CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.90.3 (as compared to 4.90.2)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.90.2 (as compared to 4.90.1)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.90.1 (as compared to 4.90.0)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.90.0 (as compared to 4.89.0)

• Fixed problem with information window length constraint being set wrong sometimes. (for example TickSize in View->Information was limited
  to 4 digits after entering Currency field)
  
  
• Bar Replay current position static is now updated when changing start date
  
  
• Fixed problem RTQ window stopped updating the symbol when it was listed twice in different tabs and removed from one (FC#: 439)
  
  
• Fixed data tooltip display when xshift != 0 (FC#: 465)
  
  
• Fixed vertical grid Z-order when graphgridzorder = 1 (FC#: 377)
  
  
• Added "Use as default" box to Horizonal Line properties dialog - when checked, current drawing "show value" selection is stored as a default for all newly created horizontal lines (FC#: 389)
  
  
• Added File->New->Pane (creates blank pane)
  
  
• Added File->New->Blank chart (creates blank chart - you can drag-drop formulas on it)
  
  
• Window->New Linked window menu has been replaced by File->New->Linked Chart
  
  
• #30339 the limit of drawings per symbol has been increased from 5000 to 65000
  [And contrary to previous (faulty) behaviour when limit is reached, you don't lose your previous drawings. Now you just can't save more than 65000 drawings per one symbol.]
  
  
• Renamed Tools->Auto-update quotes (US & Canada) to Auto-update quotes (AmiQuote only) - new installations only
  
  
• Removed Tools->Export to CSV - new installations only
  
  
• Clipboard copy/paste now works OK on "Symbol ticker" combo (in the toolbar)
  
  
• Warning message when deleting symbols changed to "Are you sure to delete current symbol from the DATABASE !"
  
  
• Added open interest as a predefined formula
  
  
• Account manager: 5-tier commission table added
  
  
• Duplicate shortcut Alt+d for Edit / Define removed. Define now uses 'f' shortcut (FC#: 219)
  
  
• BarReplay is now paused temporarily when user is drawing objects or printing
  
  
• Thick dotted line is now plotted with geometic pen on Win2000/XP or higher (FC#: 720)
  
  
• Fixed problem with passing HGDI handles when printing
  
  
• Account manager cash calculation when scaling in fixed (FC#: 793)
  
  
• Added styleNoRescale to Bollinger Bands in Price (all-in-one).afl
  
  
• ASCII importer: volume is now NOT to adjusted when ADJCLOSE and CLOSE is used
  [To turn on adjusting (old, pre-4.90 behaviour) you need to add $SPLITADJVOL 1 to command to ASCII importer definition]
  
  
• FuturesMode setting set using SetOption #24503 works the same as in the settings dialog
  [The difference was due to the fact that PointValue set in the Information window was not transfered to the formula when
  Futures Mode was NOT set in the Settings dialog (further change by SetOption did not transfer it).
  Now Point Value is transfered always.]
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.89.0 (as compared to 4.88.0)

• AFL: Static variables are now case insensitive (FC#: 663)
  
  
• AFL: SetSortColumns() function (FC#: 607)
  SetSortColumns( col1, col2, .... )
  
  sets the columns which will be used for sorting.
  
  col1, col2, ... col10 -Column numbers are ONE-based. Positive number means sort ASCENDING, negative number means sort DESCENDING. Upto 10 columns can be specified for multiple-column sort. Each subsequent call to SetSortColumns overwrites previous one.
  
  Examples:
  
  SetSortColumns( 5 ) - sort by 5th column in ascending order
  
  SetSortColumns( -3 ) - sort by 3rd column in descending order
  
  SetSortColumns( 1, -2 );
  - sort by 1st column in ascending order and then by second column in descending order (multiple-column sort).
  
  
• Web Research: Synchronization with currently selected symbol has now three options:
  Don't sync - does not synchronize with currently selected symbol
  Sync active - synchronizes only when web research is active (or becomes active by clicking on it)
  Sync always - synchronizes web page always, even if web research window is not active - warning: resource intensive
  
  
• New Account Manager added (completed: 2006-12-19)
  
  Account manager provides ability to track your account portfolio. Account manager functionality provides superset of features offered by old portfolio manager, but still some things are left todo namely: multi-currency handling, more stats (backtest-like), multi-tiered commission schedules etc.
  
  Short Instructions:
  
  CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT:
  
  Use File->New->Account menu to create new account
  
  FUNDING AN ACCOUNT:
  
  Before you do any trading, you have to fund your account. To do so press "FUNDING" button on the account manager toolbar, then select "Deposit" as operation type, enter the DATE when you have funded your account and enter the amount.
  Note that funding date must PRECEDE any trading, as account manager won't allow you to trade prior to funding date. Initial deposit will show as "initial equity" in summary tab.
  
  CHECK THE SETTINGS
  
  It is good idea to go to "Summary tab" and setup commissions and trading mode. If this account is used for End-of-day trading you should set "EOD Mode" to YES, otherwise (if you trade intraday) you should set "EOD Mode" to NO. Depending on this setting Buy/Sell dialogs will allowyou to enter date and time of the trade or only date.
  
  Commission schedule currently is only one-tier, in the future multiple-tier commission schedules will be possible.
  
  ENTERING TRADES:
  
  Once you funded an account you can enter trades.To buy (enter long position or cover short position ) click on "BUY" button.
  
  Then in the Buy dialog you need to select the symbol, the trade date/time. Once they are entered AmiBroker will display price of given symbol at the selected date/time (or preceding one if no exact match is found). It will also calculate maximum possible quantity taking price and available funds into account.
  
  You can change the price and quantity manually.
  
  All other values (net market valye, commission, market deposit, currency, fx rate) are calculated or retrieved automatically from Symbol->Information page. Once values are good, click OK to confirm transaction. If you made mistake, you can press UNDO (Edit->Undo) to revert last transaction.
  
  Similar procedure is for selling (entering short positions or closing longs) with the exception that you should press "SELL" button instead.
  
  All transactions that you made are listed in the "Transactions" sheet. All open positions are listed in "Open Positions" sheet. If you enter the trade for symbol that has position already open, AMiBroker will adjust "open positions" accordingly (perform scaling in/out). Once open position is closed it is removed from "open positions" list and moved to "Closed trades" sheet.
  
  After each transaction, "Equity history" sheet is updated with current account equity value and also "Summary" page is updated with basic open/long/short trade stats.(More stats are to come).
  
  IMPORTANT:
  
  You have to remember that you must enter all transactions in chronological manner(oldest first, newest last), as account manager won't allow you to add trades out-of-order. If you make mistake, there is one-level undo that you can use to revert to state before last transaction. If you made more mistakes, the only option is to close account without saving and re-open original file.
  
  SAVING YOUR ACCOUNT DATA:
  
  To save edits made to account use File->Save (or File->Save As to save under new name). Note that account files are NOT encrypted now, and it is quite easy to read the file for everyone who has the access to it. So make sure not to leave your files on some public computer. Password protection/encryption is planned but NOT implemented yet.
  
  OPENING PREVIOUSLY CREATED ACCOUNT:
  
  To open account file, go to File->Open, in the File dialog,select "Account (*.acx)" from "Files of type" combo-box, and select the account file you want to load.
  
  MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS:
  
  You can create/open multiple accounts at once (just use File->New->Account, File->Open many times).
  
  
• Vertical selector line has now user-definable color / bold style and it is plotted behind all graphs so it does not affect readability
  Use Tools->Preferences->Color to adjust selector line color and style
  
  
• Charts: by default extra 3% space is added on the top of chart compared to previous versions (4.88 or earlier)
  
  
• printf/strformat are now protected against buffer overrun (1024 bytes)
  
  
• Scroll-Bar Zoom feature implemented (dragging left or right edge of chart scrollbar resizes it allowing to zoom in/out from the scrollbar) (FC#619)
  [To turn it OFF use
  Tools->Preferences "Charting" tab:
  UNCHECK "Enable Scroll Bar Zoom" box.]
  
  
• RequestTimedRefresh() was not always starting up correctly since 4.86 - fixed now.
  
  
• Range markers are now green (begin) and red (end) and are plotted with lines with small 'flag-like' rectangle at the end
  
  
• When user types non-existing symbol in ticker box, AmiBroker asks whenever it should be added or not
  This allows very quick adding of new symbols directly from ticker box.
  Just type symbol and press ENTER - if it does not exist - it will be added and backfilled if you use real time data source
  
  
• When adding/deleting symbols, charts displayed keep selected symbol
  
  
• Added ability to create composites (using AddToComposite) inside indicator code via new atcFlagEnableInIndicator flag (FC#: 191)
  
  
• AA window: now 'Sync chart' box is hidden when result list is maximized
  
  
• AFL: Implemented Say("text") function that speaks provided text (Windows XP, on lower-end Windows you need to install Microsoft Speech API, voice settings are in Windows Control Panel)
  Example:
  
  Say("Testing text to speech engine");
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.88.0 (as compared to 4.87.1)

• Automatic Analysis window: Added "Sync chart on select" checkbox
  when turned ON, selection of any line from result list automatically synchronizes (displays) relevant chart. Selection can be made not only by mouse but also by keyboard effectivelly allowing you to scroll through AA result list using key down button and charts will be switching automatically. Also when you press SPACE button, the arrows for selected trade/signal will appear (only after backtest / scan)
  
  
• AFL Lexer code optimizations
  Removed strncmp() C runtime calls from lexer and replaced it with hand optimized code, gives on average 15% speed improvement on AFL execution on larger formulas. NB. multi-line comment handling is speeded up this way as much as 7 times.
  
  
• Bar Replay feature implemented (Tools->Bar Replay)
  Bar Replay feature plays back data for ALL SYMBOLS at once. It means that data for all symbols will end at specified "playback position".This affects all formulas (no matter if they are used in charts or auto-analysis).
  
  Controls description:
  
  |<< - rewinds back to the beginning
  < - one step back
  [ ] - stop - turns bar replay OFF (chart are not affected by bar reply)
  || - pause - pauses current playback or enters pause mode that allows to manually drag the slider bar and affect chart display - in PAUSE mode data are internally modified so quotes past selected "playback" position are invisible to any part of AmiBroker ( charts / automatic analysis ), except quotation editor
  > Play - playback bars history
  > - one step forward
  >> | - goes to end of selected range
  
  Slider bar - allows to see the playback progress as well as MANUALLY move back and forward by dragging the slider thumb.
  
  Start/End - controls provide start and end simulation dates. The playback works so that all data UPTO currently selected "Playback position" are visible. Data past this position are invisible. "Playback position" can change from user-defined "Start" to "End"dates. The small ^ buttons on the right side of Start / End date fields allow to set Start/End to currently selected date on the chart.
  
  Step interval - defines interval of the step. Recommended setting is base interval of your database. So if you have 1-minute database, step interval should be 1 minute. If you have EOD database, step interval should be daily, however it is allowed to select higher step intervals. Note that chart viewing interval is independent from that. So you can playback 1 minute database and watch 15 minute bars (they will look like real - building last "ghost" bar as new data come in)
  
  Speed parameter defines step frequency. It means how many steps will be played back within one second.Default is 1. Maximum is 5 minimum is 0.1. If you select 3 for example, AmiBroker will play one step every 0.333 sec giving total of 3 steps per second.
  
  Skip afterhours - when turned on, playback skips hours outside regular trading hours as defined in File->Database Settings->Intraday Settings
  
  Skip weekends - when turned on, playback skips Saturdays and Sundays
  
  To ENTER PLAYBACK mode - press PLAY or PAUSE buttons - then data are truncated at current "playback position")To EXIT PLAYBACK mode - press STOP button or close Bar Replay dialog - the full data set will be restored.
  
  Note that playback simulation is done internally and the database is kept untouched in fact (all data are still visible in Quote Editor), so there is no risk using Bar Reply.
  
  
• Added Insert->Select to Tools->Customize->Keyboard command list to allow customers to add keyboard accelerator to this action
  
  
• Fib. TIME extensions , "lock position" now works correcly. Also "bold" attribute can be now applied
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.87.1 (as compared to 4.87.0)

• fixed symbol tree, right mouse click on the watch list causing exception

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.87.0 (as compared to 4.86.0)

• Added "Request data on save" checkbox to File->Database Settings->Intraday Settings
  When this is turned ON, AmiBroker will query data plugin for fresh data when saving database. This ensures that all collected real time data is transferred to AmiBroker's own database.
  Caveats:
  1. if external data source uses automatic backfill - it may cause triggering backfills during saving 2. turning this feature ON may slightly increase CPU load
  Recommendations:
  Generally speaking all data sources with no backfill or slow backfill should turn ON this feature,others (with fast backfill covering long histories) should have this turned OFF.
  IB plugin: recommended setting: ON
  This feature is designed specifically with IB plugin in mind as it has very limited backfill capabilities and it is good to savedata so it does not need to be re-filled on next session.
  eSignal plugin: recommended setting: OFF
  Using eSignal with this feature turned on may cause excessive backfills and exceeding eSignal symbol limit
  IQFeed plugin: recommended setting: OFF
  DDE plugin: recommended setting: ON
  
  
• Fixed minor save on exit problem
  
  
• New menu options
  1. File->New -> Default Chart replaces Window->New
  2. File->New -> Web Browser - creates new web browser window tab
  3. File->New -> Account - creates new account manager window (still in development, not available now) (Tools->Portfolio manager will soon become obsolete)
  4. File->New -> Database - replaces File-> New database
  5. File->Save / Save As.- allows to save current document (such as HTML page from the browser, or account information (in development))
  6. File->Save All - saves ALL modified, open documents including all open formula files
  7. File->Close - closes currently open document (chart, browser or account)
  
  Removed View->Profile menu option as it is now replaced by superior File->New->Web Research
  
  
• Added Web Research window: multi-tab web browser with multiple built-in financial sites templatized shortcuts
  This feature effectively replaces and extends previous View->Profile functionality that allowed to view single symbol profile web page. Now via File->New -> Web Research you can open multiple (unlimited) tabbed web browsers that allow to display unlimited(user configurable in Tools->Customize->Web Pages. In addition to that the browser now features regular "Address" bar that allows to type ANY URL address and use it as regular web browser.
  " Open in New Window" option available from right click menu now opens new web browser inside tab.
  " Sync" button when activated synchronizes web page with currently selected symbol, so you can browse for example profiles of different symbols by simply switching active symbol from the tree or combo box, without having to type complex URL addresses.
  
  
• Added Customizing of Web Research addresses in Tools->Customize->Web Pages dialog
  Configuration data are stored in webpages.cfg plain text file that holds any number of URL templates in the form of:
  
  URLTemplate|Description
  
  Description part is optional.URL template may use {t} marker that will be replaced in runtime with currently selected ticker. For more info see:http://www.amibroker.com/guide/h_profiles.html(note that old profile window is no longer available however, the URL template encoding remains the same)
  
  
• Added ability to turn off MDI tabs (Tools->Customize->Appearance "Show MDI tabs") - note however that it is not recommeded to turn them off since window navigation will be more difficult
  
  
• Added Symbol->Next Sibling / Symbol->Prev Sibling commands to Tools->Customize->Keyboard page (FC#.ID: 550)
  This allows to navigate through symbols WITHIN selected category. On NEW installations it will default to Alt+Shift+Left arrow/Right arrow
  
  
• Fixed "Remove" button positioning in Organize assignments dialog
  
  
• Fixed combo box contents when "Indexes" are choosen in Assignment organizer
  
  
• Implemented File->Save All - which saves all open, MODIFIED documents/files, including AFL formulas
  Note that because there is no editing functionality for HTML pages (Web Research window) they are never in modified state, so they never get saved using "Save All". To save HTML page you need to manually do Save on selected HTML doc.
  
  
• Pane Up/Pane Down function does not change the original height of panes moved
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.86.0 (as compared to 4.85.0)

• Added 'every tick' RT chart refresh in Professional Edition to already existing 1-sec and up refresh intervals
  To enable 'every tick' chart refresh in Professional Edition, go to Tools->Preferences, Intraday tab and enter ZERO (0) into "Intraday chart refresh interval" field. (note Standard Edition won't allow to do that).

  Once you enter zero, AmiBroker will refresh all charts with every new trade arriving provided that the formulasyou use execute fast enough. If not, it will dynamically adjust refresh rate to maintain maximum possible refresh rate without consuming more than 50% of CPU (on average). So for example if your charts take 0.2 sec to execute AmiBrokerwill refresh them on average 2.5 times per second.

  Note: built-in Windows Performance chart shows cumulated CPU consumption for all processes, to display PER-PROCESS CPU load use SysInternals free software http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

• MDI tabs implemented

• AFL: Added GetPerformanceCounter( bReset = False ) function

  SYNTAX: GetPerformanceCounter( bReset = False )

  RETURNS: Number

  GetPerformanceCounter retrieves the current value of the high-resolution performance counter. Returned value is in milliseconds. Resolution is upto 0.001 ms (1 microsecond).The value of high-resolution counter represents number of milliseconds from either system start (boot) or from last counter reset.To reset the counter you need to call GetPerformanceCounter function with bReset parameter set to True. Note that reseting counters inside one formula does not affect counters in other formulas.Since returned values are very large (time in milliseconds since system start is usually quite large), for precise measurements of single function or small function block execution times it is strongly recommended to reset counter at the beginning of the block so floating point resolution (7 digits) does not affect the precision of measurement. Example:

  GetPerformanceCounter(True); // reset counter to zero
for( i = 0; i < 1000; i++ )
{
   k = sin( i );
}

elapsed=GetPerformanceCounter();

"Time [ms] = "+elapsed;

  
  The code above shows that 1000 iterations of sin() calculation takes about 1.7 milliseconds. Note that call to the GetPerformanceCounter() has overhead of about 0.015 ms (15 microseconds)

  GetPerformanceCounter function may also be used to report time since system start:

  elapsed=GetPerformanceCounter();

StrFormat("Time since system start %.0f days, %.0f hours, %.0f minutes, %.0f seconds, %.0f milliseconds ",
floor(elapsed/(24*60*60*1000)),
floor( elapsed/(60*60*1000) ) % 24,
floor( elapsed/(60*1000) ) % 60,
floor( elapsed/1000 ) % 60,
elapsed % 1000 );

  It can be also used in trading system automation to measure time in milliseconds between various events (just subtract values returned by GetPerformanceCounter() during two different events)

  Caveat: this function relies on Windows API QueryPerformanceCounter function and CPU RTDSC instruction and it may yield to inaccurrate results if you have multiple-core processor and AMD's "Cool and Quiet" enabled in BIOS or other CPU clock stepping technologies enabled. If this applies to you, you may check Microsoft hotfix to this problem at: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896256

• Fixed crash that sometimes occurred when chart using RequestTimedRefresh() was closed

• Added "Cancel" button to "Do you want to save database: Yes/No" dialog that appears on AB exit when database is modified

• Added registry key for controlling built-in exception handling.

