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DataTools Service Information

What's New?

Service Information


Asian Market Holidays: October 1, 2024


Change to Update Schedule: September 30, 2024

Three-Month Canadian Bankers' Acceptance futures delisted: June 18, 2024

Database Upgrade: June 7, 2024

Available Database Upgrades 

Fixing Connection Problems 

DataTools & Windows Operating Systems 

De-Listed Contracts 

Problems with Continuous Contracts 




Asian Market Holidays: October 1, 2024

The following Asian holidays occur over the coming week (or so):
China - Closed for "Golden Week" from the 1st to the 7th.
Hong Kong - Closed on the 1st for Chinese National Day and the 11th for Chung Yeung Day.
India - Closed on the 2nd for Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday and the 12th for Dasara.
Japan - Closed on the 14th for Health-Sports Day.
South Korea - Closed on the 1st for Armed Forces Day, on the 3rd for National Foundation Day, and on the 9th for Hangul Day.
Taiwan - Closed on the 10th for National Day.




Change to Update Schedule: September 30, 2024

Daylight Saving Time starts in Australia on Sunday October 6.
After the transition, clients who live in Australia can expect the "North American" and "Final" Futures editions to be published one hour later.
The new update schedule can be found here.
Europe is due to to switch away from DST on October 27 and the U.S. on November 3, so further schedule changes will occur in the coming weeks.




Three-Month Canadian Bankers' Acceptance futures delisted: June 18, 2024

Following the expiry of the June 2024 contract, the M-X Three-Month Canadian Bankers' Acceptance futures have now been completely delisted.

To remove the BAX from your Futures database, please follow the instructions shown here > De-Listed Contracts




Database Upgrade: June 7, 2024

With the change of Canadian Interest Rates from CDOR (Canadian Dollar Offered Rate) to CORRA (Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average), the 3mth Canadian Bank Accepted Bills (BAX) will be completely delisted by the exchange with the expiry of the June 2024 contract on June 17. The replacement to the BAX is the CRA (3-Month CORRA) which has now been added to the service.

The CME Group has delisted the old Random Length Lumber contract and replaced it with a new physically-delivered Lumber contract, which is now available as a replacement.

We are now providing updates for the following futures markets:

Contract Code Exchange
3-Month CORRA CRA Montreal
Lumber LB CME Group


Please note -
  • the newly added symbols won't update for you unless you obtain the historical data first.

  • the continuous contracts for these markets won't exist unless you create them!

  • to incorporate the new market, please perform a "Database Upgrade".

The full list of available database upgrades and instructions on how to add these markets can be found here > Available Database Upgrades




Available Database Upgrades

The following markets are currently available as database upgrades in DataTools:


Market Code Added
3-Month CORRA CRA 20240607
Lumber LB 20240607


Please note -
  • the newly added symbols won't update for you unless you obtain the historical data first.

  • the continuous contracts for these markets won't exist unless you create them!

  • to incorporate these new markets, please make sure that all charting programs are closed and perform a "Database Upgrade".

To perform a Database Upgrade -

  1. Do a data update to ensure that you have the latest data and configuration files.

  2. Click on Program Utilities and then Database Upgrade.

  3. Highlight any market histories you wish to incorporate and then click "Download".

To create Continuous Contracts -

  1. Open the Continuous Contracts module (Tools > Continuous Contracts)

  2. Highlight the required market(s) in the market list and click "Create Contracts".





Fixing Connection Problems

Occasionally DataTools may have trouble connecting to one of our data servers.

If you experience any issues where DataTools cannot connect or it is not updating past a certain date, you can try changing the server that DataTools connects to.

You can do this on the Update Window in DataTools, by changing the "Server Selection" to try each of the 4 servers in turn.



