03/24/04

I may not be able to respond to your emails right away between now and April 7, as I will be in U.K. during this time. I will respond to emails when I am able to, and will respond to all emails when I return.

03/15/04

There are many new features and bug fixes in this release, so make sure you read everything carefully. Please email me your comments or if you need help with some of the features.

Changes to version 1.22b

• New feature. AutoTrader Playback can now pre-load data. This feature is available for Ensign, CME Globex Time and Sales and ESignal Tick Data. AutoTrader data will preload from the beginning of the file to the Start Time. For Random Number source, you can specify the number of minutes to pre-load. Non-registered users can preload 30 minutes of data, registered users can pre-load as many days of previous data as they want.
• ESignal Tick Data is a new data source supported by this verison of AutoTrader. If you use ESignal or have access to ESignal Tick Data file that ESignal use for playback, then you can playback the file in AutoTrader. I included a few sample files in the download section.
• Playback data is now timestamped according to the data source. Iif you are playing back data from AutoTrader, Ensign, CME or ESignal, the displayed time in SierraChart will be the same as the timestamp of the data source.
• Added support for EUR data playback using CME Globex Time and Sales data source. You can now play ES, NQ, ER2 and EUR using free CME data.
• User interface for Playback Setup has been simplified. You do not need to specify the length of time or tick size to setup playback. AutoTrader will playback your data source to the end of the file. For Random Number source, playback is limited to 390 minutes or one trading day, but you can pre-load as many minutes back as you want. For non-registered users, playback is limited to 30 minutes.
• Make sure SierraChart program is started before you start Playback in AutoTrader, otherwise you will get an error in SierraChart that looks like this
  
  File error: C:\SierraChart\data\ATPB.mnd. Chart data file not found or read error. 20:30:50 03/14/04
  
  If you get this error, just stop the playback and restart it again. You do not need to quit AutoTrader and deleted the bad mnd file anymore. If you are able to open the file but do not see the chart plotting, you need to click on the chart window and press the "Insert" key to refresh the chart window.
• Just a reminder, that Ensign and CME data time are based on U.S. Central Time Zone. ESignal Tick Data is exported based on your local time. The sample files I posted are based on U.S. Pacific Time Zone, so market open for those sample files is 06:30. Random Number source is generated based on your local time.
• AutoTrader can now post your trades directly into Hotcomm chat room or to notepad. If you use Woodie's CCI Club hotcomm chatroom, you can post your trades, live or simulated, directly into the chat room. Woodie's Guideline number 8 states " We all encourage you to post your trades in and out and if possible why. NO ego's, NO total $ or points. " This feature makes it easier for people to participate in the chat room. All you need to do is turn on the option from the new Options menu, and then do your trading as usual. All your trades will be posted automatically. When you select hotcomm from the menu, you will be prompted if you want to Auto Post. Answer no if you want to review the trade log in hotcomm before you manually press enter to post the trade log to the chat room. If you answered yes, then the trade log is posted to the chatroom directly. If you do not subscribe to Woodie's CCI Club, you can get more info at http://www.woodiescciclub.com. Or you can post your trades to notepad. Just leave a notepad window open and your trades will be posted there. The format of the trade log is ES-Long Qty=2 Price=1000.00 (paper). The trade log posted to notepad will include a time stamp.
• Users with ESignal can use ESignal as data source for AutoTrader. Select Quote Source from Options menu in AutoTrader main window. Make sure eSignal data manager (Winros) is running before you select eSignal as a quote source. Do not select ESignal source if you do not have ESignal subscription. This is available only to registered users.
• Fixed bug in Staged Orders. Holding down CTRL-ALT will allow you to place a buy and sell order 50 ticks above and below the last price. It will stage stage the order on the exchange. When you are ready to place the order, click on any of the four One Click buttons to activate the order.
• Fix Stop Limit order bug in Simulation mode. Simulation mode now fully supports Stop Limit orders. Previously, Stop Limit orders were being treated as Stop Market orders.
• Added a new support option. Registered users can now contact me using Yahoo Messenger. Non-registered users support is still by email. If you do not use Yahoo Messenger, visit http://messenger.yahoo.com and register and then contact me via Instant Messenger (IM) for any questions, comments or bug reports. Registered users can send me an email if they wish to get support via Yahoo Messenger.

If you like the improvements I have made to AutoTrader or like to see more, please consider registering your use of AutoTrader. Your support is what makes continuous improvement to this program possible.

03/04/04

Changes to version 1.22a

• Added Financial Advisor Account support. You can now use AutoTrader to trade your FA account. This current version will allow you to select an account to trade. If there is demand for share allocation among FA accounts, I will add that feature. You can try this with the FA Demo System, and for registered users, you can use this on your live FA account.
• Fixed a bug in Stop Offset or Target Offset being set to the wrong value. If you were changing the value of stop or target while a position is open, and the position is suddenly closed either by target hitting or being stopped out, the value of the target or stop offset can be set to the wrong value. This problem is now fixed.
• Pause is now a toggle button. If you click pause while the data is playing back, the playback is paused, if you click the pause button again, the playback will resume at the same speed and direction before the playback was paused.
• Playback will prompt you to select which symbol to use. The choices are ATPB, DEMO, PLAYBACK, Futures, IBM or MSFT. Note that SierraChart trial users can only use IBM or MSFT.
• Added volume data to the playback to SierraChart. Currently the volume data is the tick count and not the actual volume traded. I will change this to reflect the actual volume if data is available in a future version.
• Mac and Linux users need to use version 1.22a, as version 1.22 has some incompatibilities on non-wndows platforms.
• Registered users can use any version of AutoTrader until their registration expires. Non registered users can only use the latest major version, currently 1.22, 1.22a, etc.

This news is old news, but thought I put it out here for the record.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/16/space.mars.java.reut/
Java is the language used in mission critical applications in the enterprise, finance and in science. You should not treat your trading software anything less. I cannot Imagine the Mars rovers run by anything else.