The new features and miscellaneous enhancements outlined below were introduced in the 7.5 Version.
 
Product Enhancements for Version 7.5.2
Release Date: January 27, 2005

• New in 7.5.2 (January 27,  2005)
• QuotePage Browser Improvements. OS X Support
• Day Bar: "Last Session Only" Option
• Backtest Reporting: Positions, Entries, and Exits
• Price/Time Profile: TPOs
• Five New RTL Tokens for Backtesting Usage
• Version 7.5 Rev 2 Fixes, Miscellaneous Enhancements
• New in 7.5.1 (January 10,  2005)
• Running Investor/RT on OS X without Administrative Access
• Express Optimization and Other Optimization Improvements
• Price/Time Profile Enhancements
• Style Choices for Traditional Chart Grid Lines
• New RTL token AV. Array (Historical) User Variables
• Version 7.5 Rev 1 Fixes, Miscellaneous Enhancements
• New in 7.5 (December 2,  2004)
• Trading System Definition Window Improvements
• RTL Setup Window Improved
• Trading System Rules - Cut, Copy, Paste
• Custom Column Improvements
• Multi-statement RTL Syntax
• Alarm Handling Improvements for Signal Action, Trendline, Ref Line Alarms
• New Technical Indicator: FVE - Finite Volume Elements
• New RTL Indicator Token: PCVP - % Change Volume/Price
• Get Info Command
• Instrument/Quotepage Management
• Chart Recalculation via Schedule/Keyboard Shortcut
• Changing Indicator Association in Multi-Instrument Charts
• Version 7.5 Fixes, Miscellaneous Enhancements

• QuotePage Browser Improvements. OS X Support
  The QuotePage Browser, a tool introduced in the MS Windows version of Investor/RT several releases ago, is now supported on the Macintosh OS X Version of Investor/RT. The browser presents a hierarchical view of groups of quotepages and the instruments within each quotepage. Selecting (clicking on) an instrument causes it to be charted, the same effect you get when double-clicking a ticker in a quotepage. The power of this tool is that every user defined "group" of quotepages, including subgroups to any degree of nesting, can be easily navigated with a simple user interface. Quotepages or Groups can be expanded or collapsed by clicking the "disclosure triangle" to the left of the quotepage name or group name. You can use the up, down, left, and right arrow keys on the keyboard to similarly navigate the hierarchy of quotepage groups. Top level groups include System Quotepages, User Quotepages, and Recent Quotepages, plus any user-defined quotepage groups and their subgroups.
  
  The QuotePage Browser can be opened in a variety of new ways. The QP button on the main toolbar brings up a popup (contextual) menu that includes a menu item "Browse QuotePages...". The Open: QuotePage menu also has this menu item. Further, "Open: QuotePage Browser" is now a choice in the keyboard shortcut setup window. Thus you can assign a Function Key to open the browser, and you can create a chart button to open the browser by having the chart button invoke the keyboard shortcut. The browser is also available from any open quotepage by clicking the "+" button in its upper right corner. The contextual menu has an item titled "Browse..." for opening the quotepage browser.
  
  Click here for more on the QuotePage Browser.
   
• Day Bar: "Last Session Only" Option
  A new "Last Session Only" option has been added to Day Bar charts. This option is only relevant when building the day bar using the "Last X Minutes". When this option is checked, the bar is built using only data from the current session (or the most recently completed session if the session is currently closed). If this option is turned off (unchecked), then day bar can cross session boundaries. As an example, if "last 60 minutes" were specified, and it was currently only 20 minutes into the session, then the first 20 minutes of the current session, along with the last 40 minutes of the previous session, would be used. However, "Last Session Only" were checked, then only the first 20 minutes of the current session would be used. Regardless of which option is selected, the last 60 minutes of the previously completed session would be show when the session was closed. In prior releases, day bar charts always functioned in "last session only" mode.
• Backtest Reporting: Positions, Entries, and Exits
  A new option has been added to "Backtesting Output Options" area of the "Backtest Setup" window which allows the user to select the definition of a "trade". Options include counting all "Entries", all "Exits", all "Entris plus Exits", or all "Positions". In prior releases, trades were always computed by summing all "positions". In other words, regardless of how many "buy more" and "sell some" transactions may have occurred within the position, the position was still recorded as a single trade. Many brokerages charge commissions on a per trade basis, with trades including all transactions (such as "buy more" and "sell some"). Therefore, many users might prefer to report trades buy summing all "Entries plus Exits". This would include all partial exits (sell some) or additions to the position after the original entry (buy more).
  
  In addition, several new lines have been added to the "Per Trade" and "Per Share" sections of the Day by Day report. The "Per Trade" section now has lines for "Positions", "Entries", and "Exits" (but only if these numbers are not all three identical, in which case, only a "Position" line will be shown). The "Per Share" section now has lines for "Avg Gross/Share", "Avg Profit/Position", "Avg Profit/Entry", and "Avg Profit/Exit". Again, the "Avg Gross/Share" will only be shown if it is different from the "Avg Profit/Share" (which is a Net profit). They should always be different if commissions/fees are specified in the Backtest Setup window. Also, the "Avg Profit/Entry" and "Avg Profit/Exit" again will not be shown if there is only one entry and exit per position.
• Price/Time Profile: TPOs
  The Price/Time Profile has been enhanced to show the number of TPOs above and below the POC line. These values are shown in the label for POC in a format of PRICE(ABOVE/BELOW). For instance, "25.92(77/70)" would represent a POC at a price of 25.92, with 77 TPOs above the POC line, and 70 TPOs below the POC line. These values can also be viewed in the title bar of the chart for the current and previous session based on which session the cursor is over.
• Five New RTL Tokens for Backtesting Usage
  Tokens have been added to the RTL language to enable trading signals to interrogate various backtesting related numeric values:
  
  BT_NET:  Cumulative Net Profit
  BT_POS:  Number of Closed Positions
  BT_ENT:  Number of Entries
  BT_EXIT:  Number of Exits
  EXIT:  Last Exit Price
   
