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What's New in Version 9.0
Several new features and miscellaneous enhancements, available now in
our latest release,
are outlined below. Click here to download.
New in 9.0
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Charting Improvements
A major improvement was made to the chart drawing functions of
Investor/RT for Windows. Chart updates are now rendered "off screen" and
sent to the monitor for display only after all drawing operations are
completed. The visual effect is the elimination of all screen flicker.
The enhanced drawing methods are now used in all traditional charts,
Market Profile, and Footprint charts. Flicker-free off screen drawing
techniques have long been used in the Macintosh OS X Versions of
Investor/RT because they are provided implicitly to all applications by
OS X.
Another significant improvement in 9.0 is the drawing of instrument and
indicator price labels inside the vertical scale area rather than in the
body of the chart. The background of the box is painted with the color
of the indicator. In the case of a histogram, the up histogram color is
used. The text color will match the background color of the chart. To
turn "Label Current Value" on for any given indicator, bring up the
preferences of that indicator by double-clicking on the indicator in the
chart, and check the "Label Current Value" check box at the bottom. A
display format option is also provided for customized formatting of the
current value.
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PFG (Best Direct) Data Source
Investor/RT 9.0 initiates Beta Testing of PFG Best Direct data
feed support ( http://www.pfgbest.com
).
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Improved Check for Updates
feature
Investor/RT releases are now identified by major.minor release number
followed by a build number between 1 to 99. Beta and Candidate releases
will include a "b" or "c" designation in the release number. Some
examples follow:
9.0b1 - Beta Release 9.0 Build 1
9.0b17 - Beta Release 9.0 Build 17
9.0c3 - Final 9.0 Release Candidate Build 3
9.0.1 - Final Release 9.0 Build 1
9.0.15 - Final Release 9.0 Build 15
The Check for Updates feature has been improved to notify users of beta
and candidate releases when new beta or candidate versions are released
for testing. When the beta testing cycle ends and candidate final
releases are issued, beta testers will be notified to upgrade to the
latest final release candidate. See Setup: Preferences: Mail & Internet.
This preferences window can be used to disable the Check for Updates
function entirely, or to enable it only for final release notifications,
or to enable it for beta, candidate, and final release notices. The word
"Beta" or "Candidate" will appear in the Investor/RT startup splash
screen and at the right of the message area of the main toolbar in beta
and candidate versions of the software. Beta and candidate builds of the
software automatically expire in 30 days; a warning notice is issued at
startup when the beta or candidate release is nearing expiration.
The check for updates function has been improved to enable minor
optional fixes to be released. For example, 9.0.1 may be the current 9.0
release level when a build 2 (9.0.2) is released to fix a minor problem
that affects only a few users of the software. The check for updates
function will see 9.0.2 as current 9.0 release but will not notify users
of 9.0.1 because 9.0.2 is designated an "optional fix" release. A user
running 8.9 however, will be notified and guided to download 9.0.2, the
latest build of 9.0.
When optional fixes are issued, a notice will be published on the
discussion list with a description of the problem and links for
downloading the latest build if desired. The new release will also be
noted on the www.linnsoft.com home
page, but the Check for Updates command will not prompt you to upgrade
for optional fixes. When a new build is issued with new feature or to
fix a more serious bug or a bug that potentially affects a larger number
of users, the new build will be designated as a recommended update. All
users who check for updates will be notified to upgrade.
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Exporting Indicator
Default Preferences
Menu item File:Export:Technical Indicator Defaults
will create a definition export text file containing the preset default
settings for every technical indicator in Investor/RT. This file can be
imported into another Investor/RT system using
File:Import:Definition from File. The feature will be useful to
those moving Investor/RT from one computer to another, or to synchronize
all defaults between two Investor/RT systems.
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Fundamental Tokens Added
Seventeen additional fundamental data columns and associated RTL
tokens were added. Each of these fundamental data items are available
for download from Yahoo! Finance using the Fundamental Data download
type.
