linuxtrade(1)

linuxtrade - A stock tracking console with real-time quoteslinuxtrade [options] [symbols]There are a number of free and subscription streaming real time quote services available on the web, such as scottrader.com (free) and money.net (subscription). They offer visually slick looking Java based applications which suffer from all the usual problems: too big, requires a graphical user interface, requires a web browser where Java actually works, can't save and replay the data, etc. In addition, they are rarely designed to offer convenient access to stock news and other information.

linuxtrade is a Curses (text-based) implementation of a stock streamer application, plus additional features inspired by the excellent MedVed QuoteTracker Windows program, plus its own set of unique features. linuxtrade is lightweight yet has all the cool features: portfolios, real time quotes, charts with live updates, time and sales, fundamental and technical indicators, top ten and market movers, news articles, alerts, option chains, the Briefing.com In Play and Up/Downgrades lists, earnings, splits and quiet period calendars, and Level 2 market depth indications from the Archipelago and the Island ECN's.

linuxtrade currently supports scottrader.com, schwab.com, money.net, quotemedia.com, sonictrading.com, and other streamer servers; see the complete list below.First, you should go to http://www.scottrader.com and sign up for a free account. They will send you a password by email. This takes only a minute or so.

Now, start up an xterm(1) or a gnome-terminal with as many lines as will fit on your screen. Then run the application and enter your password:

$ linuxtrade
Please sign up for your own FREE Scottrader account at:
        http://www/scottrader.com
Enter password (JPY9747 for demo): XXXNNNN

Now save these settings by pressing [P], then [c], and then press [s] twice. If you entered a password that is not the demo password, then you won't need to enter your password again. NOTE: see sections Preferences and Changing Streamer Preferences below.

Press [?] to popup the main help screen.

For more complete installation instructions, including other packages you may need to install, please refer to the INSTALLATION section at the end of this manual page.

LinuxTrade has 4 background color modes. You can set the mode on the command line with the -c option or on the preferences screen (press P). The color mode takes effect only when the application starts, so if you change it on the preferences screen, save the preferences and then quit and restart. The default color mode is 3; the color modes are:

LinuxTrade will work with an xterm size as small as 25x80. However, much more information can be presented if the number of lines or columns is increased.

Increasing the number of lines will allow you to see larger charts, more time and sales windows, the top 10 lists, and news windows without obscuring the main quote display.

Increasing the number of columns to at least 86 will allow you to see the percentage that the stock price has changed today.

Increasing the number of columns to at least 124 will allow you to see your stock holdings and portofolio value without having to use holdings mode.

Increasing the number of columns to at least 160 will allow you see the time and sales windows on the right side of the screen, while other information, such as a chart or a L2 book can be shown on the left side of the screen.

Press [?] to popup the main help screen. Press any other key to hide the popup. This complete manual page can also be viewed from within linuxtrade using the extended command :man.

Each screen and function is described in the sections that follow.

Press [:] [?] to popup the extended commands help screen. Note that any extended command can be abbreviated with the shortest substring that makes the command unique.

Each screen and function is described in the sections that follow.

Press [P] to popup the Preferences screen. Use the [up] and [down] arrow keys or the [j] and [k] keys to move the highlighted line to the entry that you want to change, then press [c] to change the line.

When editing the entry, use the [left] and [right] arrow keys to move the cursor. Use [Backspace] to delete the character to the left of the cursor. Use [Delete] to delete the character under the cursor. Press [Enter] when you are done making changes, or [Esc] to discard the changes.

Press [f] to reset the highlighted entry to its default value. Press [F] to reset all entries to their default values.

Press [s] to permanently save your preferences, or [q] to quit the popup without saving. These keys will also hide the popup.

Passwords are normally obscured with asterisks. Press [Ctrl] [p] to display passwords, and again to hide them.

Here is a description of the preference items that you can change under normal circumstances. Changing the other preferences might cause unusual behavior.

streamer

This is the source of the streamer data. Press the [c] key on this item to popup the Change Streamer screen where you will be able to change the streamer source and the username and password associated with it. This is fully described in the next section.

alert_mail

This is the email address for alerts.

colormode

See the COLOR MODES section above.

news_alerts

This value controls news alerts on a global basis. If the value is 0, then news alerts are completely disabled. If the value is 1, then news alerts are enabled on an individual stock basis according to the settings in the news alerts popup. If the value is 2, then news alerts are enabled for all stocks in the current portfolio, regardless of what the setting is for an individual stock.

alert_ext

This is the name of a program to run in order to deliver an external alert. The default is to use the linuxtrade.audio script to play a speech synthesized alert message. However, an alternative program or script could be written to deliver alerts many other ways, such as flashing the house lights on and off using an x10 controller.

