Holiday Schedule
CSI will be closed for voice communication on Monday, May 31
for the Memorial Day holiday. U.S. exchanges will be closed, but data
from other exchanges will be available as usual.
$25 Bonus for You and a
Friend
Do you know about CSI's Referral Bonus Program? Here's
how it works: Any current CSI subscriber who refers a new customer to our
update service receives a $25 discount on their next CSI purchase AND the
person they refer gets a $25 discount off the price of their first order. If
you take advantage, that'll be a $25 savings for you and $25 that stays in your
friend's pocket. To qualify, the new subscriber simply identifies the
referring customer when placing their initial order. We'll take care of
the rest!
Special Note to our Aussie
and NZ Users
We in the U.S. have switched to Daylight Savings Time, which
means we moved our clocks ahead one hour on April 4th. Those of you in
the southern hemisphere who moved your clocks back an hour reap a two-hour
difference in data delivery time. Feel free to call for your updates two
hours earlier until the next time change in the Fall.
UA Important Notice
UA's Uninstall function should only
be used if UA is stored in its own directory (probably C:\UA). Do not use
Uninstall if the software is in your root directory (probably C:\).
Always back up your hard
drive before using any Uninstall program!
Questions and Answers
Q.
I've noticed on some days the volume for my FINEX US Dollar
Index is zero, but the next day it gets corrected with an actual value. Why is
that?
A.
As you know, volume and open interest for almost all futures
markets are posted one day after the actual trading. The anomaly regarding
FINEX volume and open interest is that they are sometimes posted two days
after. This is because the FINEX exchange offers trading on many U.S. holidays,
but (we are told) is not fully staffed on those days. The exchange releases
volume and open interest a day late on these occasions, so we make them
available as "corrections" on the same basis. On rare occasions when these
figures are not released at all, we report a zero for volume and the previous
day's open interest.
Q.
Why are the values for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (CSI
#2335) shown as 90,000+, when the actual DJIA is only at 9,000 plus to 10,000?
Am I getting the wrong symbol? Even when I divide the numbers by ten, only the
close matches what I see in the newspaper. The Open, high, low and volume don't
make much sense to me. Would you please check on this?
A.
This question deals with two separate issues: decimal
placement and index selection. The data is being presented as a five-digit
number without any decimal places. Checking "Output Values in Decimal Form" in
User Settings, General (through UA's VIEW menu) and then rebuilding the file
through the portfolio manager will correct the decimal placement in your ASCII
files. This will not likely solve your problem, however. Even with the
adjustment feature turned on, UA's number x335 (2335) will display as 900, not
9000. This commodity number was created for customers who have Vantage Point
software, which cannot handle the larger numbers. If you wish to have the
numbers in the correct form, you will need one of the other versions of the
DJIA that CSI offers. (See below.)
The reason your newspaper does not match the high and low of #x335 is that Dow
Jones & Co. uses two different methods to calculate the average. Both
versions are offered in UA and in the Wall Street Journal. The "theoretical"
method has been used since 1928. The calculation uses the daily highs for all
30 stocks to calculate the index high, and the lows to calculate the index low.
This method assumes that they all hit their high or low at the same time, which
is almost never true. (It happens occasionally, usually on big down (or up)
days, when all 30 stocks close at their lows (or highs) for the day.) In
January 1992, Dow Jones started using a second "actual" method. This method
calculates the index at 10-second intervals all day long, with the index high
and low coming from the highest and lowest of these calculations.
Below is a summary of the DJIA data CSI offers:
Commodity # 496 - CBT futures (rounded, actual) and futures (24 hour)
Commodity #596 - CBT futures (rounded, actual) and futures (day only)
Commodity #x335(2335) - cash, (price divided by 10 for Vantage Point Users,
theoretical)
Stock #3961 - actual
Stock #5499 - theoretical
Stock #5792 - theoretical (shares sold in volume field)
Q.
My trading system requires that I view and analyze each
day's update individually, and add data one day at a time. This is a problem
with UA, which doesn't appear to allow me to pick up days individually when I
have missed an update. Do you have a solution?
A.
To accommodate you and many other users requesting this
feature, we programmed an option to distribute data one day at a time when
multiple days are retrieved from CSI. This will be available under User
Settings, General (through the VIEW menu) in UA version 174.2. Please watch out
web site for details.
Requests such as this one are evaluated on an individual basis, according to
the number of customers affected and the feasibility of adding the feature to
the software. Each request is kept on a UA wish list for consideration.
Q.
I am eagerly awaiting the addition of new studies to UA. Can
you add a few of my favorites?
A.
We would sure like to! We are actively soliciting
contributions for studies or indicators you would like to see in UA. We're not
looking for earth-moving originality, but if you would find it convenient to
have your favorite indicator programmed, we might be able to do it. We will
consider all requests and give source credit through our UA manual for any
significant contribution that we believe is acceptable. Entries become the
property of CSI, and the donor of any original study that is adopted will
receive a month or a negotiated period of free service.
We are looking for material that will supplement customer efforts to trade, and
that will not directly compete with trading system developers. Please email a
general description of your study to techsupport@csidata.com, subject: STUDY
IDEA, and we'll get back to you for more information if we are interested in
publishing your study.
Q.
I'm interested in calling early to retrieve Pacific
Rim prices with UA, but I'm concerned about double-access charges. Is it
possible to call early for some data without paying extra?
A.
Yes, but only if you wait until the following day to
download the missing part of your portfolio. In other words, if you call before
all of the markets are posted, but don't get the missing data until you call
for an update the following day; you'll be accessing just once per day and will
avoid extra charges.
If you find that certain commodities of interest to you are
usually unavailable when you call for your update, you'll need to choose one of
these three options: 1) adjust your update time to accommodate the missing
markets; 2) continue retrieving your updates at the normal time, but wait until
the following day to get the late data in your normal update; or 3) make a
second call after 8 p.m. eastern time, which will assure you have the most
complete data available for the day. Additional charges apply for regularly
receiving more than one update daily.
The double access fee is currently $18 per month for World
markets ($12 for U.S.). Depending upon your use of the early data, you might
find a second daily call well worth the difference in price.]
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