A8 R2.1 Release

Active8 2.1.1Introduction (1)Features of the Release (1)Requirements (3)Operating Systems Support (3)Layered Products Support (3)Active8 Upgrade Paths (3)Platform Versions (4)TRS Platform Version (4)RMDS Platform Version (4)TIB Platform Version (4)Triarch SSL Version (4)TelerateFeed Server Requirements (5)Versioning (5)Full Version (5)Managed (5)Enhancements (6)Telerate Branding (6)Update Over the Wire (OTW) (6)Overview (6)Method (7)Update Procedure – Active8 NT Update Process (9)Installation (10)Active8Lite (10)DragNDrop (11)Request Limit Support (11)Delayed data via Server Farm/TRS Platform connection (11)Matrix Analytics (12)Calculated Greeks Fields (13)TelerateFeed Direct Password Change (13)Page Parsing in Excel (13)General Container (14)QuoteList (14)“Label” User Interface (14)“Combo Box” User interface (14)Change to Recently Opened Files list (14)Multiple instances of Active8 (14)Time & Sales (14)Options Analytics (15)Grid Lines (15)Optimizations (15)Help (15)Level II Customizations (15)Explorer list for files in Visual links (16)Chart Enhancements (16)Data Printing (16)Tick Charts (17)Tick Summary (aka True Tick) (17)Market Profile (17)Volatility Studies (17)Trading Strategies (17)Adding an existing Strategy to the Chart (17)Reports and Optimization (17)Trade Report (18)Optimization (18)Updated Analysis Designer (18)Yield Curve (18)Licensing (18)License Update (18)Volume Id (19)Edge (19)Handling timestamps (19)DDE Auto Start (19)Service Manager (19)Packaged Sheets (19)Miscellaneous (20)New SDK (20)Incorporates all patches (21)Platform/Source Functionality Matrix (22)Known Issues (23)Slow Delivery of Images on Telerate Connect (23)A8 DDE Changes (23)Lookup (23)Drag n Drop of Worksheets (23)Dual Screen Environments (23)Telerate Connect Tick History Retrieval (24)Producer Name Aliasing (24)dupfConfig File for MoneylineConnect & MCT (25)Permissions File (.permOff) for MoneylineConnect & MCT (26)MCT Bid and Ask Historical Data Requests (26)Quote List Masks (26)Excel Security (26)Excel RTD Requests (26)Excel Workbooks saved in Previous Versions (26)News Headline Search Syntax (27)Legacy TradeStation 5.0 build 10 Support (28)Uninstall of Full MTRS\MCT Toolkit Installation (28)Fail to load DJWCore (28)Changes in v2.1.1 (30)Installation and Configuration (30)Data Platforms (30)Controls and Container (31)Excel and DDE (32)Deficiencies (34)IntroductionThis Product Definition is intended to accompany the Activ e8 Production Release 2.1; it will describe the enhancements and differences since the last release.Features of the ReleaseThe Active8 2.1 Release includes the following features which are described in detail in the pages below:• Provides further Telerate branding particularly within the installation procedure.• Adds the ability to receive software updates, releases, and configuration files automatically via the web. Managed users can be defined to receive updates. Ideal for small to mid-sized customer sites without an IT-controlled environment.• The Active8 Lite installation has been changed so that the distribution limits the features provided by its functionality.• Adds complete DragNDrop OLE compliance for all controls allowing for smoother interfacing to Microsoft programs.• Supports the Vehicle Limit Access (VLM) bit available on TelerateFeed that limits the number of symbols Active8 can request for the Active8 Server Farm/TRS Platform connection. This feature has been available for the TelerateFeed Direct connection since 2.0.0.A New Matrix Control has been added that can be used to build customizedCorrelation, Spread, and Cross Rate Analyses.•• • • • • • • • Parsing of pages into Excel has been improved so that data is separated into separate cells.The Level-II control now provides the ability to customize column colors on the touch line.Some Visual links have been updated to use File Explorer for files, and Instrument List for Instruments or Pages.In addition to the previous ways that Help can be accessed, it is now available over the Web (WebHelp), or via a client-side web server.The Yield curve control has been enhanced to provide an easier method to add customized curves.The Time & Sales control now has the ability to filter real-time trades by time in and display the Average Traded Price and Traded Value based upon that filter in the header.Requests are now automatically channeled from real-time to delayed when entitlement restrictions apply for the Active8 Server Farm/TRS Platform connection. This feature has been available for the TelerateFeed Direct connection since 1.2.0. The container has been enhanced to include a switch that allows only one running instance of Active8 and increases the number of recently opened files available via the File drop-down menu.