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Issue List

Updated 06/16/14

The Issue List is displayed on most Tabs. It shows a list of ticker symbols, the full issue names, and the families from which each symbol was loaded into the list. Generally, members of a list will have something in common, for example:

  • Funds offered by Fidelity
  • Technology stocks
  • Technology stocks that are held by Fidelity Select Electronics
How do issues get into the Issue List?
  1. By loading families from your disk.
  2. By extracting symbols from an Internet Page.
  3. By double-clicking them in the Index of all Issues, or keying the symbols into the Index entry box.
  4. By loading a text file containing ticker symbols into the list.
  5. By dragging ticker symbols from the color bar to the list.
  6. By copy/pasting some issues from other tabs' Issue Lists.
Uses of the Issue List
  • Many operations like ranking and averaging are performed on list members, not on the entire database.
  • The list limits your view of issues to those that particularly interest you.
  • The list is color-coordinated with the lines on the charts.
Name and Description

The boxes above the issue list store a Name and Description. These are loaded when you load a family. Sometimes FastTrack tries to guess an appropriate name when you change the Issue List contents. The Name and the Description will be used when you save the Issue List as a family. You can type any name and description.

NOTE: The Name must be a valid file name using Windows 95 long file name naming conventions. Basically, a long file name should be limited to 40 characters or less. You will have to remember these names so be brief. Avoid punctuation in the name. Also, for many functions the first word is used to identify a family. For example, "The Childrens Trust" might better be named "Childrens Trust". You may use the underscore character as part of a name . . . "Childrens_Trust", The advantage using the underscore is that it fools FastTrack functions to take both words joined by the underscore as the first word.

Families (on disk) vs. the Issue List (on screen)

FastTrack's families are convenient collections of symbols stored on your disk. You will often want to load one or more families into an Issue List to view and edit its members. When you load a family to an Issue List you can add and delete to/from the Issue List, but the family stored on disk will not be changed until you specifically right-click and select "save family" (right-click).

Click here to learn how to make families.

Changing the Width of Columns

You can set the width of each individually named column of the Issue List. This setting is immediately applied to every Issue List including the Spreadsheet. Do the following:

  1. Move the mouse to the top row of an Issue List.
  2. Move the mouse onto the line separating the columns. A double-headed arrow should appear. In the issue List and the Index, the line is so narrow that the double-headed arrow just blinks on the screen and may not be visible. Just get very close to the line and do the next step even if the double-headed arrow has not appeared.
  3. Click-hold-drag the dividing line. When you drop the line, all Issue Lists with a matching column name will be changed to that width. The width will be remember from session to session.

Don't keep changing the Issue List fonts. Settle on one you like and live with it. You'll have to readjust your column widths when you change fonts/sizes.

These Mouse Operations Work on any Tab
  • Highlight issues and hit the Del key to delete those issues. This deletes them from the Issue List BUT NOT a family stored on disk.
  • Double-clicking an issue in the Issue List copies its ticker symbol to a ColorBar cell. The selected symbol copies to the first highlighted ColorBar cell (a cell whose background is black). If no cell is highlighted, then the selection goes to the right of the last cell you clicked on, subsequent double-clicks will change successive cells.
  • You can drag an issue from the Issue List to the Color Bar. Also, you can drag an issue from the ColorBar and drop it on the list adding it to the bottom of the list. You may have to scroll the list to verify that it was added.
  • Dragging the Name field at the top of the Issue List (Source) to any other Tab  ("Charts", "Family", "Internet", "Spreadsheet", etc.) changes the Tab's Issue List to be identical to the Source's Issue List.
Using the Arrow Keys on any Tab
  1. Highlight the any ColorBar cell (single-click the mouse to turn it's background black.)
  2. Click on the Issue List to select a starting point in the list.
  3. Now use the arrow keys to move sequentially through the list. The Issue List selection will be entered in the highlighted ColorBar cell. Note: If you click on another object like the Tabs, you will have to click the Issue List again before the arrow keys will work.
Using the Mouse on the Internet's Issue List

Use of the Issue List on the Internet Tab is similar to other Tabs with some extra features. The Internet Tab's Issue List operations change the focus of the browser. FastTrack's browser focuses on a single issue at any moment and all Internet Tab operations become relevant to that  issue. Whenever the focus changes to a new issue, the chart/information that was previously displayed for the former issue is retrieved for the new issue.

  • Drag issues from the Internet Tab's Issue List and drop in the browser window. Nothing in the ColorBar is changed. The current screen changes to that same screen for the dropped issue.
  • You may also drag issue to the RED ColorBar cell. The current screen changes to that same screen for the dropped issue. This operates like dragging to the browser window except that the RED ColorBar cell is also changed.
  • You may also drag issues to other ColorBar cells, but the focus of the browser does not change. The screen will be unchanged.
  • Highlight the RED ColorBar cell and then double-click an Issue. That issue moves to the RED cell and gets the browser's focus.
Using the Arrow Keys on the Internet Tab
  1. Highlight the RED ColorBar cell.
  2. Click on the Issue List to select a starting point in the list.
  3. Now use the arrow keys to move sequentially through the list.The Internet screen displayed will automatically change to the same screen for the new issue.

