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###  | User Preferences |

The Data Preferences Dialog lets you customize different values related to the quote data. Data Collection Start Dates can be set for daily, weekly, and monthly data. An attempt will be made to request data including those start dates if available. Note: If you change these dates, make sure the date you use is an actual trading day and not a holiday or other day the exchange was closed, otherwise this will cause the program to attempt to update the full range of data every time you request an update since it was unable to get data for the starting day. Quote Fetch Time Interval determines how often the data source is contacted for new quotes when using polled quote sources for intraday charts. Internet Receive Timeout sets the timeout in milliseconds for data operations that poll internet sites (such as chart update/reload). If you get frequent timeout errors, increase this value. Update Daily Charts Intraday toggles a flag which determines whether daily charts are updated with intraday data. If this is on, daily charts will show the current days candle with data up through the most recent quote. The Quote Router Hostname identifies the computer name of the system where the quote router is running if you are using it. This can also be "127.0.0.1" if it is running on the same machine as this copy of SSChart. If it is on the same machine and you also check Auto Start then SSChart will automatically start the quote router on the local machine if it is not already running when you switch on data collection. This is also used by the IB TWS Socket Interface to specifiy the machine where TWS is running. The Data Collection group of fields controls whether the program should automatically start getting quote data (Auto Collect checked), the Start and Stop Times for getting data and the days of the week for which to collect data. Note: The start and stop times are in the local time on your PC, which may not be the same as the time-zone the exchange is in. A stop time of 00:00:01 is not acted upon. This is useful for restarting the IB TWS Socket Interface connection at a specific time after their server off period. The Saving Intraday Data group specifies how many days of 1 Minute data to save in files on the hard disk. Keep Extended Market Hour Data keeps quote data outside the regular exchange operating hours. Accumulate Intraday Data for all Symbols in SLFMaps causes 1-minute data to be saved for every symbol in any open SLFMap while quotes are being collected. If this box is unchecked, then intraday (1-minute) data is only saved for symbols in any open chart while quotes are being collected. Pressing [Use Default] resets all fields in this dialog to there original values at installation time.

The Display Preferences Dialog lets you customize a variety of items related to the chart windows. Show Prices in can either be shown using fractional or decimal format. Date Format can be one of the items shown in the list. The Chart group controls the following items: Primary Labels on Left controls whether price labels are shown on the left or right side of the window. Show Grid Lines toggles the display of horizontal and vertical grid lines. Hide Day Divider hides the dividing line drawn between days on the chart. # Pts to Zoom In sets the number of most recent data points to use for the Scale Most Recent function. See the View menu for more information. Show Symbol and Date Range shows a header in each chart window as well as in the HorseRace window. Highlight Imcomplete Candles draws a shadow around any candles which appear to be missing data. Pressing [Use Default] resets all fields in this dialog to their original values at installation time. The Custom Candle Size section lets you specify the width of the candles (also applies to OHLC charts) that displayed when you select the custom candle size, either with the menu's or the <Shift+C> hotkey. The New Chart Candle Size set the default candle size for newly created charts.

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The Sounds Preferences Dialog lets you set the sounds for a variety of conditions like high and low price alerts, simulated order fills and cancellations, etc. All sounds can be turned off by deselecting the Audio Alerts flag. Sounds can be turned off during a specified time period (like at night when you want to sleep) with the Suppress Sounds flag. The sounds themselves can be changed by assigning a different sound file either from the .../SOUNDS directory or any other place.

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Misc Preferences Dialog Spike Filtering of trade prices before they are sent to the charts can be enabled by checking the box. The parameters shown for Filter Width and Filter Depth work well. Spikes happen frequently for Nasdaq stocks. Some are misprints (typos) in the tape that are later corrected (often price is $1 off). Block trades on Nasdaq are often reported out of sequence and distort the charts if not filtered out. When the spike filter is enabled each trade price is compared with the current bid and ask. If it is more than filter width times the spread above the ask or below the bid the price is held in a queue filter depth deep and not sent to the chart. Trades filtered out in this way are printed with a gray background in the time&sales display. If the bid and ask change within filter depth trades to pass the one previously filtered, then it is sent to the chart and the gray background on the time and sales is changed to another color. When the bid and ask are crossed or not available a proxy bid and ask based on a liberal spread around a short moving average of recent trades is used for filtering. MT Router Options The streaming backfill option is only applicable for the myTrack router (SSQRouterMT). When it is enabled intraday charts are automatically corrected every few minutes from the historical data from myTrack. If this option is off, then the backfill will only happen manually when you select {Data | Auto Update On} for the chart, or {Update} from the chart popup menu. Note, their backfill data often still contains recent spikes, so if you have spike filtering enabled, you will probably get better results with this option off. IB Router Options If you use the IB TWS Socket Interface as your quote source then the Port Number must match the port number set in TWS for the API interface. The Client ID if set to zero will enable orders sent from the SSChart trade dialog to also be modified in TWS, and further enable the importing of execution data for orders you entered in TWS. This data will be shown in the SSChart trade dialog executions and summary tab. The enable trading check box enables the real trading dialog under the tools menu and the importing of orders entered on the TWS console to the SSChart trading dialog (provided client 0 is used). When you use the IB TWS Socket Interface for your quote source, SSChart has the ability to automatically start TWS and log you in when quotes are started if it is detected that TWS is not already running. This only works if TWS is run on the same computer as you run SSChart, and further applies only to the installed version of TWS, not the browser version. (We recommend all users use the intalled version, we do not test with the browser version). The auto-start of TWS is not a fool proof action, there are number of things that can interfere with its successful completion. Mouse and/or keyboard activity on your part when it is attempting to log in may interfere. If the IB servers are not accessable when you attempt auto-start, the login will fail. If TWS reports a new version available when starting, the process will fail. The process can take 30 seconds or more. We give up after two minutes if it does not succeed. The process will not work if you run more than one copy of TWS (as for multiple accounts). If you have problems with this, then start TWS manually. The username and password you enter here are stored in the registry in a lightly encrypted form. If you have security concerns about this, then do not use this feature. System Clock By default SSCharts contacts one or more of the National Institute of Standarrds atomic clocks via the web each time it starts and syncronizes you system clock to it. (It is important for your system clock to have accurate time, especially when using IB TWS for quotes, since their API does not print trade time on the data). If you have a more accurate means of maintaining your system time you can disable SSChart from modifying your system time with this option.

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