• • • •• • • • The QuoteList control has been changed to allow the editing of symbols and the ability to add data field definitions for symbols and calculated fields.The User Interface has been enhanced to allow text to wrap within a label and adds the ability to sort the property pages in User Mode.Greeks have been added as calculated fields in Quotes, Index Analytics and other applications that have access to the calculated fields. They are also available in the Excel Edge interface.The Chart control has been enhanced to includeo New Market Profile chart typeo New Trade Study Analysiso New Optimization Analysiso New Trade Reporting Analysiso New Scaling Updates Analysiso New Volatility Analysiso Continuous futures enhancementso Ability to include captions on Drawing toolso Enhanced Analysis Designer to Support Custom Strategies and Signals, includinga Signal Designer Wizard. The Trading System ships with a default set of 21Trading Strategies and 34 Signals.For the TelerateFeed Direct connection, you now have the ability to change the user password.A corresponding Active8 SDK version (Active8 SDK 2.1) is being released with this version that includes details on how to interact with History, the expanded DragNDrop functionality, News, and the Publishing (Windows, Solaris and Linux) interfaces.All the packaged sheets have been updated and are now available in 1280x1024 resolution format as well as 1024x768.Incorporates all patches since 2.0.0.Operating Systems SupportActive8 2.1 is supported on the following Operating Systems:o Windows NT 4.0 SP6ao Windows 2000 SP2o Windows XP SP2• See information regarding SP2 considerations in Appendix of the Product Definition and after Active8 is installed inProgram Files\Telerate\Active8\Docs\Support\A8 R2.1 XP Support.pdfLayered Products SupportActive8 2.1 is supported on the following versions of Microsoft Officeo Office 97 SR2o Office 2000 SP1ao Office XPo Office 2003Internet Explorer 5.0 is required for Active8 2.0.0 and above (for the News Story Control and the Update Over the Wire feature).Active8 Upgrade PathsActive8 2.1.1 supports the following upgrade paths from previous Moneyline Telerate products:Active1 1.2.11 Active1 1.2.11a Active1 1.2.12Active8 1.0.0 Active8 1.0.1 Active8 1.0.2Active8 1.1.0 Active8 1.1.1 Active8 1.1.2Active8 1.1.3 Active8 1.2.0 Active8 1.2.12.0.1Active8 1.2.2 Active82.0.0 Active8Active8 2.0.2 Active8 2.1.0Note: TheActive8 Container should be able to open workbooks that have been developed under Active1. Once a workbook has been saved in Active8, itcannot be reopened in Active1, this is due to changes both in thepersistence format of Active8 itself and VBA6 over VBA5.Workbooks created in the latest version of Active8 are not backwardscompatible with previous versions of Active8.The next release will only support upgrades from 1.2.0 and later.Platform VersionsTRS Platform VersionTelerateConnect interface – TRS Version 4.1.2 or later with a minimumof TelerateConnect Toolkit 3.0.1 is required. It also requires the TRS ICLproducers to be used for data retrieval. Previous version may be usedwith reduced functionality. Check release notes for individual releases fordetails.In order to support TelerateConnect login/password functionality andautomatic download of the configuration that defines the availablesources, TRS 4.3.0/MonelineConnect 3.1.0 is required.In order to support Vehicle Symbols Limits and automatic delayed datarequests, TRS 4.6.0 is required.TRS 4.6.0 rsf7P Patch 1 to fix Synthetic LAST not provided for BID-driveninstruments by rsf7P may be required if this functionality is needed. Thispatch also has a fix to handle producer down messages in a duplicatedfeed environment when permissions are denied.Also sync requests for tiles such as FXNEWS, FXVOL, USDVIEW returndata and "not found" error from rsf7P. This is caused by "bad links" whenrsf7P tried to build the CBChainInfo field, since this field is unnecessaryfor Active8 (and TCT), it can be disabled via by setting the rsf7P.TeleWdefault to "true".TIC/TIA interface – TRS 4.0.4 or later is required, however, because ofthe interface limitations, Level II & Time & Sales data will not beavailable.RMDS Platform VersionActive8 connects to the RMDS (RTIC 10.1 or later) using the RFA 5.0libraries for native SASS3 support. The RFA libraries are shipped withActive8, but an ELS (License Server) and RFA license will need to beobtained from Reuters. A DACS server is also needed for entitlements.TIB Platform VersionRV version 5.3 (or later using version 5 compatibility mode), TIBpublishing is available via RV, VBA and Microsoft Excel. Supports SASS-2only.Triarch SSL VersionSSL-4 connecting to a sink distributor using version 4.0.4. Theconnection requires the availability of the SSL libraries (sipc32.dll andssl4w32.dll) in the System32 directory, and the location of the ipcroutefile in the HKLM\Software\Reuters\Triarch\IPCROUTE key defined in theregistry.TelerateFeed Server RequirementsTF 4.14.3 or laterVersioningThe Help\About Active8 Dialog for this release will be seen as follows:Full Version.ManagedTelerate BrandingIn order to conform to our new company name and image, Active8 has completed the second and final phase of the re-branding process from Moneyline to Telerate.Most of these changes have occurred in the installation procedure where it nowcontains the new background and color scheme.Update Over the Wire (OTW)OverviewThe Over-the-Wire Update Service is designed to support the notification of theavailability of Updates for an Active8 Installation. It allows updates to bedownloaded and installed with minimum impact on the end user of the Active8product. It is targeted for small to mid sized clients that do not have a dedicated IT staff to handle the installation and upgrading of Active8. It is designed toallow users to receive updates and have them applied automatically to keep theActive8 installation current. It will also allow Active8 to be upgraded without avisit from Telerate personnel, which benefits the clients in the most extreme oflocations or where the number of clients prohibits a regular visit.The proposed over-the-wire update service has two major benefits:• It lowers cost to support an Active8 installation.