Product Updates

Support for instrument renaming in Signal Stream Telegram Feed

We’ve recently added an option to rename instruments in the Acuity Dashboard to ensure that the correct brokers’ versions of the instrument names are shown in all tools.

We’ve now extended this support to Telegram as well. Any Trade Idea that is sent via Telegram will first check the correct mapping with the brokers instruments and replace the name with the correct version in all relevant places.

This will ensure that users only see information they are used to seeing in all tools on the brokers’ platforms.

Price performance metrics are now in Assets Overview

We’ve added several price performance metrics into the Assets Overview columns. Users can now select more fields in addition to the ones related to the Opportunity Score.

Users can also reorder the fields using the Column Selection menu. The browser will remember the user’s selection and will show the same columns on the next visit.

These columns also support sorting, which will allow users to more easily focus on top or worst performers when screening for opportunities.

Added a possibility to rename instruments in the Acuity Dashboard

Very often brokers have their own naming convention for instruments. The instrument names could include suffices or just be named slightly differently from the usual naming convention. If the instrument names are not modified in the tools later, this can cause confusion to the users.

To solve the problem, we’ve added an option for brokers to rename both the symbols and the instrument names in the dashboard to ensure that users see exactly the same information as is offered elsewhere in the brokers’ platforms.

It’s possible to rename individual instruments, as well as upload CSV files and rename instruments in bulk.

Here’s how this looks like in the Acuity Dashboard:

Once the renaming and import is done, it’s possible to perform the following actions:

• Export all original/modified instruments
• Clear all changes

Added Analyst Ratings REST and Streaming API endpoints

Acuity Analyst Ratings API service includes the Analyst Consensus data that we retrieve about global stocks and update on a daily basis.

We collect this information programmatically from a large number of news oriented websites, press releases and other resources that publish the analyst ratings principally through news stories (provided by brokers, banks, and other financial organizations).

Having a large number of ratings with these data points allows us to aggregate them. For the ratings that we retrieve, we:

1. Check which stocks have received a new rating in a given week
2. Retrieve all the ratings for this stock for the past 3 months
3. Based on the ratings received, we group them into Sell/Hold/Buy “buckets”, and based on the mean of these ratings provide a consensus (e.g., Moderate Sell if there are a few Sell and a few Hold ratings, a Strong Buy if there are predominantly Buy ratings etc).

It’s possible to retrieve this data on-demand using a REST API, and also to subscribe to updates in real-time via the Streaming API.

Using MetaTrader and cTrader account type as criterion for tool customisation

We have been supporting the Freemium functionality within Signal Stream and AnalysisIQ for some time now. This functionality helps brokers control which content appears for certain groups of their users.

To date we’ve been able to offer the Freemium functionality based on the following account parameters:

• MetaTrader/cTrader Server
• Account Balance

We’ve received some feedback from our brokers that it would also be useful to restrict access by account type, for example, Demo or Live, and we’ve enabled this now.

It’s now possible to create various combinations of the above parameters. For example, it’s possible to show full trade ideas only to Live accounts with over $500 balance.

As a reminder, this is how the Freemium functionality appears within our tools.

AnalysisIQ:

Signal Stream:

Improvements in linking instruments to events in Acuity Calendars

When Economic Event data is released, it affects various instruments to varying extent. Previously we usually attached affected instruments to the events using the instrument country, for example, if there is US Economic Data released, it would affect US indices, currencies with US Dollar etc.

We have received feedback from our users that they are missing certain instruments when viewing the data for certain High and Medium impact events. In particular, metals and energy commodities were missing from the list of affected instruments.

We’ve taken this feedback on board and reviewed how we identify affected instruments for each event. Metals, energy, and agricultural commodities are now attached to more events that affect their prices and that traders are closely monitoring when viewing the event data.

Implemented the Watchlist functionality in the Calendar tools

Economic events affect a variety of instruments and we note them down in the relevant sections of the Economic and the Corporate Calendars that we offer.

Brokers, however, don’t always offer all of the instruments that we mention in the events.

To avoid a situation where we display instruments in the calendars that brokers don’t offer, we’ve added a Watchlist functionality to the tools. Now it’s possible to limit the Calendar to show only the offered instruments as part of the Affected Assets list, which helps avoid any confusion on the brokers’ sides.

Here’s how this looks in the Economic Calendar:

Signal Stream Telegram bot improvements

We’ve slightly improved the configuration options of the Telegram bot, and also included some data points in the messages for additional clarity.

Here are the new configuration options:

• Live Trades Only – this option will only publish Live Trades to the group or the channel
• Timezone Offset – this option will change all timestamps in the message to the specified offset. This is useful if the audience of the channel is from a particular region.

