What's New in Version 8.9
Several new features and miscellaneous enhancements, available now in
our latest release,
are outlined below. Click here to download.
New in 8.9 Released October 16, 2007
-
Opentick
Beta testing of Investor/RT for opentick continues. Clients interested
in this data service contact info@linnsoft.com to request a registration
code. Supply your opentick login id. For more information on opentick,
see http://www.opentick.com.
Opentick requires the correct exchange to be specified for each
instrument. For futures, this setup automatic for all future types
defined to Investor/RT (see Setup: Futures for a list of defined future
types). Futures symbols by convention begin with a slash, however, the
leading slash in optional in Investor/RT. Futures symbols are setup with
the future type followed by the month code and year code. /ESZ7 and ESZ7
are equivalent and both are automatically assigned to the CME-EM
exchange as required by opentick.
See
http://www.opentick.com/index.php?app=search&event=symbols for
opentick symbol lookup. You can specify the exchange in the Setup:
Instruments window using the override exchange setting, or if you prefer
you can include the opentick exchange code directly as part of the
ticker symbol by appending a hyphen and the code. For example, to get
quotes on MSFT from the Island Book, setup the ticker symbol as MSFT-is,
or setup the ticker as MSFT and the override exchange as ISLAND in
Setup: Instruments. Note, the -is suffix is lower case. When typing into
the ticker symbol entry box, Investor/RT by default capitalized every
letter you type since 99% of time, ticker symbols are uppercase. In
those rare instances that you want one or more lower case letters in the
ticker, preceed the character with the backslash \ character. The \ will
be ignored and the next letter you enter will not be uppercased
automatically. Thus, to enter MSFT-is you would type
msft\i\s and the entry box will read MSFT-is.
For stocks, with AUTO (automatic, no override exchange), Investor/RT
will assume NYSE for symbols of 3 letters or less, NASD for longer
symbols. If you want to follow a stock or EFT that trades on the AMEX,
you can either enter the symbol as QQQQ-A or enter the symbol as QQQQ
with override exchange set to AMEX.
Pay attention to message log messages that appear when you log into
opentick (File-->Open-->Message Log). The log will (a) show you every
exchange that you are licensed for real-time data (b) all exchange for
which you are not licensed, (c) any ticker symbols that opentick does
not recognize or for which you have no license.
Tick data downloading from opentick is available only on a delayed
basis, suitable for aftermarket downloading several hours after the
fact, but unsuitable for intra-day backfill purposes. For this reason,
one minute downloads are recommended for opentick backfilling. However,
Investor/RT users can sign up for a DTN Market Access historical
services account if tick data backfill is needed, for example, to
support Footprint Charting or volume breakdown analysis.
-
Renko Charts
For more information on Renko Charting, including a video
demonstration, visit
http://www.linnsoft.com/renko
Renko is now supported in traditional charts as a periodicity (and a
drawing style). This significant enhancement marries the powerful
features of the traditional chart window (indicators, buttons,
multi-panes, etc) with this unique charting style.
To change any existing chart to a Renko chart, simply double-click on
the instrument (bars or candles) in an existing chart, and setup the
chart with a Style of "Wickless Candles". Wickless Candles will result
in the traditional Renko "boxed" look and feel. It will simply chart a
box from open to close. Users may opt for the "Candlestick" style, which
will not only give the open/close box, but provides additional
information with the candle wicks representing the high and low of each
bar.
The Periodicity Control now has a new option of "Renko" just below the
"Point and Figure" choice. Select this option, then provide a box size
in the space provided below. The box size can range from the tick
increment of the instrument (0.25 for ES) to multiples of the tick
increment (0.5, 1, 2, etc).
In order to force each Renko box to be drawn perfectly square (the
height of each box equals the width), a new vertical scale option has
been added. Double-click in the vertical scale to bring up the vertical
scale preferences. Select the 3rd Scaling Method specifying "Automatic
scaling with Square boxes".
This option will keep the boxes square regardless of changes in chart
dimensions, scrolling, or zooming. Some user may continue to prefer the
Automatic scaling method, which tends to make better use of the vertical
space in a chart. Once you've setup your scaling as "Square Boxes", you
can easily toggle to automatic by clicking the "RA" until it becomes an
"A", and toggle back to square boxes by again clicking on the "A" until
it turns back into an "RA".
