If you experience either of these errors:

You received the following message:”The installation package could not be opened.  Verify that the package exists and that you can access it or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Package”

Another error you may see is:

Unable to complete request
Error in : Form  FRMUPDATE  CTLINET_STATECHANGED  Run-Time Error

The fix for these errors is to execute OTrader with “administrative privileges” (You can set that in the properties of OTrader.exe (right-click properties)…this will ensure it is given full rights by UAC (User Account Control).

This is the Windows-7 and Vista Operating Systems making sure the install is legitimate and not a virus or an unknown program trying to run on your PC.

When we upgrade to the next full release, these install error messages should disappear. Microsoft is working to protect your system from malware. It is not a problem in the software or your system.

Cheers!
Nik

In addition, we reserved a new domain name called Rootrader.com. Some of our non-Aussie clients messaged us to ask if we do US or EU markets. Yes we do!

To help find our software, and ensure our global users are confident in our product, we needed a COM address. So, Rootrader.com is being built.

Right now, RooTrader.com directs to our current web page. In a few weeks, when we stand up our new web server the domain will point directly to the new pages.

The OTrader.Com.AU page will remain, and eventually, we will link everything to the new page. We don’t want to lose any of our users while we transition.

Also, in 2011, we will finish the new release to our software. We are writing the software in C# (pronounced C-Sharp) and retiring our current Visual Basic software. This will allow us to release our updates in a more timely fashion.

We are going to be making some changes to the database that holds your data. That is why we have been going so very slowly. We don’t want to lose any data as we move forward. Ever. At the same time, we need to add some reports, and allow for future upgrades. These changes will allow us to add the features you have been requesting.

As the year progresses, we are working to add more features to the software. As always, if you have been paying for support, you will get your updates for free.

Stay tuned!   Nik

What have we been working on? A great question, here is what we have been doing.

Version 4 was written in Visual Basic. XP was king and we developed our tools for that platform. Over time, we started working on version 5 which was in development to clean up some of the issues we have run into with version 4.

Unfortunately, we scrapped version 5. Software is a complex business. We started developing version 5 and realized the web is going a lot faster than we can write our code. So, we dumped it. The reason was, we wanted to move away from Visual Basic and get into the newer software languages where we can leverage more tools for our community. That was a pricey decision, but it should pay off in the long run for all of our users.

In the meantime, we have cleaned up some of the older issues in version 4.  Most of the changes were in the background and our users probably will not notice any changes. These changes were pushed to make the software more stable, and prepare it for future upgrades.

Version 4.2.3 is out and includes:

1. A single installation file for all Windows versions. We now have one single install package to download to work on Windows 7, Vista and XP.

2. Automatic updates. The software will download updates without you having to visit our web site. Don’t worry, you have control here. It will ask nicely to be installed.

3. Some menu items were cleaned up.

4. A cleaner database. This helped us clean up some small bugs.

Thank you all for your patience. We have spent a lot of time and money getting this upgraded. You haven’t seen the changes but we are working for you. I’ll explain what the rest of the year will bring in my next entry!

Cheers! Nik

Updated: You can now close individual trades when you hold multiple positions. Right click on the trade > Close Position > Close Single Trade. Only the selected trade will be shown and ready to be closed.

Added: You can now now convert a single trade to a strategy without the need to enter an option trade. Right click on a trade > Convert to Single Strategy. You can now right click on the trade and add another leg to the strategy of any type. This allows for pairs trading or other strategies that use two trades but not necessarily an option trade.

Updated: Stocks on the Indian Stock Exchange now use .NS instead of .NA for Yahoo price updates.

Added: There is now a graph in Performance Charts that shows an equity curve on a trade by trade basis. It also has a High Water Mark(HWM) line to show equity peak.