What's New In Version 13.5

About Investor/RT 13.5: introducing a new online license management system more

We are pleased to offer this new self-service license management feature, available 24x7 at linnsoft.com. It will be of special interest to those who routinely use Investor/RT on more than one computer via a single license code. Indeed, a license code can be shared between two computers but can be used on only one machine at a time. Sharing the license code involves deactivating the license using machine A before it can be activated on machine B.

Previously, the support team had to be contacted to confirm such an operation. Today, the Investor/RT licensing system automatically detects whether the license code is already in use on another machine and if so, will direct the user to linnsoft.com to login to his or her account to release the license. It takes only a few seconds to login and complete the full process. See this link for more details.

About Investor/RT 13.6: the database migration tool (to 64 bit) more

Investor/RT 13.6 is the final release (see note below) that utilizes the 32-bit database engine incorporated into the software since inception. On top of the usual all recent fixes and enhancements (highlighted below), it incorporates a new built-in database migration tool. Indeed, the transition to a full 64-bit software will be achieved in two phases:

• First, Investor/RT 14 will be released, still with a 32-bit infrastructure, but with a more modern 64-bit compatible database system.

• Then, with Investor/RT 15, we will complete the transition (to a 64-bit infrastructure) of all other Investor/RT features (including the SDK)

Linn Software will soon initiate beta testing of Version 14. This major new release incorporates a new database engine that eliminates the database file size limitations inherent in RT 13 and earlier. To achieve a smooth migration from RT 13 to RT 14, it is essential that all users update to Version 13.6 to access the database migration tool. Please check this article for more information about this tool and our longer-term Investor/RT development roadmap

Note: Investor/RT version 13.7.1 to 13.7.13 have also been released between August 2020 and October 2021 (for users who wished to remain on the RT 13 database system). RT 13.7.x included the same new features a highlighted in the article What's New in RT 14 

TimeAndSales (RTX) more video

The RTX TimeAndSales extension (TAS) is used to embed time and sales displays into any Investor/RT chart window. TAS introduces a variety of new time and sales capabilities such as flexible filtering, highlighting and alerting options and much more.

FlexMeters (RTX) more video

FlexMeters is a new RTX extension that displays customized meters of market behavior within multi-pane charts. This flexible tool draws meters showing the present value of some price or computed value as compared to a specified range of values seen in the past. FlexMeters can be drawn using a variety of shapes, colors, dials, positions, titles, and labelling options. The underlying data values of a FlexMeter can be price values of the associated instrument, or values computed via an RTL custom indicator; thus there is unlimited flexibility in the kinds of market behavior gauges that can be available at a glance to the trader. The range or scale of the meter may be specified manually or it can be computed from minimum/maximum values of a recent period of trading. Even more flexibility can be achieved by specifying the range using C# or V# user variables that may be set by the user or computed by some RTL indicator elsewhere in the trader's workspace.

LookBackCandles (RTX) more video

LookBackCandles show how the current trading price relates to price action over multiple look-back periods. Look back today, this week, this month, the last few weeks, or even years. Up to 8 lookback periods are shown in one compact display giving the trader both short and long term perspective on price action over various past periods.

PriceBoxProjections (RTX) more video

The PriceBoxProjections RTX extension (PBP) is a drawing tool that enables the Investor/RT user to draw an initial price box; the indicator then projects multiple boxes above and below with matching range and offset horizontally by a user-specified distance expressed in bars, pixels, or % of width..

ExtremePriceHighlighter (RTX) more video

ExtremePriceHighlighter (EPH) dynamically identifies extreme prices with respect to volume-at-price in the visible window, or over any recent period of bars or days. Results are typically displayed on top of a Footprint indicator.

VolumeScope® (RTX) Major Enhancements video

An option was added for highlighting last price in current bar to include Italic, Bold, Underline, and any combination of these three. If the text is set up to display bid x ask volume, the side (bid or ask) that was last traded will be highlighted. A "Volume Brick" option was added as a title option which plots a rectangle in the title with a width and color intensity reflective of the volume relative to other visible bars. A checkbox option was added for "Show Prices with No Volume" to allow prices with zero volume to be displayed as 0 x 0 text. This comes into play more commonly when volume filtering is turned on. An option was added to Hide, Show, or Color the background when volume is above or below a specified level, or the top or bottom X or X% of prices within each bar.