The external program will be passed 6 arguments on the command line. The arguments are: symbol name, last trade, last volume, alert variable, comparsion operator, comparison value.

alert_synth

The voice synthesizer to use for voice alerts.

top10_mkt

This is the default market to display on the top 10 list. A value of 'E' means to display the AMEX. A value of 'N' means to display the NYSE. A value of 'Q' means to display the NASDAQ.

top10_mode

This is the default display format for the top 10 list. A value of '%' means to display the top 10 percentage gainers. A value of '$' means to display the top 10 net gainers.

showtotal

If non-zero, portfolio totals are continuously displayed underneath the current stock list.

print_cmd

This is the command line to use which will print plain text to the print spooler. A command that can handle overstrikes for bold and italics is preferred.

mouse

A non-zero value enables mouse support.

fill_charts

This is the source to use for backfilling the charts displayed with the [c] command when not using the streamer based charts. The source can be prophet.net, quote.com or askresearch.com.

Some streamers, such as the schwab.com, esignal.com, and scottrader.com streamers, can also backfill charts. Streamers that can backfill charts will have a usecharts streamer preference item. Set usecharts to 1 to use the streamer to backfill the charts.

web_charts

This is the source to use for the printable web browser chart pages displayed with the [g] and [G] commands. The source can be stockcharts.com, quote.com, pcquote.com or yahoo.com.

java_charts

This is the source to use for Java live charts displayed with the [C] command. The source can be livecharts.com (a.k.a. finance.lycos.com), money.net, or two types of chart applets from prophet.net.

lc_user

This is the user name to use when logging into finance.lycos.com. This is needed if you want to get real time updates with the Lycos LiveChart java applet which is displayed with the [C] command.

lc_pass

This is the password to use when logging into finance.lycos.com.

lc_geom

This is the desired applet geometry (width x height) for the Lycos Live Chart java applet. The default is 700 x 350.

pf_user

This is the user name to use when logging into prophet.net. This is needed if you want to get real time updates with the ChartStream java applet which is displayed with the [C] command. It is also needed to get real time chart backfills from prophet.net. If you don't have a subscription to prophet.net, set the user name to Guest.

pf_pass

This is the password to use when logging into fBprophet.net.

browser

This is the command line to use when starting a new browser window.

broker_browser

This is the command line to use when starting a small browser window for quickly accessing your brokers trading website using the [Ctrl] [b] command.

broker_URL

This is the URL of the brokers trading website. It is used in conjunction with the broker_browser preference. For the least amount of graphics bloat and quickest entry of broker orders, use the brokers "web-clipping" (PDA, cell-phone compatible) lightweight web page.

optchain_URL

This is a URL to use when getting option chains, for use with streamers that do not support option chains themselves. This URL will be shown in your web browser.

inplay_poll

This is the period in minutes between refreshes of the briefing.com In Play list. A value of 0 disables this feature.

live_quotes

This is the period in seconds between updates of the live quotes in any of the displayable web documents, such as the In Play list or the Up/Downgrades list. A value of 0 disables this feature.

inplay_alert

This is the period in minutes between checks of the briefing.com In Play list for new updates when the In Play list isn't displayed. A value of 0 disables this feature. If the In Play list changes, you are alerted by the red INPLAY indicator that will appear at the top of the screen.

updown_poll

This is the period in minutes between refreshes of the briefing.com Up/downgrades list. A value of 0 disables this feature.

updown_alert

This is the period in minutes between checks of the briefing.com Up/downgrades list for new updates when the Up/downgrades list isn't displayed. A value of 0 disables this feature. If the Up/downgrades list changes, you are alerted by the red UPDOWN indicator that will appear at the top of the screen.

+--------------------------- Change Streamer ---------------------------+

|streamer scottrader.com |

|username notneeded |

|password XYZ7820 |

|hostname 63.240.138.21 |

|port 443 |

| |

| |

| c=Change f=Reset to Factory F=Reset All s=Save q=Quit |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

LinuxTrade currently supports six streamer data sources; see the table below for the list of supported streamers. From the Preference screen, position the cursor on the streamer item and press the [c] key to bring up the Change Streamer popup.

When the cursor is positioned on the streamer item, you can use the [c] key or the [left] and [right] arrow keys to cycle through the streamer data sources: none, scottrader.com, ameritrade.com, datek.com (obsolete, use ameritrade), esignal.com, freetrade.com, money.net, quotemedia.com, schwab.com, sonictrading.com, moneyam.com(uk), and swissquote.ch.

Use the [up] and [down] arrow keys to move to the username and password items. Press the [c] key to change these items to your username and password.

