OPTIONS CZAR HELP - LOADING MARKET DATA
| Options Czar can read data from two sources: the Stricknet web site and directly from the CBOE web site. The former contains the End-Of-Day data for all the options that are traded in the CBOE, along with the data from their underlying assets. The diagram at right explains how data is read into Options Czar from the two available sources. The path at left represents the single CBOE web site data file entry which is explained below. |
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Loading Subscription Data
| The process for loading subscription data is quite simple and requires the user to first subscribe either through the appropriate menu item in the Help menu (Windows OS) or through the Apple menu (Mac OSX), or through the web. Once the user has a data account, all he/she needs to do is to select the "Download EOD Data" menu item from the Data menu and a window will appear. In this window, the user enters the assigned login and password and clicks on "Download". Once this is done, the data should start downloading.
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| Once the download has finished, the .zip file should decompress automatically and Options Czar will ask the user to point to where the data folder is located and select it. Note that a decompression utility (such as WinZip or the Mac OSX finder) is required. If the file does not decompress automatically, then the user will need to execute this step and then load the data using the "Load CBOE Data from Disk" command from the Tools menu. Once the data has loaded, the Assets table will update to show all the underlying assets as in the screenshot at right.
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Loading Free Data from the Web
| The first step for loading free 20-minute delayed data from the CBOE web site is to visit the site. The current link is the following. Once the link has been clicked, your browser should show a page like in the image to the right. The next step is to introduce the symbol for the underlying asset that we wish to work with. In this example, we will use the S&P500 index, which has a very liquid options market. We type the SPX symbol where indicated and click on "Download". Note that this page will download the full options chain. |
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| Next, we run Options Czar and open a new Portfolio window. It should be empty and look like the one in the screenshot at right. |
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| We select "Load CBOE Data from Disk" and then use the menu (or the Down arrow button) to select "Single CBOE file" and press "OK". A new window will open in which we will need to locate the file we just downloaded and select it. |
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| Since it is the first time we load this options chain, Options Czar will ask us some additional information regarding this asset. We enter the description in the appropriate slot, along with the information that this is an index option as in the screenshot to the right. |
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| Once the previous step has been done, we can see the full options chain when you click on the "Chain" tab as in the screenshot to the right. |
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