Business Assistant/Business Assistant.iso/stock/if53/if53.doc

Text File | 1988-08-04 | 23KB | 479 lines

                        I N - F I D E L I T Y

                            Version 5.3

                    DESCRIPTION AND INSTRUCTIONS

                            August 3, 1988


GENERAL

     IN-FIDELITY is a program that uses your IBM PC or IBM compatible
to automate the process of obtaining information from "FAST", the
Fidelity Automated Services Telephone.  This service of Fidelity
Investments allows users of touch-tone telephones to obtain prices and
balances of their Fidelity mutual fund accounts.  If they have a
Fidelity Brokerage account they may also obtain information about its
status as well as stock and option price quotations.

     FAST allows transfer of funds from one mutual fund to another or
from a prearranged bank account to a fund.  It will also allow the
establishment of a new mutual fund account - all by touch tone tele-
phone.

     FAST is normally used by manually operating the touch tone
telephone according to instructions.  But the service requires that
you enter a long series of codes including command codes, fund
numbers, account numbers as well as security codes when obtaining
account balances and stock prices.  These can be difficult to remember
and laborious to enter.

     This program allows you to record all your account information,
stock and option symbols, and security codes through a full screen
editor.  Once this has been done you can make use of the FAST service
with a few simple keystrokes.  Furthermore, it provides a simple means
of maintaining records of your account balances, fund prices, fund
yields and stock prices.  It calculates the dollar value of your funds
and stocks from the number of shares and share prices.  It also
calculates the total value of your portfolio.

     The program is intuitive and easy to use with help shown along
the bottom of each screen.  IN-FIDELITY will beep at you if you try to
press an inappropriate key.

     No actual data is transferred by FAST.  The user listens to the
information from a computer actuated voice and manually make note of
it.

REQUIREMENTS

     To make use of this program you must have an IBM or compatible
computer running PC-DOS or MS-DOS 2.0 or later.  You must also have a
Hayes compatible modem.  The modem is used only to perform the dialing
and the transmission of coded tones.  The user listens to the voice
through the modem speaker or through a telephone connected to the same
line as the modem.  The program will support monochrome or color
monitors.  It does not require graphics capability and can be cus-
tomized for a variety of modem setups.

     You must also have one or more mutual fund accounts with Fidel-
ity.  To use the stock/option quote service you must have a Fidelity
Brokerage Account number and a security code.


SET UP

     There are five files required to run the program.  They are:

     IF53.EXE            The main program
     IF53.NMS            The file of Fidelity fund names and numbers
     IF53.CNF            The configuration file
     MAIN.ACT            The file of accounts
     STOCKS.STK          The file of stock/option data

     MAIN.ACT, STOCKS.STK and IF53.CNF will be regenerated automa-
tically by the main program if they are found to be missing.  IF53.NMS
can be recreated with an ASCII file text editor or a word processor as
described below.  The files must all be contained on your default
drive, either floppy or hard disk.

     DOS is first loaded into the computer.  The program is started by
entering "IF53" (no quotation marks) with the program diskette in the
default drive or with the programs in the default directory of the
hard disk.  If the program is run from a floppy, do not remove it
until you exit the program.

     When you first run the program you should select F5 (Change
Setup) from the Main Menu.  You will be shown the current settings of
alterable parameters used by the program.  The Communications Port
parameter is particularly important since the program cannot function
properly if the modem is not attached to the assigned serial port.

CONFIGURATION

     The program comes configured for a color monitor.  If you want
the program run in monochrome select the "Mono" option by pressing "m"
when asked for the kind of monitor.

     IN-FIDELITY normally uses a fast screen writing technique that
may produce a "snow" effect when using a CGA adapter.  If this effect
is objectionable on your display select "Y" on the next parameter when
asked if you want to eliminate the snow.  The screen will write a bit
slower.  If you have an EGA, VGA, Hercules or monochrome adapter leave
this setting at NO.

     The next parameter is the Baudrate.  This refers to the rate at
which data is transferred from the computer to the modem and from the
modem to the telephone line.  Since IN-FIDELITY does not transmit
"data" this parameter is only of minor consequence.  Typically, you
should select 1200 baud if your modem has that capability.  There will
be a small speed difference between 300 and 1200 baud when the
computer transfers commands to the modem.  If your modem has a higher
speed such as 2400 baud you should still select 1200.  There will be
no perceptible loss in performance.  If your modem is only capable of
300 baud operation you should choose 300.

     The Phone Type parameter allows you to configure the program to
work with a pulse dialer telephone or a tone dialer.  This setting
only controls the way the program calls FAST.  After a connection is
made the codes used to request information are all sent by the tone
method.  This permits IN-FIDELITY to be used from a pulse dialer
telephone.

Caution - If you use the pulse dialing method do not lift the receiver
of a parallel connected phone off the hook until the pulse dialing is
complete.  Pulse dialing will not work if a second phone connected to
the line is "off-hook".

     INITIALIZATION STRING

     This is the set up string that your computer will send to the
modem when the program first starts.  The modem can be initialized in
many ways by the contents of this string.  You should read your modem
manual to learn more about setting it up.  Only a few  commands are
important to you.  The modem speaker can be set on or off with this
string.  M0 (M-zero) turns the modem speaker off and M1 turns it on.

     If you want the speaker turned off and prefer to use the tele-
phone as the listening device you may have to connect the telephone
directly to the telephone line rather than to the "phone" connection
on your modem since some modems disconnect this line after the modem
starts operation.  The direct connection can be made by using the
inexpensive "T" connector sold in many stores.  The telephone and thephone line are connected together to the same jack on the modem.  If
your modem doesn't cut off the telephone after the connection is made
then the "T" is not necessary.  It is also unnecessary if you listen
through the modem speaker.

     DIALING SPEED

     This parameter controls the length and spacing between dialing
tones.  THE SMALLER THE NUMBER THE FASTER IT DIALS.  It should be set
as fast as possible while still maintaining dependable operation.  The
setting will vary with your individual telephone exchange.  Try the
default setting of 70 milliseconds first.  You can then experiment
with faster or slower speeds.  The rule is: If it works, it's not too
fast.

     PHONE NUMBER

     This parameter is set for the FAST telephone number.  It can be
changed if, for some reason, the number is ever changed.  This
parameter can also be used to add a dialing sequence ahead of the
number.  Some commercial telephone installations, for instance,
require that an "8" or a "9" be dialed before the actual number in
order to have access to an outside line.  Your entry will be converted
to the necessary upper case, automatically.  You can use dashes,
hyphens, spaces and parenthesis in the phone number.  They will be
ignored.  A useful Hayes command is the ",