• Version 7.5 Rev 2 Fixes, Miscellaneous Enhancements
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  A bug was fixed in the portfolio window that could cause a fatal error when the user click on a column heading to sort the portfolio by that column.
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  When the vertical scale price feature is active for a traditional chart window, instrument(s) in the chart set to "Invisible" will no longer have their prices highlighted in the vertical scale.
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  A bug was corrected related to Signal Actions issuing simulated Trading Orders to an Investor/RT portfolio. Sell trading orders were being mistakenly accepted even when there was no open position to sell. Similarly, Cover Short orders were posted to the portfolio even when there was no open short position to cover. Erroneous closed positions resulted and these were displayed in the portfolio close positions reports. Investor/RT will reject such order now when there is no open position found in the target portfolio.
• Running Investor/RT on OS X without Administrative Access
  Macintosh OS X, with its UNIX underpinnings, has robust multi-user capabilities that allow multiple users to share the same computer. Each user of the computer has a home directory/folder for organizing his data files. Each user has access privileges (permissions) that control which folders/files can be viewed and updated. Users having "administrative access" privileges can, for example, install and update files in the root Applications folder, while other users with standard access can run applications from the Applications folder, but do not have the permissions necessary to update or create files except those within their own home directory and its sub-folders.
  
  Investor/RT for Mac OS X has, since inception, required that the user have administrative access privileges to run the software. The reason for this is that Investor/RT was originally designed to use the startup directory (the folder where the application itself resides) as the working directory for accessing files as the software operates. Typically, the Investor/RT application is installed inside a folder named "InvestorRT" that resides in the root Applications folder. /Applications is a public folder, and its contents can only be modified by administrative users. Investor/RT updates and creates files in that folder, so administrative privileges are required to run Investor/RT in its default configuration.
  
  Investor/RT 7.5 Rev 1 has been enhanced to allow an OS X user without administrative access to operate the software. This is accomplished by creating an InvestorRT folder within the user's Home directory. The Investor/RT application and various utility programs such as Database Verify, Database Maintenance, and Reconfigure will continue to reside in the root Applications folder. All other files and subfolders can now be relocated to the user's private InvestorRT folder.
  
  Specifically, a folder named "InvestorRT" must be created inside the Library/Application Support/ folder within the user's home directory (~/Library/Application Support/InvestorRT). The following folders and files should be copied to this private InvestorRT folder:
  
  Folders: admin, charts, data_f, mail, markers, news, plug-ins, scans, sounds, symbols, tickdata
  Files: irtdb75.dbd, twp.csc
  
  At startup Investor/RT looks for a folder named "InvestorRT" within the "Library/Application Support" folder in the Home directory of the user that launched the application. If this folder is found, Investor/RT will consider this private InvestorRT folder to be its "working directory". Investor/RT will expect to find all of the above listed files and folders inside this directory. Administrative access is not necessary since Investor/RT will operate on private files permissioned for updating by that user. If the user launching Investor/RT does not have a private InvestorRT folder, Investor/RT will use the folder in which the InvestorRT application resides as the working directory. Operating this way requires administrative access. Users with administrative access may elect to keep their Investor/RT related files inside their own private Library/Application Support/InvestorRT folder rather than in the root Applications/InvestorRT folder.
  
  The following files should remain in the InvestorRT folder within the root Applications folder:
  
  InvestorRT (the application)
  feedlibs (a folder containing shared libraries for data feed access)
  Reconfigure (a utility application for selecting which data feed Investor/RT will use)
  Database Verify (database verification utility program)
  Database Maintenance (database maintenance and verification utility program)
  
  The various features for relocating the Investor/RT database (data_f folder) can be used by non-administrative users. The only requirement is that the data_f be located where the user has read/write permission.
  
  Investor/RT Installer software for OS X is, at present, setup to install various files into a single folder. Typically, this is the InvestorRT folder inside the root Applications folder. Update installers typically update the InvestorRT application, the help file (twp.csc) and occasionally, a database related file named irtdbxx.dbd (where xx is the release number, e.g. irtdb75.dbd). For now, running OS X installers will continue to require administrative access. After installation of an update, the administrative user should run the Investor/RT application at least once to complete the configuration process to select the data feed to be used by Investor/RT. If a private InvestorRT folder exists, the files twp.csc and irtdbxx.dbd must be copied into the private InvestorRT folder for each user. Occasionally, an OS X installer will update a file or two in the admin directory (e.g. holidays.txt or tips.txt files). These files should also be copied to each user's private InvestorRT/admin directory. In the future, a smarter installer will be developed that can be run by non-administrative users. In the meantime, Investor/RT users who desire to have the security and privacy OS X multi-user logins provide will have to perform a few extra steps when installing Investor/RT release updates.
• Express Optimization and Other Optimization Improvements
  A checkbox has been added to the Optimization window titled "Express Optimization". This option is designed to significantly reduce the number of backtest iterations when many variables are involved or when each backtest takes a substantial amount of time. Here is an example to describe how express optimization works. Consider an optimization involving 6 variables, where each variable has six values to be optimized. A standard optimization would backtest 46,656 times to test every combination of the 6 variables. Obviously this would be unrealistic for all but the simplest trading systems. Express optimization takes a different approach. Instead of testing every possible combination, it tests each variable one at a time (holding all other variables in place). Once it's completed testing all valuables of a given variable, it plugs the most profitable value back into the variable, and then moves on to the next variable. In this way, the example above takes only 36 iterations instead of 46,656, a much more manageable task. The variables will be tested in the order they are listed on the optimization window (from top to bottom). The initial state of each of these variables for each symbol is very important. The user should employ a scan to set these variables to reasonable default values before beginning the initial express optimization. Once an initial express optimization is completed, subsequent express optimizations could be performed and could further refine the variables.
  
  Optimization Spreadsheet Reports. A checkbox has been added to the Optimization window titled "Spreadsheet Report". When it is checked, a report file will be generated in the "Admin" folder. The file is formatted for use in spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. The name of the file will have the form optname_OPT_SS.txt where "optname" is the name of the optimization. On MS Windows, users can right-click on the file and choose "Open With: Excel". The spreadsheet report excludes the extraneous header information seen at the top of the normal report. When the spreadsheet is opened in Excel, it can be quickly sorted on any column (just highlight all columns and choose "Data: Sort" from the menu). The standard optimization reports that pop up in Investor/RT when the optimization is completed have also been revised for improved printing. This checkbox is analogous to the "Spreadsheet Reports" button in the Backtest Setup window.
  
