October 29, 1999

Option Insight Beta 0.4.2

This is an annoying little release that fixes a little bug that
cropped up in version 0.4.1.  I hate to say it, but it's possible
we haven't heard the last of this issue.  Keep your fingers crossed.
My apologies for the inconvenience.

=================================================================

October 27, 1999

Option Insight Beta 0.4.1

NOTE: This is an interim release that supports changes the CBOE
made to their quote format.  These changes, made on or about October
25, prevented any quotes from being successfully parsed by Beta 0.4.

This release also incorporates the following changes:

+ Emailing trades to a friend by right-clicking was broken.  No
	matter what email address the user entered, the email ended up
	being sent to us at optioninsight@mindspring.com.  This is the
	default email address, since that's where user feedback messages
	entered from within the program are sent.  Our apologies for
	this oversight.  You can now send trades to a friend or friends
	(separate multiple email addresses by a comma or semicolon), and
	it will be sent ONLY to your addressees, and NOT to
	optioninsight@mindspring.com.
+ Improved error-handling in parsing of option chains.  No longer
	chokes on a quote where all fields are blank or where they contain
	CBOE's "N/E" (whatever that is).  What this means is (hopefully)
	you can once again get NYSE and stock index (OEX!) quotes.  And
	(again, hopefully) no more "'N' is not a valid floating point
	number" errors!

=================================================================

April 27, 1999

Option Insight Beta 0.4

This next version of Option Insight comes as a result of changes/
problems with our data provider (CBOE).  As many of you are aware,
they have been quite unreliable at times.  Part of this is due to
the fact that they are currently modifying their quotes pages.  In
addition, they are sometimes, particularly late at night or early
in the morning, simply sending out bad data.  This bad data includes
blank quotes or even claiming valid ticker symbols are unknown.

These problems are probably not over.  However, unless you are completely
unable to retrieve quotes at any time, including market hours, please
just Abort your failed downloads and try again.  Eventually, you will
get a good download.  (If you can recommend another reliable, accurate
source for option chains, please feel free to do so.)

On the bright side, there is a blazingly fast quote mechanism now
available (only at certain times of day, it seems).  Use the drop-
down combo box to select New (the default selection) to try this fast
quote system.  If you get no quotes in the Bid and Ask columns then
select Old in the combo box to go back to the normal quote source.

We apologize for the inconvenience of less-than-reliable quotes.  We
are continuously searching for alternatives.

International users should find that Option Insight no longer requires
them to modify their Windows settings to be "English (USA)".  As far as
we can tell, all currency and date formats are now supported.  If you
encounter further problems, please let us know.

We like to hear from you.  Your comments, suggestions, bug reports, and
praise are all welcome.  Sometimes a severe shortage of time prevents
us from responding as quickly as we (or you) would like.  But we will
make every effort to reply to your email and to consider your feedback.
Many thanks for all of the truly exceptional feedback we have received.
We can't get enough of the stuff!

=================================================================

April 5, 1999

Option Insight Beta 0.3

This version of Option Insight works under Windows NT (finally),
at least on our test platform.  And the Chart tab has been improved
as well.  Now that the basic program operation is starting to
solidify, we hope to start really enhancing and adding features
soon.  Please keep the feedback coming.  And thanks for all your
enthusiastic support!  And patience.  Enjoy!

By the way, although we still have not nailed down our web host
yet, we have begun using our domain, http://www.optioninsight.com,
as the entry point to our site.  So, please use that from now on.

=================================================================

March 26, 1999

FortuneCity does not let us store a file over 1 MB, so we are
unable to upload or download the self-installing version of
Option Insight.  Instead, you have downloaded a 0.5 MB ZIP
file containing only this README.TXT file and the executable
program itself.

The recommended location for the program is:
c:\Program Files\Grey Matter\Option Insight

Please create this directory and copy the executable to it.

=================================================================

March 18, 1999

Option Insight Beta 0.2

We are pretty thrilled to announce the availability of the
next beta release of Option Insight.  Of interest to all
current users will be the lack of Access Violations -- we
think we got 'em all.  Please let us know if we didn't.
Also, this version MAY work with/behind a proxy/firewall
(however that terminology goes).

This version does not look all that different from the
first version, but it is very different "under the hood."
One thing we're very happy about is the fact that the
program no longer uses five OCXs and up to eight DLLs!
Everything is contained in the single executable, which
makes installation a non-issue.  In fact, if you are
upgrading from Beta 0.1, we recommend that you uninstall
that program, thus clearing out all those auxilliary files
that you no longer need.