  If you are 3rd party developer working with Visual C++ debugger and wanting exceptions to be caught by Visual Studio debugger instead of AmiBroker's built-in crash recovery system contact AmiBroker support and we will provide instructions how to disable it.

• AFL: atan2( y, x ) implemented
  
  atan2 returns the arctangent of y/x. If x is 0, atan returns 0. If both parameters of atan2 are 0, the function returns 0. While atan returns a value in the range –PI/2 to PI/2 radians; atan2 returns a value in the range –PI to PI radians, using the signs of both parameters to determine the quadrant of the return value.

• AFL: FFT( array, size = 0 ) function implemented

  FFT( array, len = 0 )

  performs FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) on last 'len' bars of the array, if len is set to zero, then FFT is performed
  on entire array. len parameter must be even.

  Result:

  function returns array which holds FFT bins for first 'len' bars. There are len/2 FFT complex bins returned,
  where bin is a pair of numbers (complex number): first is real part of the complex number and second number
  is the imaginary part of the complex number.

  result = FFT( array, 256 );

  where:
  0th bin (result[0] and result[1]) represents DC component,
  1st bin (result[1 ] and result[2]) represents real and imaginary parts of lowest frequency range
  and so on upto result[ len - 2 ] and result[ len - 1 ]

  remaining elements of the array are set to zero.

  FFT bins are complex numbers and do not represent real amplitude and phase. To obtain amplitude and
  phase from bins you need to convert inside the formula. The following code snipplet does that:

  ffc = FFT(data,Len);
for( i = 0; i < Len - 1; i = i + 2 )
{
   amp[ i ] = amp[ i + 1 ] = sqrt(ffc[ i ]^ 2  +  ffc[ i + 1 ]^2);  
   phase[ i ] = phase[ i + 1 ] = atan2( ffc[ i + 1], ffc[ i ] );
}

  IMPORTANT note: input array for FFT must NOT contain any Null values. Use Nz() function to convert Nulls to zeros
  if you are not sure that input array is free from nulls.

  Example formula:

  SetBarsRequired(100000,100000);

Len = Param("FFT Length", 1024, 64, 10000, 10 );

Len = Min( Len, BarCount );

x = BarIndex();
x1 = x - BarCount + Len;


input = C;
a = LastValue( LinRegIntercept( input, Len - 1 ) );
b = LastValue( LinRegSlope( input, Len - 1 ) );


Lr = a + b * x1;

data = input - Lr;// de-trending

ffc = FFT(data,Len);

for( i = 0; i < Len - 1; i = i + 2 )
{
   amp[ i ] = amp[ i + 1 ] = sqrt(ffc[ i ]^ 2  +  ffc[ i + 1 ]^2);  
   phase[ i ] = phase[ i + 1 ] = atan2( ffc[ i + 1], ffc[ i ] );
}

auto = ParamToggle("Auto dominant cycle", "No|Yes", 1 );
sbar = Param( "Which FFT bin", 1, 0, 50 );

skipbin1 = ParamToggle("Skip 1st FFT bin", "No|Yes", 1 );

if( auto )
{
   sbar = int( LastValue(ValueWhen( amp == LastValue(Highest( IIf( skipbin1 AND x < 4, 0 , amp ) )), x / 2 )) );
}

fv = Status("firstvisiblebar");

thisbar = Ref( int(x/2) == sbar, -fv);
Plot( Ref(amp,-fv),
"amplitude (bin " + Ref( int(x/2), -fv ) +")", IIf( thisbar, colorRed, colorBlack ),styleArea);

Plot( IIf( BarCount - BarIndex() < Len, data, Null ) ,
"de-trended input ("+Len+" bars)", colorOrange, styleLeftAxisScale );
Plot( cos( phase[ sbar * 2 ] + (sbar) * x1 * 2 * 3.1415926 / Len ),
" dominant cycle "+ Len/(sbar) + "(" + sbar + " bin) bars", colorBlue, styleOwnScale );

GraphZOrder=1;
GraphXSpace = 10;


• Fixed: pre-defined color table in broker.prefs sometimes got corrupted

• Repainting of RT quote window is now flicker-free on Windows XP and higher

• Symbol->Organize assignments, added ability to remove multiple symbols at once from watch list, index and favourite categories

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.85.0 (as compared to 4.84.0)

• AFL: Added DateTimeConvert function (FC#: 297)
  DateTimeConvert( format, date, time = Null )
  
  The function allows to convert from DateTime format to DateNum and TimeNum and vice versa.
  
  format parameter controls the direction of conversion:
  
  format = 0 - converts DateTime format to DateNum format, example
  
  mydatenum = DateTimeConvert( 0, DateTime() );// - this returns DateNum
  
  date argument should be in datetime formattime argument in this case should not be used
  
  format = 1 - converts DateTime format to TimeNum format, example:
  
  mytimenum = DateTimeConvert( 1, DateTime() ); // - returns timenum
  
  date argument should be in datetime formattime argument in this case should not be used
  
  format = 2 - converts from DateNum and optionally TimeNum to DateTime format, example:
  
  mydatetime = DateTimeConvert( 2, DateNum(), TimeNum() );
  
  date argument should be in datenum formattime argument (optional) should be in timenum format. In case of EOD data you can skip time argument:
  
  mydatetime = DateTimeConvert( 2, DateNum() );
  
  
• K-ratio is now reported with 4 decimal places (FC#: 357)
  
  
• Added 'left side' display option to horizontal line labels and fixed problem with label sometimes disappearing (completed: 2006-08-15) (FC#: 342)
  
  
• AFL: fgetstatus( filename, what, format = 0 )
  Implemented
  
  fgetstatus( filename, what, format = 0 )
  
  function that retrieves file properties/status.
  
  Returns NUMBER or STRING depending on format parameter
  If file does not exist it returns Null.
  
  Parameters:
  
  filename - the name of the file (with or without full path) to query
  what - specifies what file property to retrieve, allowable values
  0 - the date/time the file was created
  1 - the date/time the file was last modified
  2 - the date/time the file was last accessed for reading
  3 - the file size in bytes
  4 - attribute byte of the file
  
  format - specifies return format of date/time values (format specifications are the same as in Now() function):
  allowed values:
  0 - returns string containing date/time formatted according to system settings
  1 - returns string containing date only formatted according to system settings
  2 - returns string containing time only formatted according to system settings
  3 - returns DATENUM number with date
  4 - returns TIMENUM number with time
  5 - returns DATETIME number with date/time
  6 - returns date DAY (1..31)
  7 - returns date MONTH (1..12)
  8 - returns date YEAR (four digit)
  9 - returns date DAY OF WEEK (1..7, where 1=Sunday, 2=Monday, and so on)
  10 - returns date DAY OF YEAR (1..366)
  
  Note that Windows supports only 2 second resolution of file date/time stamps.
  
  Example:
  
  // get modification date string of portfolio.afl file
fgetstatus("formulas\\Equity\\portfolio.afl",1,0);
  
• AFL: GetTradingInterface uses WaitForInputIdle now instead of fixed interval wait when launching IB interface
  
  
• Disabled snapping to pixel resolution after manual editing of drawings #32071

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.84.0 (as compared to 4.83.1)

• Added GradientFillSlow code to support gradients on printers and metafiles which do not support them natively (completed: 2006-07-28)
  
  
• Added GraphGridZOrder variable to control when grid lines are plotted (completed: 2006-07-31) (ext.ID: 351)
  When you specify
  GraphGridZOrder = 1;
  then grid lines are plotted on top of any charts
  
  
• AFL: new function RequestTimedRefresh( interval, onlyvisible = True ) (completed: 2006-08-06)
  
  RequestTimedRefresh( interval, onlyvisible = True )
  
  - causes given indicator window to refresh automatically every <interval> seconds regardless of data source used or connection state.
  
  interval parameter defines timeout in seconds between refreshes. AmiBroker attempts to align refreshes to second boundaryso if you call it RequestTimedRefresh( 5 ) you should get refreshes at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 55 second of the minute.Due to the way how regular (low overhead) timers are implemented in Windows they have accurracy of +/-55ms providedthat CPU is not very busy. Don't expect to get first line of your code to execute exactly at .000 milliseconds. This varies depending on machine load, number of quotes, system time slice and tens of other factors.Usually (on my testing machines) the first line of the code executes anywhere in the first 100 ms of the second, provided that other processes do not interfere. Windows is not real-time operating system and it does not guarantee any fixed execution/reaction times.
  
  onlyvisible parameter set to True (default value) means that refreshes are triggered only for visible and not minimised windows. This applies also to main AmiBroker window - when it is minimised charts are NOT refreshed by default. To force refreshes when window is minimised you need to set this parameter to False. Note that this visibility applies to mostly to 'minimised' state or the situation when you move chart outside the boundary of physical screen so it is not visible to an eye but still open. It does not apply to chart windows that are on placed on inactive sheets, as they do not really exist until they are shown (this way AmiBroker conserves memory and CPU) and as non-existing, can not be refreshed.
  
  Example:
  
  RequestTimedRefresh( 5 ); // automatically refresh this particular chart every 5 seconds
  
  Hint: to detect whenever given refresh comes from timer or user action you can use Status("redrawaction") function. It returns 0 for regular refresh (user action) and 1 for timer-refresh
  
  
• AFL: Status("redrawaction") added (completed: 2006-08-06)
  Status function now supports new field: redrawaction
  
  Status("redrawaction")
  
  It returns 0 (zero) for regular refreshes, and 1 for refreshes triggered via RequestTimedRefresh(). Note that in the future more return values can be added.
  
  Example:
  
  if( Status("redrawaction") ==1 )
{
_TRACE("\nTIMED REFRESH"+Now());
}
RequestTimedRefresh(1);


• CreateStaticObject() actually calls internal CreateStaticObject :-) - for some reason it was calling regular CreateObject() instead. (completed: 2006-07-27)
  
  
• Fixed problem with HoldMinDays sometimes allowing exit too soon (completed: 2006-07-29)
  
  
• Fixed: Custom metric sort problem in optimization result list (occurred in 4.83 only) (completed: 2006-07-29) (ext.ID: 345)
  
  
• Pane resizing algorithm changed so if you drag the divider between panes only neighbouring panes are resized (others remain unchanged)
  
  
• Real time quote parent window has WS_CLIPCHILDREN style in order to fix some minor redraw issue (completed: 2006-07-31)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.83.1 (as compared to 4.83.0)

• Fix to FC#302 caused problems with calling COM properties with parameters. This is now fixed.

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.83.0 (as compared to 4.82.0)

• Added detection of multiple copies of plugins for the same data source (completed: 2006-07-26)
  This (multiple copies of the plugins for same data source) was causing problems and lots of support issues because people were using old plugins even if they installed (newer) copy of the plugin. This was so becasue AB always used first one encountered in given directory and it usually was the oldest one. Now AB displays warning message that there are multiple copies of the same plugin and then they must be renamed or removed.
  
  
• Added HoldMinDays and EarlyExitDays options to SetOption() (completed: 2006-07-27)
  In addition to already exitsing functionality of HoldMinBars / EarlyExitBars, new options to specify min hold/penalty period in CALENDAR DAYS (as opposed to bars).
  
  SetOption("HoldMinDays", 30 ); // set minimum holding period to 30 calendar days
SetOption("EarlyExitDays", 90 ); // set penalty period to 90 calendar days
  
  Note that you can use one or another (not both at the same time) for one parameter, so you can specify minimum holding period in either days or bars (but not both at the same time). The same with EarlyExit period. You may however use different specifications (i.e. days/bars) for EarlyExit and HoldMin (they are independent from each other).
  
  
  
• Added scoreExitAll constant that causes rotational mode backtester to exit all positions regardless of HoldMinBars (completed: 2006-07-27)
  Note that this is global flag and it is enough to set it for just any single symbol to exit all currently open positions, no matter on which symbol you use scoreExitAll (it may be even on symbol that is not currently held). By setting PositionScore to scoreExitAll you exit all positions immediatelly regardless of HoldMinBars setting.
  
  Example:
  
  PositionScore = ..your normal score..
// if market timing signal goes negative close all posiitons
PositionScore = IIf( MarketTimingSignal < 0, scoreExitAll, PositionScore );
  
  NOTE: This flag works ONLY in rotational trading mode (in regular mode it is easy to generate such global exit by ORing sell signal with global sell signal).
  
  
• CBT: Added ExitReason property to Trade object (completed: 2006-07-18) (FC#: 88)
  
  
• Chart Tree - RMB - Edit - now restores and focuses to already opened formula editor (if it is during editing) (completed: 2006-07-24) (FC#: 300)
  Note that you can still open NEW instance of the editor with the very same file (for comparison and to see the original contents) by holding down SHIFT key when choosing "EDIT" menu.
  
  
• Eliminated extra unnecessary refreshes of commentary window when new symbol was picked from ticker selector (completed: 2006-07-24)
  
  
• Fixed calling parameter-less JScript functions from AFL level via GetScriptObject() (completed: 2006-07-19) (FC #: 302)
  
  
• Fixed: wrong estimated time in progress dialog when number of steps is greater than 2^32 (4294967296) (allocated to: 4.80.2) (completed: 2006-07-24)
  
  
• AFL: Added Gradient background coloring (SetChartBkGradientFill function) (completed: 2006-07-26)
  Gradient fill of chart interior is now available via SetChartBkGradientFill function.
  Please note that this is independent from chart background color (background color fills entire pane, gradient fill is only for actual chart interior, so axes area is not affected by gradient fill)
  
  SetChartBkGradientFill( topcolor, bottomcolor, titlebkcolor = default )
  
  topcolor - specifies top color of the gradient fill
  bottomcolor - specifies bottom color of the gradient fill
  titlebkcolor - (optional) the background color of title text. If not specified then top color is automatically used for title background.
  
  Example:
  
  SetChartBkGradientFill( ParamColor("BgTop", colorWhite),ParamColor("BgBottom", colorLightYellow));
  
  
• Multiple tabs in RTQ window (completed: 2006-07-18) (FC#: 22)
  RT quote window tabs behave the same as chart tabs: can be renamed with right mouse button and dragged from one place to another.
  20 tabs are currently available.
  
  
• Non-numeric custom trade metrics are not formatted with thousands separators anymore (completed: 2006-07-21) (FC#: 314)
  
  
• now Tools->Preferences->Misc "Decimal places in RT quote window" allows to specify upto 6 decimal places. (completed: 2006-07-25)
  
  
• OLE: Fixed default property (Item) marker for Windows collection (completed: 2006-07-18)
  
  
• Progress dialog: now estimated time is displayed in years/days if it is large enough (completed: 2006-07-24)
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.82.0 (as compared to 4.81.1)

• OLE: Quotations collection does not have _Item hidden property so it should fix problems with Delphi
• OLE: fixed Documents collection Item method returning always first document object regardless of parameter value
• OLE: Documents collection prepared to support multiple document types
• OLE Added Windows collection, Document property and Activate and Close methods to Window object (FC #272)
  
  Windows collection has one method:
  
  Add - adds new window
  
  and two properties:
  
  Count - returns the number of windows within given document
  
  Item( i ) - returns the i-th window object
  
  
  Window object has two new methods:
  
  Activate() - makes window active (focused)
  Close() - closes given window
  
  and one new property:
  
  Document - gives parent document object
  
  EXAMPLE CODE (JScript):

  outBuffer = ""; // global output string buffer
  
  function output( string )
  {
     outBuffer = outBuffer + string + "\n";
  }
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject( "Broker.Application");
  
  Docs = AB.Documents;
  DocsQty = Docs.Count;
  
  for( i = 0; i < DocsQty; i++ )
  {
     Doc = Docs( i );
  
     output( "Document " + i + " name : " + Doc.Name );
  
     Windows = Doc.Windows;
     WinsQty = Windows.Count;
  
     for( j = 0; j < WinsQty; j++ )
     {
  	    Win = Windows( j ); 
  
  		output( "  Window " + j + " Selected tab " + Win.SelectedTab );
     }
  
  } 
  
  WScript.echo( outBuffer );
  
  WScript.echo( "Now will add one window" );
  Doc = Docs( 0 );
  Windows = Doc.Windows;
  
  NewWindow = Windows.Add();
  
  WScript.echo( "and close it" );
  
  NewWindow.Close();
  

• New menu Symbol->Favorities and new item "Erase favourities" to empty the list of favourities (FC#: 280)
  
• Horizonal line value label added (use new Study properties -> Show Y Value checkbox available for horizonal lines) (FC# 271)
  
• Fixed crash when clicking on Watch List using RMB (problem occurred in 4.81 beta) (FC# 243)
  
• Fix: Status('lastvisiblebarindex") and Status("lastvisblebar") now return zero based index instead of one-based (FC# 265)
  
• Fix: removed spikes from styleCloud when plotted in non-continouous way (with nulls in the middle of the array) (FC# 283)
  
• Fix rounding problem in AA in futures mode when difference between entry and exit prices was very small and pointvalue large (added extra rounding to profit calculation) (FC# 135)
  
• Delete key now works in real time quote window (FC# 266)
  
• AddTextColumn produces now LEFT-justified output (FC# 291)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.81.1 (as compared to 4.81.0)

• fixed problem with some of the watch lists not showing up in 4.81.0

• Database structure changed to hold new fundamental data - quarterly EAT/EBT/Sales figures, Code and Nominal value have been replaced by new fields.
  