ENTVAL Enterprise Value
TRPE Trailing P/E
FWPE Forward P/E
PEG PEG Ratio
EVREV Enterprise Value/Revenue
PMAR Profit Margin
REVNU Revenue
QREVG Qtrly Revenue Growth
GROSS Gross Profit
EBITDA EBITDA
NIAC Net Income Avl to Common
DILEPS Diluted EPS
QEGROW Qtrly Earnings Growth
CASH Total Cash
TDEBT Total Debt
OCASHF Operating Cash Flow
FCASHF Levered Free Cash Flow
To learn more about Yahoo! Fundamentals, visit
www.linnsoft.com/yahoo
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New RTL Date/Time Related
Functions
Three new RTL functions were added for dealing with date/time
within RTL formulas. Each function takes a single parameter. MPM(x)
yields the Minutes Past Midnight of x where x is TIME or some time
constant, e.g. MPM(TIME) is the minutes past midnight of the current
instrument's last trade. MPM(0930) is the minutes past midnight of 9:30
a.m., i.e. 9 * 60 + 30.
SPM(x) yields the seconds past midnight of x where x is a TIME or time
constant. Internally, TIME is represented as hhmm.ss where ss represents
ss/100 of a minute. SPM(TIME) is equivalent to writing hh * 3600 + mm *
60 + (ss * 100)/60.
ALIGN(x) yields the date number of the date X when aligned back to a
valid trading day. Typically x will be the DATE token or perhaps a V#
containing a date number or a date constant. Note that date numbers are
whole numbers of the form yyymmdd, where yyy is the number of years
since 1900, mm is the month and dd the day. For example 1071230 is the
day number of Dec 30, 2007. ALIGN(1071230) is 1071228 since 12/30/2007
was a Sunday.
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New RTL Function BTST
BTST stands for "Bit Test". The BTST(expression, n) function
returns TRUE or FALSE based on whether the nth bit of the integral value
of the expression is on or off. BTST can be used to test bits 0 through
23 of any value. This function has been added primarily for use by
programmers using the Investor/RT SDK to develop PLUGIN indicators. The
new function can also be useful for testing value of MON or FLAG. MON
and FLAG tokens are interchangable. The FLAG token is a value
representing various bit settings for the instrument. For example
BTST(FLAG, 0) will be true for any instrument that is marked for
intra-day monitoring (the intra-day monitoring bit is bit 0 of FLAG).
Similarly BTST(FLAG, 1), BTST(FLAG, 2), BTST(FLAG, 3) can be used to
test bits 1, 2, or 3 of FLAG which happen to represent the daily,
weekly, monthly monitoring settings for each instrument respectively.
Since many of the bit flags in FLAG are used to record the state of
various historical data monitoring options, the MON token was added as a
synonym for FLAG. Developers of SDK Plugins can calculate a value for
each bar representing up to 24 distinct conditions for the bar. Each bar
could be tested for a specific condition using BTST(PLUGIN, n) for
various values of n. Here are some conditions that can be easily tested
using BTST on the FLAG value.
BTST(FLAG,0) TRUE when the instrument is marked for intra-day
monitoring.
BTST(FLAG,1) TRUE when the instrument is marked for daily historical
data retention.
BTST(FLAG,2) TRUE when the instrument is marked for weekly historical
data retention.
BTST(FLAG,3) TRUE when the instrument is marked for monthly historical
data retention.
BTST(FLAG,4) TRUE when the instrument has an alarm set for price greater
or equal to some value (a high alarm).
BTST(FLAG,5) TRUE when the instrument has an alarm set for price less
than or equal to some value (a low alarm).
BTST(FLAG,6) TRUE when the instrument has an alarm set for volume
greater or equal to some value (a volume alarm).
BTST(FLAG,7) TRUE when the instrument has triggered a high alarm.
BTST(FLAG,8) TRUE when the instrument has triggered a low alarm.