• It reduces the time to market for bug fixes and enhancements.The aim of the proposed service is to allow a “Managed” version of the Active8product. This version will have a limited set of data feeds, platforms andconfigurations that it supports.The “Managed” version of Active8 will be fully maintained remotely; promptingthe user with the availability of new updates/patches.Once a machine has been installed with the “Managed” version of Active8, it willbe fully upgradeable remotely. Even the local upgrade service itself will beupgradeable.Many of the existing Active8 users will not wish to use the “Managed” version ofthe product, in particular those with complex installations, feeds from 3rd partysources or platforms that they manage internally e.g. RMDS, TRS, TIB or Triarch.If an Update requires an application to be shutdown and it is running the user will be prompted to shutdown the application or defer in running of the Update.The Active8 user will be given the ability to roll-back some Updates, once a roll-back has occurred the user will need to re-enable automatic updates.The Active8 user will be given the ability to disable/enable over the-wire Updates.A “Managed” Active8 has the following limitations:• • Since the patch process is running as the system account, a “Managed”Active8 cannot distinguish between individual users on the same PC. Thisimplies that where several Active8 users share the same PC, then we cannot patch a particular Managed Active8 user without patching theothers. That is, all Active8 users on the same PC are patches at the same time.A user cannot upgrade to an “unmanaged” Active8 version. If they desirethe full installation, the must uninstall the “Managed” version and install the full version.The Managed Update service will work through a client’s proxy server.MethodThe Over-the-wire Update Service is designed to support the notification of theavailability of Updates for an Active8 Installation. It allows updates to be downloaded and installed with minimum impact on the end user of the Active8product.The intention is to maintain a single database which is polled by all “Managed” Active8 Installations to detect the availability of updates. The database will not contain the updates themselves, these will be available from file servers.U t i li s e O T WA separate installation exists to install the “Managed” version of Active8. This install has a unique license and registers itself automatically with the Active8Master Update Server upon the first check for updates. No administrative actionis required.A list of clients will be defined to receive regular updates when they are available.These “Managed” users will communicate with a central server and receiveupdates during “dark hours” when activity is at low. A Windows service initiated during install will interact with Active8 to receive and apply update packages fromthe central server .Active8 Master Update ServerThere will be a single Master Update Server Database which is accessed either onthe Internet or via Telerate’s Intranet via HTTP by all “Managed” Active8 installations. The MUS Database and Files Servers are not considered missioncritical since Managed Active8 installations will continue to function in the event of their failure, although they will not be able to receive upgrades.The Master Update Server (MUS) is responsible for managing a relationaldatabase containing the following information:••••••••• The current users of the Over The Wire (OTW) managed Active8A history of all the patches that have been applied to each managed Active8 installationsA history of errors logged by client installationsAccess to the OTW interface is achieved via the Service Manager.Updates will be received by the “Managed” user in one of two ways: Automatic Check for updates during “Dark hours”Manual Check for updatesUpdate Procedure – Active8 NT Update ProcessThe Active8 NT Update Service has been designed to be as simple as possible,pushing any complexity into applications or objects that it uses. This approach is intended to ensure that it is as robust as possible, with riskier functionalitymoved into more easier to upgrade components.An NT Service will run on all “Managed” Active8 installations; this will be run with sufficient privileges to allow full control over the machine, including write access to Program Files and the Registry.The Active8 NT Update Service will have a simple User Interface that may be used to:Inform the user Updates are availableShow the status and outcome of all Updates (pending download, applied,failed etc…)Allow the rollback of Updates.Show an audit trail of Updates that have been downloaded and run.When new Updates for the Installation are detected by the MUS, an UpdateManifest is returned by the MUS.It will be possible to install MSI patches, but they will need to be wrapped in an Active8 patch. In this case the Active8 patch script contains a single line, which