The following are the major new features added in the 4.0 release of NeuroShell Trader:

Data Source Changes:

1. eSignal Data Feed ‘ The ability to receive data from eSignal by selecting the eSignal Data Server from the Server tab in the Data Sources dialog (select Data Sources from the Tools menu). For more information on the eSignal server refer to eSignal.
2. eSignal European Market .lst Files ‘ Using the eSignal Data Feed you now have the ability to access European Markets via the eSignal European Market .lst files. These can be selected once you’ve chosen eSignal Data Feed as your Server. Once that is done you can select the European Markets from the list of markets on the Server tab of the Data Sources dialog.

C. Data Pump Interface ‘ The ability to program custom data interfaces to be used inside the NeuroShell Trader. This interface is quite complicated, but can provide a great deal of power. This feature provides you with a method to “pump” data into the NeuroShell Trader. This allows you to feed any type of data you want from any vendor, with any transformation that you want to perform on the data before NeuroShell Trader looks at the data. This is quite complicated, but it can be done with a decent programmer and information provided in the DataPumpExample.zip available on http://www.ward.net/.

3. DDE Interface ‘ The ability to link to any data stream that uses DDE as a method of providing data. This can be done by using the DDE Archive program provided in the Servers directory. For more information on the DDE Interface visit the Dynamic Data Exchange help file.
4. TradeStation Data Feed and Brokerage – You can download a program on www.ward.net in the Release News Section that allows you to download data from TradeStation and send orders to their brokerage if you already have a TradeStation account.
5. Adding Ticker Symbols – If you are using eSignal as your data source, you have the option of adding instruments that are not already shown in the New Chart Wizard or the Add Other Instruments Data Wizard. When choosing instruments in each of these wizards, the Add New Ticker Symbol button will allow you to add new ticker symbols. Use of these buttons allows users to add new ticker symbols dynamically instead of having to manually edit the server .LST files.
6. Combination Ticker Symbols – Ability to create ticker symbols that are simple combinations of ticker prices and use the combination symbol as the primary data series.  The optimizations and trading strategies will be based on the ticker symbol combination and results determined on the calculation, not a single ticker symbol.  For instance a ticker symbol combination might be [5*YHOO-2.5*INTC+3*MSFT], which would result in a price stream on the chart that is 5*YHOO’s price minus 2.5*INTC’s price plus 3*MSFT’s price.  To use this feature, simply create a new ticker symbol like [5*YHOO-2.5*INTC+3*MSFT].  To add a new ticker symbol, use the add ticker button found in the chart wizard when using eSignal. For more information, see Combination Ticker Symbols.

Major Functionality Changes:

1. Adding Ticker Symbols – If you are using eSignal as your data.
2. Wizard Interface Options ‘ Options have been added the Indicator, Prediction and Trading Strategy Wizards to control the complexity of the trading strategy, prediction and indicator wizard interfaces. By selectively turning on only desired interface options, you can customize the interface to show only those trading strategy, prediction, and indicator parameters and options that you will use. With the majority of the interface options turned off, you have a simple and easy to understand interface for creating basic trading strategies, predictions, and indicators. With the majority of the options turned on, you have an extensive interface for creating complex trading strategies, predictions, and indicators. For detailed information on each of the wizard interface option see Trading Strategy Wizard Interface Options, Prediction Wizard Interface Options, and Indicator Wizard Interface Options.
3. Software Copy Protection ‘ The NeuroShell Trader now uses software protection instead of the old security block hardware protection. The software protection is linked to a website which allows for quick enabling and disabling of the software. In the past, to switch computers, you had to move the security block from home to office and back, or to a notebook, etc. Now you can switch computers by simply disabling the NeuroShell Trader on the first computer and then enabling the NeuroShell Trader on the second computer. All of the disabling/enabling is done via the internet. In addition, if you have purchased two copies of NeuroShell, you will be given two activations so that it can be run on two different computers at the same time. For more information see NeuroShell Trader Activation
4. Trading Position and Orders – The alert window has been expanded to include active trading strategies, current market positions and trading orders for all charts. It now shows lists of the alerts, active trading strategies, current market positions, all trading orders, open trading orders, filled trading orders, and canceled trading orders.
5. Trade Prompting – Trading Strategies now play sound files or show pop-up order messages (for example: Buy 100 Shares of Dell) when a new order is generated. Only active trading strategies will play sound files or show pop-up order messages.

   1. When a new Trading Strategy is added to a chart, it is automatically activated. To deactivate or reactivate a trading strategy, select the Alerts and Orders Window menu item from the View menu.

   2. To change the sound and pop-up message options, select the Options menu item from the Tools Menu. If the Play Sound File option is selected, then the selected sound will play whenever an active trading strategy generates a trading order. If the Popup Order Message option is selected, a pop-up order notification message will appear whenever an active trading strategy generates a trading order.

Chart Related Changes:

1. Adjustable Subgraphs ‘ Subgraph sizes can now be adjusted by dragging the bar separating subgraphs up or down.
2. Improved Legend ‘ The names of data series are now placed at the top of each subgraph instead of all being placed at the top of the graph.
3. Color and Style Dropdowns ‘ The color and style selections have been moved from the vertical toolbar on the left to the drop down menus in the upper toolbar.
4. More colors ‘ A total of 48 color choices are now available for chart s.
5. Grid Lines ‘ You can now show vertical or horizontal grid lines on charts. To setup grid lines, select the Format Chart menu item from the Format menu and then go to the Colors tab of the Format Chart dialog.
6. Log scaling ‘ Individual subgraphs of a chart can be scaled logarithmically. To add log scaling, select the Format Chart menu item from the Format menu and then go to the Y-Axis tab of the Format Chart dialog.
7. Expanded window space ‘ For added window/charting space, you can now toggle the display of the status bar, tool bar, and a charts symbol/name/frequency bar using the Symbol/Name/Frequency Bar, Tool Bar, and Status Bar menu items located in the View menu.
8. Subgraphs can have more than 2 line styles ‘ The subgraphs can now have more than 2 different lines styles displayed at once. Additionally, more than 1 Candlestick, OHLC, or HLC can be displayed on a single subgraph.
9. First/Last Date Displayed ‘ The first and last date displayed options have been removed from the Format Chart dialog.