  Optimization "Show Last Report" Button. A button titled "Show Last Reports" has been added to the optimization window. When it is clicked, the last report for the selected optimization will be displayed (if available). This button is analogous to the "Display Latest Reports" button in the Backtest Setup window.
• Price/Time Profile Enhancements
  Price/Time Profile charts have been enhanced to provide optional Point of Control (POC) and Value Area (VA) lines. Checkboxes are provided in the Price/Time Profile preferences window to request these lines. Both lines have color preferences. Further, the Initial Balance lines are now optional and have their own color preference. The preference window has been reorganized. Calculation and drawing efficiency improvements were made to make price/time profile charts update more smoothly.
  
  Definitions:
  -  Time Price Opportunity (TPO): The basic building blocks of the Price/Time Profile are called "Time Price Opportunities" (TPOs).  Each half hour of the trading day is designated by a letter.  If a certain price is traded during a given half hour, the corresponding letter, or TPO, is marked next to the price.  Each "Letter" in the Price/Time chart is a TPO.
  
  -  Point of Control (POC): The longest line/row of TPOs closest to the center of the range is called the Point of Control (POC). This is the price where the most activity occurred during the day and therefore making it the price where the most time was spent, signifying greatest value.
  
  -  Value Area (VA): Area in which 70% of TPOs reside.
  
  -  Initial Balance (IB): Area which encompasses the first hour of trading (involving letters A & B).
   
• Style Choices for Traditional Chart Grid Lines
  Traditional chart grid lines may be drawn in any of three styles: solid, dotted, or dashed. Prior to Version 7.5.1, grid lines were drawn as solid lines in a user-specified color. The choice of grid line drawing style is a global setting at present. That is, all traditional charts that have the grid lines option on will display the grid lines using the same specified style. The color used in each chart may vary on a per chart basis. Use Setup: Preferences: Charts: Traditional Charts (select the Colors tab) to specify the grid line drawing style. Click on the down arrow at the right side of the grid lines color control and choose Solid, Dotted, or Dashed from the Style menu that appears. By default, all Investor/RT users upgrading to 7.5.1 from an earlier version will initially have Solid drawing style. The Grid Lines color control also has a menu for selecting pixel width, however grid lines are always drawn as one pixel lines. The grid line style option can be modified using the Traditional Chart preferences or from the chart preferences/color tab of any traditional chart window. Again, this setting is global. Each chart has its own grid line color setting and each chart has the option of showing grid lines or not, but every traditional chart shares the same setting for grid line drawing style. The new drawing styles for traditional chart grid lines do not at present apply to any of the specialty chart types, e.g. Point and Figure charts. Non-traditional charts at present draw solid grid lines unconditionally.
• New RTL token AV - Array (Historical) User Variables
  An indicator token AV has been added to the RTL language to enable time-stamped historical values to be saved in the Investor/RT database for any ticker symbol. Just as User V# variables provide a means of saving a single computed value for a ticker symbol, the AV token can be used to save a historical array of values, one value for each bar backtested. The AV token is a historical token, thus it has values for each bar; previous bar values can be referenced in an RTL formula with a bar qualifier (AV.1, AV.2, etc.). A value can be set for a bar using the SET function, e.g. SET(AV, <expression>) will set the current bar's AV value to the calculated value of the expression. The AV token is also available in the token list under the token name ARRAY.
  
  The AV token, like other "indicator" tokens, has a setup window. A "Persistent..." checkbox, when checked, means that the historical values SET into the array by a signal will be saved in the Investor/RT database. If the "Persistent" checkbox is unchecked, this means that the array is a "temporary" array. A temporary historical array is initialized to zeros. Values may be SET into the array during a backtest; present and past values of the array may be referenced by the signal during the backtest; the array values are discarded upon completion of the backtest.
  
  If the setup for the AV token specifies persistence, the historical data is loaded from and stored to the database using a "pseudo instrument" to hold the data. The pseudo instrument is created automatically by Investor/RT with a ticker symbol derived from the underlying ticker symbol. For example, if you run a backtest on the symbol MSFT and there is a rule in the trading system with a signal formula SET(AV, POS_SIZE), this will create an historical array of data matching the periodicity of the backtest with one AV value for each bar examined during the backtest. The setup for the AV token contains a "suffix" text option that is used to create the pseudo instrument. In this example, the historical values of position size are saved under a ticker symbol MSFT_A1, where A1 is the user specified suffix in the AV setup. The historical values of MSFT_A1 can be inspected using the View/Edit window. In this example you could add a signal marker to a MSFT chart having the formula AV.1 = 0 AND AV > 0; setting up AV with the A1 suffix. This would show signal markers on each bar where the backtest entered into a new long position. Persistent arrays can also be viewed in a chart directly using the "Array User Variable" indicator", just add the indicator to a chart like any other indicator. If persistent array data exists for the associated underlying ticker in the chart, it will be displayed in the chart as a line or histogram, etc. in accordance with the preferences for the Array User Variable indicator.
  
  Another use of this facility is to perform a complex calculation using a one rule trading system, saving the results for each bar in an AV historical array. Then, when you optimize your actual trading system, the system's rules can refer to the AV values instead of computing the complex formula repetitively for all iterations of the trading system optimizer. This technique can be used to considerably reduce the time it takes to optimize trading systems having computationally intensive signals.
  
  When an RTL formula that references a persistent AV token is executed (via a scan, signal, or custom indicator) Investor/RT will load previously saved AV values from the database. If there is no previously saved data, the AV token will be initialized to zero values for each bar. When the scan or backtest using the formula completes, Investor/RT will check to see if the array has been modified (via a SET statement) and if so, the updated array of value will be stored in the database. Investor/RT creates ticker symbols automatically using the suffix in the AV setup to serve as containers for the historical data. These pseudo ticker symbols have a security type of Cash. If you delete any of these tickers from your Investor/RT system, this is equivalent to setting the AV array values to zero for the underlying ticker symbol. You can open the ".Cash" system quotepage to see at list of all cash ticker symbols at any time. If you use common suffixes such as A1, A2, A3 etc for array storage, you can easily list all of the cash ticker symbols having a particular suffix by running a scan, e.g.
  
