                       User's Guide for the

                    OWL Portfolio Price Loader
                             (OPPLD)

                           Version 1.0

                        Copyright 1992 by:

                       'Otto-Williams Ltd.
                           P.O. Box 794
                      Lanham, MD  20703-0794
                              U.S.A

                       ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


License:

This  program  is provided for evaluation purposes only.  You may 
use  this  program  for a period of up to 30 days to evaluate its 
usefullness.   A  fully  licensed  version  of  this  program  is 
available  from  'Otto-Williams  Ltd.  for  $15.  Availability is 
limited  to  registered  users  of  the  OWL  Personal  Portfolio 
Manager  (OPPM)  versions  3.0  and above.  Any other use of this 
program  without  the  express  written consent of 'Otto-Williams 
Ltd.  is  strictly  prohibited  and will be deemed a violation of 
our Copyright.  


For  technical  support,  contact 'Otto-Williams Ltd at the above 
address  or  call  (301)  306-0409.  Support is also available on 
GEnie  via  E-Mail (send questions to: S.WILLIAMS11) on the GEnie 
Investors Bulletin Board (Category 9).


                           INSTALLATION

The  OPPLD  program  and data files must be installed on the same 
drive  and directory as the OWL Personal Portfolio Manager (OPPM) 
program.    Copy   OPPLD.EXE,  OPPLD.DBF  and  OPPLD.HLP  to  the 
drive\directory  where  OPPM.EXE  is installed.  Example:  if you 
are  currently  using  version 4.2 of OPPM and it is installed on 
your C: drive use the following commands:

     COPY OPPLD.EXE C:\OPPM42
     COPY OPPLD.DBF C:\OPPM42
     COPY OPPLD.HLP C:\OPPM42


                     DOWNLOADING STOCK QUOTES

OPPLD  supports  loading  stock,  bond  and  mutual  fund  quotes 
downloaded  from  Compuserve,  Prodigy,  GEnie  and the Dow Jones 
News  Retrieval.   The  program  has  specific  requirements  for 
download  file  formats  and  contents which are described in the 
following paragraphs.


DOWNLOADING FROM COMPUSERVE

Current   stock   quotes  can  be  obtained  from  Compuserve  by 
selecting   the   Quotes   option  in  the  services  menu.   The 
Compuserve  software  permits you to predefine the ticker symbols 
for  the  quotes  you  want to retrieve.  Once you have defined a 
group  of  ticker  symbols, select the "Quotes" option to display 
the current quotes for all predefined issues.  

To  download  these quotes to your hard disk select the "SAVE AS" 
option in the file menu and enter a file name.


DOWNLOADING FROM PRODIGY

Current  quotes can be obtained from the Prodigy Quote Track page 
(Jump  -  Quote  Track).   Within quote track, you must establish 
one  or  more  "Tracks" containing the ticker symbols you want to 
download.   Prodigy's  tracks are limited to 15 issues per track.  
If  you  are  tracking  more  than 15 issues we suggest using the 
Hard  Disk  track.   The  hard disk track is limited to 50 issues 
per  track.   Consult Prodigy's help screens for more information 
on establishing tracks.

After   establishing  your  track(s),  select  the  report  setup 
option.   Setup  your  report  options  to output the report to a 
"delimited  file"  (  *.CSV  format).   If  you will be importing 
quotes  to OPPM from several Prodigy sessions at one time, select 
the  append  option  in  the report setup.  Alternatively, if you 
will  be  importing quotes to OPPM each time you download, select 
the overwrite option.

Prodigy  permits  you  to  save report setups for either a single 
session  or  for  all  future  sessions.   To save time in future 
Prodigy  sessions,  we suggest that you make this setup permanent 
for all prodigy sessions.

Once  your quote track and report setup has been saved, it is not 
necessary  to  modify  these  for  future  sessions.  To download 
quotes,  open  your  quote  track  (FILE MENU) and run the report 
option (FILE MENU).