ChartTradingDOM (RTX) updates: Sidebar position & DOM display only

The ChartTradingDOM is an execution DOM developed in RTX. As initially introduced in Investor/RT 13, the DOM appears to the right of the price scale, typically in the same pane as the instrument in the chart. Version 13.5 introduces the option of displaying the DOM in a sidebar pane. There are two key advantages of using the sidebar implementation to display the DOM. First, the sidebar occupies the entire height of the chart window, regardless of the number of instrument and indicator panes present in the chart. Second, for those who prefer to use the execution DOM as a standalone floating window, it is now possible to easily create a chart window and size it so that only the sidebar pane is visible. Upon re-opening the window, only the sidebar (DOM) will be visible. The window can be maximized to display both the chart and the DOM and easily changed back to the showing just the DOM.

Boundaries (RTX) improvement: Instant Updates on Multiple Charts

Boundaries 1.7 introduces instant feedback when the same boundaries .csv file is being shared across multiple charts. When a boundary is added or removed from one chart, that change will be instantly reflected in any open chart that also has a boundary indicator using the same underlying file, and in any indicator within the charts that are associated with those Boundaries. The indicators that may natively build upon Boundaries borders include Profile, Volume Breakdown, Session Statistics, and Price Statistics. Pratically speaking, as any Signal maker or custom indicator can easily be built on a RTL formula using the Boundaries RTX token, Boundaries manual input can spread in all other I/RT indicators...

FlexLevels (RTX) new feature: Export on Schedule

"Export FlexLevels” is a new action that allows the scheduling and automation of FlexLevels exports. The user first specifies the chart from which to export FlexLevels on the desired schedule. The export will then occur without prompts, automatically exporting to a .csv file in the /InvestorRT/rtx/FlexLevels/ folder (within the User folder). The .csv file will be named with the name of the chart. FlexLevels exports can be scheduled to occur at specific intervals (example: every 5 minutes), and transfers to file-sharing servers such as Dropbox can also be automated in order to share with a group automatically.

Multiple Price Highlighter new features video

New Buy & Sell Imbalance options

Two new data items may be used to determine highlighting: Buy Imbalance (Diff) and Sell Imbalance (Diff). The standard Imbalance options use a percentage, so Buy Imbalance > 150 would highlight prices where the buy volume is 150% of the sell volume of the price below it. Buy Imbalance (Diff) takes the actual difference between the buy volume of one price and the sell volume of the price below it. These Diff options have also been added to the four filtering options allowing users to look for a combination of % and Diff Imbalances with a single MPH (Buy Imbalance % > 150 and Buy Imbalance (Diff) > 500)

Displaying naked TPOs with the MPH indicator

The MPH indicator now has options to Highlight Prices with singles, doubles, or triples to clearly mark these occurrences within each session. In traditional TPO Charting terminology, a single is a price that was only touched in 1 bar during the session, while prices above and below it were touched by 2 or more bars. Similarly, a double is a price that was touched by exactly 2 bars during the session, and a triple is a price that was touched by exactly 3 bars during the session. The new MPH highlighting options can be combined with the naked extension options for a very effective method of identifying and extending TPO singles, doubles, and triples in a multi-pane chart.

New option for "Extension Ends"

These options controls specifically where the naked extension will terminate within the bar that terminates it with options including: Left of Bar, 1/2 Into Bar, 1/3 Into Bar, 1/2 Into Bar, Right of Bar, 3 Pixels Into Bar, and 5 Pixels Into Bar. These options give users complete control over whether the extension overlap that termination bar (if at all) and by how much.

New Naked Option

our new naked extension options were added: > Close, < Close, >= Close, and <= Close. These option control the termination of the naked extension. For example, > Close will continue to extend while the price continues to be > Close and will terminate once the price is <= Close. Similarly, < Close will continue to extend while the price is less than Close and will terminate once price is >= Close. The >= and <= options are the same except that they require the price to completely break the close (and will continue to extend while =).

Custom Indicator Data Option Added to Filter

MPH has four different filtering options to exclude highlighting when price or bar data meets a certain condition. A "Custom Indicator" data option has been added to each of these filters to open up filtering to the entire universe of RTL. As a simple example, MPH could highlight buy imbalance, but only on up bars. For up bars, the RTL syntax would be "CL - OP" and the filter would be set up for "Filter Custom Indicator > 0". Only custom indicators that exist in the chart may be used by MPH.