  SECTYPE = SEC_CASH AND TICKER = "*_A1"
  
  This will list all pseudo tickers ending with _A1, so you can view/edit the values or delete the entire list if needed.
  
  Since the user specified suffix is any arbitary string of up to seven characters, there is no practical limit on the number of ARRAY user variables that can be created for an instrument. Caution is advised if you plan to use this feature with a large number of underlying ticker symbols since each unique suffix will result in the creation of a new pseudo instrument. You can keep an eye on the number of instruments created for array variables by opening the ".Cash" system quotepage.
• Version 7.5 Rev 1 Fixes, Miscellaneous Enhancements
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  Charts with periodicity expressed as "Change per Bar" were not forming change bars properly in realtime. Such charts would load properly with correctly calculated change bars, but live updating of the chart was incorrectly using the "range bar" criteria rather than the change bar criteria to form new bars. This has now been corrected.
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  SET operators in RTL formulas involving IF/THEN/ELSE were sometimes being evaluated (SET) twice. If the SET statement was "self referencing" (e.g. SET(V#1, V#1 +1)) the redundant SET would result in an incorrect value for the V#. This has been corrected. The fix will also speed up RTL formulas involving IF THEN SET, especially when complex expressions are used in SET statements.
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  Volume Profile charts, Raw Tick charts, and DayBar charts saved with a ticker symbol that was later deleted or renamed, would not open. This has been corrected. Investor/RT will simply substitute some other ticker symbol for the missing one and open the chart window. A message will appear in the status message area of the main toolbar and in the message log if a substitute ticker is used.
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  In the Trading System setup window, if a Find pattern is in effect when a trading signal is deleted using the Del button, the Find pattern is used to refresh the list of displayed signals after the deletion.
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  A crash bug related to the use of asset class names for portfolio asset classes was corrected. Investor/RT users who wish to assign names to asset classes can edit a file named assetclasses.txt in the admin folder/directory. The bug related to the processing of this file to extract the class names when opening a portfolio that has Asset Class as a data column.
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  A crash bug related to importing chart definitions was fixed. Investor/RT chart definition files are text files containing some very long "lines" of formatted text. The text must be sent via email as an attachment so that the line endings of these long lines are not affected. Sending chart definition text in the "body" of an email message will necessarily involve wrapping the text of the long lines into multiple lines. This causes confusion when Investor/RT imports the definition and leads to a crash condition in version 7.5. The correction prevents the crash from occurring, however, chart definition text that has been altered by email programs cannot be relied upon to import properly. One method to assure that your chart exports are importable is to set the properties of the definition files you produce, marking such files as "read only". Make a zip archive of the read-only file(s) and send the zip file as an email attachment. When the recipient unzips the archive and saves the definition files locally they will retain the "read-only" property. Thus the definition files cannot be accidentally modified even if they are opened for viewing by a text editor prior to importing them.
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  The token DAYW (day of the week) was functioning incorrectly, giving Sunday (0) as the day of the week for every bar when backtesting, for example. This has been corrected. The tokens DAY and DAYW are synonymous in RTL. The DAY token was not affected by this bug. DAY is the original day-of-the-week token. Later, DAYW and DAYM were added for day-of-the-week and day-of-the-month, respectively.
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  When saving a chart definition for a chart containing a trading system indicator (TSYS), the trading system definition is exported along with the chart. However, when a chart instead contains a signal marker indicator that in turn references a trading system via the TSYS token in the signal formula, Investor/RT was failing to export the trading system. This has been corrected.
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  In some cases, user variables with blank title setups were being added to quotepages with a blank column title. This has been corrected. The name of the user variable, e.g. V#30 or T#32 will be used in the quotepage column heading if no title is setup for the user variable in Setup: Preferences: User Variables.
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  The OS X Version of Investor/RT was skipping the normal quit confirmation dialog. When quitting Investor/RT, the OS X user will see a message with three choices: Quit, Save & Quit, or Cancel. Entering C or clicking Cancel will cancel the quit command, leaving Investor/RT active. Quit or Save & Quit will continue with the termination process. Save & Quit first issues a Save command for open windows whose contents have been modified, thereby avoiding further prompting messages regarding saving changes. If the "Always Save" option is selected in Setup: Preferences: General, then there is no difference in effect between Quit and Save & Quit. If you have selected the "Ask Me" option and use the Quit choice when quitting, Investor/RT will prompt for each modified window, so you can decide whether to save on a per window basis.
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  The Quotepage Popup Menu "Highlight" command for highlighting an instrument row was using a black color as the highlighting color of the row in cases where a highlight color had never been specified for the particular instrument. This behavior has been revised. If an instrument has a black highlight color (RGB value 0 or 1) when you choose to turn on highlighting, Investor/RT will substitute the quotepage's default highlighting color instead. You can adjust the highlight color for any instrument in the advanced section of the Setup: Instruments window. Once a highlight color has been set for an instrument, that color is retained for the instrument as you turn the highlighting option on or off for the instrument. In the Setup: Instruments window, if you turn off the highlighting checkbox and set the highlight color to black (RGB value of zero), then Investor/RT will supply the appropriate highlight color later if you elect to turn on highlighting for the instrument in some quotepage. You can also run a scan with the formula SET(COLOR,0) to turn off highlighting of all scanned symbols (without disturbing the instrument's highlight color). Or, you can scan with SET(COLOR, 1) to turn off highlighting and reset the instrument's highlight color so the instrument will be assigned a default highlight color the next time highlighting is turned on for the instrument in some page.
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  The myTrack version of Investor/RT supports an Option Display command via the ticker symbol popup menu accessible from quotepages, portfolios, quickquote windows and other instrument selection lists. Normally, the Option Display command shows puts and calls with strikes 50% in and 50% out of the money for the two front months for the subject ticker symbol. There is a new setting in the myTrack preferences for option month; it defaults to "front 2 months". The user can pick a specific month from the list and apply the setting. Thereafter, Option Display commands will produce a quotepage of puts and calls for that particular month only.
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  The Macintosh OS X Version of Investor/RT for myTrack had a defect regarding downloading of tick data. An OS X fatal error would result if myTrack responded with no tick data available. This has now been corrected.
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  Recently, Investor/RT was revised so that the ".All Symbols" list no longer includes so-called "## Tickers", cash instruments whose tickers begin with ##. These special tickers are used for quotepage references and as quotepage sectional headers. When a ## ticker refers to a quotepage (via its instrument name), adding the ##ticker to a target quotepage using the "Add Symbols to Quotepage" window, has the effect of adding all of the symbols of the referenced quotepage to the target quotepage. This feature is useful for building quotepages that combine the symbols of other quotepages. Since ## tickers are no longer shown in the .All Symbols list in the Add Symbols to Quotepage instrument selection window this feature was unavailable. In version 7.5 Rev 1, the instrument selector has been improved so the user can display all cash instruments, including ## tickers, for selection when needed. Within any instrument selector you can click the + button at the upper right corner of the selector to access a popup menu. Choose "Show .Cash Symbols" and the instrument selector will give you access to any ## tickers. This restores the ability to combine quotepage using ## tickers as described above.
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  Price/Time Profile charts now operate on instruments that can take on negative or zero values.
• Trading System Setup Window Improved
  When adding rules to a trading system, it can be inconvenient to locate the signal you want to use when the signal list has grown large. The signal list is alphabetical, but locating a particular signal name in a list of hundreds can be tedious.
  