  Despite these changes files are still backward and forward compatible - so it can be read by any other AB version, the only minor inconvenience is that if you load new file into old version (pre-4.81) of AmiBroker you will see weird numbers in old "Finances" dialog as well as in "Shares out." and "Book Value" fields.
  
  
• Implemented new View->Information property page featuring extra fundamental data fields
  
  
• OLE: added new fundamental data fields to Stock object
  
  Stock object has now the following properties:
  
  string Ticker;
  Collection Quotations;
  string FullName;
  boolean Index;
  boolean Favourite;
  boolean Continuous;
  long MarketID;
  long GroupID;
  float Beta;
  float SharesOut;
  float BookValuePerShare;
  float SharesFloat;
  string Address;
  string WebID;
  string Alias;
  boolean IsDirty;
  long IndustryID;
  long WatchListBits;
  long DataSource;
  long DataLocalMode;
  float PointValue;
  float MarginDeposit;
  float RoundLotSize;
  float TickSize;
  long WatchListBits2;
  string Currency;
  string LastSplitFactor;
  DATE LastSplitDate;
  float DividendPerShare;
  DATE DividendPayDate;
  DATE ExDividendDate;
  float PEGRatio;
  float ProfitMargin;
  float OperatingMargin;
  float OneYearTargetPrice;
  float ReturnOnAssets;
  float ReturnOnEquity;
  float QtrlyRevenueGrowth;
  float GrossProfitPerShare;
  float SalesPerShare;
  float EBITDAPerShare;
  float QtrlyEarningsGrowth;
  float InsiderHoldPercent;
  float InstitutionHoldPercent;
  float SharesShort;
  float SharesShortPrevMonth;
  float ForwardDividendPerShare;
  float ForwardEPS;
  float EPS;
  float EPSEstCurrentYear;
  float EPSEstNextYear;
  float EPSEstNextQuarter;
  float OperatingCashFlow;
  float LeveredFreeCashFlow;
  
  
• AFL: new function GetFnData() - allows accessing fundamental data
  
  SYNTAX: GetFnData("field")
  RETURNS: number
  
  "field" can be one of the following:
  
  "EPS"
  "EPSEstCurrentYear"
  "EPSEstNextYear"
  "EPSEstNextQuarter"
  "PEGRatio"
  "SharesFloat"
  "SharesOut"
  "DividendPayDate"
  "ExDividendDate"
  "BookValuePerShare"
  "DividendPerShare"
  "ProfitMargin"
  "OperatingMargin"
  "OneYearTargetPrice"
  "ReturnOnAssets"
  "ReturnOnEquity"
  "QtrlyRevenueGrowth"
  "GrossProfitPerShare"
  "SalesPerShare"
  "EBITDAPerShare"
  "QtrlyEarningsGrowth"
  "InsiderHoldPercent"
  "InstitutionHoldPercent"
  "SharesShort"
  "SharesShortPrevMonth"
  "ForwardDividendPerShare"
  "ForwardEPS"
  "OperatingCashFlow"
  "LeveredFreeCashFlow"
  "Beta"
  "LastSplitRatio"
  "LastSplitDate"
  
  
• ASCII importer: added support for new fundamental data fields :
  
  $FORMAT command now supports additional fields:
  
  DIV_PAY_DATE
  EX_DIV_DATE
  LAST_SPLIT_DATE
  LAST_SPLIT_RATIO
  EPS
  EPS_EST_CUR_YEAR
  EPS_EST_NEXT_YEAR
  EPS_EST_NEXT_QTR
  FORWARD_EPS
  PEG_RATIO
  BOOK_VALUE (requires SHARES_OUT to be specified as well)
  BOOK_VALUE_PER_SHARE
  EBITDA
  PRICE_TO_SALES (requires CLOSE to be specified as well)
  PRICE_TO_EARNINGS (requires CLOSE to be specified as well)
  PRICE_TO_BV (requires CLOSE to be specified as well)
  FORWARD_PE (requires CLOSE to be specified as well)
  REVENUE
  SHARES_SHORT
  DIVIDEND
  ONE_YEAR_TARGET
  MARKET_CAP (requires CLOSE to be specified as well - it is used to calculate shares outstanding)
  SHARES_FLOAT
  SHARES_OUT
  PROFIT_MARGIN
  OPERATING_MARGIN
  RETURN_ON_ASSETS
  RETURN_ON_EQUITY
  QTRLY_REVENUE_GROWTH
  GROSS_PROFIT
  QTRLY_EARNINGS_GROWTH
  INSIDER_HOLD_PERCENT
  INSTIT_HOLD_PERCENT
  SHARES_SHORT_PREV
  FORWARD_DIV
  OPERATING_CASH_FLOW
  FREE_CASH_FLOW
  BETA
  
  
  (see Formats\aqfe.format and Formats\aqfn.format files for example usage)
  

  
  
• Removed Stock->Information and Stock->Finances dialogs (this functionality is replaced by View->Information - new dockable property window)
  
  
• AFL: new function StrReplace( string, oldsubstring, newsubstring )
  
  
• Fixed crash occuring sometimes if "Symbol->Watch List->Type-in" symbol was longer than maximum allowable length (allocated to: 4.80.2)
  
  
• Foreign() function changed. Now by default missing data bar OHL fields are filled using previous bar Close and volume is set to zero.
  It is possible to turn old behaviour (filling missing bar OHL fields using previous bar OHL fields and copying previous bar volume) if you use
  Fixup parameter set to 2.
  Foreign("MSFT","O", 2 ); // old-style (pre-4.81) fill
  
  
• Scaling-in profit% calculations modified to use total cost instead of max. pos value
  
  
• ships with AmiQuote 1.90 featuring automatic download and import of fundamental data from Yahoo Finance. See AmiQuote\ReadMe2.html for the details.
  

• Changed %profit calculation when scaling-in is used to use maximum number of shares ever held as a “base” of %profit calculation - this leads to “most conservative” % figures, compared to using just initial entry value.
  
• Prec() function improved so it does not show rounding errors when working on integer

• fixed problem with Easy Alert window not accepting new alerts in some circumstances
  
• included new IB plugin version 1.6.2 (FC issue #54)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.80.1 (as compared to 4.80.0)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.80.0 (as compared to 4.79.0)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.79.0 (as compared to 4.78.1)

• Added HoldMinBars feature that disables exit during user-specified number of bars even if signals/stops are generated during that period
  Please note that IF during HoldMinBars period ANY stop is generated it is ignored. Also this period is ignored when it comes to calculation of trailing stops (new highest highs and drops below trailing stops generated during HoldMinBars are ignored).This setting, similar to EarlyExitFee/EarlyExitBars is available on per-symbol basis (i.e. it can be set to different value for each symbol)
  
  
  Example:
  SetOption("HoldMinBars", 127 );
Buy=BarIndex()==0;
Sell=1;
// even if sell signals are generated each day,
//they are ignored until bar 128
  
  
• additional checks added to ensure proper operation of individual equity chart
  AA window generates error if it can not write LastBacktestFormula to the registry AA complains with error message when individual equity formula does not contain #include @LastBacktestFormula statement that is required for proper operation
  (it includes the formula used in last backtest so Equity() function can process it)
  
  
• AFL formula editor toolbar / menu is now customizable
  
  Asc() function for converting first character of the string to the ASCII code
  
  Asc( string, pos = 0 )
  
  Returns the ANSI character code corresponding to the first letter in a string (if position is not specified) or code of character at specified position. If you don't specify position (pos argument) then first character is used. Negative values of pos reference characters counting from the end of string.
  
  Useful for creation of exploration that displays single letters for signals instead of numbers.
  
  Buy = Cross(MACD(),Signal());
Sell = Cross(Signal(),MACD());

Filter = Buy OR Sell;

AddColumn( IIf( Buy, Asc("B"), Asc("S")), "Signal", formatChar );
  
  
• Changed EarlyExitFee functionality so it does NOT affect equity (and stats like drawdowns) if position is not liquidated during early bars
  
  
• Chart sheet tabs improvements: added drag-drop moving, quick selection menu, home/end buttons
  
  
• Fix: double click on Y axis does not turn <> range markers anymore (allocated to: 4.79.0)
  
  
• Fix: Param slider, when step =2 and start is odd (for example 3 ) then subsequent values were even (they should be odd 3, 5, 7,...) now it is fixed
  
  
• Fixed handling of mixed color encodings in AddColumn (pre-defined color constants did not work together with ColorRGB / ColorHSB, now it is fixed)
  
  Example of code that did not work correctly in 4.78.1 and earlier but now works fine.
  
  
Filter = 1;

AddColumn(Close, "Close", 1.2, colorDefault, ColorRGB(255, 0, 0) );   //   this works
AddColumn(Close, "Close", 1.2, ColorRGB(0, 0, 255), ColorRGB(255, 0, 0));   //   this works
AddColumn(Close, "Close", 1.2, colorBlue, ColorRGB(255, 0, 0)); // this works in 4.79, but didn't in previous versions

AddTextColumn(" ", " ");

AddColumn(Close, "Close", 1.2, ColorRGB(255, 0, 0), colorDefault); //   this works
AddColumn(Close, "Close", 1.2, ColorRGB(255, 0, 0), ColorRGB(0, 0, 255) );   //   this works
AddColumn(Close, "Close", 1.2, ColorRGB(255, 0, 0), colorBlue); // this works in 4.79, but didn't in previous versions
  
  
• Fractional increments on Y axis: added 1/320 increment (to use for example with ZT contract) and changed display method so integer part is separated from fractional part by ^ character
  
  
• Implemented easy real-time alerts (allocated to: 4.79.0)
  "easy alerts" are available from RTquote window context menu.
  (Click on Real Time Quote window with RIGHT mouse button and select "Easy Alerts" option
  - then define alerts you want to generate using real time streaming quotes).
  If you add any alerts, please note that symbols used in alerts add up to total number of streaming symbols, so if you have 50 symbol limit on your data source and have 40 symbols in your real time quote window you will be able to setup alerts for only 10 extra symbols (if you use the same symbols as in real time quote window then it does not add up to the total count)
  
  
• OLE: added ability to control sorting in AA window from OLE level
  Object:
  Analysis
  
  New method:
  SortByColumn( iColumn, bAscending, bMultiMode )
  
  
  where iColumn - is zero-based column index to sort bybAscending - true/false decides the order we wantbMulti - if set to false - it means that we want to sort by single column or we define starting column for multi-column sortif set to true - it means that we are defining additional columns for multiple-column sort.So to sort by many columns you need to call SortByColumn once with bMulti set to false and then call SortByColumn for all remaining sort columns with bMulti set to true.
  
  Example (multiple column sort by column 1 and 2):
  
AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");AA = AB.Analysis;

// sort by date/time column
AA.SortByColumn( 1, False, False );

// add secondary sort column (see last argument = True)
AA.SortByColumn( 2, False, True );
  
  
• OLE: added Application.Visible property
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
AB.Visible = True;
WScript.Sleep(1000);
AB.Visible = False;
WScript.Sleep(1000);
AB.Visible = True;
WScript.Sleep(1000);
AB.Quit();
  
  
• OLE: when AmiBroker is created from OLE, it loads default layout now (previous versions did not
  
  
• Scaling in/out fixes: added extra checks not to exceed available cash (scaling-in) and not to drop below zero shares (scaling out)
  
  
• Time&sales now allows the user to disable display of bid/ask and/or trades
  By default both trades and bidl/ask quotes are shown, but now you can decide to turn off either one or both by clicking with RIGHT mouse button over Time&Sales window and checking/unchecking "Show Trades" and "Show Bid / Ask Quotes"
  menu items.
  
  
• Tools: Preferences: Misc, renamed "Save on exit" to "Auto-save" and changed auto-save logic, so layouts are saved on each change
  
  When Auto-save: Layouts is turned ON, currently loaded layout is saved on change (i.e. when another layout is loaded, previously selected layout changes are saved first), the same with database load - if you load different database then recently used layout is stored automatically. IMPORTANT: changes are saved now to most recently loaded layout (not to 'default' one as it was before). So default layout is NOT affected by auto-save if you manually loaded different layout.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.78.1 (as compared to 4.78.0)

• atcFlagEnableInPortfolio now works fine with atcFlagCompositeGroup flag.
  Previously using atcFlagCompositeGroup (or atcFlagDefaults) prevented creation of composite in custom backtest procedure (even if atcFlagEnableInPortfolio was specified). atcFlagEnableInPorfolio worked only without it. Now it is fixed (works fine with or without atcFlagCompositeGroup)
  
  
• AFLEditor: Edit->Replace fixed
  
  
• HTMLExport: fixed crash occuring sometimes when lots of columns were used
  
  
• HTMLExport: fix: colorDefault is not BLACK for background (bgcolor in <TD> tag is skipped) [(this also reduces file size)
  
  
• HTMLExport: header row is in separate line (CR at the end)
  
  
• backward compatiblity fix for ExportImage() function (when width and height are not provided then default - current window size - is used)
  (NOTE: this also fixes Edit->Image->Export )
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.78.0 (as compared to 4.77.0)

• AA: HTML export added that supports FULL COLOR output
  To export to HTML just click "EXPORT" button in AA window and select "HTML files" from "Files of type" combo box in file dialog.
  
  You can also use OLE interface Export method - if EXTENSION provided in the file name is .html then AmiBroker will output HTML file,
  otherwise it will output CSV (text) file. If you want colorful output in Excel, just EXPORT the file to HTML and load it into Excel (or drag-drop to excel).
  
  Please note that Excel color palette is limited (not all 16 million colors available in AmiBroker can be represented in Excel) Example colorful test exploration:
  
  Filter=1;
for( i = 0; i < 256; i = i + 16 )
AddColumn( C, "C"+i, 1.2, colorDefault, ColorHSB( ( BarIndex() + i ) % 256, 255-i, 255 ) );


• List control code reviewed for better 64bit compatibility
  
  
• List selection is maintained after sorting
  
  
• Multiple column sort implemented in AA result list (and other list controls as well)
  
  To sort by more than one column:
  a) click the FIRST column then
  b) SHIFT-click second, third, fourth column ... and so on (upto 40 columns can be sorted at once)
  (to SHIFT-click means to click with left mouse button while having SHIFT key pressed down)
  c) to change the Asc/Desc order click on the same column again
  
  To restart sorting, release SHIFT key and click on column (it will become first).
  
  Subsequent columns (in the order you have clicked on them) are marked with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 numbers
  (if you select more than 10 columns, then all columns above 10th will be marked with '...')
  
  
• Backtester: added EarlyExitBars/EarlyExitFee functionality (not supported by old (v.4.4) backtester)
  
  Early exit (redemption) fee is charged when trade is exited during first N bars since entry.
  The fee is added to exit commission and you will see it in the commissions reported for example in detailed log. It is also reflected in the portfolio equity (so for first N bars since entry portfolio equity is lower by early exit fee).
  
  
  // these two new options can be set on per-symbol basis
// how many bars (trading days)
// an early exit (redemption) fee is applied
SetOption("EarlyExitBars", 128 );
// early redemption fee (in percent)
SetOption("EarlyExitFee", 2 );
  
  (note 180 calendar days is 128 or 129 trading days)
  
  // how to set it up on per-symbol basis?
// it is simple - use 'if' statement
if( Name() == "SYMBOL1" )
{
SetOption("EarlyExitBars", 128 );
SetOption("EarlyExitFee", 2 );
}

if( Name() == "SYMBOL2" )
{
SetOption("EarlyExitBars", 25 );
SetOption("EarlyExitFee", 1 );
}


• AA: "Scan every" feature has been renamed to "Run every" and allows automatic repeat of scan or exploration (new feaeture) it allows also shorter intervals
  
  Run every intervals can now be defined in MINUTES (default) or SECONDS.
  To enter run-every interval in seconds simply add "s" or "sec" at the end of interval value, for example:
  
  10 sec - for run every 10 seconds
  5 s - for run every 5 seconds
  13 min - for run every 13 minutes
  35 m - for run every 35 minutes
  7 - for run every 7 minutes (if time unit is not specified then by default minutes are used)
  
  
• OLE: ExportImage() now supports Width and Height parameters
  
  ExportImage function that now allows to specify width and height.
  So to export say 640x480 gif image you need to write:
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  Win = AB.ActiveWindow;
  Win.ExportImage( "test.gif", 640, 480 );
  
  and you will get perfect image with no jagginess or any scaling artifacts.
  And it works independently of your current window size and it does NOT affect
  your current window size.
  
  
• fix: customColor1 can be selected again using color picker
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.77.0 (as compared to 4.76.0)

• styleDashed now uses correct background color when it is modified using SetChartBkColor
  
  
• AFL Editor: when there is nothing more to undo/redo beep sound is produced
  
  
• AFL: OBV() and AccDist() now work correctly with TimeFrameSet (#26768)
  
  
• AFL Editor: Edit->Replace implemented (Ctrl+H shortcut)
  
  
• CBT: AddCustomMetric now has new parameter that controls number of decimal places used to display custom metric
  
  Trade.AddCustomMetric( "Name", value, [optional] decplaces = 2 );
  
  Backtester.AddCustomMetric( "Name", Value, [optional] LongOnlyValue = Null, [optional] ShortOnlyValue = Null, [optional] decplaces = 2 );
  
  where
  decplaces defines how many decimal places are used to display given metric in the report.If not specified it defaults to 2 decimal places.
  