BTST(FLAG,9) TRUE when the instrument has triggered a volume alarm.
BTST(FLAG,11) TRUE when the instrument has triggered a news alarm (news
today).
BTST(FLAG,12) TRUE when the instrument has traded (or been quoted) since
the session opened.
BTST(FLAG,17) TRUE when the data feed is active and the instrument is
being watched real-time. All intra-day instruments are watched.
BTST(FLAG,18) TRUE when the instrument has a high alarm set on the bid.
BTST(FLAG,19) TRUE when the instrument has a low alarm set on the bid.
BTST(FLAG,20) TRUE when the instrument has a high alarm set on the ask.
BTST(FLAG,21) TRUE when the instrument has a low alarm set on the ask.
BTST(FLAG,23) TRUE when the instrument has news items on file, not
necessarily for today.
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Configuration Startup File
At startup Investor/RT 9.0 looks in the admin folder for a file
named configure.txt. If present, the file is examined line by line for
special tokens that represent experimental and/or obscure configuration
settings that control the operation of the software in some way. For
more information on this feature click here.
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Andrew's Pitchfork -
Schiff Options Added
The Andrew's Pitchfork has been enhanced with options to draw the
Schiff and Modified Schiff Pitchforks, as well as an option to "Hide
Andrew's" when showing the new pitchforks. Schiff and Modified Schiff
Pitchforks are very similar to Andrew's Pitchforks in every way except
the placement of the handle.
For more information on these new features, visit
http://www.linnsoft.com/tour/techind/pitchfork.htm
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Miscellaneous 9.0
Fixes and Improvements
-----------------------------------------
Setup: Preferences: Charts: General no longer permits default technical
indicator recalculation frequency to be expressed in ticks. Any specific
instance of an indicator in a chart can have its recalculation frequency
specified as "Every N Ticks". However, using Every N Ticks as the
default for every indicator that calls for "default setting" is no
longer available due to performance considerations. Upon upgrade to 9.0
if the default setting is Every N Ticks, it will be revised to "Every 2
Seconds".
-----------------------------------------
The RTL token TINC and the associated quotepage column "Tick Increment"
show the smallest allowable increment of price movement for an
instrument. The RTL token was formerly named TICKUNITS and only
pertained to futures contracts. TINC is based on the display format of
the instrument, for example equities displayed in 99.99 format have a
TINC of .01; a futures contract having display format 4ths has a TINC of
.25.
-----------------------------------------
Backtesting reports are produced using a mono-spaced font. A revision
was made in version 9.0 to use the font size specified in Setup:
Preferences: General (at the very bottom of the window). Prior to this
change, 9 point was used unconditionally. This improvement gives the
user control over the size of the text in backtesting reports and other
text displays in Investor/RT that call for mono-spacing, e.g. the
Message Log, Alarm Log, etc.
-----------------------------------------
The Investor/RT SDK was enhanced to provide callback functions for
calculating the CCI, Linear Regression Slope, and Parabolic SAR
technical indicators from within a Plug-in indicator. A bug was
corrected in the "set user variable" callback function. SDK users who
are interested in these capabilities will need an updated SDK
distribution. Email support@linnsoft.com to request it.
-----------------------------------------
Yahoo! Finance Fundamental downloader was enhanced to download the new
fundamental items mentioned in item #5 above. In additional, Investor/RT
date items "Yield" (RTL token YLD) is now updated with Yahoo! item
"Forward Annual Dividend Yield", "Div xDate" is updated with Yahoo! item
"Ex-Dividend Date", and "Payout Ratio" (RTL token PAY) is updated from
the Yahoo! item having the same name, the "Div yield avg 60 mos" column
(RTL token DIVAY) is updated with Yahoo! item "5 Year Average Dividend
Yield".
-----------------------------------------
A bug was fixed in the IQFEED Version. The "Div xDate" data column is
correctly updated in now for equity instruments.