New Filter Options: Price from Extreme and Percent from Extreme

These 2 additional filters will narrow the highlighted price to those with the specified number of prices from the extremes (either high or low of bar), or within that Percent (of bar range) from the extreme. For example, 25 Percent from Extreme would limit the highlighted prices to those that are in the upper or lower quadrant of the bars range.

New output results for the MPH RTL tokens

The Multiple Price Highlighter (MPH) RTL token offers new data result options: Data of 2nd Highest and Data of 2nd Lowest. These are available only when using MPH within an RTL formula. Data of 2nd Highest will extract the data from the 2nd Highest price in the bar that was identified by MPH using the criteria at the top. Data of 2nd Lowest is similar, extracting the data of the 2nd lowest price that was identified by MPH.

Price Statistics Indicator new features

New Buy and Sell Imbalance Columns

The Buy Imbalance column will reflect the difference between the buy volume at that price and the sell volume of the price below it. The Sell Imbalance column will reflect the difference between the sell volume at that price and the buy volume of the price above it.

New filtering options "Hide Price With".

Users can hide prices that meet various levels of Volume, Delta, |Delta|, Buy Volume, Sell Volume, Buy Imbalance, Sell Imbalance, and Ticks (Trades). For example, prices with Volume < 500 can be excluded from being printed in the Price Statistics display.

New Volume/Minute and Volume/Second options.

These simply divide the volume by the number of minutes or seconds spent in the bar.

New Day Session period

Titled "Day Session", this periods limits the data presented to the developing day session (if open) or the last day session that closed and excludes the overnight data.

ZigZag indicator new Features

Custom Indicator value to be used as ZigZag Label

A new labelling option is available in the Zig Zag Indicator When CustInd is checked, Zig Zag will identify the custom indicator present in the chart that has the identical Text Label as the Zig Zag Indicator itself. Note: the Text Labels (seen below the indicator preferences) must match precisely. Zig Zag will label each pivot with the value of that custom indicator at that pivot. This provides a great deal of flexibility to the already extensive list of Zig Zag pivot labelling choices.

New Hide when Label Filter Options

A new option has been added for Zig Zag labels to hide the label when the value (of the label) is above or below a user-specified level. For example, the label text showing Total Volume can be omitted when total volume of that leg is > 1000.

Custom Text in Labels

Users can now append any text they wish to the Zig Zag labels by checking "Text Label: Custom" at the bottom and then providing the text they would like appended. In order to put some separation between the label value and the additional text, we recommend including a space before adding custom text.

ZigZag Oscillator new Features

Painting Up and Down Volume

The Zig Zag Oscillator has a result option titled "Volume Since Last Pivot" that plots the developing volume of each leg. In prior releases, these values were all colored the same color. Beginning in 13.5, the volume of the up legs will now be painted in the up (histogram) color and the volume of down legs will be painted in the down color.

Flex Statistics: Data Per Second/Minute

The Flex Statistics result was enhanced with two new statistical options of Per Minute and Per Second that will divide the resulting data by the minutes or seconds respectively spent in the developing Zig Zag leg.

Bar Statistics: New option for the accumulation between signals feature

The Bar Statistics Indicator has an option to Accumulate Data between Signals and only show the accumulated data on the signal bars. A new checkbox option titled "Show On Each Bar" enables the developing Bar Statistics data to be shown on each bar between the signals, accumulating the data with each bar that does not signal. Accumulation resets on the first bar following a signal and continues through the next signal bar with the completed accumulation showing on the signal bar.

Mixed Periodicity Data: Dynamic Periodicity

The magnitude of the periodicity of MPD may now be specified using either C# or V# variables. When Mix Periodicity is turned on, another checkbox title Periodicity Magnitude is available which allows the user to specify any C# or V# number. The periodicity will then be pulled from that variable and can be dynamically controlled using a Button Indicator which adjusts the underlying variable. If the periodicity is "30 Minutes", then number of minutes will be pulled from the variable. If the periodicity is VolumeBar then the magnitude of volume per bar will be pulled from the variable (same for tickbar, rangebar, renko, etc).

Custom Indicator to User Array

When a custom indicator is added to a chart, the results of that custom indicator can now be stored into a User Array which may then be used in backtesting and other areas of the product. As a specific example, if a user wants to use the developing VPOC of Profiles that are built from custom Boundaries, previously there has been no way to access this data in backtesting. A user may now simply check the "Store to User Array Upon OK" checkbox and supply a name for the User Array such as VPOC and when the user hits OK, all data on the user array is deleted and replaced with the custom indicator data in the chart. If the symbol is @ES# and the user array name is VPOC, the resulting symbol generated will be @ES#_VPOC and will be accessible in RTL using either the ARRAY token or better yet using the MPD token and specifying "Mix Ticker: @ES#_VPOC".