Prediction and Trading Strategy related changes:

1. First/Last Date Displayed ‘ The first and last date displayed options have been removed from the Format Chart dialog.
2. Prediction and Trading Strategy Templates ‘ The prediction and trading strategy wizards now allow selection of templates. Templates are preconfigured predictions/strategies that allow you to create a prediction/strategy quickly without having to know or worry about all the details or work of creating one from scratch.
3. Saving Custom Templates ‘ Custom prediction and trading strategy templates can be saved using the Save as Template button on the last page of the prediction and trading strategy wizard. Saving custom templates allows you to apply the same prediction or trading strategy analysis to different charts without having to recreate the prediction or trading strategy from scratch.
4. Optimization Parameter Linking – Parameters can be associated with an optimization link and all parameters associated with the same link will optimize to the same value.
5. Optimization Timeout – The parameter ‘Optimize for exactly‘ has been added to predictions and trading strategies. This option forces the optimization to take a specified amount of time. Because of the nature of genetic optimization, it is impossible to determine the exact optimization time or even when the best neural network has been found. Without this parameter selected, optimization will automatically stop after it has decided that a better neural network is unlikely to be found in the future. Set this parameter to a longer to make absolutely sure that the best neural network has been found. Set this parameter to a shorter time to stop optimization before the best neural network has been found.
6. Option to Save Optimal Results that did best on Out of Sample Data – The parameter ‘Generalize on Optimal walk-forwards‘ has been added to predictions. This option essentially saves the input and parameter combination that did best on ‘out of sample’ data. It makes the selection of the optimal neural network based upon performance on the optimal walk-forward out-of-sample data instead of the optimal walk-forward training data. During optimization, the neural network is still trained on the training set, but it is then applied to the optimal walk-forward out-of-sample data. The out-of-sample result is then used to determine the optimal neural network. Note that by using this option, the optimal walk-forward out-of-sample results can no longer be considered truly out-of-sample as the data is being used to determine the best inputs and parameters during optimization.
7. Optimization Across Chart Pages – The parameter ‘Optimize across all chart pages‘ has been added to predictions and trading strategies. This option forces the optimization to choose the same inputs and parameters for each chart page. The optimization will find the inputs and parameters that perform best across all chart pages by using the average result across all chart pages instead of trying to optimize the individual results for each chart page. Use of this parameter will result in worse results than optimizing each chart page individually, but will provide more consistent and generalized inputs and parameters across the chart pages.
8. Round Lot Trading ‘ The parameter ‘Buy shares in round lot of‘ has been added to predictions and trading strategies. When selected, this parameter Rounds down the number of shares traded to a multiple of the specified number of shares. As an example, if the round lot shares is set to 100 and the number of shares to be traded is 299, then the actual number of shares traded will be 200.
9. Option for Entries to Exit Positions ‘ The option Long/Short entries exit existing short/long positions has been added to the Trading Strategy Parameters dialog. This option forces an entry signal to automatically exit existing positions. Long positions will be exited when the short entry condition(s) become true. Likewise, short positions will be exited when the long entry condition(s) become true. If you do not select this parameter and you have specified trailing stops and/or exit conditions, then a position will be exited only when the trailing stops are hit or the exit conditions become true (i.e. the way old NeuroShell Trader versions worked).
10. Predictions Default to In-Sample Optimization ‘ The prediction wizard now defaults to insample optimization. Out of sample optimization is still available, but must be set in the Prediction Parameters dialog.
11. Minimize while processing ‘ A minimize button has been added to the Prediction Wizard and the Trading Strategy Wizard. The button is visible during the training, backtesting, and optimization process. The button will minimize the entire NeuroShell Trader window so that you can work on other programs while long processing is taking place. Note that using the Show Desktop Windows task bar icon which is typically located next to the Windows Start button will also minimize the Trader during processing.
12. Column Widths Remembered – The columns widths in the results screen of the Prediction Wizard and the Trading Strategy Wizard are now remembered and restored every time the wizards are run.

Indicator Related Changes:

1. Ability to reorganize Indicator Categories ‘ Move Up, Move Down, and Reset buttons have been added to the category page of the indicator wizard. These buttons allow you to change the order in which indicator categories are listed. For more information see Indicator Wizard – Selecting a Category.
2. Custom Indicator Optimization Ranges ‘ When creating custom indicators, you can now specify the default optimization range that should be used for each parameter when the custom indicator is optimized. For more information see Modify Parameter’s Display Properties

General Changes:

1. Auto saving of charts ‘ An option has been added that allows charts to be saved after every major change and before training/backtesting. If the Trader is unexpectedly terminated (power outage, system crash, etc), the Trader will ask you if you would like to load the autosaved chart(s) when the first time you rerun the Trader. For more information see Options – Chart.
2. Emailing Charts – An Email Chart menu item has been added to the File menu. This menu item allows users to automatically attach their charts to a new email message using their default email client. The option also exists to save the current underlying data in the chart that gets emailed so that email recipients have the same data as when the Email Chart menu item was selected. For more information, see Emailing a Chart.

C. Direct Link to www.ward.net. A Connect to Advanced User’s Tips & Techniques Website menu item has been added to the Help menu. This menu item will bring up your internet browser and load www.ward.net. For more information, see Advanced User’s Tips & Techniques Website.