  Example code:
  
  bo.AddCustomMetric( "Somestat", 100*kr, Null, Null, 4 ); // 5th parameter controls number of decimal places


• Tooltip "value" field now uses Prefs setting (Tools->Preferences->Misc: "Decimal places in chart titles/tools") + 1 digit decimal points
  
  
• All Fibonbacci tools now use user-defined number of decimal places (Tools->Preferences->Misc: "Decimal places in chart titles/tools").
  
  Note that this setting applies to NEWLY drawn or MODIFIED fibonacci retracements. Already existing ones won't be affected until you modify/move them.
  
  
• Added new submenu under "Symbol": "Real Time Quote" with 3 new options: Add selected symbol / Add watch list / Remove all symbols
  IMPORTANT NOTE: to see new menu you need to go to Tools->Customize, select "MENU" bar and press "RESET" button
  
  
• AFL: PlotText("Text", x, y, color, bkcolor = colorDefault )
  
  New AFL function:
  
  PlotText( "text", x, y, color, bkcolor = colorDefault )
  
  Writes text in specified co-ordinates
  
  where
  x - is x-coordinate in bars (like in LineArray)
  y - is y-coordinate in dollars
  
  color is text color
  bkcolor is background color
  
  If bkcolor is NOT specified (or equal to colorDefault) text is written with TRANSPARENT background
  any other value causes solid background with specified background color
  
  Example:
  
  Plot(C,"Price", colorBlack, styleLine );
Plot(MA(C,20),"MA20", colorRed );

Buy=Cross( C, MA(C,20 ) );
Sell= Cross( MA( C, 20 ), C );

dist = 1.5*ATR(10);

for( i = 0; i < BarCount; i++ )
{
if( Buy[i] ) PlotText( "Buy\n@" + C[ i ], i, L[ i ]-dist[i], colorGreen );
if( Sell[i] ) PlotText( "Sell\n@" + C[ i ], i, H[ i ]+dist[i], colorRed, colorYellow );
}

PlotShapes( Buy * shapeUpArrow + Sell * shapeDownArrow, IIf( Buy, colorGreen, colorRed ) );
  
  
• AFL: VarGetText
  New function
  
  VarGetText( "varname" )
  
  the same as VarGet but always returns always string values
  (if underlying variable has different type it is converted to string)
  
  Allows for example appending to text variable no matter if it is defined earlier or not:
  
  Title = VarGetText("Title") + "something"; // this will work correctly regardless of whenever title was defined earlier or not]
  
  
• VarSetText
  New function
  
  VarSetText( "varname", "value" )
  
  the same as VarSet but operates on string values.
  
  
• Auto-analysis backtest result summary modified (added row count and removed wordwrap)
  
  
• Enlarged "Additional commands" field in ASCII Import Wizard
  
  
• CBT: Fixed "Out of range" message generated by OLE wrappers when GetValue method of CBT Metrics object returned infinite value (for example as result of division by zero)
  
  
• Fixed handling of CLICK - DRAW - CLICK drawing mode (#26994) during RT refresh
  
  
• Fixed incorrect candle color occuring sometimes when candle body was only 1-pixel high
  
  
• Fixed potential crash occuring sometimes when RTQ window was never shown but RT update arrived
  
  
• Fixed problem with double arrows appearing on chart with ID == 1
  
  
• Fixed problem with selected date in Print/PrintPreview/Image copy
  
  
• RTQ context menu "Delete symbol" renamed to "Remove symbol"
  
  
• UI: simplification, Removed (default) from File->Database Settings Base Time interval Combo and "(default)" from local data storage and removed "IMPORTANT ..." static
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.76.0 (as compared to 4.75.2)

• Renamed "Number of bars to load" to just "Number of bars"
  
  
• Fixed problem with weird Time&sales background colors (bug introduced in 4.75.x)
  
  
• Fixed 1.#INF in P/E colum (RT quote window)
  
  
• Editor: fixed actionBacktest / actionExplore mix in auto-complete dropdown
  
  
• Chart Y-axis can now be displayed as fractions (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128) - to switch this use Parameters -> GRID -> FORMAT
  
  
• CBT: Trade object has now "Handle" property that can be passed to ExitTrade and ScaleTrade methods instead of symbol to allow control over exiting/scaling multiple positions of the same symbol
  
  
// This is sample formula that allows
// to open multiple, separate positions on the same symbol
// without averaging effect (i.e. each position on the same
// symbol is completely independent).
//
// Sample code is provided for trading one symbol
// Enter symbol you want to trade below
Symbol = "MSFT";

Buy=Sell=Short=Cover=0; // real rules are defined inside custom backtest proc

SetCustomBacktestProc(""); // enable custom backtest

if( Status("action") == actionPortfolio )
{
   // actual backtest routine
   // (low-level)

   bo = GetBacktesterObject();

   SetForeign( Symbol );
   // make sure to calculate actual buy and buyprice arrays for symbol we need to backtest
   Buy = 1; // For testing purposes just enter new position every bar
   BuyPrice = Open;
   RestorePriceArrays();

   // actual backtest loop
   bo.PreProcess();

   for( i = 1; i < BarCount; i++ )
   {
      // first update backtest stats and handle stops
       bo.UpdateStats( i, 0 );
       bo.HandleStops( i );
      
       bo.RawTextOutput("Bar " + i );
      if( Buy[ i - 1 ] ) // if buy signal in previous bar
       {
         bo.EnterTrade( i, Symbol, True, BuyPrice[ i ], 500 /* $5000 into one trade */);
       }

   
      for( OpenPos = bo.GetFirstOpenPos(); OpenPos; OpenPos = bo.GetNextOpenPos() )
       {
           // exit positions if their age is > 5 bars and they are profitable
         if( OpenPos.BarsInTrade > 5 AND OpenPos.GetProfit() > 0 )
          {
            // HERE IS A NEW PART !!!
            // WE ARE PASSING HANDLE instead of ticker symbol
            // THIS ENSURES PROPER OPERATION even if we have multiple positions of the same
            // stock
             bo.ExitTrade( i, OpenPos.Handle, OpenPos.GetPrice( i, "O" ) );
           }
       }

       bo.RawTextOutput("Number of open positions: " + bo.GetOpenPosQty() );


       bo.UpdateStats( i, 2 );
   }
      
   bo.PostProcess();
}

• CBT: Small fix for low-level CBT backtest - internal current bar counter is set now via UpdateStats
  
  
• ASCII import wizard: Additional commands field accepts "ENTER" key alone (previously one needed CTRL+ENTER to create new line)
  
  
• ASCII importer limits the volume to 2147483647 so after convertion to 32bit integer it never becomes negative
  
  
• Added parameter list to backtest report (Settings page)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.75.2 (as compared to 4.75.1)

• when no data we available chart background is correct now (it was black instead of one choosen in prefs in 4.75.x)
  
  
• Added ability to disable fixed ruin stop
  When you add
  
  SetOption("DisableRuinStop", True);
  
  to your formula the backtester will not use built in 99.96% loss stop (ruin) Note: it is recommended NOT to use it unless you really have to.
  
  
• added new option to SetOption:
  
  SetOption("EveryBarNullCheck", True)
  
  SetOption("EveryBarNullCheck", True)- allows to turn on checking for Nulls in arithmetic operations on every bar in the array(by default it is OFF - i.e. AmiBroker checks for nulls that appear in the beginning of the arrayand in the end of the array and once non-null value is detected it assumes no further holes (nulls) in the middle). Turning "EveryBarNullCheck" to True allows to extend these checks to each and every barwhich is the way 4.74.x and earlier versions worked.
  
  Note however that turning it on gives huge performance penalty (arithmetic operations are performed even 4x slower when this option is ON, so don't use it unless you really have to).
  
  
• Added small result summary after backtest in the status line
  
  
• Fixed problem with plotting xshifted charts occuring when formula referenced future bars
  
  
• logical (boolean) operators check for nulls on every bar and treat null as "false" to maintain backward compatibility with formulas written for previous versions
  
  
• Modified file dialog buffer size from 262144 (0x40000) bytes to 262143 (0x3FFFF) to workaround 16 bit (64KB) buffer limit of Windows 95/98/NT4 (yes surprisingly NT4 is limited to 64K buffer in file dialogs)
  
  16-bit windows (95/98) and NT4 were treating 0x40000 as 0 (zero) because only lower 16 bits were interpreted. Thanks to move to 0x3FFFF it is now interpreted as 0xFFFF on 16 bit windows.
  
  
• Potential crash fixed when formula using AddToComposite atcEnableInBacktest is verified in the AFL editor
  
  
• Added XShift parameter to PlotOHLC and PlotForeign functions
  
  
• fixed re-mapping of built-in and custom colors in grid color picker
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.75.1 (as compared to 4.75.0)

• ParamColor now accepts 24 bit colors without crashing
  
  
• Null values appearing at the end of data series (array) are handled appropriately (propagate through arithmetic operators)
  This fixes problem that 4.75.0 had with "trendline" formulas that used Null values put into the array at the end of the data series.
  
  
• Most recently picked drawing tool color is preserved between runs
  
  
• EncodeColor was not handling all 24 bit color combinations correctly. Fixed now.
  
  
• Chart tree fix: Moving or renaming formula in charts tree now updates all paths in indicators that use this formula
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.75.0 (as compared to 4.74.6)

• New chart style (styleCloud) to be used to create "cloud" chart as in Ichimoku charts. Also useful for indicator charts like MACD.
  
  This style fills non-rectangular (free shaped) area between HIGH and LOW arrays provided
  by PlotOHLC function. Open and Close arrays are not relevant for plotting however Close
  is used as usual to display value label and title. So recommended use is to use "upper" bounding value
  in Open and High arrays and "lower" bounding value in "Low" and "Close" arrays

  Sample Ichimoku cloud:

  SL = ( HHV( H, 26 ) + LLV( L, 26) )/2;
TL = ( HHV( H, 9 ) + LLV( L, 9 ) )/2;
DL = Ref( C, 25 );
Span1 = Ref( ( SL + TL )/2, -25 );
Span2 = Ref( (HHV( H, 52) + LLV(L, 52))/2, -25);


Plot( C, "Price", colorBlack, styleCandle );
Plot( SL, "SL", colorRed, styleThick );
Plot( TL, "TL", colorGreen, styleThick );
PlotOHLC( 0, span1, span2, span2, "Cloud", colorLightOrange, styleCloud );

  Simple MACD cloud:

  m = MACD();
Plot( Signal(), "Signal", colorBlue, styleThick );
PlotOHLC( m,m,0,m, "MACD", IIf( m > 0, colorGreen, colorRed ), styleCloud );

  Another MACD cloud (difference):

  m = MACD();
s = Signal();
Plot( s, "Signal", colorBlue);
Plot( m, "MACD", colorRed );
PlotOHLC( m,m,s,m, "MACD", IIf( m > s, colorLime, colorLightOrange), styleCloud );
  

• when File->Open database or MRU list is choosen then old database is saved first
  
  
• When default database is deleted, AB now asks for new default database folder, instead of re-creating it
  
  
• when database is deleted from the outside and user picks it via MRU list -then gets removed from MRU list and is not recreated anymore
  
  
• When AmiBroker is launched with incorrect "Start in" (working directory) then it automatically switches to "last good" path
  
  " Last good" path is saved in the registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\TJP\Broker\Defaults\LastGoodPath, during successful launch in correct directory (whenever working directory is correct or not it is determined by checking for presence of Broker.chm file (help file))
  
  Using correct working directory is important because AmiBroker uses relative paths to most components.
  
  
• AFL: new function: StaticVarRemove()
  
  StaticVarRemove("varname")
  removes static variable and releases associated memory
  
  
• Start-up time decreased significantly by implementation of on-demand loading of formulas
  
  (on slow, low-end machines loading time decreases from 10 seconds to just 0.5 second)
  
  
• printf/StrFormat/SelectedValue functions no longer affect number of extra future bars calculated by QuickAFL
  
  
• Minor plugin status change (as in IB backfill) does not cause sound (only tooltip is displayed)
  
  
• Increased the limit of files that can be selected using Windows file dialog
  Now import wizard and ascii importer file dialogs use 256KB buffer for file names that on average should allow 20000 files to be selected at once.
  
  
• Further speed improvements by rewriting chart ID lookup routine (GetChartInfoByID)
  
  
• Chart title string is clipped so Y axis is never obscured
  
  
• Chart title can be automatically wrapped now
  Use 'Parameters' window,
  " Axes & Grid" tab,
  Miscellaneous->Wrap title: YES
  
  If you want to set it programmatically from the formula use
  SetChartOptions( 2, chartWrapTitle );
  
  
• Auto-hide panes slide slightly faster
  
  
• All basic array arithmetic and logical operators inlined and hand optimized on assembly level for speed, gives upto 450% speed increase in basic array calculations
  
  Example speed increases:
  
  a) purely "theoretical" example
  million iterations of array addition
  for( i = 0; i < 1000; i++ )
 for( k = 0; k < 1000; k++ )
   Sumh = H + L;
  
  runs 4.8 times (+480%) faster (5 seconds in 4.75 compared to 24 seconds in 4.74 and older, Athlon64@2GHz)
  2000 data bars.
  
  This gives ( 2000 * 1000000 additions ) / 5 sec = 400 MEGAFLOPS (millions of floating point operations per second) AFL array-based AFL execution speed.
  
  b) "real-world" examples:
  " Projection Oscillator"
  http://www.amibroker.com/library/detail.php?id=344
  single security optimization runs 85% faster
  (13 seconds (4.75) compared to 24 seconds (4.74 or older) )
  
  " RSIS"
  http://www.amibroker.com/library/detail.php?id=153
  single-security optimization 5000 iterations runs 21% faster
  (28 seconds (4.75) compared to 34 seconds (4.74 or older))
  
  NOTE: Performance increase depends on complexity of the formula. Biggest gains can be observed for formula doing LOTS of mathematical calculations on arrays (using lots of +, -, *, /, ^, %, comparisions <, >, ==, !=, <=, >=, etc).
  
  
• AFL: new function: SetChartBkColor( color )
  sets chart background to user-specified color
  
  
• Added View->Time & Sales menu back
  
  
• Added chart timing display (you can turn it on via Tools->Preferences->Display chart timing)
  
  when turned on, in the bottom of each chart the following information is displayed:
  Total time X sec, AFL exec time Y sec (Z %), # extra bars back Q, fwd R
  
  where
  X - is total time in second spent during chart refresh ( this includes AFL execution and actual screen painting/drawing, grid / scale calculations, etc)
  Y - is time spent in chart AFL execution only (without any actual screen painting, grid / scale calcs)
  Z - is percentage of time that AFL execution takes compared to total time required for refresh
  Q - is a number of previous bars (before first visible bar) that are needed to calculate the indicator (QuickAFL estimation)
  R - is the number of future bars (after last visible bar) that are needed to calculate the indicator (QuickAFL estimation)
  
  
• Added asin/acos to the AFL function reference
  
  
• AFL: 24-bit (16 million) truecolor support for indicators and exploration output.
  
  
• new ColorRGB() and ColorHSB functions to access full 24 bit palette
  
  ColorRGB( red, green, blue )
  
  returns color value to be used in Plot/PlotOHLC/AddColumn/AddTextColumn
  red, green, blue - represent color component values in range 0..255 each
  
  For more information about RGB color model please read:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_model
  
  ColorHSB( hue, saturation, brightness )
  
  returns color value to be used in Plot/PlotOHLC/AddColumn/AddTextColumn
  
  hue - represents gradation of color within the optical spectrum (as in rainbow)
  saturation represents "vibrancy" of the color
  brightness represents brightness.
  
  Each parameter ranges from 0 to 255, where 0 represents 0% saturation/brightness
  or 0 degree hue in HSV color wheel,
  and 255 represents 100% saturation/brightness or 360degrees hue in HSV color wheel
  
  When you modify hue from 0 to 255 you will see consecutive
  rainbow colors starting from red, through yellow and green to blue and violet.
  
  For more information about HSB color space please read:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSB_color_space
  
  
  Example MA rainbow chart (bring up parameters dialog and play with it):
  
  side = 1;
increment = Param("Increment",2, 1, 10, 1 );
for( i = 10; i < 80; i = i + increment )
{
    up = MA( C, i );
    down = MA( C, i + increment );

   if( ParamToggle("3D effect?", "No|Yes" ) )
    side = IIf(up<=down AND Ref( up<=down, 1 ), 1, 0.6 );

   PlotOHLC( up,up,down,down, "MA"+i, ColorHSB( 3*(i - 10),
   Param("Saturation", 128, 0, 255 ),
    side * Param("Brightness", 255, 0, 255 ) ), styleCloud | styleNoLabel );
}
  
  ///////
  Color-parade exploration
  
  Filter=1;
for( i = 0; i < 256; i = i + 16 )
  AddColumn( C, "C", 1.2, colorDefault, ColorHSB( ( BarIndex() + i ) % 256, 255-i, 255 ) );


CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.6 (as compared to 4.74.5)

• Fixed problem with RTQuote failing to load symbol list during first show
  
  
• Fixed problem in AA-Apply To-Date that was introduced because of tab order change
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.5 (as compared to 4.74.4)

• Toolbar theme was reset when entering Formula Editor, now it is fixed
  
  
• Quote Editor list now remembers columns size and order between runs
  
  
• Keyboard shortcut editor now allows using punctation characters like Ctrl+[, Ctrl+], - =, etc
  
  
• Automatic Analysis: Pick button now has shortcut on Alt+I to avoid conflict with Alt+P (Parameters), also fixed tab order
  
  
• Fixed ParamDate to return DateNum instead of YYYYMMDD (4 digit year)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.4 (as compared to 4.74.3)

• New "Appearance" tab in Tools->Customize, allowing to select menu/toolbar/docking pane themes and tab location
  
  
• Layout and Symbol trees are marked for refresh when database is changed and refreshed when user brings them up
  
  
• Fixed exception that occurred after customization when ticker bar was removed from all toolbars
  
  
• Fixed ticker bar losing focus when Shift/Insert/CapsLock/NumLock pressed
  
  
• Real-time Quote column order/size is remembered correctly again
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.3 (as compared to 4.74.2)

• Fixed losing focus by ticker combobox when Shift, CapsLock, NumLock, Insert keys were pressed

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.2 (as compared to 4.74.1)

• Ticker combo is now correctly refreshed on database change even if moved to other toolbar than default
  
  
• Previously when Reset was used on Ticker toolbar it became blank - now it is fixed, ticker combo is refilled after closing customization mode
  
  
• Edit field in Ticker combobox does not scroll horizontally now when edited text is too long
  
  
• Numeric keypad keys now work with File MRU menu (most recently used files)
  
  
• Global shortcuts continue to work when focus is inside ticker combo
  
  
• "Profile" button in View toolbar works correctly now
  
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.1 (as compared to 4.74.0)

• Fixed incorrect message displayed in the progress window during some longer explorations

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.74.0 (as compared to 4.73.0)

• New user interface: fully user-customizable advanced docking panes/toolbars/menus.
  
