VT Trader Release Notes 1.8.5

New Features:

• 1-Click Order Feature added; Now you can open positions positions with a single mouse click when this option is activated.


• PAM Chart Mode now has greater flexibility; PAM Chart Mode has added functionality for Entry Orders and their associated stop/limit orders. This feature mimics that of the PAM Open Positions logic previously implemented. Please see VT Trader Help Manual for more information.
  
  
• Multiple Column Sorting feature added; Multiple column sorting is now available in all trading windows allowing for better organization, especially for managed accounts. In order to use this feature, the user must click on columns in reverse order when using multi-column sort routines for proper sort order. For example, to sort by Cur1 and then Cur2 to group the currency pairs together, and then sort by those currency pairs by Net P/L the use needs to click the column headers in the order of NetP/L->Cur2->Cur1.
  
  
• PipValue column added to Advanced Dealing Rates Window; PipValue value is based on account base currency for 1.0 lot of respective currency (this is similar to how IntBuy and IntSell is calculated and displayed).
  
  
• Fresh Rates Highlight implemented in Dealing Rates Window and Advanced Dealing Rates Window; Highlights the Instrument cell with a pale yellow color (user-definable) if that Instrument's price was changed with the most recent streaming price quote update; Fresh Rates Highlight feature can be enabled/disabled using Contextual Menu>Properties>Appearance Bookmark>Fresh Rates Highlights setting; Highlight color can be adjusted using Contextual Menu>Properties>Grid Bookmark>Fresh Rates Highlights setting.


• Andrew's Pitchfork drawing tool implemented; Andrew’s Pitchfork can be used to help forecast and confirm support and resistance areas during a trend. It includes all corresponding default settings at Navigator Window>Options Bookmark>Properties>Charting>User Objects>Andrew's Pitchfork; Please refer to VT Trader Help Manual for additional details.


• Show/Hide Column Contextual Menu included in all Trading Windows; Allows the user to quickly enable/disable the display of columns within the respective trading window (Advanced Dealing Rates, Accounts Information, Open Positions, Closed Positions, Pending Orders, & Summary By Accounts)


• New symbols added to Symbols tool in Drawing Toolbar; A, B, C, D, E, X, a, b, c, d, e, x, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5


• Cross Hair “Measuring” function implemented; The "Measuring" function automatically measures (counts) the number of bars and number of pips between two locations in the active chart window. The measuring label displays data in the format: # of bars / # of pips / price level of cursor;


• Cross Hair Labels implemented; Labels show specific date/time/price point associated with the Cross Hair intersection; New settings have been created to enable/disable display of cross hair labels in Navigator Window>Options Bookmark>Properties>General>Cross Hair
  
  
• Added Spread column to Dealing Rates Window and to Advanced Dealing Rates Window; Spread column is disabled by default in Dealing Rates Window, but can be enabled via Contextual Menu>Properties>Appearance Bookmark>Show Spread Column new setting; Spread Column is always enabled in Advanced Dealing Rates Window.


• AutoSave Desktop Template on Account Login option added to General Properties>General bookmark; This option allows the user to enable/disable the auto-save of the active desktop template when using Navigator Window>File>Account Login after working in Offline Mode


• Output Variables' values can be displayed in Indicator Label and Trading System Label; Output variables are referenced in the labels using the same method as Input Variables - %variable_name%. The Output Variable value displayed is the most current value of the respective indicator, updated in real-time. Values displayed are shown in precision decimal places as specified by the “Output Variables Precision Display in Inspect Window” setting in the General Properties>General Bookmark.


• Search and Search & Replace tools added to Indicator Builder 'Editor' toolbar and Trading Systems Builder 'Editor' toolbar;


• Isdefined() function created; see VT Trader Help Manual for details.


• IsUndefined() function created; see VT Trader Help Manual for details.
  
  
• SendStatisticToVT Parameter Added to VTTrader.ini; Enables/disables QS3 Service reporting in VT Trader; SendStatisticToVT=Y (default setting) enables QS3 reporting; SendStatisticToVT=N disables QS3 reporting.
  
  
• Partial Loading of Historical Price Data; VT Trader now only downloads the partial history that it needs to bring its cached history files (if available) up to the current date/time bar data; This will help eliminate HTTP & charting timeout errors during the initial login as well as shorten the time required to perform the login.


• Alerts Bookmark and basic alert functionality has been added to the following Drawing tools: Horizontal Line, Trend Line, Fibonacci Angled, Fibonacci Fan, Standard Deviation Channel, Standard Error Channel, Raff Regression Channel, Equidistant Channel, Gann Line, and Gann Fan; This alert functionality is similar to that of the Fibonacci Horizontal tool;
  
  
• Bid/Ask Cell Highlights implemented in Dealing Rates Window and Advanced Dealing Rates Window; Highlights the Bid/Ask cells with a pale blue or red color (user-definable) based on the direction of the most recent price update included in the most recent streaming price quote update; Bid/Ask Highlights can be enabled/disabled using Contextual Menu>Properties>Appearance Bookmark>Bid/Ask Highlights setting; Bid/Ask Highlight colors can be adjusted using Contextual Menu>Properties>Grid Bookmark>Bid/Ask Highlights Up/Down settings.


