.

    Similarly, when the RTL type is set to "Signal", the button title is "Marker" and its purpose is to add the selected signal as a signal marker to the front chart window. If there is no chart window open, one will be opened for you using the default chart preferences and the signal marker will be added to it.

    When the RTL type is "Custom Indicator" the button title is "Chart" and its purpose is to add the selected custom indicator to the front chart window. A chart will be created if necessary to show the custom indicator.

    The RTL setup window can be sized even smaller than the standard minimal size if you like. When you do this, the title of the window is adjusted so the name of the selected scan, signal, or custom indicator is seen in the window title.

    The toggle button will expand the RTL setup window from minimal to normal size. The action button formerly at the top left of the window returns to its normal position at the bottom of the standard sized RTL window. The toggle button operates similarly to the toggle button used in the Setup: Instruments window to show and hide the advanced settings for an instrument. It shows an arrow pointing right when the setup window is at minimal size. It shows an arrow pointing down when the window is expanded to show all of the controls.
  • New RTL Token: CTX – RTL Context
    The CTX token provides a way to determine whether the evaluation of an RTL formula (scan, signal, or custom indicator) is taking place in the context of a backtest, or in the context of a backtest during optimization, or in the context of a quotepage scan. This token may be useful in cases where you may want a trading signal to be computed or a V# variable to be set differently depending on the context. This makes it possible to write one signal instead of two to take the different context into account. For example, you may have a trading system that uses V#22 as a trailing stop value. If you have a trading rule that sets the value of V#22, this would present a problem if you were running an optimization to determine the optimal value of V#22. Using the CTX token you can augment the trading rule by adding:

    IF (CTX != CTX_OPTI) THEN SET(V#22, <expression>);

    CTX_OPTI is one of several numeric constants added to RTL. Its value (2) is the value RTL will give for CTX when an optimization is the context. The expression CTX = 2 is equivalent but we encourage the use of the CTX_* constants to make the intent of the RTL formula clearer.
    The numeric constant tokens that can be used for comparison with CTX are:

    CTX_BKTST – Context is a backtest, optimization is NOT in progress.

    CTX_OPTI - Context is a backtest, optimization in progress.

    CTX_QPSCAN – A quotepage is being scanned using the scan or signal. This context does not apply to custom indicators.

    CTX_OTHER – This context is a catch all to indicate that the context is NOT one of the previous three.
  • Trading System Optimization  Tour Info
    The major innovation of Investor/RT Version 7.0 Beta 1 is trading system optimization. This new feature enables a set of Investor/RT trading system rules to be iteratively backtested using a user-specified range of periodicities, or indicator setups in order to identify the optimal trading signal setups. To learn more about using the optimization feature, Click here.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.