  New UI features:
  • Tear-Off Tabs
  • Nested docking pane grouping
  • WYSIWYG docking
  • sliding auto-hide pinnable windows
  • modern "Whidbey" look
  • Tear-Off menus and toolbars
  • Add/copy/Delete/Modify/drag-drop commands
  • User-defined toolbars
  
  
  For a little video presentation see: http://www.amibroker.com/video/uicustomize.htmlNote: toolbar and keyboard customizations made in old versions need to be re-done because they can not be imported by new system due to fundamental differences (I am sorry about that)]
  
  
• GroupID(), IndustryID(), SectorID, MarketID(), InWatchList(), IsIndex() and IsContinuous() functions are now affected by SetForeign
  
  
• Removed debug messages cluttering DebugView output (that appeared in 4.73)
  
  
• Changed the way drawing color picker is working: now it works like in Word (or other text editor) - keeps selected color even if drawing with different color is clicke
  
  
• Fixed false message "The note has been modified outside the notepad editor." occuring when file did not exist
  
  
• OLE: Changed Window.LoadTemplate to return FALSE when file can not be found
  
  
• OLE: Window.LoadTemplate now refreshes display so it is not necessary to use SelectedTab = 0
  
  
• Removed constant RT refreshes in interpretation window when text does not change
  
  
• ZoomToRange: last selected bar in range is visible after zooming now

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.73.0 (as compared to 4.72.1)

• OLE: Window object, new method ZoomToRange( From, To )
  ZoomToRange( From, To )
  From and To parameters are of any type that can be converted to date(you can use string or OLE date for example).
  
  Example code (JScript):
  
  AB=new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AW = AB.ActiveWindow;
  if( AW.ZoomToRange( "2005-04-01", "2005-08-01" ) )
  {
     WScript.Echo("Zoom successfull" );
  }
  
  
• Fixed: Chart got shrinked a bit with each overlaid plot, now the Y scale does not change (unless really needed)
  
  
• Fixed: XShift now works correctly with styleOwnScale and styleLeftScale
  
  
• Fixed: Volume chart overlaid on price chart in log scale (overlay) was compressed to flat line, now it is fixed (volume chart overlay uses linear scale always)
  [#22262]
  
  
• AFL: Added AlmostEqual function (completed: 2005-09-16)
  
  AlmostEqual( x, y, ulps = 5 )
  
  this is a helper function for comparing floating point numbers.It returns True if x and y are equal or almost equal upto defined accurracy (ulps).It is recommended to use this function instead of equality check (==) as itleads to more reliable comparisons and less headache caused by IEEE floating pointacurracy issues.
  
  Parameters:x, y - the numbers or arrays to be compared,Ulps stands for "units in last place" and represents maximum relative error of the comparison. Since 32 bit IEEE floating point numbers have accurracy of 7 significant digits, 1 unit in last place(ulp) represents relative error of 0.00001 %. The default value of ulps parameter is 5 which gives roughtly 0.00005% "comparison sensitivity".
  
  
  Example code:
  
  if( 1/3 == 0.3333333 )
  {
    printf("32-bit Floating point IEEE exact equality\n");
  }
  
  if( AlmostEqual( 1/3, 0.3333333 ) )
  {
    printf("Numbers are almost equal\n");
  }
  
  Thanks to Bruce Dawson for his fast routine.
  
  
• Optimize() function now checks if min < max, step > 0 and checks if parameter name is not empty
  
  
• Made Time&Sales case insensitive (when "case sensitive tickers" option is turned off")
  
  
• OBV/AccDist/Chaikin functions adjusted to be SetForeign-aware
  
  
• OLE: Application object new methods
  BOOL LoadLayout( filename )
  BOOL SaveLayout( filename )
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AB.LoadLayout("C:\\Program Files\\AmiBroker\\Data\\Layouts\\Default.awl");
  
  
• OLE: Window object new property: SelectedTab
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AW = AB.ActiveWindow;
  tabindex = AW.SelectedTab; // read selected tab
  AW.SelectedTab = 3; //switch to tab 3
  AW.SelectedTab = tabindex; // restore originally selected tab
  
  
• Fixed: Exception was generated when GetRTDataForeign was called with non-existing ticker
  
  
• OLE: Window object new methods: LoadTemplate, SaveTemplate
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AW = AB.ActiveWindow;
  AW.SaveTemplate("Test.abt");
  AW.LoadTemplate("Test.abt");
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.72.1 (as compared to 4.72.0)

• fixed out-of-memory problem sometimes occuring during scan of large (>512MB) databases

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.72.0 (as compared to 4.71.1)

• " Currency" field support in ASCII importer
  added command:
  $CURRENCY USD
  
  and field:
  
  $FORMAT Name,Currency$OVERWRITE 1$AUTOADD 1]
  
  
• Added "Additional commands" field in the Import wizard for typing any extra $- commands that are not available via checkboxes
  
  
• Added parameter to AddColumn/AddTextColumn to control column width
  
  AddColumn( ARRAY, "Caption", format = 1.2, color = colorDefault, bgcolor = colorDefault, width = -1);
  AddTextColumn( "Text", "Caption", format = 1.2, color = colorDefault, bgcolor = colorDefault, width = -1 );
  
  
• AddToComposte new flag to work when Status("action")== actionPortfolio (completed: 2005-09-09)
  new flag is called atcEnableInPortfolio
  
  Example:
  
  if( Status("action" ) == actionPortfolio )
  
  {
  ... Custom backtest mode here ....
  AddToComposite( some_array, "~COMPOSITE", "X", atcFlagEnableInPortfolio | atcFlagDefaults );
  
  }
  
  
• AFL added: tanh(), sinh(), cosh() functions
  Hyperbolic tangent, sine and cosine function
  
  
• AFL functions: StrToUpper and StrToLower
  
  
• Fixed: Tick ASCII import: last tick of previous import was deleted on subsequent import, now it is corrected
  
  
• Function to detect mouse button state
  
  GetCursorMouseButtons() returns mouse button state at the time when chart formula is executed
  
  0 - if no mouse button is pressed
  1 - if left mouse button is pressed
  2 - if right mouse button is pressed
  4 - if middle mouse button is pressed
  
  plus combinations:3 - left + right5 - left + middle6 - right + middle 7 - left + right + middle]
  
  
• GetRTDataForeign (retrieving values for other symbols)
  GetRTDataForeign( "field", "symbol")
  
  
• Pane is not deleted if shrinked down to zero (prevents from accidential deletion of panes)
  
  
• Plot function now has xshift parameter that allows to visually shift the chart past the last bar
  Example 20-bar Moving average shifted 10 bars into the future past the last bar:
  
  Plot(Close,"Close",colorBlack,styleCandle);Plot(MA(Close,20), "Shifted MA", colorRed, styleLine, Null, Null, 10 );
  
  Note that shift occurs during plotting and does not affect source array
  
  
• Removed data source selection from preferences because it caused user confusion way too often
  
  
• Stock.Currency available via OLE
  
  
• Title variable now supports new special token {{OHLCX}} which is replaced at runtime by string "Open ..., Hi .... Lo ... Close (...%)" showing current price
  
  This way it is possible to implement formula that will show OHLC prices with number of decimal places set in the preferences.
  
  Example:
  
  SetChartOptions(0,chartShowArrows|chartShowDates);
  _N(Title = "{{NAME}} - {{INTERVAL}} {{DATE}} {{OHLCX}} {{VALUES}}" );
  Plot( C, "Close", ParamColor("Color", colorBlack ), styleNoTitle | ParamStyle("Style") | GetPriceStyle() );
  
  
• user-definable number of decimal places in chart titles (completed: 2005-09-09)
  Number of decimal places displayed in default chart title is now user-definable inTools->Preferences->Miscellaneous"Decimal places in chart titles".
  
  Allowable values:
  -1 - dynamic mode (number of decimal places automatically adjusted)
  0..6 - fixed number of decimal places
  
  
• QuoteArray resizing now uses heuristic algorithm to minimize memory fragmentation and increase performance
  
  
• atcFlagDeleteValues now highlighted properly in the AFL editor
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.71.1 (as compared to 4.71.0)

• fixed compatibility problem with AmiQuote (due to changed order of OLE properties/method while AmiQuote was using old ones)
• now ASCII importer in $TICKMODE does not delete quotes older than oldest (first) record in the imported file, so you can safely import tick data from subsequent files (older first, newest later)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.71.0 (as compared to 4.70.5)

• AFL: added GetCursorXPosition() and GetCursorYPosition() functions
  
  Functions return current mouse cursor position.
  Values returned are equal to those visible in the status bar, and these functions require status bar to be visible. Returned values represent cursor position at the formula execution time (or few milliseconds before it) and accurracy is subject to pixel resolution of the screen (first cursor position is read in screen pixels (integer) and then converted to actual value therefore for example when screen resolution is 1024x768 maximum obtainable resolution in X direction is 0.1% and in Y direction 0.13%), also X values are snap to datetime of nearest data bar.
  
  It only makes sense to use these functions in indicator/interpretation code.
  
  Using them in AA window may yield random values.GetCursorXPosition() function returns X position in DateTime format (the same as used by DateTime() function).You can convert it to string using DateTimeToStr() function.GetCursorYPosition() returns Y position (as displayed in Y axis of the chart).

  
  Example:

  
  ToolTip="X="+DateTimeToStr(GetCursorXPosition()) +"\nY="+GetCursorYPosition();

   

• AFL: added DateTimeToStr() and StrToDateTime() functions
  
  These functions allow to convert string to datetime format and vice versa.

  
  Example:
  
  ToolTip="X="+DateTimeToStr(GetCursorXPosition()) +"\nY="+GetCursorYPosition();]

• Added ability to store charts as .GIF (in addition to PNG)

   

• ASCII importer maximum supported line length is increased to 2048 characters

   

• Fixed: .aflsafe files didn't get deleted automatically

   

• Added N-volume bars charts and timeframe support.
  
  Custom N-volume bar intervals are definable (as usual) in Tools->Preferences->Intraday.
  
  TimeFrame functions were also extended to support N-volume bars using new TimeFrameMode() function calling
  
  TimeFrameMode( 0 );
  
  - switches time frame functions to time-based operation (the default)
  
  TimeFrameMode( 1 );
  
  - switches time frame functions to N-tick operation (positive values passed to TimeFrameSet are treated now as N-tick)
  
  TimeFrameMode( 2 );
  
  - switches time frame functions to N-volume bar operation (positive values passed to TimeFrameSet are treated nowas N-volme bars)

  
  Example:
  
  TimeFrameMode( 2 );
  TimeFrameSet( 50000 ); // 50'000 share bars..
  ...do something ...
  TimeFrameRestore();

  
  Note: N-volume bars are somewhat weird (compression of data to N-volume bar may actually deliver MORE output bars - for example if one tick is 1000 shares and you have specified 100V bars then single tick will be expanded to TEN 100V bars - ten times original size)
  TimeFrame functions are protected against array overrun and will not decompress beyond original array size (you will get an "Error 47. N-volume bar compressed data longer than base time frame").
  Also switching main time frame to some weird N-volume bar value will result in limiting the output to maximum twice original data size(without error message).
  You should keep that in mind and avoid using too small N-volume bar intervals that could lead to such condition.
  Also due to the nature of N-volume bars the only TimeFrameSet() function will yield correct N-volume bar values, TimeFrameGetPrice() may give slightly distorted results.
  It is also possible to use n-volume bars in TimeFrame functions without calling TimeFrameMode() - it is then necessary to specify n-volume bars as negative number offset by -1000000 (minus one million):
  
  TimeFrameSet( -1000000 - 2000 );
  
  // gives 2000V barsSimilarly formatted negative numbers will be reported by Interval() function when n-volume bars are selected.

   

• OLE: Save As PNG / GIF callable from automation
  
  Example script:
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AB.ActiveWindow.ExportImage("Test.png");

• Plugin is not called when GetExtraData is used for symbol that has "use only local database" flag turned on, and NULL is returned instead of an error

   

• Protected against changing application's current working directory by printing to file

   

• Toolbar does not get wrapped when main frame window is resized

   

• OLE: Analysis object has new method MoveWindow( x, y, width, height) that allows to control position and size of automatic analysis window
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AB.Analysis.MoveWindow( 10, 10, 200, 200 );

  
  It has some restrictions on size: specified size can not besmaller than 10x10 pixels and can not be bigger than entire screen dimensions.
  Also when "No minimum size for resizing dialogs" box in UNCHECKED in Tools->Prefs->Misc it won't shink AA window below default size necessary to fully display all controls.

   

• ASCII importer: added ability to import tick data from text files
  
  ASCII importer now allows tick data files to be imported.

  Tick data files consist of several records having the same timestamp.This makes it impossible to use normal import mode which assumes different (unique) timestampsfor each data row (when same timestamp is found then new data overwrites old).

  
  To turn on TICK mode you need to add manually
  
  $TICKMODE 1
  
  line to ASCII importer definition file.

  
  $TICKMODE is a special mode of importer that allows to import quotes that haveduplicate time stamps.
  
  It makes two assumptions:
  a) input data should come in the ascending time order (i.e. OLDER records first, LATEST records last)
  b) input data should consist of entire tick history because importer will DELETE any existing quotes (to avoid creating multiple copies of the same ticks).

  Once again: Turning on
  $TICKMODE 1
  will DELETE ANY QUOTES that already exist in the database and then will import all ticks from input data file.
  You have been warned.

  
  For example data files like this:

  MOL,0,20050606,162959,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,2MOL,0,20050606,162959,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,11MOL,0,20050606,162959,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,40

  
  Can be imported using the following definition file:

  
  $FORMAT Ticker, Skip, Date_YMD, Time, Open, High, Low, Close, Volume
  $SKIPLINES 1
  $SEPARATOR ,
  $CONT 1
  $GROUP 255
  $AUTOADD 1
  $DEBUG 1
  $TICKMODE 1

  
  Sometimes it happens that input files have invalid timestamps (seconds > 59).
  
  For example:
  
  MOL,0,20050606,162970,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,16400.0000,2
  
  Please take a closer look at first line shown in this example it has time:16:29:70 (you see 70 seconds !)

  So I had to add a special flag to the importer that works around such data errors.
  
  It is called $ALLOW99SECONDS 1 and will convert all records with invalid seconds (i.e greater than 59)to 59s.
  So record stamped 16:29:70 will be treated as 16:29:59

  Now for tick mode to work with such incorrect records you would need to add two lines to ASCII importer definition:

  $TICKMODE 1
  $ALLOW99SECONDS 1
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.70.5 (as compared to 4.70.4)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.70.4 (as compared to 4.70.3)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.70.3 (as compared to 4.70.1)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.70.1 (as compared to 4.70.0)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.70.0 (as compared to 4.69.8)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.60.2 (as compared to 4.60.1)

• october appears on date axis on weekly charts
• fixed small issue with returning global variables from functions (problem appeared in 4.60.1 only)
• zero level in performance grid is plotted with default grid color
• fixed adding separator characted when percent scale is used
• fixed problem with N/A results occuring when trade size limit by symbol volume was hit and round lot size was set to zero.
• Title variable templates: making Title statements easy.
  Now you can embed special tokens in Title variable
  that are replaced by appropriate values at run-time.
  if you use {{VALUES}} inside Title string
  it will be replaced by automatic-values generated by Plot function calls.
  if you use {{NAME}} it will be replaced by ticker symbol.
  if you use {{DATE}} it will be replaced by selected date
  if you use {{INTERVAL}} it will be replaced by name of the interval
  Example:
  Title = "{{NAME}} - {{INTERVAL}} {{DATE}} - MyChart : {{VALUES}}";
  
• added information about the length of the cycle (in bars) when using
  cycle drawing tool

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.60.1 (as compared to 4.60.0)

• AA->Settings->Portfolio "Disable trade size limit if data bar has the volume of zero" (true by default). When it is turned ON and the entry bar volume is zero
  the backtesterwill not apply the "limit trade size as % of entry bar volume"- this is to allow backtesting mutual funds that come with zero volume data When it is OFF and entry bar volume is zero then backtester will not allow to enter the trade on such bar.
  
• AA->Settings->Portfolio "Use Previous Bar Equity For Pos Sizing" and new field supported by SetOption/GetOption:
  "UsePrevBarEquityForPosSizing"
  Affects how percent of current equity position sizing is performed.
  False (default value) means: use current (intraday) equity to perform position sizing,
  True means: use previous bar closing equity to perform position sizing
  
• cosmetic issues:
  - replaced "stock" with "symbol" in some strings
  - fixed minor painting problem occuring with cycle study drawn on intraday charts
  - using SelectedValue function does not grow future bar requirements anymore
  
• added StaticVarGetText to make using text static variables easier
  http://www.amibroker.com/f?staticvargettext
  
• new built-in chart: Relative Performance - use right-click "Parameters" to change the ticker list.
  