As for the new data points, each message now includes the Expiry date & time for the trade idea to indicate how much time the users have left to act upon the trade ideas.

AnalysisIQ – Improve the ordering of trade ideas and modify the full details layout

The original version of AnalysisIQ had trade ideas grouped by asset classes by default. We’ve received some feedback that it can be inconvenient, especially if the user is interested in a particular asset class which is not immediately visible.

To resolve the concerns, we’ve implemented a more natural publication time based ordering in the dashboard. Additionally, we’ve implemented a filter that allows users to display trade ideas related to a single asset class should they wish to do so.

Original layout:

Improved layout:

As part of the same update, we looked at how the information is structured inside the full trade idea view. Previously, a large portion of the tool was occupied by the chart and the important details, such as the trade idea justification, were hidden from the users. We’ve now made sure that the prominent details are immediately visible.

This is how the details appear after the update:

Added support for MetaTrader Live Prices for all Expert Advisors using the pricing data

Some of our tools, like AnalysisIQ or Signal Stream, need to have access to live pricing data in order to deliver the most value to the users, as the content heavily relies on it.

Previously, we used our own pricing data in the tools, including their Expert Advisor form. This meant that sometimes the latest price value or the chart wouldn’t match what the users could see in MetaTrader directly.

We’ve now added logic that fetches live pricing data from MetaTrader and displays it in the relevant sections.

AnalysisIQ as a MetaTrader EA and cTrader Bot

Following a successful launch of AnalysisIQ in its web widget form, we’ve implemented a version suitable for Trading Platforms.

It’s now possible to access AnalysisIQ as an EA (in MT) or a cBot (in cTrader) and be able to execute trades based on the signals provided.

Here’s how the EA appears in MetaTrader:

Here is its cTrader appearance:

AnalysisIQ and Signal Stream – additional context for premium data

Analysisiq and signal stream both offer a freemium version that enables brokers to choose which trade ideas are publicly visible and which ideas are only accessible to a specific group of customers (such as live accounts or accounts with a particular balance).

We have received some feedback indicating that the action associated with these Premium data points is not clear to the users – it’s not immediately known that a user needs to sign up for a live account or fund an account.

To resolve this, we added tooltips with customisable text to the Premium data points. The tooltips can be displayed both in the web versions of the tools, and in the Trading Platforms (such as MetaTrader or cTrader). In trading platforms, they can dynamically populate relevant values, such as the required account balance.

Here is how they appear in the tools.

AnalysisIQ:

Signal Stream:

The goal of this feature is to make it easy for brokers to control the content that various user groups see, and clarify to the users what action they need to take to enable the full experience in the tools.

Added a link between AssetIQ and AnalysisIQ in the Acuity Research Terminal

The research terminal offers a variety of data elements that assist traders and investors in identifying opportunities. It may be difficult to connect these data points at times to create a clearer picture of what is happening with the instrument because they are sometimes found on different pages.

We combined the analysisiq data with the assetiq data (the opportunity score, which is derived from the price trend, volatility, news sentiment, and news volume scores) in order to make this easier to understand. If there is an active trade idea for the instrument displayed in assetiq, we will display all of the pertinent information on one page:

By doing this, we give traders and investors a more complete view of what’s happening with the target instrument, enabling them to decide more quickly and with greater knowledge.

Added improvements to a few tools that indicate the age of displayed information

Based on feedback from some users, who were sometimes reporting not being able to know exactly how old the information displayed in our widgets is, we added a few sections into the tools that provide these details.

Here’s how this looks in the Economic Calendar:

This will allow the users to know exactly when certain events come out and allow them to see the Sentiment and Price movements related to the assets with a bit more precision.

In addition to that, we’re also adding this information to areas where we include the Market Data:

The goal of including this information is to make it clearer to the users when a particular data point update occurred to allow them to plan their trades or perform research with a bit more precision.

Added several improvements to the new Research Terminal tool

1. In the Home Page brokers can choose if they’d like to see Most Volatile Assets or Most Spoken About Assets in the Assets to Watch section, which shows the Top 10 assets by Volatility or News Volume. The users, when viewing this section, can now click View More, and be taken to the AssetIQ Overview Page with the previous filters (Top by Volatility or Top by News Volume) already applied, which makes it simpler for them to continue their research.
2. Market Alerts in the Latest Insights section in the Home Page now support redirecting the user to the AssetIQ page and opening the specific Market Alert the user clicked on, making it a lot more straightforward to get to the information displayed in the Home Page:
3. AssetIQ Chart saw a few modifications:
   • Price Chart had smoothness removed, which makes it easier to see the changes in the price movement
   • Optimized the display of Calendar Events, News, and Market Alerts on the chart so that they would load almost instantly.