Changing the Issues Displayed

This section is a reiteration of the techniques described above.

Clicking the Mouse to Change the Issues Displayed
  1. Click on a ColorBar cell turning the background black.
  2. Type a symbol into the cell.
    OR
    Double-click on a member of the Issue List. The issue selected will replace the highlighted cell

OR

  1. Don't highlight any ColorBar cells.
  2. Double-click on a member of the Issue List. The issue will replace sequentially . . . first the red, then  the green with the next double-click, etc.
Dragging with the Mouse to Change the Issue Displayed
  • Click and Hold on a member of the Issue List. Be sure to wait for the Drag icon, sinewave.gif (158 bytes) , to appear. Drag to a ColorBar cell. Let go of the mouse button to Drop the symbol into a ColorBar cell.
  • Click, Hold, Wait, Drag, and Drop (as above) but from the  Index Performance Tab. To get to the Index Performance Tab click on the word "Index" in the lower right to display the Index. This is an index of all issues, including all issues and indexes like the Dow Jones Industrials, S&P 500, etc..
  • Click, Hold, Wait, Drag, and Drop the Name field above the Issue list to a ColorBar cell. This will place the AVG of all issues in the list into the ColorBar. If several issues in the list are highlighted before dragging the Name Field, then the AVG of only those issues is computed.
Using the Keyboard to Change the Issues Displayed
  • Move the mouse to the center of the screen and hit R for Red, G for Green, Y for yellow, P for purple, C for Cyan (light blue), or B for Blue. This will popup an input box where you can enter a symbol.
  • Highlight a ColorBar cell (click the cell to make the background black). This determines which cell will be changed. Move the mouse to the Issue list and hit the up and down arrow keys. This will change the line to the next Issue List member.
Using the Toolbar to Change the Issues Displayed

fplPv_right_Click.GIF (10163 bytes)Right-clicking on the Issue List brings up these options:

  • Font - Allows you to change the font in which the list is displayed
  • Add to PopList - This menu item replaces the "Show PopList menu item when the PopList is Visible. The PopList is just a free floating Issue List used for scratch purposes. The PopList is an Issue List and has all the property of a regular Issue List as shown in this section. Clicking "Add to PopList" copies the highlighted issues on the current Issue List to the PopList. Hitting the <Insert> key while the mouse is in the Issue List also copies the highlighted issues to the PopList.
  • Show PopList - The PopList remains invisible until this is clicked. The PopList must be visible before "Show PopList" changes to "Add to PopList". However, the <Insert> key works regardless of PopList visibility.
  • Show in Browser - When this menu item is clicked, the last clicked ticker symbol in the Issue List will be sent to the Internet tab and appended to the existing Issue List on the Internet Tab. Also, the current Internet page showing will be pulled up for the new symbol. This means that if the 15-minute Candlesticks real-time (delayed) chart is displayed on the Internet Tab that it will be redisplayed for the new symbol.
  • Copy - Copies the selected issues to the Windows Clipboard. Highlighting one issue copies the whole list to the clipboard. Highlighting multiple issues copies only those issues to the clipboard.
  • Paste - Pastes the issues stored in the Windows Clipboard. When multiple issues are on the clipboard, then an AVG of all the issues is pasted to a ColorBar cell. Pasting to a list adds issues to the list without deleting the current contents of the list,
  • Select All - Selects all issues in the list.
  • Save Family - Saves the Issue List to the family named at the top of the issue list.
  • Save as Family - Saves the Issue List to a  family name you choose in the Family Loader/Saver Dialog.
  • Load Family -Loads a  Family into the Issue List. Pops up the Family Loader/Saver Dialog.
  • Print Issue List - Prints a text listing of the issue list. This option pops up the Issue List Printer dialog box and allows you to customize the output of the issue list and preview it before sending it to the printer.
  • Save as- Allows you to save the issues in the list in a variety of formats. See the Load/Save dialog.
  • Load- Allows you to load files in a variety of formats into the list. See the Load/Save dialog.
  • Clear List - Clears the list.
  • Undo Clear - Reverses the last Clear List reloading the list as it was before clearing.
  • Del Issue - Deletes all highlighted issues. You may also hit <Del> to perform the same action.
  • Renumber, Add Col, Del Col - Used only in the Spreadsheet Tab.
  • Compute - Used on the Internet Tab and the SpreadSheet Tab
  • Print screen - Prints the whole, current image of the FastTrack as a bit-mapped image including charts, lists, etc.