Passwords are normally obscured with asterisks. Press [Ctrl] [p] to display passwords, and again to hide them.

Finally, press the [s] key to save your username and password and begin using this streamer as the data source. You will then be returned to the Preferences popup. You should press the [s] key there if you want to make this streamer your permanent default streamer.

NOTE: When you enter your password for the money.net streamer, LinuxTrade will immediately authenticate you and display a hashed password in the encpasswd item. Under normal circumstances, do not change this value.

Quick Streamer Change. From the main screen, you can use [Ctrl] [n] to select the next streamer and [Ctrl] [p] to select the previous streamer. Each time you press [Ctrl] [n] or [Ctrl] [p] the streamer data source will change to the next or the previous streamer that has been configured with a username and password. This lets you switch to a backup streamer very quickly. The extended command :streamer type can be used to switch to a specific streamer as for the -t command line switch (below).

Here is a table of the LinuxTrade features which are supported with each streamer.

(*) Delayed quotes are free with simple registration.
(c) Must be a customer.
(t) Free trial.

This is the main LinuxTrade screen. At the right of the first line of the screen there is an indicator that shows when the program is connected to the streamer server. If the indicator is a red X, then the program is attempting to connect to the streamer. If the indicator is blue or green, then the program is connected and the name of the server (e.g. FreeStreaming5) is displayed.

The top center of the screen shows the stocklist that is currently being displayed. There are 100 stocklists numbered from 0 to 99. Stocklist 0 is a temporary stocklist which is populated from the command line or from various popups such as the In Play data. Stocklists 1-9 are permanent stocklists which can be selected with a single keystroke. Press the number keys [0] to [9] to change the displayed stocklist. Press the [a] key to add one or more stock symbols to the currently displayed list. Press the [s] key twice to save the currently displayed list. Press the [s] key and a list number [1] to [9] to save the currently displayed list to a specific list number.

Stocklists 10-99 can be accessed using the extended commands :<number>, :save [<number>], and :list <name>.

On the second line of the screen are red INPLAY and UPDOWN indicators. These appear when new information is available on the In Play and Up/Downgrade popups.

The next several lines show real time quote information for the stocks in the currently selected stocklist. The bid size, ask size, and volume are all in units of 100's of shares.

Many of the other LinuxTrade operations work on the stock that is currently highlighted. Use the [up] and [down] arrow keys or the [j] and [k] keys to move the highlighted line to the entry that you want to work with.

Press the [d] key twice to delete the stock that is highlighted. Press the [D] key to delete stocks by entering their names.

The extended command :label can be used to give a description to a stocklist, such as :label Cup and Handle Stocks.

The extended command :comment can be used to attach short notes to the currently highlighted stock, such as :comment Possible Short. The comments column is visible when the terminal width is 140 columns or more, but the full comment for the current stock also appears on the message line at the bottom of the screen. The :clrcom command can be used to clear out all comments in the current stocklist.

The extended command :sort can be used to sort the current stocklist. Only the portion of the stocklist beginning with the stock at the current cursor location is sorted. The argument supplied to the :sort command selects the sorting criteria:

If the bid or ask is higher than the previous bid or ask, the bid or ask are displayed in blue or green.

If the bid or ask is lower than the previous bid or ask, the bid or ask are displayed in red.

If the bid is greater than or equal to the daily high, the stock symbol name is displayed in blue or green.

If the ask is less than or equal to the daily low, the stock symbol name is displayed in red.

If a new daily high or low is reached, the high or low is displayed in orange.

The quote trend indicates the direction of the last 5 or more quote updates the program has received. If the terminal window is 80 columns wide, only the last 5 direction indicators will be displayed, but if the terminal window is wider than 80 columns you will see a longer period of trend data.

A colored symbol is added at the left while the trend scrolls to the right.

If last sale is higher than the previous sale, a green + sign is added.

If last sale is lower than the previous sale, a red − sign is added.

If last sale is the same as the previous sale, an equals (=) sign is added with the color of the most recent + or − sign.

The final ten lines of the main display show the Top 10 stocks by volume, gains, and losses. Press the [E] key to select the AMEX Top 10. Press the [N] key to select the NYSE Top 10. Press the [Q] key to select the NASDAQ Top 10. Press the [%] key to display the gainers and losers by percentage. Press the [$] key to display the net gainers and losers.

Holdings mode allows you to see the net gains and losses for stocks that you hold in your portfolio. You can switch to view your holdings at any time by pressing the [H] key. Press the [H] key a second time to return to the normal display. NOTE: If you have a wide screen display, your holdings are always displayed and holdings mode won't be needed or available.

Press the [*] key to change the holdings display to show the per-share cost instead of the total cost of the position.

