OptionVue 5 - Upgrade Features in v1.63 and v1.64 (released 3/3/04 and 3/5/04, respectively)
1. In Portfolio Manager, we grouped the Realized and Unrealized Gain/Loss reports together under a single tab called “Gain/Loss”. Under that tab there are now three sub-tabs: Realized, Unrealized, and Combined. The new Combined G/L report is simply a new name for the Performance Analysis Detailed report, which has been moved from under the Performance Analysis tab. All three Gain/Loss reports now make use of the Asset Symbol field, allowing you to restrict the report to transactions involving a single asset.

2. Continuing with Portfolio Manager, the Realized G/L, Unrealized G/L, and Combined G/L reports now have customizable column parameters. Using a new dialog, you can quickly change which parameters you want included in these reports and in what order. The old way of eliminating a column – carefully shrinking down the width of the column until it is gone – no longer works. Now, you simply open the new Report Formats dialog and uncheck the box next to the name of the parameter you want to leave out of the report.

Included in this scheme is the Account Status window, even though there already was a way to change that window’s column parameters. This just gives you another way to do it which you might find more convenient.

There are two ways to open the new Reports Format dialog. One is by clicking a new button in the Account Info window called Report Formats. The other way is to click a button in the upper left area of the Reports window or the Account Status window that has “Format” as its hover hint. (It used to be the “Show all columns” button, but there is no need for that feature now that we have a new way of managing column parameters.)

In the Reports Format dialog, you can view/change the order of parameters for the Realized G/L, Unrealized G/L, and Combined G/L reports, as well as the Account Status window. Check-mark all the parameters you want included and uncheck any parameters you want left out. You may also change accounts in this dialog and compare report formats between accounts. If you like, you may have a particular report’s format replicated throughout all of your accounts (just click the “Apply to all” button).

3. While we were working on column parameters, we decided to go ahead and add several parameters that users have requested. These were:

In Account Status:
Change and %Change in $Value today
Item symbol
Days till expiration

In the Realized G/L Report:
Item description
%G/L
Annualized %G/L

In the Unrealized G/L Report:
Item description
Underlying Price
Annualized %G/L

In the Combined G/L Report:
Item description
Underlying symbol
%G/L
Annualized %G/L


4. In Portfolio Manager Reports, you may now indicate which of the reports you want displayed first each time you open the Reports window. There are two places to do this. One is in File | Preferences, under the Misc. tab, where we have added a new drop-down list. The other is in the Reports window itself. With the preferred first report in view, just right-click on that report’s tab and select “Make this the first report that opens”.

5. We now have more direct updating of options prices in the Account Status in connection with the Quotes Display. For some time the Account Status has been able to pick up prices on stocks and futures from the Quotes Display, and would do so any time the Quotes Display held a more recent quote than did the appropriate asset file. However, to see up-to-date prices on your option positions in Account Status, you first had to open and update the Matrix(es) containing these options, or do a batch update of the underlying asset files.

Now, all you have to do is have the underlying symbol in your Quotes Display, and update the prices in the Quotes Display. Behind the scenes, the Quotes Display collects prices on any options (in all accounts) in which you have positions – as long as there is an appropriate underlying symbol in the Quotes Display with which to associate those options. Now, the interface between Account Status and the Quotes Display takes care of options just as well as it has long taken care of stocks and futures. Note that the Account Status window pick up fresh prices when you open it and when you click the Refresh button in the Account Status window, and also when you click the blue ‘N’ to get fresh quotes from NetVue.

6. Further to #5, we have added the ability to assess the current value(s) of any number of your accounts a new schedulable task. When OptionVue assess the value of an account, it figures out how much the account is worth based on current pricing and the values of your positions. It then stores that value in the daily history file for that account. Based on that history, the program is able to display a Performance Graph in the Reports area. Until now, the program only assessed and stored an account’s value when a) the Account Status window was opened, refreshed, or closed, b) the Account Status was printed as part of a batch printing job, or c) the Reports window was opened. This new (pure) way to have an account (or a batch of accounts) assessed should be helpful. Now, to be sure all of your accounts (or just certain ones) are assessed at the end of each trading day, all you have to do is schedule the Assess Accounts function to happen automatically. So that this process uses current prices, we recommend that you schedule it to happen some time after the Quotes Display or the asset files have been batch updated.

To schedule an Assess Accounts task, select File | Assess Accounts from the main menu. In the dialog window that opens, you may select a time and which accounts are to be assessed. It is also possible to set up an Assess Accounts task by opening the Scheduling Agent and clicking the “New” button, selecting the Assess Accounts task from the list of schedulable jobs, then filling in the details.

7. The OptionVue 5 help system now refers to help files remotely over the Internet rather than to local files. This relieves program users of the burden of downloading help file updates, and provides a system where all users have access to the most up-to-date information possible.

8. In updating Price Chart files, the program no longer has a checkbox for backfilling gaps. This feature was left over from the days when data collection was occasionally a problem, and is no longer necessary or relevant.

9. Mainly for the benefit of our overseas customers, a new check box in the System Models dialog allows you to specify that the program keep your hand-entered interest rates indefinitely. With this checked, the program does not overwrite the interest rates each time you get a fresh copy of the BDB.

10. The OptionVue program now picks up and refreshes an asset’s expiration pattern from a fresh copy of the BDB, just as it has always done for stock or index dividends, CEV factor, and other data, whenever you open a Matrix or batch update asset files.

11. A good number of DataVue and OpScan customers have never returned a signed agreement to us involving those services. We have prepared a web page for users to read and ‘sign’ the agreement online, and we have incorporated an automatic prompt in the OptionVue software that displays whenever the customer uses DataVue or OpScan and has not (according to our database) signed the agreement. This prompt, which is displayed, at most, once per day, contains a direct link to the agreement page for convenience.

12. The OptionVue program has, for a long time, displayed a message when the user’s BDB subscription was near the end. Now, it also displays a message when the user’s annual DataVue or OpScan subscription is near the end. It also invites you to click a button right then and renew your subscription online.

13. Detailed Analysis off the Graphic Analysis now includes the year code for LEAPs in the description field.

14. A new “Get Default Settings” button was added to the Securities Margins dialog.

15. For the Cox/Ross/Rubinstein model, we changed the default resolution from 10 to 100.