The other nice thing about this version is that it seems
to be significantly faster at downloads (although we
haven't done any real benchmarks).  The parsing keeps up
with the download, so you will usually find that the instant
the download is complete, the parsing is also complete, and
you're ready to get to work.  Also, all other downloads
(ads, charts, etc.) take place in the background.

With such major changes to the underlying code, there may
be some errors introduced that were not present in the
previous version.  Don't panic.  Just fire off a feedback
email and let us know.  We'll get it handled.  If you can't
make the internal feedback work, email us the conventional
way at optioninsight@mindspring.com.

You are one of about 600 users now, in a matter of just over
five weeks.  And your feedback has been wonderful.  It's
very satisfying to know that we've created something people
are so enthusiastic about.  To see some of the nice comments,
go to http://members.tripod.com/OptionInsight/userfeedback.html.
If you have something nice to say, email it to us, and we'll be
glad to paste it in our scrapbook!  (One day -- soon -- we hope
to actually sell some ad space to justify this project and the
nights and weekends it devours.  You can help by "spreading"
the word (pun intended) about Option Insight and MultiBrowse for
Stocks.  And if you know of a company that SHOULD be advertising
to users of either program, please let them know about us.)

Now that this communications overhaul is complete (we hope!),
we're ready to get started on the juicy stuff.  Lots of
improvements are on the way, so stay tuned.

And thanks for your interest.  Without you, this would be
pretty boring!

Sincerely,
Lee Grey, President
Grey Matter

=================================================================

February 9, 1999

Option Insight Beta 0.1

Hello and welcome to Option Insight.  Please be advised that you
are one of the first public users ever of this exciting new
program.  This will be the first time this program has been run
in a variety of different environments.  As such, there may be
problems with it running successfully.  If you encounter problems,
large or small, please let us know, so that we can make things right.

Our email address is optioninsight@mindspring.com.

Thanks!


=================================================================


You will find that there is currently no help file, although
Option Insight is rather easy to use.  Let me give you a quick tour:

The first thing you need to do is to fill in your email and newsgroup
information in the File|Preferences dialog box.  This will allow you to share
great trades you discover with friends via email and/or newsgroups.  It also
allows you to send feedback to us if you encounter bugs or want to make
suggestions for future enhancements.

You need your email host (ours is mail.mindspring.com) and your email
address (for us, that's optioninsight@mindspring.com).  If you don't know
your host, you should be able to find it in Control Panel.  Open the Mail
applet, select your Internet E-mail service.  Click Properties, then go
to the Servers tab.  Your email (or SMTP) host will be in the first edit
box, labeled "Outgoing mail (SMTP)".  Just copy that and paste it into
our edit box labeled "Your email host".  You probably know your email address
already.  Enter that in the next edit box.

For newsgroup posting, you need to fill in the next three boxes.  To determine
your newsgroup host, open your newsgroup reader and see what newsgroup server
you connect to.  We typically use nntp.mindspring.com.  Then fill in your
newsgroup name (how your name will appear when you post a message).  
Finally, enter your reply-to email address.  For many people, this will
be a copy of their normal email address.  But some people like to add
something like "NO-SPAM" to try to foil the email spammers and their
automated ways.  The choice is yours.

We, of course, encourage you to share great trades in newsgroups, because
that spreads the word about Option Insight.  The more users of this nifty,
FREE program, the more valuable our advertising space.  The more valuable
our ad space, the more likely that this program will survive and be
continually enhanced.  Everybody wins!  Please support our sponsors (and us)
by clicking on our ads.  Your browser will open, so your work in Option
Insight will not be interrupted in any way.

Once you've done this little bit of setup, you're ready to use the program.

Simply type in the ticker symbol you want to consider trading.  Click the
Get button, and you're off and running.  You will see the data coming in
on the status bar at the bottom.  During retrieval, the program parses the
option chain and processes the quotes.  You will see its progress on the
title bar.  Once the download is complete, processing quotes kicks into
high gear.  Once complete, the title bar will say "Ready".  At times, the
program or the internet gets hung up.  If that happens, don't sweat it.
You can simply click Abort (the Get button becomes the Abort button during
data retrieval), then click Get again.  You will find that, due to Option
Insight's sophisticated multi-threaded design, the download and the
processing of quotes are somewhat unlinked.  This means that even when you
abort the download, whatever has been received will continue to be processed
and will be available in the grids.  In fact, if you are looking at, say,
DELL options, and decide you want to see INTC options, you can type in
INTC and click Get and still peruse the current grid's DELL options.  Not
until the INTC download and processing completes will the grid will be
refreshed with the new quotes.

