Sept 13, 2006 DDE links hosted by

Tom Preston

Tom Preston: Good afternoon

Tom Preston: I'm just checking the audio
Tom Preston: For assistance with the audio,
please contact tech support at 1 866-8391100
Tom Preston: Today we're going to talk about
linking data from TOS to excel
Tom Preston: I'll talk about it for a few
minutes and then open it up for some
questions.
Tom Preston: In the last software release, we
included the ability to link certain things like
quotes and most fields on the Trade page to
Excel. What that does is establish a
connection between TOS and the spreadsheet
so that when the price or field changes in
TOS, it changes in the spreadsheet. Why
would you care about this or want to do this?
If youre handy with Excel, you can
manipulate the live data any way you want.
You can add it, subtract it, multiply it, divide
it, graph it, etc. That way, you wont have to
always wait for us to program something, like
adding up the total option volume or open
interest for a stock. You can do it yourself in
Excel.

The link is called a DDE, which stands for

Dynamic Data Exchange. It is an old
technology. I was using this stuff 15 years
ago, and it hasnt really changed. It is also
inefficient. If you have too many links, say
1000, into Excel, your computer will start to
slow down and probably crash. But its
relatively easy to use, and if you are
comfortable with writing formulas in Excel,
you can do some interesting things.
Tom Preston: To start the DDE, you can go
to either the Trade page or the Quotes page
and click on the printer icon in the upper right
hand corner of the software. Select Export to
Excel from the drop down menu. A message
box opens that says To paste the live data on
this page into Excel, open Excel and click on
either menu Edit-Paste or keys Ctrl-V. If
you click ok, you can then go to Excel and
paste in the links. As the command says, you
can go to either Edit-Paste or use the Ctrl
V command. That will copy the data from
the Trade or Quote page into Excel.
Tom Preston: What you can then see is if the
quotes change in TOS, they will also change
in Excel. One of the things to know is that the
DDE link is independent of what is on the
Trade or Quotes page. For example, if you
copy DDE links of MSFT on the Trade page
into Excel, you can type in EBAY in the
Trade page and see EBAY quotes, but the
Excel spreadsheet will still have the links for
MSFT. Thats both good and bad. If you
want the spreadsheet to update when you
change the symbol in the Trade page, it wont
do that. But it also means that if youve
created a complex spreadsheet, you wont

ruin it if you change the symbol in the TOS

software.
Tom Preston: You can actually bypass the
whole Export to Excel and pasting routine.
With the TOS software open, you can type in
the DDE link symbol directly in Excel and
create the link that way. You have to type in
=TOS|LAST!GOOG to create a link for the
last price of GOOG. You can input options
using their OPRA codes with a . in front of
them. The other link types (bid, ask, delta,
etc) can be seen if you export the trade page
with the columns youre interested in, then in
Excel go to Tools, then Options, then View.
Click on Formulas in the Window options
section, and you will see the formulas
displayed in the cells. That will let you see
the link code for various fields. They
basically correspond to the choices in the
information layouts menu in the upper right
hand corner of the Trade page. Theo Price,
Positions and the monthly implied vol cant
be linked via DDE at this point.
Tom Preston: \
Tom Preston: |
Tom Preston: 'GOOG'
Tom Preston: If youve copied a lot of data
into Excel, you can delete anything you dont
want to see, and that wont affect the other
links. Thats helpful if youve copied a lot of
data from the Trade page and want to clean
up the spreadsheet a bit. You can drag and
drop the DDE links to move them anywhere
you want.

Tom Preston: Something you can try is

graphing the implied volatility skew vs
butterfly prices. What I do is set the Trade
page to display butterflies and have the
columns set to Mark and Implied volatility.
Then I export the DDE links for the Trade
page into Excel. I then create an IF statement
to find and copy the marks of the out of the
money butterflies. Now, the implied vol you
see isnt the implied vol of a particular
option, but rather the average implied vol of
the components of the butterflies. Thats not
what I want to see. So, I click on one of the
implied vol links to see whats going on.
Youll see three OPRA codes in that link,
adding the lower and higher strikes and
subtracting 2x the middle strikes. I delete the
outer two OPRA codes and the 2* for the
middle OPRA code to leave the implied vol
of the middle option. By doing this, you can
learn how the DDE links operate and can be
manipulated. I then write another IF
statement to copy the out of the money
implied volatilities next to the out of the
money butterflies. Then I graph those two
columns in Excel, and maybe set the x-axis to
the strike prices. That will show you the
implied volatility skew vs the butterflies.
Tom Preston: I would imagine the more
skillful Excel users or Visual Basic experts
could create routines to save certain
information in a database, then graph it or
perform other calculations on it. That could
be useful for those of you looking for
historical implied volatilities or spread prices.
Tom Preston: Let me open it up for some
questions.