Added several improvements to the Signal Centre and AnalysisIQ tools

1. More detailed control over settings: it’s possible to modify Tile Font Colour and Background Font Colour separately, also change the colours of the Buy / Sell Label Text. This helps to customise the tools a lot better.
2. Added a Tooltip to the Premium ideas. Now the user can click in the ‘i’ icon and get the information about exactly why an idea is restricted. This can be configured by an Admin in the Dashboard (by Acuity & Signal Centre employees):
3. We now support CTAs in the Web version of the Signal Stream widget. We can add a button with some custom text (for example, Fund an account) and redirect the user to a particular URL when they click it.

Improved the account configuration possibilities for Account Management and Sales teams

Prior to this change we were showing all EAs in MetaTrader, for which the customers have permissions. Now it’s possible for Sales and Account Management teams to choose which EAs to display, which gives brokers more control over what their users see in the trading platforms, whether they need to prepare any marketing materials for the tools, and allow to do that at their required pace.

Implemented possibility to modify the style of the original Signal Centre Dashboard

We supported the style modification for the new Technical Analysis widget, but we did not allow colour modification for the original version. The original version is still widely used, and after multiple feedback items received from clients requesting this change, we finally implemented it. It’s now possible to modify the styling fully for the original Signal Centre dashboard.

Improvement for discoverability of Calendar Events and News on the Asset IQ Chart

When users added Calendar Events or News onto the chart, it was not clear that the events could be clicked to get more information. We’ve now added a CTA (Find out more) to the events that allows to view the full news item or the event.

Implementation of regional failover functionality in our backend

We now support automatically failing over to a different region, in case the SQL database services become unavailable in our main region. This will prevent our customers from having problems with most of our retail-oriented tools if the database goes down. In addition to that we now support our service replicas in Asia, which makes it a lot quicker for our Asian customers to use our tools.

Addition of customizable CTAs to the Economic and Corporate Calendars

It’s now possible to add a CTA to the Economic and Corporate Calendar with customizable text, so clients can add “Open a Live Account”, “Start Trading” etc links to our tools.

Implemented and launched the new Economic and Corporate Calendar EAs in MetaTrader

Customers who are given the “Acuity Calendar” and the “Can access MT4”/”Can access MT5” permissions will now received a new EA, called Acuity Events, in MetaTrader. This will allow them to benefit from the new calendars in MetaTrader directly.

Addition of a possibility to add custom CTAs to the Asset IQ page

It’s now possible to add a custom CTA to a few sections in the Asset IQ page. Users can customize the following:

• CTA text (Start Trading Now, Trade Now, Open a Live Account etc)
• CTA Text and Button Colour
• URL that the user is taken to when the CTA is clicked

This should make it easier for brokers to customize this page according to their needs and increase certain metrics, like sign ups, conversions etc.

Original Signal Stream now supports “Freemium” functionality

This feature allows brokers to show a restricted Trade Ideas list to the users that are connecting from demo accounts. Some trade ideas will be disabled and shown with a “Premium” label, clicking which will take the user to a preconfigured URL to fund an account. Additional documentation is available here.

Several improvements for the Acuity Corporate and Economic Calendar

We’ve added a few features making it smoother to use the Calendars. In particular, we now have a “Today” button in the datepicker, that allows navigating to today’s date if you are reviewing events in the past or in the future. We’ve also added support for zoom, so changing the zoom levels on the tool does not reset the day you were previously researching. 

Several improvements for the Acuity Corporate and Economic Calendar

We’ve added a few improvements that make the content in the calendars richer. In particular, the news queries were expanded to include the sectors and we’ve expanded the configuration options to support disabling either economic or corporate calendar, to improve how they are displayed on the brokers’ sites.

It’s now possible to change the EA names (prefixes) in clients’ MetaTraders.

Brokers requested the possibility to rename the Acuity Expert Advisors to include the brokers’ names. It’s now possible to configure the EA prefixes via the Admin dashboard, so Admirals could for example have “Admirals Research Terminal” and “Admirals Market Alerts” instead of “Acuity Research Terminal” and “Acuity Market Alerts”. This should improve the user experience for the brokers and make their platforms more personalized.

Watchlist creation via File Upload

Acuity Dashboard supports creating Watchlists to use in specific widgets, such as the Corporate Calendar or the Sentiment Complex. If the Watchlists are large, it’s a painful experience to add assets individually. We’ve now added an option to upload a file with Acuity Asset IDs to create a watchlist. If the clients have a limited set of assets to display in the Corporate Calendar, this will improve the workflow significantly.

Acuity Corporate Calendar – Add to Calendar button

We’ve added a button that allows the user to add a certain event to their calendar (Apple, Google, Outlook, Yahoo, or an individual file) to ensure they don’t miss important corporate or economic events.

