Preferred Stock Search Application / News: Recent posts

QuantumOnline data currently has some erroneous distribution dates which are now ignored and this release is required to avoid the validation failure. If your installation is 1-2 years old, it would be best to delete the cached QuantumOnline login data at "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Preferred Search\cookies.txt" (on Windows Vista and later) due to changes with the QuantumOnline authentication.... read more

QuantumOnline data now has unicode usage which required a small fix. The 0.74b release is required to be able to use all the available preferred stocks. If your installation is 1-2 years old, it would be best to delete the cached QuantumOnline login data at "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Preferred Search\cookies.txt" (on Windows Vista and later) due to changes with the QuantumOnline authentication.... read more

There was a data entry error in the QuantumOnline data (the data is hand-entered) which caused a parsing problem. The release fixes the problem and avoids variations of the problem that could occur in the future.

Download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.73b/PreferredSearch-0.73b.exe/download

The Yahoo finance price quote service changed in a way that caused price update failures. A fix was added to make sure Yahoo finance price quotes can be queried successfully by avoiding the backwards incompatible change in the Yahoo finance price quote service.

Download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.72b/PreferredSearch-0.72b.exe/download

The QuantumOnline website data changed to have some distribution dates lack spaces as expected causing a parsing problem which omitted the Yield to Call and Yield to Maturity for some stocks. The error has been fixed in this new release.

Download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.71b/PreferredSearch-0.71b.exe/download

At sometime in the past the Yahoo Finance stock ticker symbols were changed to no longer use a .PK or .OB suffix. This caused problems due to PreferredSearch expecting the suffix to be necessary when requesting price data, so a new release was required (out of 843 preferred stock, this was a problem for 254 (30%), so now only 37 are missing price data at Yahoo Finance which is more typical).

Download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.70b/PreferredSearch-0.70b.exe/download

Yahoo Finance changed their limit on stock price queries from 200 per request to 50 per request. So, that required a new release with a small fix to respect the new limit.

Download (while sourceforge fixes the project files download mirroring):
http://ndforge.com/PreferredSearch-0.68b.exe

Download (after sourceforge mirrors get fixed):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.68b/PreferredSearch-0.68b.exe/download

There was a problem with a new QuantumOnline ticker symbol that didn't follow the typical pattern that the rest do, which caused a problem when receiving the data from Yahoo. This release also has updated software library dependencies to avoid a database storage problem that occurred in the past. Please contact me if you find any problems while using PreferredSearch.

Download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.67b/PreferredSearch-0.67b.exe/download

Some of the manually entered dates within the QuantumOnline data now include a '?' character. So, this release ignores that character when it is encountered within the QuantumOnline data. The 0.66b release avoids the data parse error which has previously been reported, due to this date parsing problem. Please contact me if you find any problems while using PreferredSearch.

Download here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preferredsearch/files/preferredsearch/0.66b/PreferredSearch-0.66b.exe/download

There was a database problem that this release corrects. There also seems to be a problem with the cookies.txt file stored (with changes at QuantumOnline.com). So, please delete your local cookies.txt file if you have a "QuantumOnline data parse failed" error message. You will need to then re-enter your username and password, but should not experience further problems with this release.

Download here:
https://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&filename=PreferredSearch-0.65b.exe&a=31924913

The QuantumOnline web site is being updated and there was a change that caused a parsing problem. The problem has been fixed and a new release is here:
https://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&filename=PreferredSearch-0.64b.exe&a=31924913

I modified PreferredSearch to fix a small divide by zero bug in the yield calculations. The bug only appeared with the widespread bankruptcies, which happen to generate good test cases. I have received various requests and do plan to add more features soon. The parsing at the heart of PreferredSearch has proved quite stable over the last year and did not require updates. If you find yourself modifying PreferredSearch in ways you are willing to let others use, please submit patches (unified diffs) to me and I can add the changes.... read more

The downloading locations have been updated for the files hosted on sourceforge.net:

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.63b.exe

(source code)
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.63b.tar.gz
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.63b.tar.bz2

There was a parsing problem that is solved by this release. The files are not yet hosted on sourceforge due to some problems uploading but that should be resolved soon.

http://www.portfoliowatcher.com/binary_data/PreferredSearch-0.63b.exe
http://www.portfoliowatcher.com/binary_data/PreferredSearch-0.63b.tar.gz
http://www.portfoliowatcher.com/binary_data/PreferredSearch-0.63b.tar.bz2

There was a small annoying problem with the display of the coupon rate column, hiding it from the view (at least on windows). This release fixes that problem.

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.62b.exe

(source code)
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.62b.tar.gz
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.62b.tar.bz2

The Yahoo Finance quote URL changed, so the program was updated with this change. Without the change prices will not be updated and the "Update Database" option will fail.

Now holidays are avoided when determining the ex-dividend date based on the distribution date.

The proper download links are below:
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.61b.exe
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.61b.tar.bz2
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.61b.tar.gz

The proper download links are below:
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.60b.exe
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.60b.tar.bz2
http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=148992&use_mirror=osdn&filename=PreferredSearch-0.60b.tar.gz

This release both adds features and a few fixes. Now preferreds that have a monthly dividend (rather than a quarter dividend) should be displayed properly. A view menu was added to allow columns to be hidden (their state is reflected in the saved file). The QuantumOnline stock ticker entry list can now be exported or imported so it is easier to keep track of those securities you are interested in.... read more

Inconsistent data on Quantum Online caused a change in the code. The data is entered by hand on their site, so it often is not consistent across all the preferred stock entries, but that is understandable.

The new release (0.58b) is available at:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.58b.exe?download
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.58b.tar.bz2?download
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.58b.tar.gz?download

With previous versions of PreferredSearch there are problems updating the database because a preferred stock has a yield (to call) that became -400%, causing precision problems. This problem existed sometime after April 4th, but I was unavailable to fix the bug until now (after relocating my primary residence).

Here are links to 0.57b:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.57b.exe?download
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.57b.tar.bz2?download
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.57b.tar.gz?download... read more

I have fixed a problem that caused problems when updating the database. I have also added a "Show Selected Stocks" feature for easier sorting and evaluation. Also, I added a column for the Yahoo ticker symbol so that people don't need to go on the same sort of scavenger hunt for that.

Improvements that were added for the 0.55b include:
- suspension dates that are applied to suspended cumulatives to find an accurate hypothetical yield/price
- a progress bar when updating the database
- minor functional improvements

Download the Windows version from:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.55b.exe?download
of the Linux/UNIX version from:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preferredsearch/PreferredSearch-0.55b.tar.gz?download

There were a few fixes: 1) fixed calculating the yield when the market price is zero or really close to zero, 2) mistakes on QuantumOnline.com for ratings (i.e., a Moody rating entered for an S&P rating) will not stop the local database from being updated.

These changes are significant enough that you should update to the new 0.54b release. Though the old version might work if QuantumOnline.com fixes the current rating problem (they said they would later today).

There were two major problems with accessing QuantumOnline.com that were fixed (after they changed their data/site). So, please upgrade to 0.53b since 0.52b and the previous releases no longer work.

There is now more documentation in the source code and html files in the "docs" directory (included with the source code). I have also added general instructions to the README.txt file that describes how to use the application.