DOWNLOADING FROM GENIE

Closing  stock  and  mutual  fund  quotes  can  be obtained using 
GEnie's  *BASIC services.  Type "M8008;1" at any GEnie page to go 
to  the  closing  quotes  page.   Before  selecting the option to 
retrieve  closing  quotes,  set  your  communications  program to 
begin logging output to a file.  

Enter  up to 30 ticker symbols of the stocks and mutual funds you 
want  to  retrieve.   After retrieving up to 30 quotes the "Enter 
Ticker   Symbol(s)"  prompt  will  reappear  and  you  may  enter 
additional  ticker  symbols  until  you have retrieved quotes for 
all of the stocks and mutual funds you are tracking.

Once  you  have  retrieved  all  of your closing quotes, set your 
modem communications program to stop logging.

     Note:   depending on your modem communications program, much 
     of  this process can be automated through the use of scripts 
     or   command   files.    Check  the  documentation  of  your 
     communications program for details.

The  ticker  symbols for stocks and mutual funds you are tracking 
using  OPPM must match the ticker symbol, type and class shown in 
the  GEnie  closing quotes.  This is entered in the ticker symbol 
field in OPPM as:

     GEnie Ticker Symbol <space> GEnie Type <space> GEnie Class

Examples of stocks are:

     GEnie                                    OPPM
     Tick  Description               TP C     Ticker
     ----- ------------------------- -- -     ---------
     GM    GENERAL MTRS CORP                  GM
     GM    GENERAL MTRS CORP         PR B     GM PR B
     GM    GENERAL MTRS CORP         PR P     GM PR P

Note  that all mutual funds have a type of "X".  This type should 
be ignored and NOT included in the OPPM ticker symbol field:

     GEnie                                    OPPM
     Tick  Description               TP C     Ticker
     ----- ------------------------- -- -     -----------
     FMAGX FIDELITY MAGELLAN FD      X        FMAGX 
     JANSX JANUS FD INC              X        JANSX 
     TWCGX TWENTIETH CENTY INVS      X        TWCGX 
     TWBIX TWENTIETH CENTY INVS      X        TWBIX 


DOWNLOADING FROM DOW JONES NEWS RETRIEVAL (DJNR)

OPPLD  supports  quotes retrieved from Dow Jones News Retrieval's 
current  quotes  (//CQ),  historical  quotes (//HQ) and Dow Jones 
Averages (//DJA) databases.

//HQ:   The  historical quotes database allows you to retrieve up 
to  one year's worth of daily quotes for stocks.  After selecting 
the  HQ database set your communications program to begin logging 
to  a  new  file.   Enter  the  symbol  of  the stock you want to 
retrieve  quotes  for  followed  by "P1" e.g.(IBM P1).  DJNR will 
display  12 days of quotes for the selected stock.  Each time you 
press  the  return  key,  the preceding 12 days of quotes will be 
displayed  until  a  full  year's  of quotes have been displayed.  
After  you  have  retrieved all the quotes you are interested in, 
set  your  communications program to stop logging.  Note, you may 
save historical quotes for multiple stocks to a single log file.

//CQ:   The  current  quotes  database  allows  you  to  retrieve 
current  quotes for stocks and mutual funds.  After selecting the 
CQ  database  set your communications program to begin logging to 
a  new  file.  Enter the symbols of the stock or mutual funds you 
want  to  retrieve  current  quotes  for.   You may enter up to 5 
symbols  at  a  time  separated  by  a  space.  DJNR will display 
current  quotes  for  each selected security.  You may enter more 
symbols  as  needed.   After  you  have retrieved all the current 
quotes  you are interested in, set your communications program to 
stop  logging.   Note,  do  not  save current quotes for multiple 
dates  in the same log file.  Since the DJNR CQ database does not 
display  the  date,  OPPLD is unable to distinguish the date that 
the quote applies to.