Investor/RT can be configure so that Renko bars reset at the beginning
of each session (fresh start), or continue across session boundaries.
The fresh start option is generally used for symbols that might gap
heavily between session (and result in a long sequence of boxes to fill
the gap). On symbols like ES that trade around the clock, the fresh
start option is generally not needed or preferred. Go to "Setup:
Preferences: Charts: General". If the "Continuous Tick & Volume Bars"
checkbox is UNchecked, Renko charts will operate in "fresh start" mode.
If it is unchecked, Renko charts will operate in "carry over" mode.
Tokens have been added to RTL to support Renko. Scans, signals, and
custom indicators operating with Renko periodic data can use these token
to inspect the state and box size of the Renko boxes. To test the state
of the PNF box use the RENKO_STATE token. Constants RENKO_UP and
RENKO_DOWN were added to enable expressions such as "RENKO_STATE =
RENKO_UP" or "RENKO_STATE = RENKO_DOWN". The RENKO_BOX token gives you
the box size of the Renko data.
As an example, the following signal would look for 3 consecutive up
boxes followed by a down box:
RENKO_STATE.3 = RENKO_UP AND RENKO_STATE.2 = RENKO_UP AND
RENKO_STATE.1 = RENKO_UP AND RENKO_STATE = RENKO_DOWN
Here are some of the capabilities enabled by this Renko Charting
improvement:
- Renko charts update dynamically tick by tick.
- True Renko square boxes built off tick data (or 1-min data)
- Build Renko charts using any box size
- Full library of over 150 built-in technical indicators to Renko charts,
including Volume Breakdown, MPD, and TPO Indicators
- Full library of drawing tools, including 45 degree trendlines, reference
lines, notes, Fibonacci, pivots, regression, and much more
- Add custom indicators writing in Investor/RT's RTL language (Targets)
- Write signals, add markers and alerts to Renko charts
- Write trading systems and backtest historical Renko data
- Flexible scaling, zooming, scrolling, and panning with drag and drop
- Keyboard and mouse wheel shortcuts for convenient manipulation of Renko
charts
- Review historical Renko charts, going back weeks, months, or even years
(varies with data vendor)
- Floating charts that may be dragged outside the Investor/RT task window
- View data from other periodicities (minute bars, tickbars, etc) on Renko
charts
- Other helpful tools such as multi-chart highlighter, crosshairs,
infobox, custom buttons, and multi-linking
- Autotrading available via the Trading System Indicator to limited
brokerages
- Quickly switch chart between Renko and other periodicities (P&F,
tickbar, minute bar, volume bar, daily, etc)
- All in one chart: Renko, P&F, Market Profile (TPO indicator), Delta
(Volume Breakdown Indicator), Other Periodicity Data, drawing tools,
historical indicators, markers, alerts, and much more
-
Backfill Automation
See "Setup: Preferences: Backfill" to enable automated downloading of
historical tick data when connecting to the data feed. Investor/RT now
keeps track of the last time real-time data reception ended. This
information is then used when reconnecting to the data feed later to
determine whether backfill is necessary on a symbol by symbol basis. The
software can initiate tick data backfills automatically for all of your
intra-day marked symbols, or just those that you have open in chart
windows. At present this new feature is being introduced for testing.
Your feedback is welcomed; we expect to make further improvements and
refinements in future releases. Initially, this feature is available for
users of eSignal, DTN IQFEED, DTN IQ, and other realtime feeds
supplemented by DTN Market Access historical services.
-
New Footprint Option:
Shade Text Only
A new option has been added to the General tab of the Footprint
Preference window titled "Shade Text Only". The option can be found at
the bottom of the window just below the "Footprint Type" option. When
the "Shade Text Only" option is checked, the chart shades the text
inside each cell, as opposed to the background of the cell. In addition,
When "Shade Text Only" is checked, along with a Footprint Type of "Bid x
Ask Vol", only the side with more volume (bid or ask side) is colored,
while the other side is left gray. Furthermore, a space is placed
between the bid and ask volume, as opposed to the "x" that's placed
between them when background shading is in place.
