Tutorial - Updating Charts

If you're in a situation where your data feed is active and your charts are static (frozen), try stepping through this checklist until your charts update properly.

  • Make sure your computer clock is setup with correct time AND time zone.
  • In Investor/RT, go to Setup Prefs → Sessions. Make sure you have the proper "Time Zone" selected, and check the "0. US Stocks" session times to ensure that they are correct (or any other sessions which you are already using).
  • For the symbol(s) you are having problems with, right-click on the ticker symbol in a quotepage and choose "Setup" to bring up the Setup Instruments window on that symbol. Make sure the instrument is setup with the proper security "Type". (Stocks, Future, Index, Forex, etc). Also, make sure "Intraday" is checked if you monitoring the instrument on an intraday basis (minute charts, etc). The option in the upper right hand corner of this window refers to the "exchange" and should almost always be set to "AUTO". After making any adjustments to this window, click the "Modify" button in the lower right corner.
  • From the menu, choose Control → Database Utilities → Verify Historical Data. After doing this, again check your charts to see if they begin updating.
  • Make sure the database itself is not damage. From the menu, choose Control → Database Utilities → Verify Database. Investor/RT cannot run effectively when the database is corrupted. When unexplainable things happen it is very often because of a corrupted database. If your database is corrupted, a quick way to get going again to use the Restore Database command (in the Control Menu under Database Utilities) to go back to your last backup. If you don't want to lose changes you have made since last Thursday, then you can do the following
    1. Quit Investor/RT
    2. Use the Start Menu to run Database Maintenance Start → Programs → Investor/RT → Database Maintenance.
    3. Open a support ticket and attach the file "dbmaint.txt" that is produced by this utility. A member of our support staff will respond with further instructions. Note that you will need to be logged-in to the website in order to attach files to tickets.
  • On your chart toolbar, click the View/Edit viewedit button, then choose "ticks" when prompted. A Time and Sales window should appear. Do you see any new ticks flowing into this window?
  • Open the ".Watched" quotepage. How many symbols are in this quotepage? Make sure this number is below the symbol limit enforced by your data service. If you are watching too many symbols, you will need to reduce this number by deleting some symbols, managing your open QuotePages, and/or reducing the number of symbols that are marked for Intraday monitoring. A symbol is watched if it is marked for Intraday, or if it is open in a quotepage or chart.
  • Open the chart preferences (double-click in the horizontal scale area at bottom of chart to do so) and then click on the "view period" tab. Make sure the view period is setup with the last radio button checked, titled "Last X days/bars". This is required in order for the chart to be dynamic.
  • Make sure the chart is scrolled all the way to the right. Hit the right arrow on your keyboard a few times if you're not sure.
  • It could be that the chart is trying to allocate an excessive number of prices, exceeding an internal limit in Investor/RT. This is more common in MP charts. If you think that might be the case, try this. Choose File → Open → Configuration File and enter this line on a line by itself: MaxAllocPerPriceRange=500 Then choose "File: Save: Save", close the configuration file, and then close and reopen the chart.
  • If none of the suggestions above seem to resolve your problem, then export the chart definition File → Export → Chart Definition and attach this file to new support ticket. Note that you will need to be logged-in to the website in order to attach files to tickets.