Profile Indicator: new Price Labels options and "Store into V#" feature

New Delta (Shaded) and Delta Price options added to the "Label Each Price" list

When either of these options is selected, use the Hi-Lo color control to communicate your preferred colors for positive (Hi) and negative (Lo) delta. The Delta (Shaded) option simply presents the delta of each price and colors based on whether the value is positive or negative. Delta Price option presents the same information along with the price printed to the right (using the scale text color of the chart). In order to allow this text at each price to print at larger fonts, you may increase the configuration variable MaxProfFontSize from it's default value of 9

Storing Value Areas & POC Values

The Profile Indicator may now be setup to set a variety of combinations of VAH, VAL, POC, VAH2 and VAL2 values into a series of 1 to 5 V# or C# user variables.

Reference Line Alerts Consider Bands

The Reference Line Indicator now considers the bands when evaluating alerts. The only band that is considered is the topmost band in the Band Setup window (if checked). As an example, if a reference line is set at 500 and a band was set to Both (above and below) with Price of 5, and the alert was set up to trigger from above or below, an alert would trigger when price dropped below the upper band (from above) at 505 or when it moved above the lower band (from below) at 495.

Fractals Indicator: new naked lines features

The Fractals Indicator now features an option for extended naked High/Lows. A checkbox titled Extend Only If Within Range of X Ticks, when checked, limits the naked extensions to those in close proximity of current price. This can clean up the chart significantly while still showing the relevant extensions that are close to current price action.

Introducing Sidebar Panes

Version 13.5 introduces Sidebar Panes, a significant improvement to Investor/RT’s charting architecture that will be implemented in many of LinnSoft’s RTX extensions moving forward. The ChartTradingDOM is the most recent RTX that has been enhanced to use a sidebar pane.

New Bar Style (HLC bars)

A new instrument drawing style titled "HLC Bars" has been added. This option is very similar to the Bars drawing style except that it suppresses the open and simply reflects the high, low, and close for a very clean resulting display.

Instrument Filter: Bid Traded and Ask Traded Only Options

The Volume at Price data can now be filtered to show only Bid Traded or Ask Traded activity. Similar to filtering by size of trade, users can now limit the volume at price data to only work on Bid Trades or only on Ask Trades. These options allow for new and interesting analysis that can be achieved by adding two instruments to one chart; one reflecting only Bid Trades and one reflecting only Ask Trades and applying various key volume at price indicators to each (Price Statistics, Bar Statistics, etc.).

New chart periodicity parameter: Day Session Fresh Start

A new configuration variable titled DaySessionFreshStart will force a new bar to form when the day session begins. This applies to the following periodicities: Tick bar, Range bar, Renko bar, and Volume bar. If the chart is set to the full session, and the periodicity is 1000 Volume Bar, then the first tick of the day session will initiate a new bar (and terminate the last bar of the overnight session with a volume likely below 1000). This feature is very useful when using time-dependent features of indicators like Session Statistics that might be computing "highest high of all bars of day session" and other indicators and periodicities that require the first bar of the day session to be a fresh start and thus do not include data from the finish of the overnight session.

Button Indicator: Multi-Link Session Change

The Button indicator has been enhanced to allow the sessions of multiple charts to be changed at the same time via a single button. If a button is added to one chart with the purpose "Change the Session" and a + is appended to the session number, then when that button is pressed, all multi-linked charts (with same chart multi-link color) will change to that session. Additionally, users can enter D or F instead of a session number to represent Day or Full session of the symbol, and + may be appended to D and F as well to signal multi-linking (D+ of F+).

Chart Button purposes : Indicator new "Change Periodicity" options

The Button Indicator "Change Periodicity" purpose now honors 1d*, 1w*, and 1m* to reflect Time Per Bar: 1 Day, 1 Week, and 1 Month periodicities respectively.

New Layered periodicities: Inside Body Merge, Inside Bar Merge & Momentum Merge

Three powerful new layered periodicities are available: Inside Body Merge, Inside Bar Merge & Momentum Merge. Like any other layered periodicities, these 3 new options can be applied on top of any other (non layered) periodicity, ie any standard time based periodicity or non time based (renko, range bars, tick bars, P&F, etc)

The Inside Bar Merge Periodicity will merge any bar into the previous bar if the bar is inside the range of previous bar. In other words, as long as the bar does not break outside of the range of the previous bar, it will simply get consumed and merged into the previous bar (including volume at price data).