-
Annotation Improvement
The Annotation has been improved to allow user to attach notes not only
to a given bar, but also to a given price. In past versions, when the
"Attach to bar" check box was checked, the annotation would attach
itself horizontally to a given bar (date/time), but not vertically to a
price. Instead, it would retain it's vertical position in relation to
the height of the chart pane. The behavior resulted in notes jumping
from below bars to above bars (and visa versa) when certain chart
operations were performed (zooming, re sizing, scrolling, etc). Now,
notes with "Attach to bar" checked also attach themselves vertically to
a price. This concept is demonstrated in a video at
http://www.linnsoft.com/videos/notes/
-
V# Reference Line Improvement
An improvement was made to the way Investor/RT responds to chart
buttons whose purpose is to "Activate Drawing Tool Preset". If the
preset is a Reference Line indicator setup to use a V# user variable,
the drawing tool will then place the reference line and set the
associated V# to the price where the user clicks. As with earlier
versions, dragging the reference line to a new level will continue to
set the associated V# as well. As with earlier versions, if you have a
button in a chart with the purpose "Add/Remove Preset Indicator" where
the reference line preset references a V# variable, then clicking the
button will show/hide the reference line using the current value of the
V# variable.
If you have a reference line in a chart that is assigned to a V# user
variable and you right-click on the line to Add a Button, Investor/RT
will now construct the button with the "Activate Drawing Tool..."
purpose. In earlier versions, the button would be added with the
"Add/Remove Preset..." purpose. This change means that if you want to
make a button from an existing reference line, a button whose purpose is
to toggle the V# reference line on/off then you must make an adjustment
to the button after it is created, revising its purpose to "Add/Remove
Preset...".
The bottom line benefit of these revisions is that you can now setup
chart buttons that make it a quick 2-step process to add a V# reference
line: click the button, then click where you want the line to go and
Investor/RT will establish that as the initial value for the particular
V# user variable. These improvements are demonstrated in a video at
http://www.linnsoft.com/videos/vline/
-
Signal Marker Labeling
Improvement
Signal Markers can now be labeled with the historical values of
any Custom Indicator that resides inside the chart. First ensure that
the custom indicator you want to use in present in the chart. Access the
Signal Marker preferences; from the Show menu choose "Cust Ind". A list
of available custom indicators will appear. Signal marker setups also
have a new "Box Text" option you can check to have a border drawn around
the label text. For a video demonstration, see:
http://www.linnsoft.com/videos/histLabels/
-
Chart Drawing Efficiency
Improvements
Efficiency improvements were made to Traditional, Market Profile,
and Footprint charts to reduce the cpu load of these chart types during
heavy trading periods.
-
Object Editor Improvements
The Object Editor now supports the Schedule and Session object.
This makes it possible to use the Object Editor to create an export file
containing the definitions of all of your schedules or sessions easily.
For example, open the Object Editor, select Schedule as the object type,
click Select All, then click Export. The exported schedules may then be
imported into another Investor/RT system using the File: Import:
Definition File command. Session export and import may come in handy if
you are setting up an Investor/RT system on another computer and want to
quickly get all of your session setups over to the other machine.
-
Release Numbering
Convention Revised
Investor/RT version numbering scheme has been revised. The
current major version number is 8, minor version 9, i.e. 8.9 is the
current release and thus far there have been 7 installers produced for
8.9 (890,891,892,...896). The version numbering will now use a "Build
Number", a number between 1 and 99, to indicate the revision level of
any major/minor release pair. Formerly, this 3rd number, the revision
level, could not be greater than 9. This numbering method will enable us
to issue fixes with an incremented build number. In the past we have
occasionally updated installers to correct problems in a new release
without revising the revision level and this can lead to confusion about
which release is actually installed. Final release versions will have
the format <major>.<minor>.<build>, e.g. 8.9.16 means Release 8.9 Build
16. Beta test releases will have the format <major>.<minor>b<build>,
e.g. 9.0b33 means Beta 9.0 Build 33. When a beta release is near final,
we produce "candidate" release installers for testing prior to going
final. Candidate releases will have the format <major>.<minor>c<build>,
e.g. 9.1c3 means Candidate Release 9.1 Build 3. The first general
release of any new major/minor pair will be Build 1, e.g. 9.0.1 will be
the first 9.0 build to be released.