• ATR uses more bars now when quickafl is on
  
• scoreNoRotate is now highlighted in AFL editor
  
• fixed problem with access violations occuring sometimes when calling the same function many times in single line and return statement in the form: return varname;
  
• Status function supports now
  "firstvisiblebar", "lastvisiblebar", "firstvisiblebarindex", "lastvisiblebarindex"
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.60.0 (as compared to 4.59.0)

• fixed problem with not displaying 3D charts when profit was >1000%
  (comma used as a thousand separator was causing problems - now the separator is removed from the data file)
  
• O3G 3D graphing program improvements:
  • optional flat orthogonal view
  • translucent water level surface. You can move water level using PageUp/PageDown keys and/or toolbar buttons Thanks to Mark Feierstein for suggesting this.
  • sizing and centering works much better now
  • better font spacing/sizing
  • you can now view the 3D chart of ANY statistic from optimization results just CLICK on the list column HEADER you wish to chart and then choose Report->3D graph and you will see the chart of selected metric.
    
• charting improvements
  • when text tool is active, selecting other tool automatically accepts the text tool entry (no need for additional click on a chart to accept). (You can of course abandon edits by pressing ESC key)
  • trend-line bug (affecting other drawing tools) eliminated. (sometime on multi-chart and multi-symbol setups the trendline randomly become almost horizontal, now it is fixed)
  • new drawing tool: CYCLE study
    - pick start and end points and AmiBroker will plot 30 equally-spaced cycles toward the past and 30 cycles towards the future
  • new drawing tool: Fibonacci Extensions (Price)
    - pick start and end point of the controlling trend line, then pick THIRD point where extension lines will start
    
  • new drawing tool: Fibonacci Time Extensions
    - pick start and end point and AmiBroker will plot time cycle lines that will represent fibonacci ratios multiplied by the number of bars between start and end point
    
  • drawing three point objects (triangle, pitchfork, and Fib Extensions) simplified(now you can just click in three places - it is easier for the beginners than clicking, holding down and dragging as it worked previously. Old mode of operation works too)
• minor other fixes
  - % sign appears again on grids using percent style
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.59.0 (as compared to 4.58.0)

• added 3D, animated surface graph showing 2-parameter optimization results
  (Automatic Analysis, Optimize button menu -> View 3D optimization graph
  
  O3G - the 3D graphing program is pretty self-explaining.
  Please note that you can move/rotate/animate the surface plot by mouse, keyboard and toolbar buttons.
  
  Mouse controls:
  - to Rotate - hold down LEFT mouse button and move in X/Y directions
  - to Zoom-in, zoom-out - hold down RIGHT mouse button and move in X/Y directions
  - to Move (translate) - hold down LEFT mouse button and CTRL key and move in X/Y directions
  - to Animate - hold down LEFT mouse button, drag quickly and release button while dragging
  
  Keyboard controls:
  SPACE - animate (auto-rotate)
  LEFT ARROW KEY - rotate vert. left
  RIGHT ARROW KEY - rotate vert. right
  UP ARROW KEY - rotate horiz. up
  DOWN ARROW KEY - rotate horiz. down
  NUMPAD + (PLUS) - Near (zoom in)
  NUMPAD - (MINUS) - Far (zoom out)
  NUMPAD 4 - move left
  NUMPAD 6 - move right
  NUMPAD 8 - move up
  NUMPAD 2 - move down
  
  You can also copy the image as bitmap using Edit->Copy image
  
• intraday bar's portfolio equity (IBPE) is calculated from current bar open price (IBPE is used only to calculate position size values when % of portfolio is specified and reported only in 'detail log' mode). end-of-bar equity (reported by equity chart) is calculated from close price (as it always was)
  
• status bar is automatically shown when Crosshair tool is turned on

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.58.0 (as compared to 4.57.0)

• 9 new AFL functions:
  
  NoteGet( "Symbol" );
  - retrieves note linked to "symbol". If symbol is "" (empty string) then current symbol is used
  
  NoteSet( "Symbol", "Text..." );
  - sets text of the note linked to "symbol".
  If symbol is "" (empty string) then current symbol is used.
  
  If you overwrite note from AFL level that is opened at the same time in Notepad editor the editor will ask you (when you switch the focus to it) if it should reload new text or allow to save your manually entered text.
  
  Example:
  NoteSet("AMD", "Jun 15, 2004: AMD will deliver its first multi-core processors next year");
  
  ClipboardSet( "Text" );
  - copies the "text" to the Windows clipboard
  
  ClipboardGet()
  - retrieves current contents of Windows clipboard
  
  // this can be used to put dynamically-constructed texts into
// clipboard
//
ClipboardSet( "The price of " + FullName() + " is " + Close );
  
  VarSet( "varname", value )
  - sets the value of dynamic variable*
  
  VarGet( "varname" )
  - gets the value of dynamic variable*
  
  StaticVarSet( "varname", value )
  StaticVarSetText( "varname", "value" )
  - sets the value of static variable**
  
  StaticVarGet( "varname" )
  - gets the value of static variable**
  
  * Dynamic variables are variables that are named dynamically, typically by creating a variable name from a static part and a variable part. For example, the following example dynamically constructs the variable name from a variable prefix and a static suffix.
  
  for( i = 1; i < 10; i++ )
{
VarSet( "C"+i, Ref( C, -i ) );
}

// creates variables C1, C2, C3, C4, ...., C10 equal to Ref( C, -1 ), Ref( C, -2 ),   ..., Ref( C, -10 )
// respectively
  
  ** Static variable - the variable has static duration (it is allocated when the program begins and deallocated when the program ends)
  and initializes it to Null unless another value is specified. Static variables allow to share values between various formulas.
  Only NUMBER and STRING static variables are supported now (not ARRAYS).
  
• new Preferences: Intraday setting
  "Override: Weekly/monthly bars use day of last trade"
  when checked (default) then weekly/monthly charts always use timestamp of the day of last trade within a week/month (may not be Friday or last day of the month) regardless of what is set in "Time stamp of compressed intraday bars shows" radio buttons
  If you uncheck this box and "time stamp of compressed intraday bar" is set to END TIME of the interval, then weekly bars will be time-stamped with last day of the week (sunday) and monthly bars will be time-stamped with last day of the month regardless if trading has occured on that day or not.
  
• AddToComposite now by default deletes all previous data instead of setting existing fields to zero at the start of the scan.
  The flag default flag 1 has now the name of atcFlagDeleteValues the old flag (now optional) atcFlagResetValues now has value of 32. Most formulas using ATC should not be affected by that change.
  
• AA: Settings: "Pad and align to reference symbol" is now available for all AA modes (not only portfolio backtest).
  This allows for example to turn on aligning when running scans with AddToComposite and thus ensuring that data holes do not generate valleys in composites. This is useful to create intraday composites when data holes/misalignment is often. (when creating intraday composites it is now recommended to check alignining as well as changing "Time compressed bars use START (or END) time of interval" in Tools->Preferences->Intraday)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.57.0 (as compared to 4.56.1)

• profit distribution chart took a bit long when profits were extremely large - now it is fixed
• changed vertical line selection code to prevent line disappearing after RT update
• vertical line selection is now working fine in multiple linked windows displaying different time frames
• chart panes can be now moved up/down using View->Pane->Move Up/Down without need to re-insert everything to change the order
• fixed 'approx. X days' text in the "Database Settings" window that reported wrong values in versions 4.53..4.56
• when "show arrows" option is selected in AA window then correct interval is selected in the chart (it was not functioning properly for beta versions 4.53..4.56 and intraday data)
• added Notepad window (View->Notepad) that allows to store free-text notes about particular security. Just type any text and it will be automatically saved / read back as you browse through symbols. Notes are global and are saved in "Notes" subfolder as ordinary
  text files.
• implemented browser-like history Back/Forward in menu View->History and in the toolbar,(keyboard shortcuts Back: Ctrl+Alt+LEFT, Forward: Ctrl+Alt+RIGHT, you can change it in Tools->Prefs->Keyboard) Please note that due to customization features of the toolbar on old installations the Back/Forward buttons will not appear unless added manually (click with RIGHT mouse button over standard toolbar, select "CUSTOMIZE" menu and add Back/Forward buttons.)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.56.1 (as compared to 4.56.0)

• fixed crash at address: 0x474f54
• fixed K-ratio calculation. Now follows exactly corrected Excel sheet from page 89 of "Quantitative Trading Strategies" by Lars Kestner (published 2003).
• because of many people not reading the comment regarding new "Limit trade size as % of entry bar volume" setting, implemented checking for volume = 0 in data files. If volume is equal to 0 in your data file then this trade size limit does not apply.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.56.0 (as compared to 4.55.1)

• fixed crash when RT quote window ticker list contained symbol that did not exist in the database
  
• added Toolbar customization:
  right-click over any toolbar and choose "CUSTOMIZE" menu to add/remove/arrange toolbar buttons. You can also press ALT key and move/arrange buttons within one toolbar without needing to open "customize" dialog
  
• eSignal plugin 1.7.1: fixed problem with zero data when the user selected not enough bars to load (mixed mode requires a bit more bars)
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.55.1 (as compared to 4.55.0)

• implemented workaround to Windows XP status bar display problem causing plugin status indicator not 'disappearing' sometimes
  
• fixed problem with crash sometimes occuring when calling Import() OLE automation method
  when AB was not running.
  Versions 4.54-4.55 are localization-enabled and month names are localized too, localized strings have to be setup at the start of the program, but this was working correctly only if GUI was launched. When creating AB OLE object without GUI month name string were not
  set-up correctly and this caused problems. (This fixes problems with CSI/UA export as well as AQ trying to import to non-existing instance of AB)
  
• fputs/fgets/fclose/feof file functions are now protected against using null file handle
  (common coding error among AFL users)
  
• Parameter names are not truncated in the parameter list
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.55.0 (as compared to 4.54.0)

• Median and Percentile calculations include current bar
• new symbols added via CategoryAddSymbol trigger workspace ticker list refresh
  
• calling COM methods returning nothing (void) does not cause "type mismatch" message
  
• duplicate parameters are no longer produced when user specifies parameter names with trailing/leading spaces in Param()/ParamStr()/ParamColor()
  
• now it is safe to call AB.RefreshAll() from inside of AmiBroker because this method is protected against locking up / looping by not allowing consequent refresh if previous refresh occured in less than one second
• Parameters window now is resizable
• Parameters window now support date and time parameters.
  Corresponding new AFL functions are:
  
  ParamDate( "Name", "Default date", format = 0 );
  
  where:
  "Name" is a string holding parameter name
  "Default date" is a string holding date in any any format:
  YYYY-MM-DD
  MM/DD/YY
  DD-MM-YY
  etc, etc.
  
  format - defines return value format, allowable values are:
  0 - return value is a NUMBER and holds DateNum. Ie: 990503 for May 3, 1999,
  1 - return value is a STRING formatted holding date according to your windows regional settings
  
  ParamTime( "Name", "Default time", format = 0 );
  where:
  "Name" is a string holding parameter name
  "Default time" is a string holding date in any of the following formats:
  HH:MM:SS
  HH:MM
  
  format - defines return value format, allowable values are:
  0 - return value is a NUMBER and holds TimeNum. Ie: 133515 for 13:35:15
  1 - return value is a STRING formatted holding time according to your windows regional settings
  
  
  Examples:
  Title = WriteVal( ParamDate("ParamDateAsDateNum","2004-05-14"), 7.0 );
Title = ParamDate("ParamDateAsString","2004-05-17",1);

• portfolio/individual backtester/optimizer, new setting in AA->Settings->Portfolio:
  "Limit trade size as % of entry bar volume" (default = 10%)
  
  This prevents from entering the trades greater than given percentage of entry bar's volume.
  For example if backtesting daily data and today's volume for thinly traded stock is 177,000 shares, setting this to 10% will limit the maximum trade size to 17,700 shares (10% of total daily volume). This prevents from 'affecting the market'
  by huge orders.
  
  IMPORTANT NOTE:
  Some instruments like MUTUAL FUNDS come without VOLUME data. To backtest such instruments please set this field to ZERO (0). This effectively turns OFF this feature. Otherwise you won't be able to enter any trade at all. Suggestions are welcome how to handle this problem automatically (maybe just detect if bar's volume is ZERO and then allow entering any size?)
  
• K-ratio calculation changed following the change made by its creator, Mr. Lars Kestner.
  
  Quoting from the book "Quantitative Trading Strategies" from 2003 by Lars Kestner:
  
  [ - - - ]
  " The K-ratio is a unitless measure of performance that can be compared across markets and time periods. [ - - - ] Traders should
  search for strategies yielding K-ratios greater than +0.50. Together, the Sharpe ratio and K-ratio are the most important
  measures when evaluating trading strategy performance. Note: When I created the K-ratio in 1996, I thought I had created a
  robust measure to evaluate performance. In mid-2000, trader Bob Fuchs brought a small error to my attention regarding the
  scaling of the K-ratio. He was correct in his critique and I have corrected the error in this text. Publications prior to 2002 will
  show a different formula for the K-ratio. The updated formula in this book is correct."

  Mr Lars Kestner has corrected his formula based on this critique:

  K-ratio = slope / ( sterr * per )

  slope: Linear regression slope of equity line
  sterr: Standard error of slope
  per: Number of periods in the performance test

  Special thanks to Jeremy Berkovits who brought that to my attention.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.54.0 (as compared to 4.53.1)

• "Allow mixed EOD/intraday data" mode added (controllable from File->Database Settings->Intraday, checkbox with the same name) it allows to work with database that has a mixture of intraday and EOD data in one data file. If this is turned on then in intraday modes EOD bars are removed on-the-fly and in daily mode EOD bars are displayed instead of time compressed intraday or if there is no EOD bar for corresponding day then intraday bars are compressed as usual.

  This mode works in conjunction with new versions of plugins that allow mixed data. Mixed mode is now supported by MarketCast plugin (1.1 or higher)(Australia) and eSignal plugin (1.7.0 or higher) only.

  Mixed mode allows intraday plus very long daily histories in one database.

  Note that this is EXPERIMENTAL feature.

  + Real-Time quote window enhanced
  Now only fields that are changed change the background to 'yellow' and if the value in given field increases then it is displayed in green if decreases then is displayed in red. This allows easy identification of movement.

  + all strings in the program moved to resources for easy localization

  + fixed problem with SetForeign()+FullName() returning symbol instead of full name of foreign security.

  + added new AFL function IsContinuous() to check if "continuous" flag is turned on in Symbol->Information window

  + OLE properties can be retrieved (DISPATCH_PROPERTYGET) directly from AFL now using parameterless function syntax. This allows reading values exposed by OLE automation directly from AFL code. Example:

  AB = CreateObject("Broker.Application");
Stocks = AB.Stocks(); // get collection
Stock = Stocks.Item( Name() ); // currently selected

"FullName : " + Stock.FullName();
"Alias : " + Stock.Alias();
"Address : " + Stock.Address();
"Shares: " + Stock.Issue();
"Book value: " + Stock.BookValue();
"Market : " + Stock.MarketID();
"WebID : " + Stock.WebID();

  You can check if OLE object is valid by calling IsNull() function, example:

  AB = CreateObject("Broker.Application");
Stocks = AB.Stocks(); // get collection
Stock = Stocks.Item( "INTC" );

if( IsNull( Stock ) )
{
  printf("COM object invalid (Null) - symbol does not exist\n");
}
else
{
  printf("COM object valid - you can access its methods\n");
}  

  + IsEmpty/IsNull and IsTrue functions operate with scalars and OLE dispatches without upsizing them to array
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.53.1 (as compared to 4.53.0)

• addressed problem with broker.layers file. Now version 4.53.1 correctly reads broker.layers file saved with older versions however note that old versions are not compatible with new format.
• layer properties dialog provides more comfortable setting of layer visibility
• other minor fixes
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.53.0 (as compared to 4.52.0)

• per-group intraday settings (filtering/daily compression) Use Symbol->Categories: "GROUP" -> Use own intraday settings, click
  on "Intraday settings" button to define intraday settings specific to given group.
  
• intraday settings now allow to specify separate day (RTH) and night (ETH) sessions
  
• time filtering now allows to display:
  a) 24 hours trading (no filtering)
  b) day session only
  c) night session only
  d) day and night sessions only
  
• new intraday time compression mode: Day/Night - shows two bars (day and night) per day
  
• daily compression can be now based on
  a) exchange time (available since 4.00)
  b) local time (available since 4.50)
  c) day/night session times definable by the user (new)
  
• when "activatestopsimmediately" is turned ON then cash from stopped out positions is NOT available to enter trades the same day
  
• easy access to selected category settings from Symbol->Information window.
  
