Data, from which an attribute (symbol +column) may be constructed, is stored in a structure called a Relation. A relation is represented in XMIM by a unique identifier called a symbol. For example, CPQ represents Compaq stock and US represents the U.S. 30-year Treasury Bond Futures contract. Relations are organized in the database in hierarchical or tree fashion by certain major market categories. The major categories in the XMIM system are located under the 'Root' directory as: Agriculture, Astronomy, CUSIP, Dates, Economic Indicators, Energy, Equities, Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange, Futures, Indices, Monetary Indicators, etc. Underneath each major category are sub-categories, which further classify the data. For example, under the Futures category, there are several sub-categories such as Currencies, Grains, Energy, Financial, etc. Stocks (or Equities) are organized into sub-categories alphabetically by their ticker symbol. Monetary Indicators are broken out into categories by country.

To get a better idea of this concept, we will employ the Query Builder to review. The Query Builder is accessible from the Query Builder tab from the Main window.

Each button on this Query Builder window represents different building blocks for attributes. The only field which XMIM requires to be 'defined' or menu choices to be selected for, is the Symbol field. As suggested earlier, relations can be considered a collection of time series relating to a particular symbol. For example, a relation involving IBM may have several items of information available about the stock each day - price, volume, earnings per share, etc. The first step in defining the attribute or market of interest is to define the symbol.

There are three ways to select a symbol using the Query Builder:

When you have properly selected a symbol using any of the foregoing methods, the symbol will appear in the Symbol field. Beneath the symbol will appear the full description of the symbol, so that you can confirm that your choice was the correct one. If a description does not automatically appear, then the system did not recognize your entry - the symbol you typed does not exist in the database.

Each symbol is logically organized by its associated major market category and may be found by making directory and sub-directory selections until your symbol of choice appears. Your final selection may be made by selecting your symbol of choice and then by selecting the Add Attribute to Query button in the SHOW statement portion of the Query Builder window.

Search Database

XMIM offers an extremely flexible means of data searching. To open the Search Database window select the Search Database button located in the Symbol field. Using the functionality in the Tree View and Search tabs, you can tailor the level of refinement in your searching according to the symbol name and/or description in several different ways.

Tree View

In the Tree View tab, drill down through the data listings by selecting the plus or minus signs to expand/collapse the folder and symbol icons. Select a column for the symbol by either double-clicking the column or highlight the column, right-click and choose Select. Select OK to return to the Query Builder window and note that the Symbol and Column fields are now populated in the SHOW statement.

When a symbol is selected the path in the database to the symbol displays at the bottom of the window.

Another selection method is to highlight the column, right-click and choose Select and Close from the list. This will add the symbol and column to the Symbol and Column fields and will close the Search Database window.

You may use these selection methods on the symbol name instead of the column and the default column will be used.

Favorites

You may save your favorite Tree View displays in a Favorites list by highlighting a folder in the Tree View tab, right mouse click and select Add to Favorites. In the Search Database window, you will see a new tab named Favorites. Select the Favorites tab. In the bottom left is the path structure to the folder as it would appear in the Tree View. In the bottom right is the number of children that a folder contains when the folder is selected.

Note that a folder must first be opened and accessed before the children count will display.

To remove a favorite from the list, highlight a folder, right-click and select Remove.

If all the folders are removed then the Favorites tab is removed from the Search Database window.

To organize your favorites, right mouse click and choose New Category while in the Favorites tab. Highlight the New Category folder then double click or choose Rename from the right-click menu and type in a new name for the folder. Select folders either in the Tree View tab or folders in the Favorites tab, right-click and choose Move to Favorites and choose where to move them to from the list.

Search

You can search for a symbol in the database using the functionality in the Search tab. Select the Search Options button to choose how you want to perform a search. A search may performed on the symbol name or on the description assigned to the symbol.

The Favorites tab does not display until a favorite is created. See the section called “Favorites” for more information.

Search by Symbol

If you already know your symbol name, select Symbols from the list to search by symbol name. Type in the symbol name in the search field then select the Start Search button. Select the desired symbol result from the list then choose a column from the list.

Search by Description

Alternatively, you may search by description by selecting Descriptions from the list and typing in a short description of your symbol (i.e., Type in Dell Computer to locate the Symbol DELL). If you are unsure of the exact wording of the description you may employ a wild card key "*" in your search (i.e., Type in Dell* to bring up all descriptions that begin with Dell).

