Displaying Data

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The "Symbol Size" and "Display as Decimal" features are controlled through prompts on UA's "Displaying Data" tab. Get there by selecting "Charting Preferences" from the Preferences screen, or "Edit Portfolio Settings" from the Portfolio menu (for export-format files and charts listed in your portfolio).

When creating or editing a portfolio, this screen allows you to adjust the symbol size in export files so that no symbol exceeds two characters. When used in conjunction with either portfolio settings and charting preferences, it allows you to present all data in decimal form. The "Charting Preferences" lists only the "Display as Decimal" feature.

Symbol size

It is possible that some commercially available or custom analysis programs may not recognize exchange-assigned commodity symbols of three characters or more. Two-character symbols were the norm through the 1980s, but this convention was largely left behind as the commodity industry exploded with new products over the next decade and beyond. Overseas commodities are typically identified by three-character symbols, which are also used for various specialized series.

If two-character symbols are required for your software, click the box in front of "Force two-character symbols" to use only the symbols identified in the factsheets in the "2 Char Symbol" column. You'll note that these symbols are not necessarily representative of the commodity name, and often include characters such as #$%, etc. The use of these special characters artificially expanded the universe of possible two-character symbols.

Display as Decimal

As every trader knows, stock and commodity prices may be quoted in decimals, eights, sixteenths, thirty-seconds or some other increment as determined by the exchanges. UA allows you to display all prices in decimal form for easy comparison and to avoid unwieldy integers.

·	Check the "Display as Decimal" box (click it) to have all charts, tables and export format files use decimal values. As noted on the UA screen, "Rounding to Nearest Tick" on the Rounding/Ranging tab should be used with this selection.