pneuma: Doesn't work on Macs. No "export

to excel" option exists. Is this a known issue?
paccampo: One thing I would like to see
changed soon is separation of the Title of
each month's option group into month and
days to expiration. Days to exp. is key to
many useful calcs, and I've got to manage it
manually
Optrader: windows xp blocks the DDE.
turned off the firewall and enabled everything
in IE.
jpfahey3: is there a listing of the available
dde symbols...a listing of index acronyms i.e.
oex
RUF: I have Corel Word Perfect and its
Spread Sheet. I have never used it, but it can
be used as Excel. Does this system worke
with Corel's spread sheet? Do you have the
formulas?
opttrader: Will TOS create any excel
examples of things that can be done in
excel??
TradeWeaver: Tom, Do you know of a way
that we can pass in a OPRA symbol stored in
another cell? For instance, a formula like
=TOS|LASTX!$B13 where cell B13 stores
the symbol .DJVWJ for the DJX November
114 put.
Optioneer: Most DDE links work for me, but
some do not. Can someone try DELL, PG,
AMAT, EK and see if they work for you.
kilo94: What's the IF formulas you're using

bearishbull: there is a mac version, tp

chris_MA: Where can I see the OPRA code
in the TOS platform?
JT: are you aware this doesn't work in open
office - the open standard for non-microsoft
proprietary spreadsheets
mdhenson: How about Firefox? The export
works, but the formulas don't.
Lakeshore10: When the spreadsheet is saved,
then reopened, must one do anything else to
"start" up the link?
wwskier: Can we do more then 1000 by
opening several spreadsheets
McEnmur: can u export dde to another excel
sheet aside from the download sheet for data
manipulation, graphs etc.?
saconas: I don't see a key on my keyboard for
th4e long vertical line that follows TOS in
each formula. How is this done?
Kalabantas: Must TOS SW be running?
RCRYSLER: Need to have most recent Excel
version?
rockets26: hold shift while pressing backslash
GBInman: no joy with DELL
aforkosh: McEnmur yes you can just copy
and paste the cells

SSS: Dell works here

aaaquest: DELL is working for me
thenakedtrader: Tom, this DDE feature is
terrific! Thank you!
Not to sound ungrateful, but it would be nice
to be able to export position information...
theo price too maybe, but the position info is
more useful to export for what-if type
analysis
aaaquest: i used =TOS|LAST!DELL
thenakedtrader: RCRYSLER, I use Excel
2000, it works fine with that version
McEnmur: is there a way to download partial
data from trade page eg only one months
quotes for an index option? or u just have to
delete what u don't want?
Optioneer: aaaquest, I am using the same
formula with no luck.
jpfahey3: my question was probably not
worded quite clearly...is there a list of dde
fields that are available other than the basics
of bid, ask, last, etc...
lloydz: The Excel link is a wonderful feature.
Is there any chance of getting the historical
data from the TOS Charts?
RUF: A few weeks ago, we discussed the
Theo px Adjustment. It is in 10C and you
said it could be changed to .05C. It hasn't
been changed.

TraderGal: Where do I get the symbol name

of the option in TOS?
gwptrader: RUF - if you double click on the
adjust price field of Theo Price, you can type
in any price you desire
McEnmur: Tom can u comment further on
creating a risk curve graph in excel, for
example at expiration and at the "current"
time?
SSS: SUN seems to work for me, Tom
gwptrader: saconas - look for a key on your
keyboard that has \
saconas: i GOT IT, THANKS
gwptrader: saconas - there should be | on the
same key on top of the \
Robert: Would you go over once again how
to establish a DDE link from TOS to Excel?
gwptrader: saconas - hold down the Shift key
while using the \ key to type in |
saconas: MY KEYBOARD SHOWS A
SPACE IN THE LINE, BUT PRINTS A
SOLID LINE
Me: using xl 2k not finding the
tools/options/formula selection..
GBInman: to refresh: click on EDIT, then
LINKS... and select option
jpfahey3: I have gotten up to 2000 DDE links
with Esignal and Excel 2002

Tom Preston: \
JamesS: we seem to have lost the sound
Tom Preston: |
JT: i would think you could have an infinite
number of links so long as there are no more
than 1000 per spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet
is not running, the links won't be active. So
having multiple spreadsheets open one at a
time should not be a problem.
thenakedtrader: Me - you may have to click
the double-down arrow to reveal the extended
menu
Me: tried that...
pholshouser: can I copy and paste this chat
room onto my word
otter49: I'm running Office 97 - works fine.
thenakedtrader: GBln, I think Ctrl-R also
refreshes the entire spreadsheet (both links
and calculations)
gecarpenter: phholshouser: Use CTRL-C to
copy and CTRL-V to paste.
Me: when I check formulas... i see all the
formulas on the s sheet.. but not a choice
RCRYSLER: What about TOS symbols that
begin with a "/ " ( /YM6Z ) per inserting into
DDE formula - did and system did not like.

