09/29/03

Due to numerous inquiries and requests for a sample of what's new in version 1.18, I am releasing a BETA version of 1.18. Please email me any feedback or bug reports for this version so I can clean it up and make the final release. The only documentation for this release is the Quick Start Guide in the download section. I will be updating the documentation when I get the chance. Here are the highlights of the major new features introduced in this version.

• Program preferences are now stored in AT.xml file in XML format.
• Look and Feel (or some call it skin) is user selectable. Currently there are four to choose from (use the View menu).
• I am releasing the AutoTrader software in jar file format only from this version on. I am including a dos batch file (AT.cmd) that you can double click to launch the AutoTrader program. I will also include a Unix script in the final version as well for Linux and Unix users. I will need to find out from Macintosh users how to write the script to start the program on the Macintosh. I am going to provide two package versions, one is the full package, and the second is just the AutoTrader.jar file only (Full package only during beta). So for upgrades between minor version updates, all you need to do is download AutoTrader.jar and replace the one you have in your current installation. As always, AutoTrader is all self contained and everything runs inside the folder where AutoTrader.jar is located, and it does not add or corrupt your System folder or the Windows Registry.
• Stop Orders can now be submitted as Stop Market or Stop Limit order. So GLOBEX traders can now have native stop orders placed.
• Time in force can now be set to GTC or DAY.
• Position Exit using Offer Out.
• Updated the exchanges supported. Now all exchanges current as of today is supported by AutoTrader, this includes new exchanges recently added such as Toronto Stock Exchange, FTA in Netherlands, Tokyo and Osaka exchanges in Japan.
• Improved fractions support. Bond traders now have the option of displaying quotes in fractions or in '320 format.
• Trading performance report. There is a new Report tab in the Info Panel. Import your monthly statements for the previous months and the daily statements for the current month, and it will tell you your trading performance YTD, current month, current week and for today. Profit calculation includes commissions. This section currently only works with Stocks and Futures. I need some sample Monthly Statements that contains Options. This also assumes you are trading in a single currency. If you have a Montly Statement containing multiple currencies such as Euro and USD, please send me your monthly statement so I can write the code to handle it. Your information will be kept confidential. Export your monthly statement in Excel format and email me the file. I am still working on the details button.
• Hotkeys! Now you can configure all your Fkeys and assign actions you previously would do by changing values and clicking buttons. You have a total of 48 assignable Fkeys.
• Program state is now persisted into a SQL database. AutoTrader now comes with HSQLDB database and it stores all the order status and execution details into the database, so the state of the program is remembered between program starts. This means you can resume trade management if the program crash, your computer reboots, etc. This makes AutoTrader a truly fault tolerant TWS API client program. Banking and financial institutions' mission critical software are all fault tolerant, why should your trading software not have this feature ?
• Database can be switched to MySQL (download and install first from http://www.mysql.com). I may add more database support in the future such as Oracle, SQLServer, Pointbase, etc (any database that has a JDBC driver), if there is enough demand for it. If you plan on running multiple instances of AutoTrader to trade multiple accounts, then it is highly recommended you use MySQL or any commercially available database software.
• Link to QuoteTracker symbols. If you are using QuoeTracker for viewing charts, if you select the Link QT Symbols option, whenever you change the symbol in AutoTrader, the chart displayed in QuoteTracker will automatically switch to your selected symbol. This way, traders using QuoteTracker charting program will not make the mistake of viewing the wrong chart when making a trade.
• I have updated the TWS API client to version 7.3. Due to the change in TWS API from 6.x to 7.x, the old format of AutoTrader collected data will not be compatible with this new version. IB modified "public" class variable names between API version 6.x and 7.x, as such, the old file format will not be compatible with the new file format. Other playback data source will continue to work as before.

Additional feature to be added to version 1.18 is Internationalization (or i18n) support. I will be needing translators to translate the text used in the AutoTrader windows to different languages. I currently have a volunteer to translate to German. I will probably need Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Dutch. These are the languages for countries that IB trades in. Other language translators welcome. Email me if you are interested to pitch in for this feature.

Read the Quick Start Guide in the download section to learn how to setup and initialize the program.