The Inside Body Merge periodicity works similarly, but merges when the body is inside the body of the previous bar. Inside Body Merge work especially well when applied to periodicities such as 2x2 Renko where several consecutive bars often have matching bodies due to congestion. Inside Body Merge will merge that congestion into a single bar.

The Momentum Merge will keep merging any consecutive having the same direction (as defined by the sign of the CL vs previous Close difference)

New Chart Button features (Custom titles & Colors, execute function purpose)

A button with this purpose can perform any function available in the File > Functions window. Setup the button with the name of the function, optionally followed by a colon and a parameter required by some functions.

New "Execute Function" purpose

Chart Buttons that offer a menu of choices may now have custom titles and colors. The user-specified title appears with a down arrow at the right to denote that the button will bring up a menu instead of performing an immediate action (i.e. a push button). For example, right-click in any chart and choose Add Button.... A menu button will then appear in the chart setup with a custom title for selecting an instrument for the chart.

Chart Menu Buttons Custom Titles

Chart Buttons that offer a menu of choices may now have custom titles and colors. The user-specified title appears with a down arrow at the right to denote that the button will bring up a menu instead of performing an immediate action (i.e. a push button). For example, right-click in any chart and choose Add Button.... A menu button will then appear in the chart setup with a custom title for selecting an instrument for the chart.

Chart Buttons Custom Colors

Chart push buttons have always enabled customization of the background color of the button. The button setup now permits the specification of a text color. This is useful when creating a button with a custom dark background. Use the text color setting to choose a lighter color that contrasts well with the background color. Further, chart push buttons with purpose Add/Remove Indicator or Show/Hide Indicator now offer two background colors; one is used when the subject indicator is active in the chart; the alternate background color is used when the subject indicator is not present or is hidden in the chart. This enables you to see at a glance whether pushing the button will add or remove, or show or hide the subject indicator.

New trade execution reporting features (access through the DOM or a function)

There are 2 ways to access these new reports

ChartTradingDOM Account Menu > Trading Results

The function Trading Position History is integrated with the ChartTradingDOM. Click on the Account menu at the bottom of the trading DOM and choose the desired reporting period from the Trading Results menu.

File > Functions > Trading Position History

This function creates a worksheet showing trading history for a user-specified period of trading. Periods include Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month, This Year, All Years. The position history worksheet is a .CSV file than Investor/RT opens in Excel or the application you have setup to view .CSV text files. A variety of output formatting options are available for advanced uses. If interested, see the Configuration variable PositionHistoryCSVFormat.

User Interface Improvements (Chart Element Manager, Indicator positioning within a pane & more)

Chart Element Manager

When using the Chart Element Manager (CEM) to review the content of a chart, you may now add one or more indicators to the chart by pressing the plus button at the top of the window. The CEM remains open after adding indicators in this fashion. Earlier versions required the CEM to be closed in order to add an indicator.

Adding RTX Indicators

The Add Indicator dialog opens showing a panel at right for choosing an indicator. When the intent is to add an RTX Extension to the chart, instead of scrolling down through the full list of indicators, check the box Choose an RTX Extension at the top of the panel. When checked, the Add Indicator display lists only RTX choices. In addition, there is a search feature in the panel. Point the mouse over the Enter search text entry box and begin typing to limit the displayed indicators to those with names containing the text you enter.

Indicator Drawing Positioning

When right-clicking on an indicator in a chart, two menu options have been added to the ensuing popup menu: Bring to Front of Instrument and Send Behind Instrument. These options complement the existing ones (Bring to Front and Send to Back). Bring to Front moves the indicator in front of all other elements in the chart. Send to Back sends the indicator behind all other elements in the chart. Bring to Front of Instrument moves the indicator just in front of the underlying Instrument (bars) while possibly leaving it behind the other indicators / elements that are in front of the instrument. Send Behind Instrument will position the indicator for drawing immediately behind Instrument (bars) while leaving it in front of any other elements that were already behind the Instrument. The four positioning choices expedite chart setup, positioning indicators where you wish in the element drawing order. You can review the drawing order of elements in any chart pane by double-clicking inside the chart to open the Chart Element Manager. Element drawing order can be adjusted for any indicator using the element manager; the new menu choices facilitate such adjustments directly from the indicator's popup menu.