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Also See:  Custom Column Tutorial

Overview
Custom Quote Page Columns allow the Investor/RT user to harness the power of the RTL language to display and test calculated values in quote pages. Any scan, trading signal, or custom indicator can be added to a quote page as a custom column. In addition, any of the built-in quote page columns can be used to define a custom column for color coding and formatting the data according to user preferences. Any technical indicator available for use in the RTL language can be made into a custom column by simply creating a custom indicator containing that sole indicator token.

Any number of custom columns may be defined. Once defined and given a name, the custom column can be added to any number of quote pages. Custom columns saved with a quote page will reappear in the same columnar position and width when the quote page is opened, just like built-in columns.

Each column has a user specified column heading (title). The title may be the same as the name of the column but this is not required. Each column can be assigned a specific display format (e.g. 99, 99.999, 32nds, etc.), and, for custom indicators, scans, and signals, a variety of options are provided to control the frequency of calculation of the formula underlying the column's displayed values.

Each column can have a list of "rules" which govern the foreground and background colors used to display the column values. A rule can test for TRUE or FALSE, for example, when a scan or trading signal is used. For custom indicators, rules can test for ranges of numeric values. For each rule, the user can specify colors and optionally, a textual message to be displayed in the quote page cell when the rule is true for that row (instrument) in the quote page.

The rules for a custom column can also specify sounds, charts, and schedules that will be triggered whenever a given rule is determined to be true for a row in the quote page. For example, a custom column may be created to display the state of a scan that tests for RSI breaking from below 70 to above 70. The custom column can be setup with a rule that makes a particular sound and opens a chart named "RSI Chart" whenever the scan detects an RSI break above 70. Further, the rule could prescribe a bright red background and yellow lettering to be used to display the message "RSI ALERT" in the quote page cell when the breaks occurs. If the condition is detected on say IBM, then you would first hear the sound and note the bright red message in IBM's quote page row, then the chart named "RSI Chart" would open, showing the chart of the instrument that caused the alert. The chart would typically be setup to show the same RSI indicator used in the custom column plus any other technical indicators of interest.

Each custom column that invokes a scan, signal, or custom indicator calculation has its own periodicity. The column's periodicity it used to do the calculations, overriding the periodicity of the scan or signal itself, similar to the way Scan/Signal Markers use the periodicity of the chart in which the markers are created. This makes it possible to have say, 1-minute, 5-minute, 30-minute and daily "Stochastics" displayed side by side in a quote page as custom columns. Using similar color coding rules in each column makes a powerful visual indicator when two or more of the columns take on values of interest.

Custom Column User Interface
The Custom Column Setup Window (the setup window) can be opened using Setup: Custom Column, or by using File: New: Custom Column. Once one more custom columns are created and saved, specific custom column setups can be accessed using the Open: Custom Column menu showing the names of all custom columns on file. When a custom column setup is modified and saved by clicking either the OK or Apply button in the setup window, all open quote pages that contain the particular column take on the new definition immediately. Use the Apply button to leave the setup window open so you can observe the visually effect of your changes before dismissing the setup window. If you have a quote page open with one or more custom columns in it, you can access the setup for the custom column by right-clicking (control-click on Macintosh) on any custom column row in the quote page. The setup window has a menu of all custom columns at the top so once open, you can switch to any other custom column you wish to inspect it or make modifications.

The setup window as a four tab interface. The "Type" tab is used to define whether the custom column is an override of a built-in data column or a scan/signal/custom indicator. When a scan, signal, or custom indicator is chosen, it's full formula and any comments are shown in the window. Choose the built-in column/scan/signal/custom indicator from the list button provided or operate the ">>" button to cycle through the items in the list. The "Type" tab includes the periodicity to be used when a scan, signal or custom indicator is selected source of the column's data. Convenience buttons are provided for creating or editing scans, signals, or custom indicators. Note that when editing a scan, signal, or custom indicator, saving the object causes all custom columns that reference that scan/signal/custom indicator to be updated to used the revised definition.

The "Format" tab provides a simple user interface for specifying the column title to be used in the quote page for this custom column, and the display format and default colors to be used. All cells will have the specified default color scheme unless a rule ("Rules" tab) causes the color coding to be changed.

The "Rules" tab is a spreadsheet containing up to nine rules that may be applied to the value of the custom column. The best way to explain the rules spreadsheet is to go step by step through a simple example. Suppose we want to create the rules for a custom column based on a custom indicator with the formula:

100 * (CL - LO)/ (HI - LO)

This is, of course, the current bar raw stochastic (RawK). It takes on values from 0 to 100. In our example we will add rules to color code extreme values (over 70 and under 30), leaving those values between 30 and 70 at the default colors. We will add a special rule with a sound and a chart when the stochastic goes over 98.

