While there are some bigger or more common Toolkit 6 questions, I wanted to take some of the smaller ones that we sometimes see. I don't think any of these are worth a full post, because they're more related to getting used to Toolkit than any specific issue or problem.
Q: Why is the Roster of Quality Locked?
A: The word "locked" in this case means that similar to a printed newspaper, the information in that portfolio is set, and isn't something you can change from inside Toolkit itself. The Roster is updated automatically as long as you are a current StockCentral subscriber and have the correct login information entered in Toolkit's Preferences screen.
Q: Why are some of the stocks in the Roster of Quality red, while some are black?
A: The stocks in the Roster that show up black are ones that you've alredy saved into your library. The red ones are stocks you haven't saved to your library.
Q: Speaking of red, I've used "Update Data" and "Update Prices," but they're still showing up in red on the Home page.
A: The 'Update Data' and 'Update Prices' warning turn red when Toolkit determines that the data is out of date. We have seen three things which usually cause this; incomplete SSGs, a company ticker symbol which is no longer in the data service (either because of a merger, or because the company changed the ticker symbol it uses), or companies which have not given regular updates.
1. The first thing is the easiest to check: If the 'Incomplete Studies' is highlighted, click on this, finish adding judgment to the stock study, and try the update again.
2. If you see that 'Update Prices' is highlighted in red, click on this, and have Toolkit update prices on all companies. If a company ticker is no longer tracked by the data service, an alert will come up here when trying to update prices.
If you need to change the ticker symbol, go to the Library, and open the stock in question. With the SSG for the stock open, click the larger 'Data ' button next to 'Adjust Graph'.
On the Basic Data page, change the ticker symbol, and click OK. Close the SSG. Choose to save the changes. With this done, you should be able to update the prices again.
3. The third option will be that a company has not updated its data recently. The way to check if this is the case is in the settings for Toolkit. With no stocks open, click on Preferences on the toolbar (from the set of buttons between 'Portfolio' and 'Database'.
When the preferences page appears, click on Thresholds.
You will see a series of dates under the heading 'Data Triggers'.
You may wish to try adjusting these to be longer than what is set in the program, to see if they are causing the 'Update Data' to be red.
Make sure that when you make any change, you then click OK on the Preferences page.
If this removes the red from 'Update Data' then you know that the company simply has not updated recently.
These suggestions should take care of any red alerts appearing on the main page of Toolkit.
I'd also like to solicit questions for future posts. I try to guage what notes might be most useful, but anyone who has ever read about the paradox of choice (here's a link to The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
at Amazon) will probably understand when I say that sometimes I'm not sure which of the notes would be best or most useful. So, not to do full-on tech support through a post, but if there's anything that folks have been wondering about, please reply to this post to let me know. I'll sort through, and use as many of the questions as possible for both our internal notes, and future posts.
Fair warning: If nobody replies by the time I make my next post, it's going to be The Top Five Problems With Trying to Keep Equal Ownership in a Club.