A few things that are less than obvious:

At the top of the program, there are three lines of text (after a download
gets far enough along).  The top line is the company and ticker symbol.
The next line is the current price and change from yesterday's close.
The third line is the current bid, ask, size, and volume.

In this same section, you will see a graph button and an email button.  If
you click the graph button, the risk graph window will open.  Even if it
is open, if you click the button, it will resize itself to fit the space to
the left of the main window.  Try it.  The email button is a quick and easy
way to send us feedback the moment it crosses your mind.  We want to know
what you like and don't like.

The next section down is dedicated to our sponsors, the good companies who
make this program possible.  And free!  Please support them.  Click on their
ads.  (Your browser will open.  Option Insight will remain undisturbed.)
Let them know Option Insight sent you.

Next, there is a tabbed window.  Each tab opens a grid.  The first two tabs,
Calls and Puts, are a little different from the others.  Calls and Puts are
the building blocks of the rest of the trades.  The columns for these two
grids are a little bit different from those of the spreads.

All grids have a question mark (?) as the first column.  This column will be
empty if all is right with the world.  If there is an asterisk (*) in this
column, it indicates that there is something a little bit odd about the
quote for this option.  Typically, you will find an asterisk here if the
pricing seems strange.  This usually happens after a split.  Sometimes
option contracts end up representing something other than 100 shares of
stock.  That could explain the asterisk.  You will note that in the spread
trades, anytime a spread involves a questionable option, the spread itself
will be flagged as questionable.

You can also mark a call or put as questionable yourself, if you think there
is something funny about it.  Simply right-click on it, and select the
"Mark this quote questionable" item from the popup menu.  If you change your
mind, right-click it again and the popup menu will allow you to clear the
mark.  The menu also offers to mark an entire series as questionable, but
that feature is not yet implemented.

The rest of the columns should be fairly self-explanatory.  Note that DTE
stands for Days To Expiration.  The Spread column is merely the Ask minus
the Bid.

In this version of the program, the calls and puts cause a very strange
graph to be drawn in the Risk Graph window.  The correct strike price is
depicted, but the profit is way beyond what you should realistically hope
for. <G>  We'll be fixing that in the near future.

The spread tabs and spread grids are pretty obvious, as well.  They do
provide good risk graphs.  Note that the risk graphs are at expiration
only.  Before expiration, option spreads have a much smoother risk graph.
Please do a little research on the web or the bookstore, if you are not
familiar with the behavior of option spreads.  We hope to add some
educational facilities to the program and our web site in the future.

Bull Call Spreads and Bear Put Spreads are DEBIT spreads.  They cost you
the amount shown in the Risk column to put on the trade.  Bull Put Spreads
and Bear Call Spreads are CREDIT spreads.  You will receive the amount
shown in the Reward column when you put on the trade.  Either way, the
end result is that you stand to lose what's in the Risk column or make
what's in the Reward column, at expiration.  Breakeven shows you at
what price the underlying must be at expiration for the trade to net you
exactly zero.  NOTE that all these numbers do NOT include commissions!

Reward/Risk is the ratio of what you can make over what you can lose.
Distance shows you how far the current price of the underlying is from
the BreakEven price.

You can click on any column heading to sort the entire grid by that column.
We often sort Bull Call Spreads by Reward/Risk, then hit the End key to
see the best ratios.  From there you can work your way up the grid until
you find a realistic trade.  For Bull Put Spreads, we tend to sort by
Breakeven, then start at the top of the grid and work our way down until
we find a trade worth putting on.  Typically a short term trade for a 
Bull Put Spread, since you're selling premium and want it to become
worthless as soon as possible.

You can right-click on any trade and email it to someone or post it to a
newsgroup.  Option Insight will describe the trade for you.  You just add
whatever comments you like.  A brief promo for Option Insight will be
attached to the end of your message.  We encourage you to use this feature.
Spread the word (no pun intended ;-D ) about Option Insight.  As we said
before, the more users, the more advertisers; the more advertisers, the
more support; the more support, the better Option Insight becomes!

The final tab in this section is the Chart window.  Here, you can see a
12-month daily graph of the underlying.  We intend to make some
enhancements to this section.  Note that the Chart is the last thing to
load, so you will not see it until the option chain is completely
downloaded.

Finally, you should check out the Help menu.  Although there's no help
file yet, there are a few items of interest in the Help menu.  For example,
you can download a list of Known Bugs from our website, by clicking on
Help|Known Bugs (or just typing Ctrl-B).

Well, that's about it for now.  Enjoy.  And make lots of money!

Lee Grey
Grey Matter
