OptionVue 5 - Upgrade Features in v1.53 (released 11/5/01)

1. OptionVue’s Graphic Analysis no longer displays “squiggly” lines when analyzing a combinational position. Lines used to appear “squiggly” when analyzing a combinational position because, as projected theoretical options prices were rounded to the nearest trading interval, you could have first one option and then another option jumping to its next price interval as the underlying price changed little by little. Now, the program computes values for the Graphic Analysis lines without rounding prices to the nearest trading interval. For all other purposes, however, including the numbers in the bottom section of the Graphic Analysis, the program still rounds projected theoretical option prices to the nearest trading interval.

2. In Portfolio Manager, the Performance Analysis reports now include positions that were simply closed within the specified date range. Previously, they included positions that were both opened and closed within the specified date range.

3. With the Slippage model set on None, although the program displayed a rounded At Price (rounded to the nearest price interval), it used a non-rounded At Price in subsequent calculations, leading to dollar amounts that were slightly different than expected. This has been changed. Now the program uses a rounded At Price (the same as the displayed At Price) in subsequent calculations.

4. A new Price column was added in the Yates Break Search window.

5. The Browse buttons were made to work with the View OpScan Reports dialog, so that users may browse through OpScan reports.

6. The program’s margin requirements model was brought up to date with regard to the loan value for long-term options. Traders may, if their brokerage allows it, borrow up to 25% of the value of options that have more than 9 months until expiration. The initial and maintenance margin is thus 75%. Accordingly, the Securities Margin Model dialog has two new fields for these numbers (both filled with 75% by default). If the user does not wish to consider buying long-term options on margin, he may enter 100% in these fields.

7. The margin requirements model was also brought up to date with regard to butterfly spreads. When long a butterfly spread (long one, short two, and long one), the program now computes a zero requirement. Previously, the program considered the butterfly as consisting of a debit spread plus a credit spread (with one leg in common) and charged a requirement for the credit spread.

8. The Exercise Options function now assigns a date/time stamp to transactions it adds to the Transaction Log.

9. Up till now, asset files would automatically pull the latest 20 days worth of data from a historical price file (if available) for the SV calculation only if the 20-day record was empty. Now, asset files automatically pull the latest 20 days worth of data from a historical price file if the 20-day record contains fewer than five days worth of data.

10. OptionVue’s custom fonts are not always properly installed in the target PC’s Register by InstallShield, OptionVue’s installation program. Now, each time OptionVue starts up, the program checks the PC’s Register and adds its own custom fonts if necessary. Note that if OptionVue has to add its custom fonts to the Register, the change won’t take effect until after the next system re-boot.

11. In the Survey feature, the Minimum History field used to apply only when the Pick field was set on one of the percentile criteria. Now the Minimum History field applies regardless of the Pick field setting.