Under the rules spreadsheet is a menu of "operators". The operators can be shown in either English or mathematical symbols only according to your preference. Toggle between the two by checking and unchecking the box to the left of the operator menu.

Choose "Is Less than X" and click "Add Rule" to add a rule with that operator. Fill in the value for X in the spreadsheet, in this case 30. Adjust the foreground and background colors for this rule by clicking in the color cells.

Next choose "Is Greater than X" and click "Add Rule" to add a second rule to the sheet. Set X to 70 in this case and set the colors. Clicking the color cell gives you the "native" Windows or Macintosh "color picker". If you prefer to use the Investor/RT standard color picker, ctrl-click (Windows) or option-click (Macintosh). A shortcut: if you wish to change every cell in a color column to the same color, e.g. black as the foreground color, then shift-click on any cell and when your selection is completed, the chosen color will be set accordingly for all rules.

Finally, click "Add Rule" again to add a third ("Is Greater Than") rule specifying X as 98. Choose a distinctive color-coding for this rule and enter the text "NEAR HI" in the text cell for the third rule. To specify a sound for this condition, click in the "Sound" cell for the third row and pick from the presented list of sounds. You can add your own sounds into the sounds directory within the Investor/RT directory if you like.

Other notes on the Rules tab: If you make a mistake or wish to eliminate a rule click on the row to select it and click the "Delete Rule" button. The "Move Rule" button enables the order of the rows to be arranged by moving the selected row "down one" in the list. When a rule is at the bottom of the list of rules, clicking "Move Rule" moves to back up to the top of the list. Note that every rule is tested and the actions associated with the rule are performed for every rule that tests true. With regard to color and text values, the last true rule's color and text message will appear in the quote page cell. This is why rule arrangement is important.

The "Schedule" column in the rules spreadsheet is used just like the "Chart" column. Click on the cell to pick from a list of schedules. When a particular rule is TRUE, the schedule will be run.

Once you have specified a sound, chart, or schedule for a rule, if you wish to eliminate it, simply shift-click on the cell to reset it to "none".

The "Calculation" tab is only applicable when the custom column is associated with a scan, a signal, or a custom indicator. Because these formulas can be demanding on computer processing resources, options are provided for controlling the frequency of calculation of indicators. Investor/RT keeps separate tabs on each instrument in the quote page so it can manage the calculation independently on each row in the quote page. The calculation options should look familiar; they are the same ones used to control the rate of calculation of technical indicators in charts. While "tick by tick" is available, we recommend using every 1, or every 2 seconds instead, especially if the quote page will contain very active instruments like the ES and NQ futures or QQQ.

When the custom column setup is complete, click OK and you will be prompted to provide a name for the custom column. Provide a descriptive name like "Today's RawK", for example.

Adding Custom Columns to a Quote Page
Once one or more custom columns have been defined, you can add them to any existing quote page by right clicking (control click on Macintosh) on the column title row of the quote page. Choose "Add Custom Column" from the popup menu. To remove a custom column from any quote page, simply drag the custom column title heading off the title row and drop it into the body of the quote page. Custom Columns that exist in a quote page are saved with the quote page when you click the Save button on the quote page toolbar or use File: Save to save the quote page. Custom columns can be used with either system defined or user-define quote pages. Because system defined quote pages can easily contain hundreds or thousands of ticker symbols we recommend you get familiar with this powerful new feature of Investor/RT using user-defined quote pages with a limited number of instrument rows. It is wise to create and test your custom columns using small quote pages until they operate as you intend before putting them in more populous quote pages.

Modifying Custom Columns
Once you have one or more custom columns operating in a quote page you may wish to make adjustments to the behavior of the custom column. You can edit any custom column using the Open: Custom Column menu. If the quote page is open, right click in any cell of the custom column to open its setup window. You can adjust things like column title, rule colors, etc. and press the Apply button to save the changes and see them reflected in the open quote page(s) that contain the column. In addition, you can entirely change the setup of the custom column if you wish by choosing a different custom indicator, or you can edit the custom indicator itself (using the Edit Cust Ind button in the "Type" tab). When you edit the custom indicator associated with a custom column you can revise the formula and/or revise the setups for technical indicators used in the custom indicator formula. When you then click Save to save your custom indicator setup, the changes are reflected immediately in all open quote page(s) that contain custom column(s) that reference the revised custom indicator.