  Most users name their signals using words such as buy, sell, reverse, enter, exit, etc. to indicate the purpose or action to be taken when the signal fires. Version 7.5 provides a convenient way to list those signals that contain certain letters or words. This enhancement makes signal selection faster and easier.
  
  Beneath the list of signals is a Find entry box where you can enter a "pattern" that reduces the list to include those signal names that match a pattern. The characters * and ? in a pattern have special meaning. The asterisk represents any span of zero or more characters; a question mark represents exactly one arbitrary character. Thus a pattern such as *buy* will result in a list of all signals with names that include the word "buy" anywhere in the name. Without the asterisk at the beginning of the pattern (buy*) the pattern will show those signals whose name begins with "buy" followed by arbitrary characters. Pattern matching is not case sensitive. More precise patterns can be used, e.g. ???_MA* will list any signal whose name begins with 3 arbitrary characters followed by _MA, followed by any or no additional characters.
  
  When typing characters into the entry box, there is an implied asterisk at the end of the pattern. For example, when you type in the four characters *rev, Investor/RT will actually use *rev* to show the signal names containing "rev" anywhere in the name. You can type in the asterisk at the end if you wish but it is not necessary. As you type into the Find box, the list of matching signal names is updated each time character(s) are added or removed from the pattern.
  
  The two most common uses of this feature will be to (1) type in one or more letters to list signals whose names begin with those letter(s), or (2) type in an asterisk * followed by some letter(s) to list those signals that contain those letter(s) anywhere in their names. Any patterns you enter of 3 characters or more will be added to the list of pattern choices in the popup menu for the entry box. Click the down arrow at the right side of the entry box to choose a pattern you have used before. The menu also includes some sample patterns that may be useful, e.g. *buy* and *sell*. When the entry box is empty or contains only an asterisk, all signals are listed. The 15 most recently used search patterns are kept in the Investor/RT database. Once you have entered your most common search patterns, you can operate the Find function using the menu arrow rather than having to type into the entry box.
  
  In version 7.5, when the Find box is used, the list of signal names will begin with those signals matching the pattern. The list will then have a divider line (a row of hyphens) followed by the names of the trading signals that are presently used in existing rules of the trading system. A signal name will only be listed once. That is, if a signal in an existing rule matches the pattern, it will be shown above the divider line, but not redundantly below the divider line. This refinement assures that every signal presently used in the trading system will appear in the signal list, whether it matches the pattern or not. Signals not presently used in the trading system that match the Find pattern, will be listed first.
  
  When the Find box is used for a trading system, the last pattern entered into the Find box will be saved with the trading system definition. When you open the trading system again later, the trading system will initially appear with the same Find pattern, showing only the matching signals if any along with any signals current used by the trading system.
• RTL Setup Window Improved
  When setting up scans, signals, and custom indicators, it is often the case, as revisions are made, that the token list on the right accumulates tokens that are no longer referenced in the syntax of the formula. The "+" button at the upper right corner of the token list on the right now offers a popup menu with two commands: (1) remove unused tokens and (2) remove all tokens. The first command will detect any tokens that are not specifically referenced in the RTL formula and remove them from the list. Note that for technical indicator tokens, this will discard the settings for the indicator as well. The second command will unconditionally remove all tokens from the list on the right. After removing all tokens if you then click the "Check" button, Investor/RT will add back any required tokens and prompt for new setups for those tokens that need them.
• Trading System Rules - Cut, Copy, Paste
  The Trading System Definition window has been improved to support Cut, Copy, and Paste commands in the Trading Rules list. Cut/Copy/Paste commands can be issued via the Edit Menu or using the usual keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V on MS Windows, Command-X, Command-C, Command-V on Macintosh).
  
  Cut and Copy operate on the currently selected (highlighted) rule in the Trading Rule list and place that rule on the "clipboard". Cut removes the rule from the rule list as well. The rule on the clipboard can then be pasted elsewhere into a rule list, in the same window or into another trading system window containing some other trading system. Before issuing the Paste command, first select the destination rule in the destination window. The Paste command will add the rule immediately above that rule. The pasted rule will become the selected rule, so you could, for example, cut the rule again if you wish, or use the "Move Rule" button to move the new rule down the rule list. Using the up and down arrow keys combined with Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V (Cut and Paste), you can easily pick rules, cut them, move to another destination rule with the arrow keys and paste the rule where ever you wish in rule list. This is a marked improvement over the "Move Rule" button, especially for trading systems with dozens of rules or more.
• Custom Column Improvements
  Some improvements were made to the Custom Column Setup window in the "Format" tab of this four tab window. The Custom Column Title entry box is now prefaced by a checkbox. Unchecking this box will cause the name of the custom column to be used as the quotepage column heading. When checked, you may enter your own column title. The default for newly created custom columns will be to leave this option unchecked (i.e. Investor/RT will use the custom column name as the column title). In other words, for new custom columns, you have to explicitly check this box, and enter a column title, if you want a title that is different from the custom column name.
  
