When you historically test futures, Investigator uses a futures lookup table to make sure you obtain accurate testing results. If Investigator cannot find a specific futures symbol, it will not test the symbol. In order to avoid this, Investigator allows you to check your ticker symbols to see if they are know to Investigator. If a symbol is not known, you must add the symbol using the futures lookup table option.
To check to see if all of your futures symbols are known to Investigator, select the Special…Futures…Check Symbols menu item. It is important to make sure that any directories that contain equities are turned off using the changing data type and directory information menu item, otherwise every equity symbol will be flagged as being unknown.
Once you select the menu item, Investigator will start checking every symbol in your data directories to see if there is a corresponding symbol in the lookup table.
The testing dialog box shows you which file is currently being tested, how many unknown symbols have been found, and how much time has elapsed since testing began.
When you test a system, Investigator starts a separate thread for the test. You can think of this as running a separate program. You have the option of changing the priority for the thread. For example, you can make it the most or least important thread (or process) running on your computer by selecting the appropriate process level.
You also have the ability to pause testing if you want to temporarily use your computer for another use.
At the end of testing, if Investigator finds symbols that are not known, the View Unknown Futures Symbols dialog box appears; otherwise, a congratulatory dialog box appears.