2. A new, more sophisticated futures pricing model was added to OptionVue. Named the Variable Basis model, read all about it below.

3. The program now remembers the user’s favorite position for the BackTrader window within the OptionVue workspace.

4. The program now remembers the wand position from chart to chart when browsing Price Charts or Volatility Charts, preserving the reference date for comparison.

5. The Account Status window has two new column parameters – Expiration Date and Asset Delta. Asset Delta is the delta of the position in terms of the asset itself – the same as you would see in the Matrix. Also, the Account Status window has been made “non-modal” – meaning you can keep it open while you work with other windows. (When a “modal” window is open, you have to finish your business in that window and close it before you can do anything else in the program.) We needed to make the Account Status window non-model in preparation for some further improvements to come (e.g. the opening of other windows off of the Account Status window). Finally, the Account Status window has a new button – Refresh. When clicked, this button completely updates the window’s contents to reflect any position changes, price changes, etc.

6. The Transaction Log has a new “Notes” column at the far right, which works much like the Notes column in the Quotes Display. Use it to record your rationale for a transaction, or market conditions at the time of the trade (e.g. volatility level), or whatever you like. You may type directly into the grid, or double click (or right click) the appropriate cell to open up a notes window to make it easier to see all the text for a particular record. Up to 255 characters may be entered per record.

Important: Text that the user enters into the Notes field is kept in a separate new file named <account name>.LGN in the RECORDS subfolder. .LGN files associate with .LOG files, and whenever you copy a .LOG file, you should also copy the associated .LGN file. Just as .LOG files are automatically backed up into .BK1 and .BK2 files, .LGN files are automatically backed up into .LG1 and .LG2 files.

7. The program now automatically backs up the user’s Quotes Display file (Quotes.col) and Quotes Display notes file (Quotes.nts) in a similar fashion as the Transaction Log file. The first time OptionVue is started on a given day, it copies Quotes.col to Quotes.bk1 after copying Quotes.bk1 to Quotes.bk2. It also copies Quotes.nts to Quotes.nk1 after copying Quotes.nk1 to Quotes.nk2.

8. When using BackTrader to go back to a time when you had an option position, and it was a position that eventually closed by expiration (Xpr), the program would not bring that option position “back to life” (i.e. show it in Account Status, etc.). So once again we changed the way Portfolio Manager handles Xpr (expiration) transactions. When performing an Expire Options operation, the program now gives the automatically entered Xpr transactions today’s date, rather than the option’s expiration date. We also stopped having the program honor future-dated Xpr transactions. These two changes solve the BackTrader problem, and keep users happy who like to see options positions disappear immediately upon doing an Expire Options operation (even when done one or more days prior to the option’s expiration date).

9. One new parameter is available for ASCII Export – Description (e.g. “Apr02 610 Calls”).

10. In Portfolio Manager reports, the Begin Date no longer automatically jumps forward to match the date of the first entry in the Transaction Log. From now on, Begin Date simply stays on the date the user last set it to. Note that both Begin Date and End Date are account independent.

11. The margin requirements model for naked securities options was changed a year or so ago to use strike price in the calculation of the minimum requirement, in accordance with new rules from the options exchanges. However, sometime recently the options exchanges reverted back to using the underlying price. Therefore with this release we changed the OptionVue model back to using underlying price.