paccampo: I think the "SEP 06 (2) 100" cell

is a text field. If I separate it, there's no DDE
link. So can the programmers look at it?
lgwoods64: =TOS|BID!DELL works fine for
me.
Me: when I do TOS| and right click it says
pick from list.. but list is EMPTY
GBInman: RCRYSLER - put quotes around
the symbol '/YM6Z'
RobM: Are there any plans to allow users to
contribute to a "library" of DDE-enabled
spreadsheets ... to share/learn/discuss
privately developed tools?
OptionJohn: What new stuff is coming in the
near future? How about API? I heard Tom
Sosnoff mention that API would be available
sometime.
paccampo: You can open a blank spread
sheet, copy what you want, and then delete it.
whiteknight: can we use the DDE to put in
trades into TOS based on some conditions in
excel?
Me: hmmm nice hope..
RCRYSLER: Thanks GBin - works fine.
ab: Huge value addition feature
this...cool....great job...thank you.
CJ_Trader: works great in Excel 2003.
THANKS!

jjirvine: Am I supposed to be able to enter a

code directly into Excel (e.g.
=TOS|LAST!GOOG) and get TOS to refresh
that in my spreadsheet. This does not seem
to work for me.
rtaylor: sounds fine
Al: to show the formulas without going to
options, press ctrl + ~ ( to the left of the 1 key
at the top)
traderthom: ok
thenakedtrader: sound OK
HickeryDickery: working
luckybee11: ok here
RonA: sound ok
clueless: i lost it but got it back
wwn: had to restart
Shams78: ok here
biszer: yes sound works fine just lost for a
second and had to re-click on "listen TOS"
Speedbyrd: lost sound too - turn it back on in
the chat window
HickeryDickery: reclick on listen, transfer
can knock out audio
Me: ctl+~ toggles me between the formula
and normal spread sheet view.

Me: sound on now... great

JT: for things that start with a / try putting a \
before the / so that you have \/ i don't
know that this would work in windows, but it
is an old unix trick.
Me: not another unix geek :-)
chris78159: you can use something like this
in excel to get days until expiration
"=(DAYS360((TODAY()),D5))" where D5
would be the expiration date.
JT: do you have an alpha or beta of the api
that we could get before the official release of
the api?
kfergus: Not all functions install when Exel is
installed. By default only the most common
functions install. You have to check install
all to run from harddrive when you install to
get all functionality. Maybe that is ME's
issue.
Me: could check that... thanks
GBInman: conditional formatting does work
on DDEs. I use it to change the background
colors based on limit values
jeevan: how can we save this chat?
my_utmost: Any update on potential changes
in margin requirements for complex spreads?
rmihalyi: to save this chat you can Ctr-A to
select everything,then Ctr-C to copy, and the
Ctr-V to paste into notes

byng78: when i paste to Excel, I only get the

data in the Trade Grid, but not the option
chains
Robert:
RCRYSLER: Thanks Tom - you guys kick
butt !
clueless: a bit off topic, but will we be able to
enter orders for our TOS accounts thru the
Genesis Trade Navigator charting package
any time soon? I heard that this is in the
works.
jac9295: Can you explain why you chart the
implied vols. of the butterflys versus the indv
options
thenakedtrader: crashed... TP, I'm interested
in the API as well
tom_coe: I was away for a while, but is there
any way to export the price slace data from
the analysis tab?
Tom Preston: I have to wrap it up now
Tom Preston: If you have any questions or
suggestions, please email me at
tpreston@thinkorswim.com
JT: thanks Tom - good job today - thanx for
your time.
wwskier: Thanks
ajp: Fabulous session! Thanks Tom.
Me: great thanks

biszer: thanks tom

Al: thanks Tom
BillG: Thanks.
JamesS: thanks tom
saconas: GREAT JOB, TOM THANKS
thenakedtrader: Thank you for a terrific
chat... and for the fabulous tools!!!
traderthom: THANK U TOM P.
whiteknight: thanks a lot tom
clueless: thanks Tom
luckybee11: Thanks Tom
Lakeshore10: Nice feature. Thanks
RonA: Great session today - Thanks!
McEnmur: thanks for awesome chat today
Tom!
bearishbull: TY Tom! It was SO
INTERESTING!
Tom Preston: You're welcome
Tom Preston: Thanks for coming today
everybody!
Tom Preston: See you next week!