It is of the utmost importance to have clean, accurate data when you historically test systems, so much so that Investigator will not test files that it believes to have inaccurate quote information. Inaccurate data leads to false historical test results which could result in large financial losses. This is due to the fact that you could be using a system that you thought was profitable, but in reality could be a losing system since it produced false statistical information. We strongly recommend that you check files for bad data often and fix any bad quote information you have by contacting your data vendor.
Investigator inspects files for these bad data conditions.
To find files with bad data:
Select Bad Data from the Special menu and Find Files with Bad Data from the Bad Data Menu.
A dialog box will appear asking you if you want Investigator to flag files that it cannot open due to insufficient data. Investigator will not use files that have less than ten dates in it or files that it cannot read due to corruption. If you want Investigator to flag these files, click yes, otherwise, click no.
Investigator will then show you a dialog box which shows you the current file it is testing, how many bad data files it has found, and the elapsed time since testing began. Note: If you have changed the status of a particular directory so it is not included in the bad data run, the files in that directory will not be checked for bad data. See the Changing Data Type and Directory Information help section.
When you check for bad data, 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 bad data checking if you want to temporarily use your computer for another use.
At the end of testing, if Investigator finds files with bad data, the View Files with Bad Data dialog box appears; otherwise, a congratulatory dialog box appears.