  The "Default Cell Color" has a new option checkbox titled "Use QuotePage Colors". This option will be checked by default for newly created custom columns. When checked, this option means that the default cell colors for the custom column cells will be derived from the host quotepage. The rules associated with the custom column may override these, but in the absence of any rule color effects, the custom column's cells will blend in with the other cells of the quotepage. When unchecked, the custom column cells will default to the explicit colors selected in the "Format Tab" regardless of the host quotepage color properties.
• Multi-statement RTL Syntax
  RTL formulas (syntax) may now be composed of multiple statements, each statement ending with a semicolon. When an RTL scan, signal, or custom indicator has multiple statements, the last of the statements serves to convey the result of the scan, signal, or custom indicator. This feature may be used to advantage to compose several SET statements followed by a formula for a custom indicator or scan. For example:
  
  SET(V#1, MAX(HI,5));
  SET(V#2, MIN(LO,5));
  CL > (V#1 + V#2) / 2;
  
  This scan, consisting of three statements, is equivalent to the single statement formula:
  
  CL > (MAX(HI,5) + MIN(LO,5))/2;
  
  However, V#1 and V#2 are set as byproduct in the three statement case.
  
  The multiple statement capability implies that multiple IF THEN ELSE statements may now be combined into a single scan or signal. Each IF THEN ELSE statement must, of course, have a THEN clause, but the ELSE clause is optional. Here is an example of a signal used in a trading system:
  
  IF (POS_STATE = POS_LONG) THEN SET(TARGET, ENTRY * 1.05);
  IF (POS_STATE = POS_SHORT) THEN SET(TARGET, ENTRY * .92);
  
  Formerly, conditional SET operations would typically require that a separate signal and trading rule be created for each IF THEN ELSE. Now, any number of IF THEN ELSE statements can be included inside one signal.
  
  Multi-statements may be useful in custom indicator formulations as well. Here is a simple example:
  
  SET(V#1, MAX(HI,5));
  SET(V#2, MIN(LO,5));
  (V#1 + V#2) / 2;
  
  For each bar, V#1 and V#2 are set to a computed value. The last statement specifies the resulting value of the custom indicator for each bar.
• Alarm Handling Improvements for Signal Action, Trendline, Ref Line Alarms
  Improvements have been made to incorporate trendline alerts, reference line alerts, and signal actions into the general alarm handling framework of Investor/RT. The general alarm preferences (Setup: Preferences: Alarms) specify which actions Investor/RT should perform when an alarm occurs. In version 7.4 and earlier, trendline alerts, reference line alerts, and signal actions were handled independently of this framework. By incorporating these three cases into the general alarm handling framework, we open up the possibility for trendline or reference line breaks to be emailed or sent to a chat room. Signal actions have long had chat room capability, but this enhancement makes emailing of signal action text possible and enables signal action text messages to be recorded as trading notes if desired.
  
  In the case of signal actions, a new checkbox has been added to the signal action setup, titled "Alarm Text". When checked, the user specified text will be handled as an alarm message in accordance with the user preferences in Setup: Preferences: Alarms. Any or all of the following actions can be requested for the signal action text:
  1. Open a standard alarm notification window, showing a quote of ticker symbol involved, the window title showing the signal action text.
  2. Play a Sound (the sound name is specified in the signal action setup).
  3. Email the message to a specific email address.
  4. Send the message to a designated IRC chat room.
  5. Add the text as a trading note for the ticker symbol involved.
  
  The "Open a Chart" option in the Alarm Preferences is not applicable to signal actions, trendline, or ref line alerts, since these alert conditions originate from a chart in the first place.
  
  When version 7.5 is released, any existing signal actions will by default have the "Alarm Text" checkbox unchecked. You must specifically adjust the preferences to turn on alarm handling for any existing signal actions.
  
  Trendline and reference line alerts were formerly enabled by an "Alert" or "Alert on Break" checkbox in the trendline or reference line setup along with the selection of a particular alert sound. In version 7.5, trendline and reference line preferences have an "Action" checkbox instead. There is an associated menu for selecting the name of the signal action to be executed when the reference line or trendline break occurs. In order to maintain upward compatibility, the former "sound name" settings will continue to be honored. The user will not have to adjust any existing trendline or reference line setups when upgrading to 7.5 unless the greater flexibility of signal actions is desired.
  
  Once the user adjusts the settings for a trendline or reference line to specify a signal action name instead of a sound name, the break alerts will be handled in accordance with the specified signal action setup, just as signal actions are handled for the signal marker indicator. If the name in the trendline or reference line's new "action" option is NOT the name of a signal action, then Investor/RT will handle the alert by using the supplied name as a sound name. When alerts trigger and the supplied name is not a signal action, an alert message will be passed to the normal alarm notification framework instead. The sound specified in the trendline or ref line preferences will be honored as before. The user may choose <No Sound> or <Default Alarm Sounds>. The default alarm sounds are those specified in Setup: Preferences: Sounds for "High Alarm" and "Low Alarm". The choice of sounds depends on whether the break occurred moving above or below the trendline or reference line. If Setup: Preferences: Alarms calls for a Notification window, the revised behavior will be that a standard alarm notification window will appear rather than an OK message box. The alarm notification window will state the reason for the alarm and provide a current quote and the alarm time, etc. The new behavior will enable three new capabilities for trendline and reference line breaks, if these are called for in your general Alarm Preferences:
  
  1. Email the message to a specific email address.
  2. Send the message to a designated IRC chat room.
  3. Add the alert notification text as a trading note for the ticker symbol involved.
  
  When adding new trendlines or reference lines, or editing the preferences of existing trendlines and reference lines, the user of Version 7.5 will see a list of signal action names rather than a list of sounds. For upward compatibility, the former sound name, if specified in earlier versions of Investor/RT, will continue to be available for selection, along with two special sound related menu items: <No Sound> and <Default Alert Sounds>. If one of these three sound related items is chosen as the action, alerts will be handled by playing the appropriate sound (or no sound) and passing the alert through the normal alarm handling framework of Investor/RT as setup in Setup: Preferences: Alarms. When a signal action name is specified, the setup of the signal action controls what should be done when the alert occurs. If the signal action in turn calls for alarm handling (by checking the Alarm Text checkbox) then the alarm message text specified in the signal action setup will be passed through the normal alarm handling framework after all actions called for in the signal action setup are performed.
  