Press the [#] key to enter your portfolio holdings. For each stock, you can enter the number of shares that you own and the total cost of those shares. Use the arrow keys, [Tab], [Space], and [Enter] keys to move between the fields on the data entry screen.

Prefix an amount with [*] to specify the per-share cost, or with [=] to specify the total cost, regardless whether the display is in TOTCOST or SHRCOST modes.

When you are done entering your holdings, press the [s] key to save the data permanently. Note that your holdings data is associated with a particular stock list.

The extended command :clrhold can be used to clear (zero) all holdings in the current stock list.

The extended command :total will display the current total value of your holdings at the bottom of the screen. The showtotals preference will cause the totals to be continuously displayed underneath the current stock list.

The extended command :lookup can be used to lookup a symbol given the portion of the corporation name listed on the command line. A popup window will appear with a table of the symbols that might be associated with that name. The example above was produced with the command :lookup next. Note that all of the symbol names might not be supported by the streamer that is currently selected. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

The extended command :name will lookup the full corporation name for the current symbol, or optionally the symbol name listed on the command line.Option symbols can be streamed by the Scottrader, Ameritrade, Datek, eSignal, Freetrade, Money.net, and Schwab streamers. There is no universal naming convention for option symbols. Since LinuxTrade supports multiple streamers, it is necessary to have a consistent naming system for option symbols so you can switch between streamers and not have to change option symbols.

Option symbols are entered in a canonical format, which is the option root and the two letter expiration and strike price code followed by a trailing period (.). For example, the canonical symbol for Intel Sept. 20 calls is `NQID.'.

There is no universal naming convention for index symbols. Since LinuxTrade supports multiple streamers, it is necessary to have a consistent naming system for index symbols so you can switch between streamers and not have to change index symbols. To allow that, LinuxTrade maps a set of canonical index symbols to the actual symbols that the streamer uses. Here is the table of canonical symbols to use for getting index quotes.

The extended command :indexes will display a stocklist with all of the canonical index symbols, assuming your display has enough lines on it to display this long list (70 or more lines are needed). Other index symbols may be added to the canonical list by emailing a request.

You can popup a candlestick chart for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [c] key to bring up the charts popup. Then press the [?] key to popup up help on charts. NOTE: Charts look best when displayed in a terminal emulator with a lot of lines.

Press the [1] thru [6] keys to change the sample period of the chart from 1 minute to weekly. Press the [+] and [-] keys to increase or decrease the duration of the chart.

Use the [left] [right] [Home] and [End] keys to scroll long duration charts left and right.

Press the [q] key to hide the chart popup.

One minute, five minute, and 10 minute charts have a live chart update feature that is activated whenever the chart is positioned at the end of the displayable data. New trades are automatically added to the chart, making the chart dynamically change as time advances.

Press the [p] key to display the pivot points for the stock.

The [C] key will display a finance.lycos.com LiveChart, a prophet.net ChartStream Java applet, or a money.net ChartStream Java applet for the current stock, depending on the setting of the java_charts preference.

You must set the lc_user and lc_pass preferences and/or the pf_user and pf_pass preferences and/or configure the money.net streamer with a valid login name in order to get real time chart updates, otherwise the charts will be delayed. You must also have a Java SDK (see INSTALLATION below).

The extended commands :lc, :mn, and :pf can be used to start a LiveChart or one of the ChartStream applets without regard to the setting of the java_charts preference. An optional stock symbol may be passed to these commands to bring up a chart for that symbol, otherwise the current symbol is the stocklist is used.

The [g] and [G] keys will use your web browser to display a page with stock charts of all of the symbols in the current stocklist in a format that is easily printed. The web_charts preference controls the source for these charts. The [g] key will display intraday charts (if available from the selected source), and the [G] key will display two month charts.

The extended commands :wide and :Wide are similar to the [g] and [G] commands except that the displayed charts are wider (typically two days for :wide and 6 months for :Wide).

The extended command :wc will display an intraday and 6 month chart for just the current symbol. An optional stock symbol may be passed to this command to bring up a chart for that symbol rather than the current symbol.

Several extended commands are available to retrieve miscellaneous data for either the current stock symbol, or the optional symbol listed on the end of the extended command.

You can popup the most recent news headlines for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [n] key.

Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the news popup.

You can also use the extended command :news to popup the window. An optional stock symbol can be supplied with the command, otherwise the current stock is used.

LinuxTrade uses a default ``main'' news source for most news. However, some streamers may also support streaming news. Those streamers have a preference usenews associated with them which can be set to 1 to use the streamer as the primary news source.

The extended commands :mnews and :snews can be used to force use of either the main news source, or the streamer news source.