Simplification of the asset addition and charting in Signal Stream

We’ve simplified the process of adding new assets and replaced the custom chart with Trading View chart in case the pricing data is incomplete.

Addition of Turkish and Bahasa Malaysia languages to the Acuity and Signal Centre Dashboards

Both the Acuity and the Signal Centre Dashboards and APIs support additional languages now. This feature will primarily benefit the users of Signal Stream. This feature aims at increasing the richness of the services that Signal Stream includes.

Addition of Watchlist functionality support to Research Terminal and Market Alerts Web-based widgets and EAs

It is now possible to create Watchlists via the https://dashboard.acuitytrading.com/WidgetList/Watchlists interface and do the following:

• Using the “Widgets” configuration functionality in the dashboard assign the created watchlist to Research Terminal or Market Alerts
• Using the Name of the created watchlist pass the following parameter to the Research Terminal and Market Alerts widget URL: &watchlistName=NAME_OF_WATCHLIST

This will allow restricting the EAs to the list of certain assets. This feature aims at improving customer experience (broker side) with the configuration of the widgets and tailoring the content of the widgets exactly as needed.

Addition of PivotPoint endpoint to the Signal Centre Reports API

This feature allows retrieving the latest (current) pivot points, and support/resistance values (S1/R1, S2/R2, S3/R3) for a given asset for a given frequency.

Addition of the “Documentation” menu item to the Acuity Dashboard navigation bar

This menu item hosts various guides that assist with understanding Acuity and Signal Centre services better. Currently available guides include:

• Acuity and Signal Centre MetaTrader Expert Advisor installation and troubleshooting instructions
• Signal Stream API Guide

Improvements to the Acuity and Signal Dashboard security

The dashboard now supports configuring whitelists and blacklists for domains where customers would like to display the widgets. This makes it easy to control where exactly the widgets can and cannot be displayed.

Improvements to the Widget Localization processes

As part of the efforts to automate many functions within the Acuity platform, we have upgraded the localization processes, allowing us to automatically add, correct, remove translations for widgets without having to make any code deployments, making the localization process a lot quicker.

Compliance-related improvements to the Signal Stream Metatrader Advisor

It is now possible to configure a custom disclaimer that is shown to the users, when they open the Signal Stream dashboard in Metatrader. Users are requested to either accept or decline the disclaimer, and the Trade Ideas are only shown to the users that accept it. The disclaimer functionality is configurable and can use the language the Metatrader instance is running in to change the text language accordingly.

Improvements to the Signal Centre Dashboard and the MetaTrader Expert Advisor

We continued improving the user experience based on the feedback provided by users. The changes include the following:

• Freezing the order price when the volume is modified
• Improvements of the order window population in Metatrader 5

Improvements to the Acuity backend to support faster and more efficient data loading

We continued improving our backend to allow better performance for our data-heavy products, such as the Economic and Corporate Calendars.

Improvements to the Signal Centre Dashboard and the MetaTrader Expert Advisor

We continued improving the user experience based on the feedback provided by early adopters. The changes include the following:

• Handling order population regardless of regional settings set in the user OS

Additional configuration options to allow using the Acuity EAs more flexibly

To support various security configuration options in Windows and Internet Explorer, we now have added an option to automatically populate the Trusted Sites with the websites that are required to run the Acuity Expert Advisors.

Improvements to the Signal Centre Dashboard and the MetaTrader Expert Advisor

Following the early adopter feedback, we have added the following improvements to the Signal Centre Dashboard and the MetaTrader Expert Advisor:

• Order Details Volume is now set with a minimal possible value, making order details population a lot more likely to be accepted by clients’ Compliance teams
• It’s now possible to clearly see the Confidence associated with Trade Ideas on the tiles and the list view, and also possible to filter Trade Ideas according to their confidence level. This makes it easier and more flexible for traders to focus only on the ideas that are more likely to succeed.

Signal Centre Expert Advisor Launch

We’ve launched the Expert Advisors for both MT4 and MT5 that give access to the Signal Centre Dashboard via the metatrader platform. The initial launch includes trade functionality and functionality allowing users to see their own symbol names within the EA.

Signal Centre Expert Advisor User Experience Improvements

Following early adopter feedback, we have added these improvements:

• Improved order creation flow (order details are now populated with trade idea values)
• Improved instrument window interaction when order is set (regardless of the instrument, where the EA is opened, the user remains on the Signal Centre EA).

Acuity Expert Advisor User Experience Improvements

Following feedback from Acuity Expert Advisor users, we have added the following improvements:

• The key required to complete the installation no longer needs to be in the file name (tied to the installer), which simplifies the process for those users that need to install both the MT4 and MT5 versions of the Acuity EAs
• Acuity EA installers now include an option to choose the installer language, improving the user experience for non English speakers.