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Answers to Common Questions

   

Question

How would I create a "spread" or "pair" in Investor/RT representing the difference in price between two symbols/instruments?
   

Answer

A Tutorial titled "Pairs Trading, Creating Spreads Using Custom Instruments" can be found at:

www.linnsoft.com/tutorials/pairsTrading.htm

Custom Instruments are the most common and complete way of creating spreads or pairs, although it can also be accomplished to some degree with a Custom Indicator with syntax such as:

CL(MSFT) - CL(AAPL)

which would result in an indicator which represented the difference between the prices of MSFT and AAPL.  However, the custom indicator method does not give you the complete bar including open, high, and low, and custom instruments can be used in the same ways that any symbol/instrument is used (can be added to quotepages, can have technical indicators applied to them, etc).

You can also find information on Custom Instruments in the Tour section at:

www.linnsoft.com/tour/customInstruments.htm