We are about to embark on beta testing for release 9.0 (9.0b1 will be
the first beta release available for testing). During the 9.0 testing
period we plan to improve the software update function of Investor/RT.
As new builds are released, they can be marked as optional or for
general release. This will enable us to produce a fix for a release with
an incremented build number that may affect only a relatively few users
of the product. Optional builds (fixes) will be available to all users
via the Check for Updates command in the Help Menu. However, the
automatic prompting to upgrade to the latest version will not appear for
optional releases so long as the user is running the same major/minor
release general release build. This will enable us to respond quickly
with a fix to a rarely encountered bug without inconveniencing all
Investor/RT users. New users or those who use the Check for Updates
feature will always get the latest fixes, i.e. the most recent build.
-
Miscellaneous 8.9
Fixes and Improvements
-----------------------------------------
The RTL conditional operator (expression ? a:b) can now be nested to
perform SET statements on text variables, e.g. SET(T#22, V#1 > 0 ? "a" :
(V#2 > 0 ? "b" : "c")); will set the text variable T#22 to "a" when V#1
> 0, otherwise it will set T#22 to "b" or "c" based on the value of V#2.
-----------------------------------------
Trading System Import/Export was updated to support all trading system
setup variables.
-----------------------------------------
Improvements were made to the rollover feature of Investor/RT for
futures contracts. The rollover of a contract to the symbol for the next
month no longer requires that all charts and other windows be closed.
-----------------------------------------
A bug was corrected that was sometimes causing Investor/RT to needlessly
disconnect and reconnect to the data feed after performing a historical
download if the user had checked the user option to "Automatically
reconnect when no data" in the data feed preferences.
-----------------------------------------
Deleting symbols (instruments) while one or more Setup: Instruments
windows were tracking symbols, would sometimes result in a fatal error
when the window was closed later. This defect has been corrected.
-----------------------------------------
A Print Chart menu item was added to the traditional chart popup menu to
enable floating windows to be printed. The File: Print command in the
Windows version does not recognized floating windows.
-----------------------------------------
Traditional charts with the "Mouse Feedback in Main Toolbar" option now
display the mouse price correctly when the chart scale is logarithmic.
-----------------------------------------
Scheduled action "Execute Chart Button" where the associated button
preset called for (a) Add Symbol to Quotepage, (b) Remove Symbol from
Quotepage, or (c) Set User Data, would cause a fatal error. This bug has
been corrected.
-----------------------------------------
Button purpose "Change the Pixels/Bar" was not functioning properly
unless the pixels per bar was specified as a signed number. Signed
numbers call for incrementing or decrementing the present pixels per bar
spacing in the chart by the specified number of pixels. In 8.9.4
unsigned values can be used to set the pixels per bar to that specific
value.
-----------------------------------------
A memory leak was fixed in RTL. The leak was a by product of using the ?
a : b construct where either of the a or b expressions involved the
invocation of a technical indicator on some other expression, e.g. POS >
2 ? MA(RSI) : RSI. Expressions of this form were correctly calculated
but each calculation was failing to free some of the memory used to
evaluate the invoked indicator (the MA in this example).
-----------------------------------------
Version 8.9 Build 6 fixes a defect introduced recently having to do with
using the MPD (Mixed Periodicity Data) Indicator in conjunction with a
Signal (Signal Marker) Indicator.
-----------------------------------------
Version 8.9 Build 6 fixes a bug introduced in 8.9.4 regarding quotepage
backtesting. Only the first symbol of the quotepage was being backtested
properly.
-----------------------------------------
Version 8.9 Build 6 fixes problems associated with very long titles for
user variables. User variable title strings are limited to 31 characters
and are now properly truncated if they exceed that limit.
-----------------------------------------
Version 8.9 Build 6 fixes RTL setup problems associated with referencing
V# variables that have very long titles. The fix prevents further
problems and repairs RTL setups that may have become corrupted due to
this bug.
-----------------------------------------
Recent improvements made to chart drawing efficiency adversely affected
redrawing of charts in the Mac OS X Version. This was corrected in 8.9
Build 6.
-----------------------------------------
|
|
