The prices menu provides many different functions related to the prices of securities:
The price display option allows you to look at the prices for each
day in their numeric form. Using the left hand side of the dialog,
simply select the month and the security of interest. The prices
will be shown on the right hand side.
The price edit menu option is based on the price display option, but allows you to edit any of the displayed prices simply by clicking on the price in question. The display will then show a smaller dialog where you are able to enter a new price. If you wish to remove a price for a given date, then click on it as usual, but when you enter a new price simply type 'no price' in the dialog.
When you have a large number of securities, automatic price updating allows you to update all their prices without needing any user interaction. Whether you will be able to use automatic price updating will depend on whether your system is installed with any hardware that allow prices to be extracted from external sources (e.g. teletext adapters). Assuming you have the necessary hardware and drivers, you can use this option to bring the price database up to date. Only securities that have been marked as 'Automatic Update' will be affected by this operation.
While the update is taking place, no other activity will be possible and a busy dialog will indicate how far the update has progressed.
A full price update builds on the automatic price update to update the prices of all securities. The first stage of a full update is for the system to perform an automatic update. Once complete, the XSM determines the securities that have still not had their prices updated and (provided the securities are marked as having 'Manual Updates') displays a dialog for each security to obtain the current price from the user.
When price information is being shared between many users, one user performing a price update can affect all other users. It is strongly recommended that in these cases, the system administrator makes price files read only for the user community and takes the responsibility of ensuring they are updated.
After a system crash, or other serious failure, there is a possibility that one or more price files are inconsistent. This option will scan all the files and report problems. When a problem is reported, the user is given the choice of letting the system attempt a repair. You should be aware that data can be lost in this process, if the system is unable to make the price file(s) consistent without removing some price information.
This is the same as the standard validation, described above, but attempts repairs without asking the user. If there are many failures, this option should be considered as it removes the need for any user interaction during what can be a very lengthy process.
When using price input sources, such as teletext it is possible that the abbreviations used for the different securities will change over time. Detecting these changes can be difficult, unless you monitor which securities are not being updated when you perform an automatic price update. This option will display a dialog, that summarizes how many securities have (and have not) been updated with the latest prices and names those that were not updated. It should only be used after a price update.
The change in price window gives complete information on how prices changed after a price update. For each security it shows the new price, the previous price, the change and the % change.
The 'Options' menu allows you to chose whether only those securities that are in the current portfolio will be displayed or whether all known securities will be shown. You should be aware, that if you ask for all securities and you have defined many (>2000) then noticeable time will be taken when the window is updating the display.
The 'Order' menu gives three orderings for the display. The securities can be shown in:
You can also select which types of change to look at with the 'Selection' menu. By default the window will only show those securities whose prices changed.