You can read a news article. Highlight the headline of interest and then press the [Enter] key. Press the [q] key to hide the news article and return to the news headlines.

LinuxTrade supports streaming news on some streamers. Streaming news will appear on the MAIN screen below the stock lists, with the most recent headline at the top. These headlines will not be displayed on a narrow display if the market mover display is turned on.

The most recent 300 headlines are also saved for future display. Use the :onews extended command to popup the old (saved) news window.

Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the news popup.

Highlight the headline of interest and then press the [Enter] key to display the article associated with the headline.

You can popup fundamental information for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [i] key. Press the [q] key to hide the fundamental information popup.

You can popup technical information for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [I] key. Press the [q] key to hide the technical information popup.

You can set alerts for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [A] key to bring up the Alerts popup.

Now, use the arrow keys to highlight one of the four alert entries.

Next, press the [a] [b] [l] [H] [L] or [v] keys to select an alert on the ask, bid, low, high, or volume value. The Value column will be automatically filled in with the current value for that parameter.

Next, press the [<] [=] or [>] keys to select the comparison operator.

Next, adjust the value. Use the [+] or [-] keys to increase or decrease the current value by 5%. Use the [left] or [right] keys to increase or decrease the current value by 0.01. Or, use the number keys to enter a specific value.

Next, select the type of alert action(s) that you want. Press the [t] key to toggle on-terminal (on-screen) alerts on or off. Press the [m] key to toggle email alerts on or off. Make sure that your email address is properly set in the Preferences popup. Press the [x] key to select alert delivery by an external program (see Preferences).

Finally, enable the alert by using the [e] key to toggle the enabled status.

You can enter news alerts similarly. Press the [n] key to set a new news alert. There is no need to select an operator or a value for a news alert. If new news for a stock becomes available while LinuxTrade is running, you will be alerted.

Press the [s] key to permanently save these alerts and hide the alert popup. Press the [q] or [Esc] keys to make the current set of alerts temporary and hide the alert popup.

Press the [d] key to clear and delete the current alert entry.

NOTE: Alerts are active only on the stocklist that is displayed. This will be changed to include all stocks in all lists in a future version of LinuxTrade.

When you are on the main stock screen and a screen alert occurs, press the [Ctrl] [a] keys to clear the alert condition. Press them twice to clear all alerts.

The extended command :clralerts can be used to remove all alerts in the current stock list.

On the alert popup, press the [p] key to set five alerts from the stock pivot points.

pp = (high + low + close) / 3;
r1 = (2*pp) - low;
s1 = (2*pp) - high;
r2 = pp + (r1 - s1);
s2 = pp - (r1 - s1);

You can quickly set high and low last price alert triggers from the main screen. Press [Ctrl] [t] and then enter the symbol name and the high and low alert triggers.

Alternatively, press [Ctrl] [f] and then enter the symbol name and the high and low alert triggers.

The difference is that triggers entered with [Ctrl] [f] will follow the www.trendfund.com 10 AM rule, where the trigger will be automatically adjusted before 10AM.

You can see the Archipelago book for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [b] key to display the book. The left side of the screen shows buyers, and the right side of the screen shows sellers. The MMID indicates which ECN the order comes from; ISL is for the Island book, REDI is for the RediBook, and ELF is for the Archipelago book.

The colored horizontal bar at the top of the display gives an indication of the total number of shares being offered. Within the bar there is a vertical line. The line moves towards the right side of the screen if there are more buyers than sellers.

You can also see the Island book for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [B] key to display the book. The left side of the screen shows buyers, and the middle of the screen shows sellers. The Last Match column shows the last sale that was completed on the Island ECN.

The colored horizontal bar at the top of the display gives an indication of the total number of shares being offered. Within the bar there is a vertical line. The line moves towards the right side of the screen if there are more buyers than sellers.

You can get a list of the option symbols for a stock. Highlight the stock of interest in the Main Screen, then press the [o] key to display the option symbols. The left side of the screen shows the calls, the right side of the screen shows the puts.

Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

The option chains popup features a live quote feature. Quotes for each option on the display are updated every 60 seconds.

If the currently selected streamer doesn't support option chains, you can use the [O] key to display option chains for the current stock using your web browser.

Press the [t] key to turn the display of the Time and Sales window for the current stock on or off.

Press the [T] key to turn the display of the Time and Sales windows for all stocks on or off.

The Time and Sales windows show all trades for each selected stock in the stocklist, up to as many stocks as will fit on the screen. If you want more stocks displayed, simply use a terminal emulator with more lines or columns. The volume is shown in shares, not lots.

The color of each line indicates something about the sale.