  In summary, signal actions, which have long been associated with signal markers, can now be specified for trendline and reference line alerts as well. This gives the user full control over which alert actions should be performed when a signal marker fires, or a break of a trendline or reference line occurs. In the case of trendlines and reference lines, which formerly had only a sound preference, upward compatibility is maintained; the same sound will sound; however a message describing the break will be passed to the normal alarm handling framework. The user is free to select a signal action name to replace the sound name at any time to gain more flexibility for particular trendline or reference line break alerts.
• New Technical Indicator: FVE : Finite Volume Elements
  The Finite Volume Element Indicator (FVE) was developed by Markos Katsanos and introduced in the April 2003 issue of Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities magazine. It was modified for volatility in the September 2003 issue of TASC. FVE is a money flow indicator but with two important differences from existing money flow indicators. Click here for more details on the FVE indicator.
• New RTL Indicator Token: PCVP (% Change Volume/Price)
  The charting indicator "Percent Change Volume or Price" is now available for use in RTL. This simple indicator can be setup to easily reference the percentage change in the closing price or volume for any N bar period. This indicator can be easily calculated in RTL directly of course, e.g. the five bar percent change in price is simply 100 * (CL - CL.5)/CL.5. RTL formulas can now easily reference PCVP values for the current bar or any previous bar using a single token and qualifier. For example:
  
  PCVP > 3 AND PCVP.1 > 2.5
  
  is easier than writing:
  
  (100 * (CL - CL.5)/CL.5) > 3 AND (100 * (CL.1 - CL.6)/CL.6) > 3
• Get Info Command
  The "Get Info" display for an instrument has long been available in Investor/RT via the QuickQuote window's Get Info button (the button's icon is a blue circle containing the letter "i" for info). To make this feature more globally available, a Get Info command has been added to the Quotepage, Portfolio, and instrument selector popup menus. You may now right-click on a ticker just about anywhere and choose Get Info to access this display. The Get Info window is a text window showing information about an instrument in one consolidated report. The report content includes:
  
  1. A list of the objects (windows) in which the instrument is active, e.g. charts, quotepages, portfolios, etc.
  2. Portfolio positions currently open for the instrument.
  3. News items for the instrument.
  4. Trading Notes for the instrument.
  5. A comprehensive alphabetical listing of quotepage column data for the instrument. Columns having zero or no value are not included, e.g. only the non zero V# variable values are listed.
  
  In addition, there is a historical data diagnostic feature activated when you hold down the Ctrl key (MS Windows) or the option key (Macintosh) as you request the Get Info report. A diagnostic summary of historical data records on file in the database is shown for the instrument in question.
• Instrument/Quotepage Management
  Sometimes it is desirable to see a list of the quotepages in which a particular instrument resides, or to add or remove an instrument from one or more quotepages without having to open those pages(s). A sub menu named "Quotepages..." has been added to the quotepage popup menu to facilitate these actions. Right-click (control-click on Mac) on a ticker symbol in any quotepage and choose from the QuotePages... submenu. There are three menu items: (1) Add to QuotePage... (2) List QuotePages... and (3) Remove from QuotePage.... The List QuotePages menu item presents a list of quotepages in which the symbol resides. You can open any quotepage in the list by selecting it and clicking OK or Apply, or simply dismiss the list with the Esc key. The Remove from QuotePage menu item presents the same list. Select a quotepage and click Apply or OK to remove the selected ticker symbol from the quotepage. Finally, the Add to QuotePage menu item presents a list of all user-defined quotepages. Select a quotepage, then click Apply / OK to add the selected ticker to the quotepage.
  
  The List, Add, Remove capability described above has long been present in Investor/RT as a somewhat hidden feature. The QP button on the quotepage toolbar and the QP button in the quick quote window can invoke these same actions. A single click on the QP button will List the quotepages in which the selected symbol resides (the selected symbol is the symbol selected in the quotepage at the time or the symbol selected in the instrument selector of the quick quote window). A shift-click on the QP button invokes the Add to QuotePage function. A ctrl-click (option-click for Macintosh) invokes the Remove from Quotepage function.
• Chart Recalculation via Schedule/Keyboard Shortcut
  In Version 7.3 a chart recalculation feature was added. The traditional chart window "download" button in the lower right corner accepts a shift-click on the toggle button. A normal click initiates a download of historical data. The shift-click will force a recalculation of all indicators in the chart.
  
  In Version 7.5 this "Recalculate Indicators" function is available when creating chart buttons. A chart button having the purpose "Execute a Toolbar Button", can now reference "Recalculate Indicators" as the toolbar function. Note that there is no such actual button on the chart toolbar, but the function name is nevertheless available for selection in the list of toolbar functions. Thus you can create your own "recalc" button within the chart window.
  