• Workspace tree supports in-place editing of market, group, sector, industry and watch list names. Single click on category name and just enter the name
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.52.0 (as compared to 4.51.1)

• fixed problem with fixup=0 and handling multiple data holes in a row
  
• added new commands to ASCII format definitions:
  $MINTICKERLEN <number> - defines minimum accepted length of the ticker symbol
  $MAXTICKERLEN <number> - defines maximum accepted length of the ticker symbol
  For example ASX users may wish to use
  $MAXTICKERLEN 3
  to make sure that ASCII importer accepts only symbols that have no more than 3 characters (this excludes ASX options and warrants)
  
• fixed problem with incorrect very first value of the array returned by variable-period version of HHV/LLV
  
• fixed Procedure/function parameter overwrite issue when using built-in price arrays and variable overwrite issue
  
• memory allocated for return value is marked for earlier freeing so calling user-defined functions inside loops should consume less memory
  
• Interval() function enhanced. Now accepts format parameter:
  Interval( format = 0 );
  possible values:
  format = 0 - returns bar interval in seconds
  format = 1 - as above plus TICK bar intervals are returned with negative sign
  so Interval() function applied to 10 tick chart will return -10
  format = 2 - returns STRING with name of interval such as "weekly/monthly/daily/hourly/15-minute/5-tick"
  
• vertical quote selection line in linked windows is now independent
  
• changing "same day stops" via SetOption("ActivateStopsImmediately") in portfolio backtest mode has an effect now (previously reacted only on manual settings)
  
• SetOption("CommissionMode", mode ) works now in portfolio mode too (previously worked
  in old backtest mode only)
  
• SetOption("CommissionAmount", amount ) works now in portfolio mode too (previously worked
  in old backtest mode only)
  
• $SEPARATOR command in ASCII importer definitions now allows to import files that have fields separated by more than one separator characters Separator string (array of characters) must be enclosed in quotation marks. If there is only one separator character (as in old versions) then quotation marks are needed.
  For example files with joined date and time
  
  $SEPARATOR ", "
  $FORMAT DATE_YMD,TIME,OPEN,HIGH,LOW,CLOSE
  
  will be able to import file like this:
  2004-02-04 12:30,3.41,3.44,3.40,3.42
  (note date and time field are separated by space not by comma)
  
• Import wizard now supports new separators 'comma or space', 'semicolon or space' and 'tab or space'
  
• ASCII importer and Quote Editor properly
  distinguish records with time specified as 00:00:00 from EOD records (without time)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.51.1 (as compared to 4.51.0)

• OLE interface methods numbering adjusted to maintain backward compatibility with previous versions and other programs referring to old OLE interface
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.51.0 (as compared to 4.50.10)

• OLE automation interface changes:

  Analysis.Backtest and Analysis.Optimize now support new "Type" parameter.
  Type can be one of the following values:
  0 : portfolio backtest/optimize
  1 : individual backtest/optimize
  2 : old backtest/optimize
  
  For backward compatibility Type parameter is optional and defaults to 2
  (old backtest/optimize)

  Example code:
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AB.Analysis.Backtest( 0 ); // perform portfolio backtest
  AB.Analysis.Optimize( 0 ); // perform portfolio optimize

• OLE automation interface new object: "Commentary"
  
  This object has 5 methods:
  - BOOL LoadFormula( STRING pszFileName ) - loads the formula
  - BOOL SaveFormula( STRING pszFileName ) - saves the formula
  - void Apply() - displays the commentary
  - BOOL Save( STRING pszFileName ); - saves commentary output (result) to the file (use after call to Apply())
  - void Close() - closes the commentary window

  Commentary object is accessible from Broker.Application object via Commentary property:

  Example code:
  
  AB = new ActiveXObject("Broker.Application");
  AB.Commentary.LoadFormula("C:\\Program Files\\AmiBroker\\AFL\\MACD_c.afl");
  AB.Commentary.Apply();
  AB.Commentary.Save("Test.txt");
  AB.Commentary.SaveFormula("MACDTest.afl");
  //AB.Commentary.Close();

• AFL function Now( format = 0 ) accepts new parameter values

  Returns current date / time in numerous of formats:
  // formats supported by old versions
  format = 0 - returns string containing current date/time formatted according to system settings
  format = 1 - returns string containing current date only formatted according to system settings
  format = 2 - returns string containing current time only formatted according to system settings
  format = 3 - returns DATENUM number with current date
  format = 4 - returns TIMENUM number with current time
  format = 5 - returns DATETIME number with current date/time
  // new formats available from version 4.51
  format = 6 - returns current DAY (1..31)
  format = 7 - returns current MONTH (1..12)
  format = 8 - returns current YEAR (four digit)
  format = 9 - returns current DAY OF WEEK (1..7, where 1=Sunday, 2=Monday, and so on)
  format = 10 - returns current DAY OF YEAR (1..366)

• Custom indicators:
  If plot name is empty the value of such plot does not appear in the title
  and does not appear in the data tool tip

  Plot( C, "Price", colorWhite, styleCandle );
  Plot( MA( C, 10 ), "", colorRed ); // NOTE that this plot name/value will NOT appear in the title
  Plot( MA( C, 20 ), "MA20", colorGreen );

• SetOption( "field", value )
  accepts new fields:
  "CommissionMode" -
  0 - use portfolio manager commission table
  1 - percent of trade
  2 - $ per trade
  3 - $ per share/contract

  "CommissionAmount" - amount of commission in modes 1..3

  "MarginRequirement" - account margin requirement (as in settings), 100 = no margin

  "ReverseSignalForcesExit" - reverse entry signal forces exit of existing trade (default = True )

• new AFL function: GetOption( "field" ) - retrieves the settings, accepted fields the same as in SetOption.

  Example:

  PositionSize = -100 / GetOption("MaxOpenPositions");

• new AFL function: GetRTData( "field" )
  - retrieves the LAST (the most recent) value of the following fields
  reported by streaming real time data source )
  (Note 1: this function is available ONLY in PROFESSIONAL edition,
  calling it using Standard edition will give you NULL values for all fields)
  (Note 2: works only if data source uses real time data source (plugin) )
  (Note 3: availablity of data depends on underlying data source
  - check the real-time quote window to see if given field is available )
  (Note 4: function result represents the current value at the time of the call
  /formula execution/, and they will be refreshed depending on chart or commentary refresh interval
  /settable in preferences/. Built-in real time quote window is refreshed
  way more often (at least 10 times per second) )

  Supported fields:
  "Ask" - current best ask price
  "AskSize " - current ask size
  "Bid" - current best bid price
  "BidSize " - current bid size
  "52WeekHigh" - 52 week high value
  "52WeekHighDate" - 52 week high date (in datenum format)
  "52WeekLow" - 52 week low value
  "52WeekLowDate" - 52 week low date (in datenum format)
  "Change" - change since yesterdays close
  "Dividend" - last dividend value
  "DivYield" - dividend yield
  "EPS" - earnings per share
  "High" - current day's high price
  "Low" - current day's low price
  "Open" - current day's open price
  "Last" - last trade price
  "OpenInt" - current open interest
  "Prev" - previous day close
  "TotalVolume" - total today's volume
  "TradeVolume" - last trade volume
  "ChangeDate" - datenum (YYYMMDD) of last data change
  "ChangeTime" - timenum (HHMMSS) of last data change
  "UpdateDate" - datenum (YYYMMDD) of last data update
  "UpdateTime" - timenum (HHMMSS) of last data update
  "Shares" - total number of shares

  Example:
  "Bid = "+GetRTData("Bid");
  "Ask = "+GetRTData("Ask");
  "Last = "+GetRTData("Last");
  "Vol = "+GetRTData("TradeVolume");

  "EPS = "+GetRTData("EPS");
  "52week high = "+GetRTData("52weekhigh");

• Custom indicators:
  Default names and graph values appear in the title
  when using old-style graph0, graph1, graph2 statements in the custom indicators

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.50.5 (as compared to 4.50.4)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.50.4 (as compared to 4.50.3)

• portfolio report now shows "N/A" instead of -1#INF and similar strange looking things that appeared when there were no trades (division by zero)
• removed the extra 'z' letter in fprintf formatting sequence (that caused crash on exit when saving params)
• correct column type (alpha) is set for the first column in individual backtest
• 'show current trade arrows' works OK after portfolio backtest
• when timeshift is not equal zero in intraday databases then DateNum(), Day(), Month(), Year(), DayOfWeek() and DayOfMonth() functions adjust date (day) when bar time is 'shifted' outside 0..24 hour range.
• rotational mode: all OHLC fields in artificial future bar are filled with close price of last bar for consistency with regular mode and to prevent problems with stops hit on artificial future bar in rotational mode.
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.50.3 (as compared to 4.50.2)

• the formula names with dash '-' character are now properly displayed in the reports
• fixed problem with Equity/SetForeign (introduced in 4.50)
• MAE/MFE charts X-axis layout improved
• new report - trade list: profit, pos. size, cum. profit and profit/bar columns use fixed format with 2 decimal places now (no scientific format)
• EnableTextOutput() works again (thx. Greg)
• fixed rounding in Stock.NominalValue
• other minor fixes:
  + better CRC calculation method for #include
  + sellprice/coverprice are written back with updated prices for stops in case of Equity(1)
  + fixed menu-button owner draw painting code (thx. Herman)
  + progress window is displayed in single-stock optimization with new backtester too

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.50.2 (as compared to 4.50.0)

• fixed problem with 'exit date' showing in fact 'entry date' in trade list (problem introduced in 4.50.0)
• fixed crash @0x482898
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.50.0 (as compared to 4.49.0)

• old backtester uses now also "MinShares" Setting, so it will not enter trade with share position size lower than 'min. shares'. Due to this change. 'min. shares' setting has been moved from 'Portfolio' to 'General' setting page.
  
• changed handling of open positions in old backtester to match with portfolio backtester and equity plot:
  - exit commissions are taken from open position profit (previously they were not taken)
  - open positions are closed always at CLOSE price (previously were closed at trade price)
  
• LineArray( x0, y0, x1, y1, extend = 0, usebarindex = False )
  - has new parameter (usebarindex) - False by default that switches allows to specify x parameters as bar Indexes (as returned by BarIndex() function).
  
• fixed problem with displaying exploration results having more than 100 columns
  
• portfolio backtests/optimizations should be 2x faster on average (* excluding scanning phase)
  
• layout of AA window changed. Now (new) PORFOLIO backtest and PORTFOLIO optimize modes are default and available from "Backtest" and "Optimize" buttons. Other modes are available from drop down menus added to "Backtest" and "Optimize" buttons. Portfolio report is no longer automatically displayed after portfolio backtest. Please click "Report" button to display it. The same applies to portfolio equity.
  
• layout of settings page changed. Old backtester settings moved to 'old' page.
  
• new "individual backtest" mode: allows to run new backtester separately on each symbol in the selected "apply to" group. (Replaces old backtester functionality in testing multiple stocks and provides new reports)
  
• settings and formula used are automatically saved after portfolio backtests
  
• new reports are now divided into separate pages: Statistics, Charts, Trades, Formula, Settings, Symbols
  
• each backtest report is now automatically stored "Reports" subfolder of AmiBroker directory. The results.rlst holds tab separated list of all backtests results while corresponding subdirectories hold reports of backtest. REMEMBER to delete old reports periodically (using Report Explorer), otherwise your hard disk would fill up!
  
• New add-on program (free) included: Report Explorer that allows to browse / sort / view / delete results of backtests.
  Available from AA window Report -> Report Explorer.
  
• new AFL function:
  SetFormulaName( string )
  allows to programatically change the name of the formula that is displayed in the backtest result explorer
  
• fixed cases when GetChartID() used in AA did not return zero
  
• Window->Clone has been renamed to Window->New Linked to better describe its function
  
• other minor fixes
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.49.0 (as compared to 4.48.2)

• new Percentile function
  
  Percentile( array, period, rank )
  
  rank is 0..100 - defines percentile rank in the array
  
  Example:
  Volume > Percentile( Volume, 100, 70 );
  
  means: current day volume ranks within TOP 30% of volumes of last 100 bars (is above 70th percentile)
  
  Volume < Percentile( Volume, 100, 30 );
  means: current day volume ranks within BOTTOM 30% of volumes of last 100 bars (is below 30th percentile)
  
  (performance note: the implementation of percentile function involves sorting that is relatively slow process even though that quicksort algorithm is used)
• new function
  
  LineArray( x0, y0, x1, y1, extend = 0 )
  
  generates array equivalent to trend line drawn from point x0, y0 to point x1, y1. x coordinates are in bars (zero based), y coordinates are in dollars Note: x0 must be SMALLER than x1. Note 2: the function accepts only numbers therefore
  generates single line. To produce multiple lines you have to call it many times with different co-ordinates.
  if extend is 1 then line is right extended.
  if extend is 2 then line is left extended
  if extend is 3 then line is left and right extended
  
  Example:
  y0=LastValue(Trough(L,5,2));
y1=LastValue(Trough(L,5,1));
x0=BarCount - 1 - LastValue(TroughBars(L,5,2));
x1=BarCount - 1 - LastValue(TroughBars(L,5,1));
Line = LineArray( x0, y0, x1, y1, 1 );
Plot(C, "C", colorWhite, styleCandle);
Plot( Line, "Trend line", colorBlue );
  
• new function sign( x )
  (x can be number or array).
  Returns 1 if x is positive, returns -1 if x is negative, and returns 0 if x is zero.
  
• ApplyStop : 'exitatstop' parameter extended:
  ApplyStop( Type, Mode, Amount, ExitAtStop = 1, Volatile = False, ReentryDelay = 0 )
  
  ExitAtStop = 0 - means check stops using only trade price and exit at regular trade price
  (if you are trading on close it means that only close price will be checked for exits and exit will be done at close price)
  ExitAtStop = 1 - check High-Low prices and exit intraday on price equal to stop level on the same bar when stop was triggered
  ExitAtStop = 2 - check High-Low prices but exit NEXT BAR on regular trade price.
  
  ( first two modes 0 and 1 are the same as in old versions )
  
  Note on using stops:
  Scenario 1:
  you trade on next bar OPEN and want to exit intraday on stop price
  
  Correct settings:
  ActivateStopsImmediately turned ON
  ExitAtStop = 1
  Trade delays set to one
  Trade price set to open
  
  Scenario 2:
  you trade on today's close and want to exit intraday on stop price
  Correct settings:
  ActivateStopsImmediately turned OFF
  ExitAtStop = 1
  Trade delays set to zero
  Trade price set to close
  
  Scenario 3:
  you trade on next day OPEN and want to exit by stop on OPEN price when PREVIOUS day H-L range hits stop
  Correct settings:
  
  • (if you want to have stops executed AFTER regular signals, so cash from stopped out positions is NOT available to enter trades the same day)
    ActivateStopsImmediately turned ON
    
  • b) (if you want to have stops executed BEFORE regular signals, so cash from stopped out positions IS available to enter new trades the same day)
    ActivateStopsImmediately turned OFF
  
  ExitAtStop = 2 (NEW)
  Trade delays set to one
  Trade price set to open
  
  Scenario 4:
  you trade on today's close and want to exit only when today's close price hits the stop level
  
  Correct settings:
  ActivateStopsImmediately turned OFF
  ExitAtStop = 0
  Trade delays set to zero
  Trade price set to close
  
• portfolio backtester: MAE/MFE are now updated with exit price in case when profit has been hit intraday and activate stops immediatelly was turned off.
  
• portfolio backtester: 'activate stops immediately'=TRUE and 'same bar exit'=FALSE combination works OK now
  
• 'auto-tile windows' feature now tiles windows only it two cases:
  - when new window is open
  - when RT quote window is shown/hidden
  
• in versions 4.48.0-4.48.2 cloned windows were sometimes saved in two or more copies, now it is fixed. This bug caused also crashes when switching layouts. Fixed.
  
• portfolio backtester now allows custom exit labeling as old backtester
  
• fixed range unmarking by double click in cloned windows
  
• all listviews now use alternate background colors for odd/even rows this feature can be turned off using Tools->Preferences->Miscellaneous "Use alternate row colors"

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.48.2 (as compared to 4.48.1)

• once more changed slightly HTML copy routine and turned it off by default
• added a switch to Tools->Preferences->Editor that allows to turn "Copy as HTML" feature on, on those machines having no problems (like mine)

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.48.1 (as compared to 4.48.0)

• Changed code that copies HTML format from AFL editor to clipboard. (this hopefully will address problems with pasting on some machines)
• MFE/MAE distribution charts are now available in Professional Edition only
• zooming is now independent in cloned windows

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.48.0 (as compared to 4.47.0)

• window linking with different bar interval works now.
  Just use Window->Clone menu ... this will create a clone of currently selected window. The difference from previous version is that you can now select different interval for this cloned window. Cloned windows are numbered. You can have infinite number of cloned windows and they are linked within group (change symbol in one window causes change in every linked window) but the viewing interval is independent.
  
• cloned windows are now properly saved in a layout. (note that format has changed slightly and you may get problems
  trying to load into old version the layout saved with NEW version)
  
• portfolio backtester: added support for backtesting futures
  
• portfolio backtest report:
  + added profit distribution chart
  + added MAE distribution chart (Pro version only)
  + added MFE distribution chart (Pro version only)
  
• portfolio trade list: Max. Adverse Excursion (MAE) and Max. Favorable Excurison (MFE) added
  
• ApplyStop / ExitAtStop=False feature in rotational mode works as in regular mode now (checks only trade price for stops, not H-L range. H-L is checked when ExitAtStop is True)
  
• AFL Editor - Edit->Copy puts "HTML Format" and "DwHt" (Dreamweaver HTML format) into clipboard in addition to TXT and RTF formats. This provides ability to paste nicely formatted codes directly into Outlook Express and Macromedia Dreamweaver
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.47.0 (as compared to 4.46.3)

• in regular detailed log does not show more than 2 * MaxOpenPositions top ranked entry (buy/short) signals since anyway they won't ever be entered.
  
• Regular mode: "Max # of tracked signals" setting removed. Now _all_ exit signals are tracked.
  
• fixed offset in day numbers returned by DayOfWeek() function for dates prior to 1970
  
• added InterestEarning calculation to Portfolio backtest
  
• now single bar 'long side' and 'short side' exposure is calculated as value of long positions and short positions (respectively) divided by overall equity value. (previously it was divided by long equity / short equity value but it caused problems for systems that were constantly loosing on short side causing that short side dropped below zero)
  
• other minor fixes
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.46.3 (as compared to 4.46.2)

• thousand separator is removed automatically in StrToNum to prevent problems with conversion of numbers > 1000 when thousand separator is enabled
• fixed issue with rotational mode, entering other symbols when trade on top ranked symbol has been stopped and re-entry delay > 0
• detailed log mode does not affect drawdown calculation (previously it could result in slightly bigger drawdowns reported in 'detailed log' mode due to the fact that exit bar close was included in drawdown calculations even when exiting on open.)
• still open trades are listed in HTML report too.
  