Press the [m] key to toggle the display of the Market Movers data on or off. The Market Movers shows stocks making new daily highs or lows in real time.

The extended commands :pre and :after will popup a window that displays the NASDAQ premarket or after hours trades for the current symbol (or for a specific symbol listed on the command line).

The time and sales data is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list of trades. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

Currently, NASDAQ supplies premarket trade information on a real time basis, but after hours trades on a 15 minute delayed basis. The trades are limited to those trades during the NASDAQ extended hours sessions, 8AM to 9:30AM and 4PM to 6:30PM. Trades on ECN's are not included.

Press the [P] key to popup the Briefing.com In Play list. The list is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

LinuxTrade automatically looks for stock symbols in the In Play list and adds them to stocklist number 0. This lets you watch the days hot stocks by switching the main screen to stocklist 0 after displaying the In Play list.

If the In Play popup is displayed and the display is on the first line of the list, then LinuxTrade will automatically refresh the information periodically. You can set the interval between refreshes with the inplay_poll preference value. The poll period is in minutes; set it to 0 to disable this feature.

If the preference item live_quotes is non-zero, then live quotes will be added to the right side of the display. These quotes will be updated in real time.

Press the [P] key to popup the Briefing.com Up/Downgrades list. The list is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

LinuxTrade automatically looks for stock symbols in the up/downgrades list and adds them to stocklist number 0. This lets you watch the days hot stocks by switching the main screen to stocklist 0 after displaying the up/downgrades list.

If the up/downgrades popup is displayed and the display is on the first line of the list, then LinuxTrade will automatically refresh the information periodically. You can set the interval between refreshes with the inplay_poll preference value. The poll period is in minutes; set it to 0 to disable this feature.

If the preference item live_quotes is non-zero, then live quotes will be added to the right side of the display. These quotes will be updated in real time.

Press the [P] key to popup the Bloomberg Earnings Calendar. The calendar is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

Use the [right] and [left] keys to move the calendar display forward or backward by one day. Use the [+] and [-] keys to move the calendar display to the next or the previous week.

LinuxTrade automatically looks for stock symbols in the earnings calendar and adds them to stocklist number 0. This lets you watch the days hot stocks by switching the main screen to stocklist 0 after displaying the earnings calendar.

If the preference item live_quotes is non-zero, then live quotes will be added to the right side of the display. These quotes will be updated in real time.

If the preference item mouse is non-zero, then you can select a conference call to listen to. Under the Audio column, click on the word Listen. The RealNetworks realplay program must be installed on your system for this to work.

The extended command :earnings can be used to display detailed earnings information for the current stock in your web browser. An optional symbol name can be supplied to the :earnings command to display information on that stock.

Enter the extended command :splits to popup the Briefing.com Splits Calendar. The calendar is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

LinuxTrade automatically looks for stock symbols in the splits calendar and adds them to stocklist number 0. This lets you watch the stock that are pending splits by switching the main screen to stocklist 0 after displaying the splits calendar.

Enter the extended command :qp to popup the IPO.com Quiet Period Calendar. The calendar is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

LinuxTrade automatically looks for stock symbols in the quiet period calendar and adds them to stocklist number 0. This lets you watch stocks in the quiet period by switching the main screen to stocklist 0 after displaying the quiet period calendar.

Enter the extended command :econ to popup the Briefing.com Economic Calendar. The calendar is displayed with an internal text-based web browser. Use the arrow keys, [PageUp], [PageDown], [Home] and [End] to move through the list. Press the [q] key to hide the popup.

The extended commands :heatmap and :carpet run various Java applets which display market heatmaps and carpets. For these commands to work, one or more Java SDK's must be installed (see INSTALLATION below).

The heatmaps and carpets that are available are:

The extended command :ibdvol populates stocklist 0 with the list of 12-14 unusual volume stocks which are currently featured on the Investors Business Daily home page.

The extended command :bwkvol populates stocklist 0 with a list of up to 25 unusual volume stocks from a screen using the Business Week real time stock screener.

Stocklist 0 can be popoulated using the extended commands:

The first form of the command (with no argument) looks up the current symbol in the players.txt file. This is often used to convert an index symbol into a stocklist of its components.

The second form of the command looks up the tag, which can be any string, in the players.txt file.

The third form of the command (with an @ sign as the only argument) looks up the components of the current canonical index symbol using an external website.

The fourth form of the command looks up the components of the listed canonical index-symbol using an external website.

