AmiBroker 5.60.3 Read Me

December 4, 2012 10:09

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Just run the installer and follow the instructions.

Then run AmiBroker. You should see "AmiBroker 5.60.3" written in the About box.

See Release Notes document below for detailed list of changes.

Highlights of version 5.60

• Multithreaded GDI (graphics) rendering - now all drawing (graphic rendering) is done in separate worker threads so the user interface is way more responsive and charts are updated faster and completely independently from each other.
  
• Automatic Walk-Forward out-of-sample summary report - each out-of-sample step produces individual report now, plus there is a new summary report that covers all out-of-sample steps. It is visible in the Report Explorer as last one and has "PS" type.
  
• Enhanced color-coded backtest report
  
• XY (scatter) charts in explorations
  
• Chart themes and improved chart look (esp. the grid)
  
• One-click automatic setup and update of stocks listing, sector and industry assignments for all major US exchanges
  
• Unlimited ad-hoc chart intervals by means of new Interval combo box that accepts any interval typed manually
  
• support for ICB (Industry Classification Benchmark) categories in AFL, UI, ASCII importer and OLE interface
  
• native Gradient area charts
  
• super-thick lines in Plot, PlotOHLC, PlotForeign
  
• new AFL functions: GetAsyncKeyState, InIcb, IcbID, StaticVarInfo, SetGradientFill, XYChartAddPoint, XYChartSetAxis
  
• updated AFL functions with new functionality: Status, CategoryGetSymbols, CategoryGetName, CategorySetName, CategoryAddSymbol, CategoryRemoveSymbol, CategoryFind, Plot, PlotOHLC, PlotForeign
  
• new 64-bit eSignal plugin
  
• updated UI in many places
  
• many other improvements (see Release Notes for details)

Highlights of version 5.50

• New Analysis window introduced in version 5.50 brings the following improvements over old Automatic Analysis
  
  • multi-threaded operation = speed - new Analysis window uses all available CPUs/cores to execute formulas in many threads in parallel providing significant speed ups. For example on 4 core Intel i7 that can run upto 8 threads, it can run upto 8 times faster than old Analysis window. Exact speed up depends on complexity of the formula (the more complex it is, the more speedup is possible), amount of data processed (RAM access may be not as fast as CPU thus limiting possible speed gains).
    
  • non-blocking operation - you can now view, scroll and sort results of analysis while they are still generated, also as user interface thread is not used for processing for most part, charts and other GUI-driven program parts are way more responsive than with old automatic analysis
    
  • multiple instances - you can run more than one instance of New Analysis at a time, so you can run many scans/backtest/explorations/optimizations in parallel without waiting for one to complete
    
  • slicker user interface - New Analysis window can act as tabbed document, can be floated, buttons can be re-arranged for better workflow. There is way more space for the result list, extra information about execution is provided on the new "Info" tab. Also walk-forward results are now displayed within New Analysis window for less clutter.
    
• Mini High-Low rank chart in Real Time quote window
• User-definable mini bar charts in Explorations (see AddColumn function)
• Add Rank Column feature - right-click Analysis result list and choose "Add Rank column" - it adds a column with ordinal rankings based on current sort or just row number column when list is not sorted
• IRA account backtesting via SettlementDelay feature (see SetOption function)
• Range bars algorithm improved significantly
• new AFL functions: ThreadSleep, StaticVarCompareExchange
• updated AFL functions with new functionality: AddColumn, SetOption, GetOption, CategoryGetSymbols, PopupWindow, GetFnData, ClipboardSet
• updated OLE interface to support new Analysis window
• updated custom backtester interface to support access to local, per-analysis EquityArray property
• updated UI in many places
• Owner-draw list views for 10x speed improvement when displaying millions of rows
• many other improvements (see Release Notes for details)