simply executes the MSI patch.The current version of A8OTW supports arbitrary rollbacks (that is, the user may delete any number of updates).InstallationIt is expected that the Managed User will be able to download the initial installation from a Telerate website, delivered via a CDROM, or visited by Telerate installation specialist. It is a different installation process than the un-Managed version of Active8. Each managed version of Active8 (Installation) will have a unique license GUID generated for it. The managed license GUID is unique to the new installation and is used to update the client’s licenses from the license console.During the installation process the user will be required to enter their e-mail address, and choose a supported platform (Server Farm or Direct Connect). When the user runs the “Managed” version for the first time, they will be prompted for the necessary connection details in order to connect to the Data Delivery server.The Initial Installation Package of Managed Active8 will be a tailored version of the Full Active8 Installation MSI Package, and will contain only the binaries and configuration files required to support the Active8 configurations/platforms supported by the Managed Active8 product.The following files have been dropped from the Managed Active8 Installation: Reuter templates•• • • • • • RFA binariesSSLTIC/TIB configuration files Help files including Robodemo files PDB filesAdobe Acrobat installation exe DocumentationThis installation package can be downloadable over the Internet in a reasonabletime period by users with broadband access. The Managed Active8 installation isa 42MB package. The Initial Installation Package will require Internet Explorer todownload, or will be available as a CDROM.Active8LiteIn Active8 2.1 Active8Lite as been fully implemented so that it is now part of theinstall process. In Active8 2.0.0 it was controlled by a license, now it iscontrolled by the install process and the license. It also offers a scaled downversion of the distribution to limit disk space and functionality. When usingActive8Lite, the distribution will be limited to• Connection to only Telerate Feed Direct or Server Farm/TRS Platform• Only a workbook with one worksheet can be opened at a given time, if you open a workbook when one is opened, the currently loaded one willbe automatically closed.• No off-line documentation (User Guide, Product Definition, Release Notes)• No design mode• No access to VBA• Basic charting• Access to only Telerate templates• No documentation (User guide, Release Notes, or Install/Configuration guide)The Active8Lite configuration is specified as part of the installation.It is important to note that if an Active8Lite install is performed, you cannotupgrade to the Full version of Active8 without removing Active8 and re-installing.It will however upgrade from Active8Lite 2.0.x.DragNDropSome features are hard to realize the change because they are structural andcannot be seen in the application. The modifications to DragNDrop for Active82.1.0 are such. The underlying interface was changed to conform more toMicrosoft standard and allows for more flexibility. Although these changes seemsubtle they were required in order to implement other changes in this release likethe Page Parsing described below.Request Limit SupportWith Active8 2.1.0 Vehicle Limit Access (VLM) support has been extended to theTelerate Feed Connect interface which supports the Active8 Server Farm and allconnections to TRS systems. With TelerateFeed, the number of symbols that canbe accessed by a client is controlled by an access bit within the entitlements.This feature has been available with the TelerateFeed Direct interface since 2.0.0.This feature requires that the connecting TRS system have TRS 4.6.0 installed.The limits are then defined using the TRS permissioning system and the wrlsetand wrlclear commands within permEdit.When the client exceeds the limit, all future requests will display an error in thecontrol and in the status bar.Delayed data via Server Farm/TRS Platform connectionWith this release, requests for instruments that are not entitled based upon theuser permissions are automatically re-requested as delayed data for the ServerFarm/TRS Platform connection. This feature has been available when using theTelerateFeed Direct connection since 1.2.0. In previous releases, the requestreturned with BF_NOT_ENTITLED. This change will guarantee that the useralways receives data for all requests that have a valid symbol. When theinformation is received, it will pre-pend the delayed symbol character (“/”) to the display.Matrix AnalyticsIncluded with this release is the new Matrix Analytics control that will now appear within the component gallery.This control is designed to provide an analysis between two sets of instruments.The control is a grid, with instruments for rows and columns and the result of the analysis in the intersecting cell. It initial has three analysis built in:Correlation – This analysis provides the correlation co-efficient between twosets of data, usual historical prices for two particular instruments. Forexample a user could see the correlation between the daily close prices ofIBM and MSFT for the last 3 months.