The players.txt file is a simple tab separated text database. Lines that do not begin with tab contain a tagname and an optional stocklist comment. The symbols associated with that tab follow, one per line, on all subsequent lines that begin with a tab. The symbol lines contain a symbol name followed by an optional comment. For example:

vola    Volatile Stocks	
        QLGC    Qlogic
        EXPE    Expedia POS
        NVDA    Nvidia
dow     Dow Industrials
        $DJI    Average
        A       Alcoa
        AXP     American Express
        T       AT&T

The players.txt files are searched for tags in the following order: current directory, $HOME/.linuxtrade/players.txt, and finally /usr/share/linuxtrade/players.txt.

The system supplied /usr/share/linuxtrade/players.txt file contains definitions for tags :dow, :spiders, and :majors. In addition, component breakdown tags are provided for all of the index symbols in the majors list. You can use the :majors command to view the major market sectors, then position the stock cursor and use the :players command to view how individual stocks are performing within a specific sector.

Stocklist 0 can be populated from user written external shell scripts. The shell script should output a list of stock symbols, one per line. To specify a comment for the symbol, follow it with a tab character and the comment. The label for the stocklist can be supplied with a line of the form label=string.

The extended command :!scriptname will run your shell script named scriptname to populate stocklist 0.

linuxtrade can also be used as a tool to access quote data without using the user interface. This mode can be used to run linuxtrade from a script. The -T toolmode command line option is used to run the program in tool mode.

In tool mode, quote data is sent to stdout in a canonical text format, regardless of which streamer is selected. Commands to change the stock list may also be sent to the program on stdin.The output in tool mode is comprised of text lines that begin with a tag and consiste of one or more fields. The tag and the fields are terminated with the vertical bar character (|).

OPEN|streamer|

streamer

streamer ID.

The OPEN record is sent before the streamer is opened.

SYMS|symlist|

symlist

List of symbols which were sent to the streamer.

The SYMS record is sent whenever the symbol list is changed.

CONNECT|ident|

ident

Identifier received from server (if any).

The CONNECT record is sent when the streamer connection has been established.

COLS|column|column|...|

column

Column labels for the QUOTE and TRADE records.

The COLS record is sent to identify the order and meaning of the fields in the TRADE and QUOTE records.

QUOTE|symbol|time|bid|bidsize|...|

TRADE|symbol|time|bid|bidsize|...|

symbol

Stock symbol.

time

Seconds since midnight, EST.

bid

Inside bid price (floating point).

bidsize

Inside bid size in hundred share units (integer).

bidid

Inside bid exchange ID (character).

ask

Inside ask price (floating point).

asksize

Inside ask size in hundred share units (integer).

askid

Inside ask exchange ID (character).

last

Last trade price (floating point).

lastsize

Last trade size in shares (integer).

volume

Total volume (integer).

high

Highest trade price (floating point).

low

Lowest trade price (floating point).

close

Previous days closing price (floating point).

The TRADE record is sent when a trade has been completed. The QUOTE record is sent when the inside bid or ask changes.

DISC|number|reason|

number

Numeric disconnect code.

reason

Disconnect reason.

The DISC record is sent when the streamer is disconnected.

TIME|date|time|zone|unixtime|

date

The current date in New York.

time

The current time in New York.

zone

The time zone in New York.

unixtime

The time in seconds since the Unix epoch.

The TIME record is sent right after the streamer is connected, and once per minute thereafter.

NEWS|symbol|unixtime|datestr|headline|

symbol

The stock symbol or hot for general news.

unixtime

The time as the number of seconds since the Unix epoch.

datestr

A human readable version of the date.

headline

The new headline.

The NEWS record is sent whenever the selected streamer reports a news item and the tool mode (-T) option value is 16 plus 1, 2, or 3 (17, 18, or 19).

Commands for tool mode are read from stdin. The command formats are:

a symlist

Add the symbols in symlist to the streamer data.

D symbol

Delete the symbol from the streamer data.

q

Disconnect the streamer and quit the program.An example of tool mode output is the following:

OPEN|scottrader.com|
CONNECT|FreeStreaming5|
TIME|11/23/2001|12:01:00|EST|1006538460|
SYMS|DELL,INTC,JDSU|
COLS|Time|Bid|BidSize|BidID|Ask|AskSize|AskID|Last|LastSize|\
     Volume|High|Low|PrevClose|
TRADE|INTC|43751|30.95|5|Q|30.97|45|Q|30.97|300|\
     12282400|31.05|30.32|30.81|
QUOTE|DELL|43591|26.24|5|Q|26.25|40|Q|26.25|500|\
     5119900|26.37|25.75|25.95|
TIME|11/23/2001|12:02:00|EST|1006538520|
TRADE|JDSU|43752|11.70|20|Q|11.71|240|Q|11.71|1800|\
     8897300|11.78|11.31|11.35|
DISC|104|Command request|

-c bg

Sets the background color mode (0 to 3). See the description of the colors modes above.