//DJA:   The  Dow  Jones Averages database allows you to retrieve 
up  to one year's worth of daily quotes for the various Dow Jones 
Averages.    After   selecting   the   DJA   database   set  your 
communications  program  to  begin  logging to a new file.  Enter 
the  symbol  of  the  average  you  want  to  retrieve quotes for 
followed  by  "P1"  e.g.(DJI  P1).   DJNR will display 12 days of 
quotes  for the selected average.  Each time you press the return 
key,  the  preceding  12 days of quotes will be displayed until a 
full  year's  of  quotes  have  been  displayed.   After you have 
retrieved  all  the  quotes for a selected Dow Jones Average, set 
your  communications  program to stop logging.  Note, do not save 
different  averages  to the same log file.  OPPLD reduces volumes 
of  Dow  Jones  Averages  by  a  factor  of 10.  When loaded, DJA 
volumes  are  in  units of thousands instead of hundreds as shown 
in the DJA download file.


                          RUNNING OPPLD

Before  running OPPLD be sure to review the applicable section of 
this   guide   on   downloading   quotes.    OPPLD  has  specific 
requirements  for  file  formats  and file contents which must be 
met  to  avoid  the  possibility of introducing invalid data into 
your database.

Once  you have captured a file containing closing quotes, you can 
run  OPPLD  to  import these prices into the OPPM price database.  
To   run   OPPLD   set   your   default  drive\directory  to  the 
drive\directory  where  OPPM  and  OPPLD  are  installed and type 
"OPPLD".  Example:

     C:
     CD \OPPM42
     OPPLD

The  program  has  6 options which are described in the following 
paragraphs.


IMPORT CLOSING QUOTES

This  option  reads  a  file  containing captured closing quotes, 
checks  the ticker symbols against your OPPM database and creates 
a  temporary  database  of  prices.   Only those quotes that have 
ticker  symbols matching the ticker symbols in your OPPM database 
are  accepted.   In  addition, any quotes that are not within the 
date span that you specify will be ignored.

Before  selecting  this option, be sure that the current setup is 
for  the  file  type  you will be loading.  See Set Import Format 
below.

After  selecting  this  option,  enter  the name of the file that 
contains  the  closing  quotes  you  want  to  load.   Be sure to 
include  the  full drive and path specification when entering the 
file name.

Once  you  have  correctly  entered the file name, enter the date 
span  you  want  loaded.   DO  NOT  INCLUDE  DATES THAT HAVE BEEN 
PREVIOUSLY  LOADED.   Loading  closing  quotes  for the same date 
more  than  once  will  cause  invalid  volume  data in your OPPM 
database  (the  volume  of  shares  will  be too high because the 
repeated day's volume will be added more then once).

Closing  quotes  are  not  committed  to  the OPPM price database 
until  you  exit  the program.  Multiple closing quotes files can 
be imported by reselecting this option.


BROWSE CLOSING QUOTES

This  option  allows  you  to  view the closing quotes which have 
been  read  and  accepted by the program using the Import Closing 
Quotes  option.   This  allows  you  to preview the imported data 
before it is committed to the OPPM price database.


ABANDON CLOSING QUOTES

If  you  made  an  error and imported the wrong file or specified 
the  wrong  date  span, you can abandon all closing quotes in the 
temporary  database  by selecting this option.  This will prevent 
erroneously  loaded closing quotes from being written to the OPPM 
Price database.


SET IMPORT FORMAT

Before  using the Import Closing Quotes option, check the current 
setup  in  the  upper  right corner of the display to insure that 
file  format  is properly set.  If not, use this option to select 
the type of file you will be importing. 


SET QUOTE YEAR

Since  the  closing  quotes  output  by  GEnie and Compuserve are 
coded  with  the month and day only, the program assumes that the 
year  of  the quotes is equal to the year set in your system.  If 
this  is  not the case, select this option to specify the year of 
the quotes to be imported.


COMMIT DATA & EXIT

This  option  will commit all closing quote data in the temporary 
database  to  the  OPPM  price database and exit the program.  If 
the  temporary database is empty (no files loaded or you selected 
the  Abandon  Closing  Quotes  option  after loading your closing 
quotes files) the program will simply exit to DOS.

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