•• • Cross Rates – This analysis provides the standard cross rate calculation between two currencies. For example a user could see the current cross rate for the US dollar and the Euro.Spread – This analysis provides the spread between two instruments. For example a user could see the difference between the MSFT ask and the IBM bid.Configuration is done on a per Analysis basis. The expression property page lets you select the overall expression type and also allows you to configure the currently selected expression.The Matrix Analytics control also includes all the standard Active8 functionality, including;drag ‘n dropability to load A8 Instrument filesgroup and visual linkingview menuintegration with alertscolor and font configurationsend to menuupdate highlightingsymbol formattingcell formattingvisual basic scripting supportCalculated Greeks FieldsThe Calculated Greeks fields have been added to the Field Picker and can be nowbe added to the field masks in QuoteList, Portfolio, Index Analytics and ExcelEdge.When you edit any mask header, a new category has been added allowing you toselect any of the “Greeks”.The values for the Greeks are provided by the new Active8 Option Engine. ThisOption Engine also allows for configuration of underlying properties that are using in the calculation of the Greeks.Advanced users can set many properties of binomial calculations, such as thenumber of binomial periods used and the maximum iterations used whencalculating the implied values. This is also done per underlying instrument.Finally, all these Greek calculations are available directly through the expressionengine. Using the prefix “OPT.” the following functions are available:Underlying - this function takes one parameter, an instrument name andreturns an Underlying object that is always the first parameter to any Greekcalculation. Format: OPT.Underlying(“us;ibm”)•• • Non-implied - GreekFairPrice, GreekDelta, GreekTheta, GreekVega, GreekGamma, GreekRho. These functions take 4 parameters, an underlying object, a strike price, the expiry date and the description of the option. Implied Greeks – These include GreekImplDelta, GreekImplTheta, GreekImplVega, GreekImplGamma, GreekImplVol, GreekImplRho. These functions take 5 parameters, an underlying object, the fair price to be used in the calculations, the strike price, the expiry date, and the description of the option.TelerateFeed Direct Password ChangeWith Active8 2.1.0 the ability to change the password for a specific TelerateFeedID is now possible. It is available via the Properties tab for the TFTic connectionin the Acitiev8 Service Manager.Page Parsing in ExcelActive8 2.1.0 has extensively changed the way that pages are now parsed andcopied to Excel. In the past when a page was copy/pasted into Excel, it copiedthe whole page as a page reference. It now has the ability to parse into different cells different items of the page.The new Page Splitter dialog is used to separate the page data into columnswhen you want to drag and drop data to Excel. You can set break line(s) and data can be separated into columns.General ContainerQuoteListActive8 2.1.0 now has the ability to edit symbols in a QuoteList cell and fields inthe mask header. Two methods exist, either via the Edit entry in the Contextmenu (Right Mouse Button) or by hitting the <F2> key. If you type a symbolincorrectly in a cell or a field in the mask header, place your cursor on the line orchoose the field and hit the <F2> key or RMB\Edit to place Active8 in Edit mode.The standard Microsoft-ease keyboard conventions can then be used to navigatethe symbol/field. You can also use the following keys to manipulate the cell when editing:• <Home> - brings the cursor to the beginning of the symbol,• <End> - brings the cursor to the end of the symbol,• <Delete> - deletes the character at the current location• <Arrow Keys> - moves the cursor’s current position in symbol/field “Label” User InterfaceIt is now possible to have the caption in a label interface wrap to the size of thelabel. In previous version the text appeared on one line and was cut off. If thecaption in the label is unable to fit size, it will still be truncated.“Combo Box” User interfaceIt is now possible to automatically sort the entries in a combo box in ascendingorder. When this property is enabled, it will sort all entries currently in thecombo box, and will insert all subsequent inserted items in their correct sortedorder. This feature can be turned on and off at will by changing the property.Change to Recently Opened Files listWith Active8 2.1.0 the number of most recently opened workbooks that appearsin the File menu can be expanded from 0 to 9. This option can be set via theTool\Option dropdown.Multiple instances of Active8An option now exists which controls the number of instances of the Active8container that can be running. In the past Active8.exe could be run multipletimes. Now an option exists in the Tools\Option General tab that controls thisfeature. The default has changed from multiple to a single instance.Time & SalesWith Active8 2.1.0 the Time & Sales control has added an additional filter to itsalready extensive list. It is now possible to filter the returned values by time with the ability to set an upper and lower boundary.The values in the header (VWAP and Average Trade Price) also are calculatedbased upon the filtered time range.。