-l number

Start the display with stocklist number. Number may be 1-99. The default is 1.

-t type

Sets the streamer type to use as a data source. The type can be none, scottrader.com, ameritrade.com (use also for former Datek accounts), esignal.com, freetrade.com, money.net, quotemedia.com, schwab.com, sonictrading.com, moneyam.com, or swissquote.ch. A leading partial substring of the name can be used to abbreviate the type. The none type can be useful if the username, password, host, or port parameters associated with a streamer are incorrect and you want a fast entry into the program so you can go to the Change Streamer popup and correct the parameters.

-p password

Set the password to use in connecting to the streamer. The default is a "demo" password.

-u username

Set the username to use in connecting to the streamer. The default is a "demo" username.

-P 'preferance=value'

Set the named preference to value.

-h hostname

Set the hostname or IP address to use in connecting to the streamer. The default is the value stored in the preferences for that streamer.

-w filename

Logs the streamer data to filename, for later replay.

-r filename

Replays the streamer data from filename.

-L filename

Logs the raw streamer data to filename, for debugging.

-T toolmode

Run in tool mode. See section on tool mode above for a description. The toolmode parameter controls what happens if the streamer connection canot be made or if it disconnects. If toolmode is 1, then a connection failure causes the program to exit. If toolmode is 2, then a connection failure causes a new connection to be attempted. If toolmode is 3, then a connection failure causes a switch to the next configured streamer. If toolmode is 4, then the program exits after retreiving at least one quote for each of the listed stocks.

Adding 0x10 (16) to toolmode turns on news reports for streamers that support news.

Get the most recent version of LinuxTrade from:

http://linuxtrade.0catch.com

Login or su to root and install it with this command:

Get the most recent version (at least 7.9.5) of curl from:

http://curl.haxx.se/
or
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=curl

Login or su to root and install it with this command:

If you want voice alerts, get the most recent version of IBM ViaVoice or festival from:

http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/dev/ttssdk_linux.html
or
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=festival

Install one of those RPM's as usual.LinuxTrade can access and run various Java applets from financial websites, such as the nasdaq.com heatmaps, or chart streamers from livecharts.com and prophet.net. What we have found is that these applets will work with some web browsers but not all web browsers. The reason that they sometimes work and sometimes don't seems to be the version of the Java VM that is installed with the web browser. Some applets work well only with the Java VM that is in Netscape 4.x, some work well only with a more recent Java VM from Sun such such as might be installed with Netscape 6.x, and some work well with either VM.

LinuxTrade knows which Java VM works best with each applet, and will run applets outside of any web browser by using the Java appletviewer program. But you must install at least two Java JDK/SDK/JRE's for best results. We recommend that you install at least the Blackdown 1.1.8 JDK and the Sun 1.4.0 JDK.

The 1.1.8 JDK/SDK can be downloaded from this site:

The 1.4.0 JDK/SDK can be downloaded from this site:

If both of these packages are installed, you will have these two directories:

/usr/bin/linuxtrade
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.advfn
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.audio
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.auth
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.av
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.bwkvol
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.cpt
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.frb
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.G
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.hm
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.ibdvol
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.lc
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.name
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.pe
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.pf
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.pivot
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.qm
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.range
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.shortint
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.sq
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.up
/usr/share/linuxtrade/bin/linuxtrade.wn
/usr/share/applications/linuxtrade.desktop
/usr/share/applnk/Applications/linuxtrade.kdelnk
/usr/share/gnome/apps/Applications/linuxtrade.desktop
/usr/share/icons/linuxtrade.xpm
/usr/share/linuxtrade/java.policy.allperm
/usr/share/linuxtrade/players.txt
/usr/share/pixmaps/linuxtrade_icon.png
$HOME/.linuxtrade/rc
$HOME/.linuxtrade/N.list
$HOME/.linuxtrade/alerts
$HOME/.linuxtrade/ameritrade.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/datek.com(obsolete,useAmeritrade)
$HOME/.linuxtrade/esignal.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/freetrade.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/players.txt
$HOME/.linuxtrade/money.net
$HOME/.linuxtrade/quotemedia.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/schwab.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/scottrader.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/sonictrader.com
$HOME/.linuxtrade/swissquote.ch
$HOME/.linuxtrade/moneyam.com

When searching for a helper program, linuxtrade will search $PATH, $HOME/bin, and /usr/share/linuxtrade/bin, in that order. Any of the helper programs can be customized by placing a modified copy into $HOME/bin.Rick Richardson <[email protected]>
http://linuxtrade.0catch.com/
http://home.mn.rr.com/richardsons/