AmiBroker 5.80.2 Read Me

June 25, 2014 12:27

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Just run the installer and follow the instructions.

Then run AmiBroker. You should see "AmiBroker 5.80" written in the About box.

See Release Notes document below for detailed list of changes.

Highlights of version 5.80

• Brand-new completely rewritten AFL Formula Editor that supports the following features:
  • Improved Syntax highlighting
  • Automatic brace matching/highlighting (NEW)
  • Auto indentation (NEW)
  • Indentation markers (NEW)
  • Enhanced auto-complete in two modes (immediate (NEW) and on-demand)
  • Parameter information
  • Line numbering margin and selection margin (NEW)
  • Code folding (NEW)
  • In-line Error Reporting (NEW)
  • New tabbed user interface with ability to work in both MDI and separate floating frame mode, can be moved behind main AmiBroker screen and brought back (Window->Toggle Frame) (NEW) or kept on top (Window->Keep on top)
  • Rectangular block copy/paste/delete (Use mouse and hold down left Alt key to mark rectangular block)
  • Enhanced printing (with syntax highlighting and header/footer)
    
• Code snippets - these are small pieces of re-usable AFL code. They can be inserted by right-clicking in the AFL editor window and choosing "Insert Snippet" menu. Code snippets are user-definable.
  
• New features in Low-level graphics
  • multiple Z-order layers GfxSetZOrder
  • co-ordinates can now be given in both pixels and bar-price mode GfxSetCoordsMode
  • speed improvements (upto 3x)
    
• Persistent Static variables - StaticVarSet/StaticVarSetText (added 'persistent' parameter)
  
• Analysis (Backtest/Optimize) enhancements
  • new "Trade using FX cash conversion" setting
  • 64-bit SPSO/Tribes engine fixes
    
• New/enhanced AFL functions
  • PlotTextSetFont (NEW)
  • GfxSetCoordsMode (NEW)
  • GfxSetZOrder (NEW)
  • GfxGetTextWidth (NEW)
  • fopen (added 'shared' parameter)
  • StaticVarSet/StaticVarSetText (added 'persistent' parameter)
  • SetOption (new option "StaticVarAutoSave")
  • SetChartOptions (new flags chartDisableYAxisCursor, chartDisableTooltips )
  • PlotText (new parameter yoffset)

Highlights of version 5.70

• Analysis improvements:
  • New Multi-threaded Individual Optimization
  • New general-purpose ranking functions
  • User-definable ranking columns (via AddRankColumn function)
  • Lots of internal speedups in backtesting/optimization engine
  • SPSO, Tribes optimization engines now available also in 64-bit
    
    
• Time&Sales improvements: user-definable filtering, user-definable colors, 2 user-selectable display modes
  
• Database improvements:
  • 64-bit version supports files larger than 2GB per symbol
  • in-memory cache can hold upto 100 000 symbols (up from 20K)
  • new 64-bit DDE and ODBC plugins
    
• Charting improvements:
• Greatly improved performance QuickData technology implemented lowering CPU usage for charts
• Edit->'Paste Special' allows to copy-paste entire chart pane with various options
• Distance measuring when drawing trendlines (X,Y distance in the status bar)
• X/Y constrains for drawing tools (press X and/or Y key to constrain movement in either X or Y direction when drawing)
• ASCII importer adds support for millisecond timestamps
  
• AFL improvements:
  • new functions:
    • StaticVarGenerateRanks, StaticVarGetRankedSymbols - general-purpose user-definable ranking
    • Error - display user-definable error messages (also useful for plugin developers)
    • fdir - directory listing
    • CategoryCreate - programmatic creation of watch-lists
    • AddRankColumn - ranking columns in exploration
      
  • performance improved for Percentile() (order(s) of magnitude)
  • new fields supported in GetFnData
  • XShift support added to PlotShapes
  • speeded up transcendental mathfunctions (sqrt, sin,asin, cos, acos, tan, atan, ln, log10, etc)
  • improved SetSortColumns

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)