  Now that a chart button of this kind can be created, you can extend this easily to schedules and keyboard shortcuts. To do so, first save the setup for the button as a Preset using the Preset->New menu item in the button's setup window. The preset may, for example, be saved with the name "Recalc Chart". From there, you can execute this button preset from within a schedule using the schedule action "Execute Chart Button" and picking the "Recalc Chart" preset as the button preset to execute. Schedule actions can thus be included in a schedule to recalculate the front most chart window or a specific named chart window. Finally, since a recalc preset can be used to create a single action schedule, you can assign a function key to that schedule, e.g. F2 can be your "recalc" button for the front most chart.
• Changing Indicator Association in Multi-Instrument Charts
  Each technical indicator in a chart has an associated instrument whose data is used in the calculation of the indicator. When there are multiple instruments present in the chart, the Add Indicator dialog provides a menu that is used to select the instrument to be associated with the newly added indicator. Once an indicator is added to a multi-instrument chart, however, there was no easy way to change its associated instrument. Deleting the instrument and adding it back again associated with the desired instrument was required. Version 7.5 now has an "Associate..." command in the chart element popup menu. Right-click on an indicator and choose "Associate...". A list of instruments will appear. Pick the one you want the selected indicator to operate upon. Notice that the list of instruments has both an Ok and an Apply button. The Apply button allows you to see the effect of associating with an instrument before closing the selection list. In some cases, it may be difficult to right-click on a particular indicator in order to access the popup menu. An alternate way to access the Associate command is to tab through the chart elements until the indicator you want is selected. Press the enter key (return key) to edit the selected indicator's preferences. Press ctrl-enter (ctrl-return) to issue the "Associate..." command on the selected indicator. The Associate command is not applicable (has no effect) if no indicator is selected or if there is only one instrument present in the chart.
• Version 7.5 Fixes, Miscellaneous Enhancements
  -----------------------
  Version 7.4.6, an interim candidate release introduced a number of fixes that are now part of version 7.5. To review these click here.
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  Sorting a quotepage on a custom column and them immediately scrolling the quotepage would show incorrect values for the custom column cells for those rows scrolled into view. The custom column values would self-correct if the quotepage was updating and the custom column recalculated in accordance with the calculation options. The bug has been fixed so that correct values are shown instantly when scrolling after a sort. This bug did not affect custom columns of type "built-in", only technical indicator and RTL related custom columns.
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  Chart Definitions exported by version 7.4 and earlier did not export line width and style for instruments drawn as continuous or connected lines. Only the line color was exported. Thus, upon import, the instrument would always appear in the chart as a solid line 1 pixel wide. Instrument line width and line style are now exported/ imported properly.
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  The Elastic Volume Weighted Moving Average Indicator (RTL Token EVW) has been improved. Prior to version 7.5, when the Volume Period was specified as "Use Average Volume x __", the average was always computed with a period of 40 (40 period moving average of volume). This period has now been made an option, and reads in the preferences as "Use __ Period Average Volume x __". Also, all three available values/periods in the Volume Period group box are now "Optimizable" (can be specified using V# variables). These values/periods include the Constant Value, the new volume smoothing Period, and Average Volume multiplier.
  -----------------------
  When the Message Log window is open and scrolled to the end of the document, new lines of text automatically scroll into the bottom of the window as messages arrive. If you scroll back to review prior lines, new incoming message will continue to build but the window will no longer scroll automatically to the end. To resume auto scrolling, you must scroll the Message Log text window to end again (press the End key on the keyboard).
  -----------------------
  A crash bug relating to the use of custom columns was fixed. The bug would cause a fatal error a few seconds after a new row was added to the quotepage, for example after dragging and dropping an instrument from one quotepage into another one having custom columns.
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  The Help command in the Preset menu button is now functional. Also, when loading a preset in the default preferences case (Setup: Preferences: Technical Indicators), the color preferences for some indicators where not being setup with the color preference of the loaded preset. This has been corrected.
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  Backtesting now considers any trade that gained or lost a penny in the statistics. Formerly, only trades that gained at least $1 were considered winning trades. Due to a bug, all trades that lost any amount or gained less than $1 were considered "losing trades". This has been corrected.
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  The Optimization Setup window is now resizable.
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  Users that have setup quotepage sectional ticker symbols (tickers beginning with ##) were erroneously prompted to enter a new ticker symbol when opening a quickquote window. This bug relates to the fact the ## tickers are not shown in instrument selection lists such as the one in the quickquote window. This has been corrected.
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  A holiday related bug in the myTrack server software was causing Investor/RT to receive intra-day historical data that was incorrectly time stamped. The problem affected, for example, certain UK futures and indices that were trading on a US holiday date. Although the source of the problem was incorrectly transmitted dates, and not an Investor/RT bug, Investor/RT has been improved so that historical intra-day downloads will delete the current realtime collected data for the current trading session ONLY when the incoming data is dated with the current trading day. This means that realtime collected data will be retained even if the user attempts an intra-day download for the current day if the resulting intra-day data is time stamped for a previous trading day. Prior to version 7.5, current intra-day data was deleted unconditionally when intra-day downloads were performed in the myTrack version of Investor/RT. This improvement will mean that whenever myTrack sends intra-day data dated for a prior day that any existing realtime collected intra-day data will be retained. Current day intra-day data will be discarded only when the mytrack server responds with intra-day bars (or ticks) for the current trading day.
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  Presentation Mode is now a toolbar function that can be assigned to a chart button of type "Execute Chart Toolbar Button". The effect of clicking the chart button is to toggle the presentation mode on/off. Presentation mode can be toggled on/off using the popup menu on the main toolbar, or by checking/unchecking a box in Setup: Preferences: General. If you toggle this feature frequently, it is more convenient to create a chart button for it.
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  Download Data is now a toolbar function that can be assigned to a chart button of type "Execute Chart Toolbar Button". The download data button in the lower right corner of the chart window is always available, of course, but in some larger sized charts with buttons arranged at the top, it is more convenient to have a download button near by, e.g. adjacent to a menu button that you use to switch instruments.
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  When a schedule runs periodically every 60 seconds or more frequently and the schedule contains an Import action, Investor/RT will make note of the modification date of the file to be imported each time the schedule runs. If the file specified in the import action has not changed since the last time it was imported, the import action will be skipped. This enhancement will avoid redundant imports of the same information while assuring that whenever the import file contents are revised, the import will be performed on the next run of the schedule. Investor/RT users who employ NinjaTrader for automated trading can setup an import schedule that runs frequently (once a second for example) to import a file NinjaTrader updates when trade related events occur. With this improvement the import overhead will be incurred only when NinjaTrader updates the file with new or revised information. A message is written to the message log each time a scheduled import occurs. The message log will now show a message only when the modification date dictates that the import be performed.
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  A bug was fixed in the quotepage area having to do with double-clicking on cells for HiAlarm, LoAlarm, or VolAlarm levels. The double-click effect is to open the Alarm Setup window for the instrument. The double-clicked cell will no longer remain selected for editing. To edit the value in an alarm level cell, click once in the cell to select it, then edit the numeric value and press tab or enter to complete the edit. A right-click (new in Version 7.5) has the same effect as a double-click in the HiAlarm, LoAlarm, or VolAlarm cell. Further, the alarm setup window will now open with the particular alarm level value selected for editing. For example, if you right-click on the HiAlarm cell for MSFT, the Alarm Setup window for MSFT will open, with the current high alarm value selected for editing. Formerly, the ticker symbol cell was selected, making it necessary for the user to tab to the particular alarm level entry box.
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  A long standing bug was causing imports of chart definitions to fail in some cases if the imported chart had more than eight panes. The message "Chart has too many panes..." was appearing incorrectly during the import process and all panes were not being imported. The bug is fixed in version 7.5.