Adding Results

The search results are listed by symbol, path and description. To add the selection to the Symbol field in the SHOW pane, either double click the symbol name (the default column will be used) or select the symbol then right mouse click and choose Select or Select and Close to add and then close the Search Database window.

Mapping a Result in the Tree View

To have a particular result mapped in the Tree View, select the desired result, right-click and select Locate in Tree. The Tree View displays with the path to the symbol.

Narrow Search

To narrow the results of a search, choose from one of the pre-defined narrowed lists (All Equity Tickers, AMEX Tickers, NASDAQ Tickers, NYSE Tickers, Energy Symbols) or use the Custom Narrow selection to browse the hierarchy, then select the category you want to refine.

The following example searches for an instance of “Henry Hub” as a spot price off the Platts publication, and uses the Custom Narrow feature to browse the hierarchy and only search in the Energy>NaturalGas folder.

1. Enter henry hub in the Search field.

2. Select the Search Options button and choose Descriptions and Custom Narrow from the pop-up menu.

3. In the Custom Narrow list, open the Energy folder, and then open the NaturalGas folder. Make sure the NaturalGas folder is highlighted.

4. Select the Start Search button (or press Enter on your keyboard) to start the search.

5. Scroll down the list of results and select the appropriate symbol. Double-click on a column to add the symbol and column information to the Symbol and Column fields in the SHOW pane. For more information on how to select and add results see "Adding Results".

Search Options

To open the Search Options, select the Search Options button from the search field. The last entry in the pop-up list is Search Options.

The following search options and rules may be applied when searching by description or by symbol:

Option	Function
Case Sensitive	The search will only match the supplied case.
Include Symbols	The symbol is included in the criteria.
Include Categories	The category description is included in the criteria.
Show Path in Table	The path to the symbol is included in the results.

The following search criteria may be used:

Criteria	Function
Asterisk “*”	The asterisk is a wildcard. Note that typing “Henry Hub*” without a wildcard at the beginning will return strings that begin with “Henry Hub” versus strings that include “Henry Hub”.
Period “.”	Do not use as a wildcard; it will be interpreted as a period.
Question mark “?”	The question mark is a wild card to change a single character.

Online Search

In the Search Database window there is an Online Search tab. Use the Online Search feature to search the LIM Database Catalog, a catalog that shows all the data offered by LIM. Select the Options button to refine your search. You can search by keywords, descriptions, relations, tickers or by the data path.

Each distinct time series that relate to a particular symbol are referred to as columns in XMIM. The most commonly used time series or columns that relate to symbols are price series. XMIM categorizes price into four different series: Open, High, Low, and Close. The Open is the price at which a symbol started trading, High and Low are the price extremes achieved during some period, and Close is the last price of the period. Price, however, is not the only series available in XMIM. A common non-price time series associated with market time series is Volume, which represents the number of shares or contracts that changed hands during a particular day.

If we can summarize this concept in terms that were previously introduced, a relation is a collection of time series or columns that relate to certain symbols. The name column was assigned to these time series because when displayed or printed, columns run down the page in columnar fashion in chronological order, earliest to latest.

Column information about a relation may be accessed by the following syntax:

<Column Name> of <Relation Symbol>

A few examples of XMIM language include:

   Bar of IBM 
   Close of US
   DistToEarth of SATURN

An expression that contains a relation (i.e., A specified symbol and a column name) is called a relcol in XMIM vernacular. It represents a single unique time series within the MIM database. A symbol, by itself can represent many data series. For example, the symbol IBM can have hundreds of columns associated with it- the price Bar (Open, High, Low and Close), Volume or fundamental data (earnings per share). These data series are stored in the database as columns associated with the IBM symbol. The same column names are used in many different relations. For example, the Close column is included in thousands of symbols within the database but there is only one series represented by the unique identifier Close of IBM.

Once the relation symbol and the column have been specified and you choose Add Attribute to Query button in the Query Builder window, the completed relation will appear in the Edit pane.

Example:

   SHOW 
     1: Close of IBM 

If you don't select the Add Attribute to Query button after selecting the symbol and column in the Query Builder window, you may build onto your relation using other functions available in the Query Builder window. These additional functions add further adjectives to the attribute expression. The next section will discuss in some detail the most commonly used add on functions that we will refer to as studies.