Deleting Custom Columns
Custom Columns, just like charts, quote pages, scans, and other Investor/RT "objects" can be deleted (or renamed) using the Delete/Rename feature. When you delete a custom column using this facility, Investor/RT will automatically remove the column for any open quote pages in which it resides.

Technical Indicator Custom Columns
Custom Columns can be created directly for all RTL technical indicators. Prior to this enhancement it was necessary to create a custom indicator that referenced a technical indicator to accomplish this. In the "Type" tab of the Custom Column setup window, check the "Technical Indicator" radio button. Choose an indicator from the list provided. The preferences for the selected indicator will initially be the default settings (as set in Setup: Preferences: Charts: Technical Indicators). Change the preferences for the indicator by clicking the Setup button. If there are any "presets" defined for the chosen indicator you can change the settings to a preset by clicking the "Use Preset" button. A list of presets for the indicator will appear when you click this button.

Candlestick Pattern Custom Columns
You can create a custom column that will report whether certain candlestick patterns are true for the instruments in a quote page. Setup the custom column as a "technical indicator" column. Choose "CPR: Candlestick Pattern Recognition" as the indicator. Click Setup and choose one more patterns to test. Setup an "Is True" rule using the "Rules" tab to display TRUE or your own text message when the indicator is true. For example, if you were looking for Doji's, you could create a custom column to test this one pattern and have the custom column display "DOJI" whenever that pattern occurs for the instrument. Each custom column can have its own periodicity, so you can easily create multiple columns looking for candlestick pattern(s) in various periodicities.

Testing Multiple Custom Column Conditions
Each custom column, whether it references a built-in column, a scan or signal, a custom indicator or a technical indicator has a value for each instrument that changes over time. Scans and trading signals are true/false expressions that have a numeric value of 1.0 (true) or 0.0 (false). If you want to make the calculated value of some custom column available to other scans/signals/custom indicators (and hence to other custom columns) then you can specify a V# user variable for the custom column using the "Calculation" tab of the Custom Column setup window. Suppose, for example you had three custom columns each showing some moving average. You could use, say V#10 for one moving average column, V#11 for another, and V#12 for the third one. The values for V#10, V#11, and V#12 will change dynamically as the custom columns are recalculated. Thus, you can rely on these value to create a custom indicator such as:

(CL > V#10) + (CL > V#11) + (CL > V#12)

Make another custom column to show the value of this custom indicator. The formula will evaluate to 3 if an instrument's last price is above all three moving averages, 2 if above only two moving averages. A zero value indicates the last price is below all three moving averages. Rules for each value 0,1,2, and 3 can then color code the custom column. Notice there is very little processing involved in evaluating this custom column since all of the moving averages are pre-calculated and available via the V# user variables. This is a very powerful mechanism. Any custom column calculation can essentially pass its results using a user variable to any other column, which in turn considers the V# variable in it's own formula. Note that the calculation order of cells for each row in a quote page is left to right, thus the custom columns should be arranged in such a way that any dependent columns be to the right of the column(s) that produce the V# results it needs. Note also that any custom indicator or scan/signal can also include SET statements in their formulas. User variables set in this fashion are similarly available to other calculations going on in other custom columns within any open quote pages.

Deleting Custom Columns and Presets
The Delete/Rename window now supports view/renaming/deleting of both custom columns and technical indicator presets. When a custom column is deleted, it will be removed from all quote pages in which it resides, including all open quote pages. To access the Delete Rename window, click the Delete/Rename button (green trash can) on the main toolbar and click the "Rename" button if prompted. The window is also accessible using the Control Menu under the Data Management submenu.

Quote Pages, Formats, and Custom Columns
You can create quote page formats containing one or more "custom columns". Such formats can be created using Setup: Preferences: Formats. Notice that all custom columns are listed in the list of "Available Items" that can be added to any format. All custom columns are listed prefixed with $CC: followed by the name of the custom column to distinguish them from the built-in data columns.

If you already have a quote page setup with custom columns and you wish to save that page's list of columns as a format, simply right-click on any column title in the quote page and choose "Save Format…". Macintosh users with a one button mouse use control-click. You will be prompted for a name for the format and the Setup: Preferences: Format window will then show the newly saved format.

Right-clicking on any column title in a quote page now offers a change format command in the resulting popup menu. A list of format names appears. You can pick any format name and click Apply or OK to change to the selected format. The Change Format button on the quote page toolbar can also be used for this purpose.

One of the interesting side-benefits of being able to include custom columns in formats is that the resulting format can be used as the output format for any scan's output quote page. For example, if you run a scan that includes RSI criteria, you could specify an output format that includes an RSI custom column that color codes various RSI levels appropriately in the resulting quotepage.