• trade list in HTML portfolio report can be turned OFF using Settings: "Report", Trade list: <no trade list> setting.
  (this setting page will be cleaned up at some point when there will be one backtester only).
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.46.2 (as compared to 4.46.1)

• AA settings, switch: "Add artificial future bar" - now artificial future bar is has incremented date, volume set to zero and all prices (OHLC) set to CLOSE price of last available data bar. (this is done to prevent the closed-out value of open positions)
  
• new AFL function:
  Median( array, period ) - finds median (middle element) value over period elements
• now trade list in portfolio mode displays reason for exit (if trade has been closed by stop)
  
• trade list is now included in the report
  
• rotational mode: profit target stop was broken, now it is fixed
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.46.1 (as compared to 4.46.0)

• scoreNoRotate now works again
• small fix in regarding month boundary handling in "Use local time for daily compression" mode.
  
• AA settings, new switch: "Add artificial future bar". When checked AmiBroker adds tommorrow's bar and this enables you to see tommorrow's (or next bar) trade recommendations when your system uses one bar delay. Artificial future bar is a copy of last available data bar but has of course incremented date and volume set to zero.
  
• two functions (where present in 4.46.0 but not documented)
  IsFavourite() - returns 'true' if current symbol belongs to favorites
  IsIndex() - returns 'true' if current symbol belongs to index category
  

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.46.0 (as compared to 4.45.0)

• New AFL functions
  
  • added NumToStr as synonum of WriteVal (as this function did not 'write' anything, just returned string)
  • added StrToNum( string ) - converts string to numbe
  • added StrFind( string, substring ) - finds first occurrence of substring in string. returns 0 if not found, otherwise returns character index (one-based) of first occurrence
  • added StrFormat( formatstr, ... ) that performs sprintf-like formatting and returns string
  • CategoryGetName( category, number) function - returns name of category (market/group/sector/industry/watchlist)
  • CategoryGetSymbols( category, number ) added - synonym to GetCategorySymbols
    
  • CategoryAddSymbol( symbol, category, number ); - adds the symbol to given category, note that for markets, groups, industries 'adding' means moving from one category to another, since the symbol is assigned always to one and only one market, group, industry and sector. This limitation does not apply to watchlists, favorites, and index categories. When symbol string is empty ("") then current symbol is used.
  • CategoryRemoveSymbol( symbol, category, number ); - removes the symbol to given category, note that for markets, groups, industries 'removing' means moving from given category to category with number zero, since the symbol is assigned always to one and only one market, group, industry and sector. This limitation does not apply to watchlists, favorites, and index categories. When symbol string is empty ("") then current symbol is used.
    
• added new AFL functions for output/file handling (almost exactly like in C run-time):
• printf( formatstr, ... ) - output formatted text to the commentary/interpretation (note 1: for numbers always use %f, %e or %g formatting, %d or %x will not work because there are no integers in AFL, note 2: as of now only numbers and arrays can now be printed. For arrays 'selected value' is printed)
• fopen( filename, mode ) - opens file, returns filehandle . Mode can be "r" - for reading, "w" for writing, "a" for appending (and all other regular C-runtime library modes)
• fclose( filehandle ); - closes file
• fputs( string, filehandle ) - puts (writes) string to file
• fgets( filehandle ) - gets (reads) string from file (returns string)
• feof( filehandle ) - detects end-of-file marker ( gives True - if end of file reached )
• PositionScore table is now shifted according to buy trade delay in regular mode too. (it was shifted so in rotational mode already). Caveat: make sure to set long and short delays to the same values if you are trading both long and short sides, otherwise only long trades get correct ranks. Note 2: PositionSize is not and was never shifted with trade delays
  to allow code for purchasing N stocks working with any delay, example PositionSize = 5 * BuyPrice

• added new option to File->Database Settings->Intraday settings "Use local time for daily compression".
  All previous versions used exchange or data vendor time to do build daily bars (this means that regardless of your time shift settings daily bars looked the same because they used exchange or data source time (for example if you are using QuoteTracker it was US EST time) - this caused problems for Australian users using QuoteTracker as data source because QuoteTracker reported ASX quotes with US time that lead to invalid daily bars. Now if you check "Use local time for daily compression" AmiBroker will use your local time (according to 'time shift' setting) to build daily bars. Note that switching this on means that daily bars may look different when you change time zone (i.e. time shift setting)
  
• ASCII importer: support for importing unadjusted Yahoo data performing adjustment on the fly:
  
  • new field ADJCLOSE - to read adj. close column from Yahoo. Works _only_ in conjunction with CLOSE field. When both CLOSE and ADJCLOSE are present in the ASCII format definition then importer calculates split factor by dividing ADJCLOSE/CLOSE. It then multiples OPEN, HIGH, LOW and CLOSE fields by this factor and divides VOLUME field by this factor. This effectively converts unadjusted prices to split adjusted prices. Split ratio gets locked once ADJCLOSE drops below 0.05.
    
  • new command $ROUNDADJ decimaldigits - causes split-adjusted prices (see above) to be rounded to 'decimaldigits' precision. By default no rounding is done.
    
  • new command $RECALCSPLITS 1 - (off by default) causes that splits are recalculated by AmiBroker
    by the algorithm that tries to construct correct adjusted price, based on inaccurate information provided by Yahoo.
    Note that Yahoo provides only 2 decimal digits in adj. close field therefore the more adj. close approaches zero due to adjustements the error grows. The option $RECALCSPLITS 1 is intended to address this problem (at least partially).
    It works as follows:
    1. for each bar ratio ADJCLOSE/CLOSE is calculated
    2. if the ratio changes in two consecutive bars by more than 10% it means that
    split happened that bar. True split ratio is guessed by matching true fraction
    in the format of X/Y, where X and Y = 1..9, to the change in ratios.
    3. Then true split ratio is used to adjust all past bars until new split is detected.
    
  • new command $RAWCLOSE2OI 1 - (off by default) - causes that OpenInterest field gets assigned CLOSE (raw close) field value multiplied by 100
    
• new aqh.format file included in "formats" subfolder using new ASCII importer commands to import and adjust prices from Yahoo. Compatible with existing AmiQuote versions.

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.45.0 (as compared to 4.44.1)

• score of 999999 is no longer recognized. Use constant scoreNoRotate instead.
  
• UI simplification:
  Rotational mode: separate settings for rotational mode trade price and delay and worst rank held have been removed.
  Rotational mode now uses buy price and buy delay settings from "Trade" tab. You can also set delay from the code SetTradeDelays( 1, 1, 1, 1 ); will give you one bar delay. To set 'worst rank held' use SetOption function in your formula:
  SetOption("WorstRankHeld", 5 );
  
• stops implemented in rotational trading mode (limitation: stops in rotational mode can only be static, they can not change
  'stop amount' from symbol to symbol or from bar to bar like in regular mode)
  
• re-entry delay implemented for all kind of stops
  
• user interface added in the settings for n-bar stops
  
• ApplyStop function now takes 6 parameters:
  ApplyStop( Type, Mode, Amount, ExitAtStop = True, Volatile = False, ReentryDelay = 0 )
  
• rotational mode docs moved to this page

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.44.1 (as compared to 4.44.0)

• fixed problem with rotational mode, trading price: open

• fixed crash with 'detail mode' and large number of open positions/ranks used
  
• max. in-memory cache size can be set now to 20000 (please note that this large cache requires lots of RAM (more than 512MB))
  
• listview copy to clipboard feature now copies also column header names
  
• SetForeign( ticker, fixup = True, tradeprices = False) and
  RestorePriceArrays( tradeprices = False )
  have new flag now: tradeprices (False by default)
  when tradeprices is set to TRUE, then not only OHLC, V, OI, Avg arrays are set to foreign symbol values, but also BuyPrice, SellPrice, ShortPrice, CoverPrice, PointValue, TickSize, RoundLotSize, MarginDeposit variables are set to correspond to foreign security.
  This allows Equity() to work well with SetForeign.
  Example:
  // your rules
buy = ...
sel = ...
SetForeign("MSFT", True, True );
e = Equity(); // backtest on MSFT
RestorePriceArrays( True ); // <- should match parameter used in SetForeign

• Name(), FullName(), GetExtraData() work well with SetForeign() (i.e. give foreign name/data instead of currently selected)
  
• SetOption("PriceBoundChecking", False ); - disables checking and adjusting buyprice/sellprice/coverprice/shortprice arrays to current symbol High-Low range.
  
• % profit added to detailed log mode
  
• fixed bug in portfolio backtester occuring when 'allow same bar exit' was turned off and 'immediate stops' was turned on 2 buys and 2 sells occurred the in 2 bars in row
  
• Auto Analysis/Settings,setting modified "portfolio report mode: trade list/detailed log" moved to "report" tab
  
• Auto Analysis/Settings, rotational mode: added selection of trade price and trade delay to portfolio settings page
  
• Auto Analysis/Settings, portfolio backtester (both regular and rotational modes): added ability to pad and align all symbols to reference symbol. Note: by default this setting is OFF. Use responsibly. It may slow down backtest and introduce some slight changes to indicator values when your data has holes and holes are filled with previous bar data. The feature is intended to be used ONLY when your system uses general market timing (generates global signals based on data and/or indicators calculated using Foreign from 'reference' symbol). Note 2: if reference symbol does not exist, data won't be padded.
  
• Auto Analysis/Settings, report tab: added ability to define risk-free rates for Sharpe and Ulcer Performance Index calculations.
  

• backtester generates now error message when someone attempts to use buy/sell/short/cover signals in rotational mode
• column headings fixed in AA porfolio backtest report

• Portfolio Optimize mode added
• in regular backtest mode now it is possible to specify the score of the symbol (on bar-by-bar basis) via PositionScore variable. In this mode the score is used only at trade ENTRY to decide which securities should be traded in case when there are more simultaneous entry signals than max. allowable positions or available funds. AmiBroker will 'prefer' securities with higher absolute value of the score. If PositionScore is not used then it is assumed to be 1 for all securities.
  NOTE: regular mode must be used for all your backtesting except the cases when you want rotational-trading (fund switching). Only regular mode uses buy/sell/short/cover signals.
  
• rotational-trading mode must now be turned on by calling new EnableRotationalTrading() function at the top of your formula.
  AA / Settings / Portfolio:
  1. Max. Traded renamed to more meaningfull "Max. Open Positions" - defines the maximum number of positions (trades) that can be open simultaneously (at any time)
  2. Max. Ranked renamed to more meaningfull "Worst Rank Held" (rotational trading mode only) - must be equal or greater than max. open positions, if it is greater than Max. open positions then once a position is taken in a security it will not be exited until the ranking of that security drops below "Worst Rank Held"
  
• "Allow same day exit (single bar trade)" now affects Portfolio test too.
  
• SetOption() calls affect Portfolio backtest now added:
  SetOption("MaxOpenPositions")
  SetOption("WorstRankHeld")
  SetOption("MinShares")
  
• fixed Avg Profit/Loss figures in "all trades" section of portfolio report
  
• added average PERCENT profit/loss figures
  
• internal accuracy of calculations of LinearReg, LinRegSlope, LinRegIntercept, StdErr, TSF raised from 32 bit floating point to 64 bit floating point
  
• fix: rotational trading mode does not enter position when score is 999999
  
• fixed column setup in AA
  
• other minor fixes
  
• as a temporary solution for people using Rx new version now uses HTMLView2.exe (that is shipped with the beta) to display the portfolio report.
  

• first (incomplete) early beta version of the portfolio backtester
• fixed plot of Null arrays using styleArea
• fixed display problem with % progress in single-stock optimization
• other minor fixes
  

thanks to all users for reporting errors and helping ironing out outstanding issues.

• fixed chart refresh locking that happened when user was drawing some object and abandonend it by pressing ESC key.
• View->Refresh and View->Refresh All menus now reset internal chart refresh lock flag just in case.
• plugin status is refreshed more often
  
• maximum number of chart sheets increased to 60 (Caveat: when you increase the number of sheets you would not be able to use the layouts with OLDER versions of the software)
• TimeFrameSet() now affects result of Interval() AFL function. TimeFrameRestore() resets it back.
• Plot() makes copies of OHL arrays when styleCandle or styleBar is used so statements like
  SetForeign("AAPL");
Plot( C, "Price", colorYellow, styleCandle );
SetForeign("MSFT");
Plot( C, "Price 2", colorBlue, styleCandle );
plot correctly. Previously one would need to use PlotOHLC() or PlotForeign()
  
• separate heap for syntax tree walker implemented, so larger AFL programs like PortfolioTrader should execute faster while retaining the speed improvement gained in 4.40.4 for small formulas.

• legacy 'stoch()' function removed. Use StochK and StochD instead.
• weekly / monthly charts are not affected by intraday compression settingsin preferences any more and always use last available day date for time stamp of time-compressed bar.
• Pref: Misc: auto-hide timeout field: added check for allowed values from 1...32

  
  
• TimeFrameSet( interval ) function implemented
  - replaces current price/volume arrays: open, high, low, close, volume, openint, avg with time-compressed bars of specified interval once you switched to a different time frame all calculations and built-in indicators operate on selected time frame. To get back to original interval call TimeFrameRestore() funciton.
  
• TimeFrameRestore()
  - restores price arrays replaced by SetTimeFrame.

  Note that only OHLC, V, OI and Avg built-in variables are restored to original time frame when you call TimeFrameRestore(). All other variables created when being in different time frame remain compressed. To de-compress them to original interval use TimeFrameExpand
  
• TimeFrameCompress( array, interval, mode = compressLast )
  - compresses single array to given interval using given mode, available modes:
  compressLast - last (close) value of the array within interval
  compressOpen - open value of the array within interval
  compressHigh - highest value of the array within interval
  compressLow - lowest value of the array within interval
  compressVolume - sum values of the array within interval
  
• TimeFrameExpand( array, interval, mode = expandLast )
  - expands time-compressed array from 'interval' time frame
  ('interval' must match the value used in TimeFrameCompress or TimeFrameSet)
  Available modes:
  
  • expandLast - the compressed value is expanded starting from last bar within given period (so for example weekly close/high/low is available on Friday's bar)
  • expandFirst - the compressed value is expanded starting from first bar within given period
    (so for example weekly open is available from Monday's bar)
    
  • expandPoint - the resulting array gets not empty values only for the last bar within given period (all remaining bars are Null (empty))
    Caveat: expandFirst used on price different than open may look into the future.
    For example if you create weekly HIGH series, expanding it to daily interval using expandFirst will enable you to know on MONDAY what was the high for entire week.
    
    graph0 = TimeFrameExpand( TimeFrameCompress( Close, inWeekly, compressLast ), inWeekly, expandLast );
graph1 = TimeFrameExpand( TimeFrameCompress( Open, inWeekly, compressOpen ), inWeekly, expandFirst );

• TimeFrameGetPrice( pricefield, interval, shift = 0, mode = expandFirst );
  - references OHLCV fields from other time frames.
  This works immediatelly without need to call TimeFrameSet
  
  TimeFrameGetPrice( "O", inWeekly, -1 ) - gives you previous week OPEN price
  TimeFrameGetPrice( "C", inWeekly, -3 ) - gives you weekly Close price 3 weeks ago
  TimeFrameGetPrice( "H", inWeekly, -2 ) - gives you weekly High price 2 weeks ago
  TimeFrameGetPrice( "O", inWeekly, 0 ) - gives you this week open price.
  TimeFrameGetPrice( "H", inDaily, -1 ) - gives previous day high when working on intraday data
  
  Price field is one of the following
  "O", "H", "L", "C", "V", "I" (open interest)
  
  Shift works as in Ref() function but it is applied to compressed time frame.
  Note these functions work like these 3 nested functions
  TimeFrameExpand( Ref( TimeFrameCompress( array, interval, compress(depending on field used) ), shift ), interval, expandFirst )
  therefore if shift = 0 compressed data may look into the future ( weekly high can be known on monday ). If you want to write a trading system using this function please make sure to reference PAST data by using negative shift value.
  The only difference is that TimeFrameGetPrice is 2x faster than nested Expand/Compress.
  
• new interval / timeframe constants:
  in1Minute = 60
  in5Minute = 5 * 60
  in15Minute = 15 * 60
  inHourly = 3600
  inDaily = 24 * 3600
  inWeekly = 5 * 24 * 3600
  inMonthly = 25 * 24 * 3600
  
  compressLast = 0
  compressOpen = 1
  compressHigh = 2
  compressLow = 3
  compressVolume = 4
  
  expandLast = 0
  expandFirst = 1
  expandPoint = 2
  
• SetForeign( 'ticker' )
  - replaces current price/volume arrays with those of foreign security, returns True if ticker exists, False otherwise.
  If ticker does not exist (and function returns false) price arrays are not changed at all.
  
  Equivalent to the following sequence:
  C = Foreign( "ticker", "C" );
O = Foreign( "ticker", "O" );
H = Foreign( "ticker", "H" );
L = Foreign( "ticker", "L" );
V = Foreign( "ticker", "V" );
OI = Foreign( "ticker", "I" );
Avg = ( C + H + L )/3;
  
  but 6x faster (SetForeign takes about the same time as single foreign). To restore original prices call
  RestorePriceArrays();
  
  EXAMPLE:
  SetForeign( "MSFT" );
dm = MACD(); // dm holds MACD of MSFT regardless of currently selected symbol
RestorePriceArrays();
Plot( dm, "MACD of MSFT", colorRed );
Plot( MACD(), "MACD of " + Name(), colorBlue );

• RestorePriceArrays();
  restores arrays overwritten by SetForeign/TimeFrameSet

CHANGES FOR VERSION 4.40.3 (as compared to 4.40.2)