TRACKER VERSION --------------- Overview -------- Tracker works like most programs for the Psion 3 series, in that you access all of the facilities using the menus accessed by pressing the menu button while the program is running. Of course, most items can also be selected using the Psion button at the same time as the shortcut key shown by the menu item. The Tracker icon on the system screen also lists all Tracker files and can be used in the same way as other Psion programs. This manual should provide all the information you need to use Tracker effectively but, in case you get stuck when away from a PC, you can access some of the information by pressing the HELP button and following the prompts. Tracker histories work with data up to 365 days old. Any prices older than that will be ignored, although they will still show as the current update date of a stock in a file if it hasn't been updated since. If you get really stuck, or find a bug (heavens forbid), please e-mail me at the address given at the end of this document. See the readme.txt file for details of how to register for free! The main title screen --------------------- If you haven't selected a file from the sytem screen or have just closed a file, you will see the title screen. From here the menu is limited to opening and creating files, getting help, the stock editor (described later) and exiting Tracker. How files work and getting started ---------------------------------- In order to start keeping track of stock histories and transactions you have to create a new file. You can have different files for any reason you wish, such as storing different peoples accounts or different types of stock (or market indicator) separately. Once you have created one, you will then be able to add stocks to it, buy and sell stocks, keep track of histories and draw graphs of their performance. Working with stocks ------------------- Tracker maintains a central database of stock names and histories so that they can be included in any file without having to have more than one history if a stock is included in more than one file. To add a new stock to this database, select 'create new stock' and give it a name, simple as that. Don't worry if you want to change the name later, or even delete the stock altogether, you can do that with the stock editor and it will automatically be updated in the database and every file it's included in (as long as only one Tracker is being run at a time). However, don't be confused when the new stock doesn't appear on the screen, you've only added it to the central database by now. Select 'add a stock' and use the left and right arrow keys to select the stock and press enter (you can also press any of the alphabetical keys to jump back and forth). The stock will now appear on screen, together with its last update date and price if it has been used previouly. Selecting 'remove stock' will remove it from the file, if you want to, but leaves it in the database for inclusion in other files. When you want to update a stocks price select 'update stock' and fill in the date and price. This doesn't have to be the most recent date, but if it is it will be used to update the current information on the files displayed list of stocks. Selecting 'update all' allows you to update all stocks included in the file. If you make a mistake, you can use the stock editor to correct them (see later). Whenever you are buying and selling stocks you can selct 'buy' or 'sell' and enter details of the transaction. You can then use the transaction editor to modify these if necessary. Extensive facilities are provided to produce reports on transactions and stock details and it is best to experiment with them to see how they work. The fundamental point is that Tracker does not print directly to a printer, instead it prints to files in the m:\wrd directory. This means that the reports are shown in your word list and can be edited, enhanced and printed within Word to produce whole reports. One other useful feature is the facility to 'add stock from file' which allows you to add a stock to the central database for which you already have a Tracker history file, maybe borrowed from a friends Psion. Simply select the history file (which needs to be in m:\app\tracker) and give it a stock name. It will then be ready for inclusion in a file. Indicators and graphs --------------------- Indicators are used to show the performance of you stocks price history against a known benchmark, such as a market indicator (FTSE, Dow Jones, etc) or another stock. Indicators can be re-based, which means that Tracker will try and find the earliest date on which you have entered a price for the stock and the indicator and convert the indicator graph so that it is scaled to be at the same price at that point, so that you can see what price your stock would be at any date if it had kept track with that indicator. If you want to use indicators you should make sure they are kept up to date and have at least a few entries, otherwise the display of them will be almost meaningless. Tracker cannot guarantee to rebase an indicator, but will try it's best. Tracker allows you to have up to five different indicators which, once selected in one file, are available in all files. The indicators are numbered 2 to 6 (because pressing Psion-1 would turn the machine off!) and can be set by highlighting the stock to use, holding down the Psion key and press the number of the indicator you want to set. Then select 'options' to select an indicator for your graph and set whether it should be rebased. To draw a graph select 'graph' (the diamond key also turns the graph screen on and off). The stock will be shown as a black line with the indicator as a grey area in the background. The indicator will take a few seconds to draw and can be cancelled by pressing the esc key. The graph will show all dates in the history file which are not over 365 days old. Should you so wish, you can save the graph to a PIC file. It will be stored in the m:\pic directory. The stock editor ---------------- The stock editor allows you to change details of stocks in the central database and access/amend their history and will apply those changes to all files. You can select the stock stock in the same way as when you add a new stock to a file, but there are a few new functions to choose. Press escape when you want to exit the stock editor. Selecting 'rename' allows you to change the name of a stock. Selecting 'purge' will remove any entries in the history over a year old. Selecting delete will only work from the main title screen and allows you to completely remove a stock from the database AND DELETE THE HISTORY FILE!!! Use it with caution as, without backups of the history files, deleted stocks can't be undeleted. Selecting 'history' allows you to view the whole stored history for a stock with a date less than a year old, in chronological order. You can also amend a stocks price from here if you need to. Please remember that the stock editor is the main link to the central database of stocks and any changes made with it will affect all files the stock is included in. Importing and exporting ----------------------- Selecting 'export' allows you to save stock histories in the m:\wrd directory as a .wrd file. The file can include the name of the stock and a marker (END in plain text) to show the end of the history and each entry is included as a date, followed by the delimiter character you selected, followed by the price. Once exported the file can be imported into applications that support delimited files, such as Microsoft Excel. Selecting 'import' will, if you are a registered user, make Tracker attempt to import dates and prices from a delimited text file into the currently highlighted stock. Once you have selected the file (a .txt file by default) Tracker will work try and read a date and price from each line of text and, when it's finished, it will tell you how many lines it's extracted and how many it couldn't understand. The last line of an import file must be END (in capital letters) without any preceding spaces and ending with a carriage return. Registered users can e-mail me asking for a copy of the source code for the import/export module so that they can change it to meet their own file format requirements. Please note that you should not do this unless you are confident of your abilities in OPL programming as you could corrupt your data by reprogramming this module! Backing up your data -------------------- Obviously, the data you store in Tracker is important and should be taken care of. For this reason it is always advisable to keep backups of files in case the worst does happen. For even better safety it is also a good idea to keep a copy of the backups on a different computer, in case your Psion is lost or stolen. The frequency of backing up is, of course, entirely up to you. The most important files to back up are the configuration file (tracker.ini) and the stocks database (market.trk) both kept in m:\app\tracker. Your main files (.mkt) and transaction files (.tac), on whichever drive you selected for them, are also very important. If you would not like to lose your stock history files (.t?? where ?? is a number under 100) should be backed up and can be found in m:\app\tracker.