• Bid/Ask Cell Arrows in Dealing Rates Window and Advanced Dealing Rates Window have been replaced with Up/Down Triangle graphics; Also, the Arrows can now be enabled/disabled using Contextual Menu>Properties>Appearance Bookmark>Bid/Ask Arrows; Arrows are disabled by default; Arrow colors can be adjusted using Contextual Menu>Properties>Grid Bookmark>Bid/Ask Arrow Up/Down settings.

Feature Improvements:

• Internal refactoring – Not seen by end users, just improved performance
  
  • Improved QS3 Service Reporting – Not for end users
  
  
  • Improved error message handling in VT Trader – Not for end users
  
  
  • Margin Call logic improved; Pre-Order submission Available Margin (Insufficient Funds) check implemented


• Overall modernization of VT Trader interface components, grids, desktop icon, and splash screen, etc.
  
  
• Updated sar() function; User can now specify data arrays used to calculate the parabolic SAR; sar(DATA ARRAY, DATA ARRAY HIGH, DATA ARRAY LOW, STEP, MAXIMUM); All 3 data arrays must be specified or no data arrays must be specified; sar(0.02,0.20) is equivalent to sar(C,H,L,0.02,0.20)


• Improved Connectivity LED's logic. Logic is described in user manual.


• Implemented ChartingTimeout setting in vttrader.ini and set equal to 300 seconds; This should help eliminate charting timeouts that some users on slow(er) connections frequently experience
  
  
• Passwords in log files are masked with ***
  
  
• Dealing Rates Window columns can now be resized (except for Instrument column); New setting Contextual Menu>Default Column Width implemented to allow the user to quickly reset columns to default.
  
  
• Border outline highlight used in all Trading Windows (Advanced Dealing Rates, Accounts Information, Open Positions, Closed Positions, Pending Orders, & Summary By Accounts) has been replaced with full row highlight while window is active and border highlight of last used row when window is not active; Selection Frame Highlight setting in respective Properties windows has been replaced with Selection Highlight Color setting.
  
  
• Dealing Rates Window & Advanced Dealing Rates Window and their respective properties settings improvements; Bid/Ask cells' text changed to Arial, size 8; Bid column renamed to Bid (Sell); Ask column renamed to Ask (Buy); Properties>Appearance Bookmark> 1a) Drawing method should be Drawing Method, 1b) Arrows should be renamed to Bid/Ask Arrows, 2a) Last Digits name should be renamed to Bid/Ask Last Digits, 2b) Excess should be 100% by default, not 120, 2c) Bold attribute should be checkmarked; Properties>Grid Bookmark> 1) Odd Color should be renamed to Background (Odd Row), 2) Even Color should be renamed to Background (Even Row), 3) Arrow Up Color should be renamed to Bid/Ask Arrow Up, 4) Arrow Down Color should be renamed to Bid/Ask Arrow Down, 5) Fill Up Color should be renamed to Bid/Ask Highlights Up, 6) Fill Down Color should be renamed to Bid/Ask Highlights Down, 7) Instrument Caption Color removed; The Instruments column will use the Table Font attributes
  
  
• Fibonacci Horizontal tool now includes ability to show/hide price level associated with Fibonacci level as well as display levels/prices at left and/or right side of tool; New options in the properties window are: Show Percent Labels (Left), Show Price Labels (Left), Show Percent Labels (Right), Show Price Labels (Right); Display underline trendline option changed to “Display Underlying Trendline”
  
  
• Improved responsiveness of [Edit] and [Cancel] buttons in Login and Connect windows to respond to user actions in real-time by immediately abandoning the current activity as soon as the button is pressed.
  
  
• Expanded Navigator Window>Trading Bookmark>Chart Layers section; It now includes the following items:
  • Comments
  • Symbols
  • Trend Lines
  • Vertical Lines
  • Horizontal Lines
  • Fibonacci Horizontal
  • Fibonacci Vertical
  • Fibonacci Angled
  • Fibonacci Arcs
  • Fibonacci Fans
  • Gann Lines
  • Gann Fans
  • Gann Grids
  • Andrews Pitchforks
  • Linear Regression Lines
  • Standard Deviation Channels
  • Standard Error Channels
  • Raff Regression Channels
  • Equidistant Channels
  • Price Alerts
  • Pending Orders (was Entry Orders)
  • Open Positions (was Positions)
  • Conditional Stoploss/Limit Orders (was Orders)
  • Indicator Labels
  • Trading System Labels
  • Indicators
  • Trading Systems
    
    
• All Drawing tools now have their default properties windows (Options Bookmark>Charting>User Objects) open the properties window to the Drawing Properties Bookmark by default.
  
  
• Comments tool now uses Arial font in black color as its default.
  
  
• forex4all references removed from VT Trader logs and registry keys.
  
  
• Default VT Trader layout has been modified.
  
  
• Fibonacci Vertical>Calc Properties>Display underline trendline changed to “Display Underlying Trendline”
  
  
• ServerAnswer log removed from logging routines since RequestResponse log contains same information + additional information.
  
  
• Removed deprecated urllist.xml from install package since it's no longer used.