DataTools & Windows Operating Systems

Microsoft has ended support for the following operating systems and service packs:
Operating System Date
Windows 98 July 11 2006
Windows ME July 11 2006
Windows 2000 July 13 2010
Windows XP SP2 July 13 2010
Windows Vista SP1 July 12 2011
Windows XP SP3 April 08 2014
Windows Vista SP2 April 11 2017
Windows 7 SP1 January 14 2020
Windows 8.1 January 10 2023
Windows 11 v21H2 October 10 2023

As such, we are advising potential clients that they need to have Windows 8.1 (or above) in order to run our updating products. Whilst DataTools should continue to function under W98/ME/2k/XP/Vista and Win7, we can no longer guarantee that it will work seamlessly. In particular, problems may arise when we issue an automatic upgrade to a program component. If you are using an earlier version of windows and you find that an upgrade causes the program to fail, you can usually work around the problem simply by doing a program re-install. Program installers are always available for this purpose from the Downloads area of our website.



Contracts De-listed

Redundant continuous contracts can be removed (along with any unwanted continuous contracts) by using the "Remove Contracts" command in the DataTools Continuous Contracts module.

To remove a market from the database, use Windows to delete the relevant market sub-folder from the ...\Futures\Contracts\ folder (or cut-and-paste it to an archive). If you're not sure where your "Futures" folder is located, you can read the location from the DataTools Configuration page, where the entry for "Data Folder" shows the path to its top level. (Program Utilities / Configuration / General). The default installation path is c:\Trading Data\Futures\.

The following markets have been de-listed since the DataTools service commenced:

Exchange Market Name
ASX All Ords SPI
ASX Australian Dollar (SFE)
ASX Barley (SFE)
ASX Broad Wool
ASX Canola (ASX)*
ASX Canola (SFE)
ASX Cattle (SFE)
ASX Fine Wool
ASX Greasy Wool
ASX Sorghum (ASX)*
ASX Sorghum (SFE)
ASX W.A. Wheat (ASX)*
ASX Wheat (SFE)
CME Group E-mini Russell 2000
(code=ER delisted in 2008)
CME Group Ethanol*
CME Group Deutschemark
CME Group Dow Jones
CME Group Eurodollar
CME Group Nasdaq 100
CME Group Pork Bellies (Frozen)
CME Group S&P 500
CME Group S&P 500 F
CME Group Treasury Bills
CME Group Unleaded Gas
Eurex Nemax 50
ICE Futures Canada Western Barley
ICE Futures Europe Euro-Swiss
ICE Futures Europe Short Sterling
ICE Futures US Cocoa
ICE Futures US Coffee
ICE Futures US Continuous Commodity Index
ICE Futures US Cotton
ICE Futures US Gold 100oz*
ICE Futures US Orange Juice
ICE Futures US Russell 2000 Mini
ICE Futures US Silver 5000oz*
ICE Futures US Sugar #11
ICE Futures US US Dollar Index
Montreal Canadian Bank Accepts
MGEX Wheat (MGEX)
NYSE Liffe Euro-Lira
NYSE Liffe Euro-Mark
NYSE Liffe Italian Govt. Bond
NYSE Liffe Coffee (LIFFE)
SGX Euroyen TIBOR*
SGX S&P CNX Nifty Index
SGX Taiwan Index
*Contract was still listed for trading at the time of removal.



Problems with Continuous Contracts

General Advice

If any problem is noticed with a continuous contract, the first thing to try is to re-build the contract from scratch. Continuous contracts are made from the data in your underlying futures database. As long as this data is sound, you can always quickly re-create a continuous contract. The Continuous Contracts module can be accessed from the chain-link icon, or from under the Tools item on the DataTools menu line. See below for a complete description of the process.

Re-creating Continuous Contracts

  1. Open DataTools and select "Tools" from the menu line and then "Continuous Contracts".

  2. Highlight the market in question and click "Edit Roll Settings".

  3. Make sure that the "End Year" setting shows some year beyond the current year (towards the bottom of the Annual Template window)

  4. Click "Save & Exit"

  5. With the market in question still highlighted, click "Create Contracts".