-----------------------------------------
Adding parallel trendlines to an existing trendline having scope "This
Chart, This Instrument" was not retaining the parallel lines when the
chart was closed and reopened later. Trendlines with this scope are
"preset" indicators and exist apart from the chart; they are added only
when the specific instrument is present in the chart. Investor/RT now
updates the preset automatically when parallel trendlines are added to
it.
-----------------------------------------
Investor/RT installers now verify that Investor/RT is not running before
beginning the installation process. If Investor/RT is found to be
active, the user is prompted to quit Investor/RT and click OK to
continue.
-----------------------------------------
The built-in email sending feature of Investor/RT has been upgraded on
the Windows platform to a more robust email client. Support for email
authentication by username and password is much improved enabling more
clients to use this convenient feature. Also, emails are send in a
background thread so they do not in any way interfere with realtime data
reception. Setup: Preferences: Mail... allows specification of the
outgoing SMTP port number for sending email. Normally, port 25 is used.
Some SMPT servers that require authentication use port 587 and
Investor/RT now supports these if you specify that port number in the
preferences.
-----------------------------------------
Traditional chart preferences Color tab has been improved to reinforce
the association between candlestick up/down color settings and the
"Hollow Up Candles" options. A checkbox titled "Hollow" appears to the
left of the color control for Candle Colors now. When Hollow is checked
the color control shows the up color as the chart background since this
color will be used to draw up candles hollow. The actual up color will
appear in the control when Hollow is unchecked. If you revise the up
color using the Candle Color control this action causes Hollow Up Candle
setting to be switched off automatically. Revising the candle down color
does not affect the Hollow setting.
-----------------------------------------
Signal marker price labels are now displayed using the display format of
the instrument. If the price label is the value of a custom indicator in
the chart, then display format used is that off the custom indicator. If
the custom indicator setup calls for "default" format, the display
format of the indicator's instrument is used to display the price label.
-----------------------------------------
A bug was fixed to enable Andrews Pitchfork indicators to be adjusted
once they are present in the chart. When the pitchfork drawing tool is
activated on the chart toolbar, Investor/RT now provides a text prompt
with instructions for drawing a new pitchfork (three clicks on specific
bars are required to form the pitchfork, the first click anchors the
handle of the pitchfork, the second and third clicks define the edges of
the outer tines of the pitchfork. Once in place, the user can now drag
any of the anchor points to a different bar by clicking on the anchor
point and drag/drop.
-----------------------------------------
Switching periodicity between a range bar back to any minute interval
periodicity was leaving the traditional chart scrolled back to an
earlier time instead of "to present". This bug has been corrected.
-----------------------------------------
The Setup Future Type window has been corrected to support future types
whose type codes exceed 4 characters, e.g. CAC40 type futures.
-----------------------------------------
New display format 200ths was added to support futures contracts that
trade in .005 tick increments (e.g. the mini natural gas QG futures on
NYMEX).
-----------------------------------------
The limit on the number of custom indicators has been increased from
1000 to 2000.
-----------------------------------------
The "Ticker Symbol Help" menu item in the Help Menu is now properly
linked with the web site. When Mail & Internet preferences call for "web
help pages" or if the shift key is held down while selecting this menu
item, your web browser opens to the Ticker Symbol Guide page. This page
lists common futures, index symbols for supported data feeds and has
links to vendor specific web pages helpful for identifying the proper
ticker symbol to use in Investor/RT.
-----------------------------------------
The Help Menu has a "Video Tutorials" menu item that takes you to the
Investor/RT Video Library page in your web browser. This page shows a
directory of currently available instructional videos organized by
topic.
-----------------------------------------
Chart buttons with purpose "Remove Indicators" are used to eliminate all
indicators of one or more types from the pane in which the button
resides, e.g. one click and all trendlines are removed. Buttons of this
kind can now be placed inside a button-only pane typically at the top of
the chart. When a button of this kind resides in a button-only pane, the
removal target pane will be the pane containing the instrument with
which the button is associated.
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