RDTH Help Supplement

The Thomson Reuters Speed Guide


The SpeedGuide can be opened by clicking on the Speed Guide button on the Instrument List screen in RDTH.

 (For a quick-start tutorial on using the Speed Guide, see Speed Guide Tutorial)

 

Introduction


Speed Guide is a collection of background information provided by Reuters to support users of the data feeds. The information is distinct from the news and market information that constitutes the data feeds. The main categories of information relate to markets and instruments.

The data available through RDTH is a historical collection of the Speed Guide data provided to Reuters system users. The ability to select dated versions of the Speed Guide information provides researchers with the ability to trace changes in the information available to Reuters users.

Users of the Reuters system are typically working with a subset of the available information, they will be dealing with a class of security or a market segment. The information in the Speed Guide is hierarchically structured to support this style of use.

The information is page based with internal “hyper text” linkages. The organising structure is based on a two part page address. The first part of a page address refers to the market or instrument, the second is a reference to a market sector. For example the page AU/EQUITY is the entry page to the information about Australian equities. From this page users can select more detailed information related to Australian equities.

 

Page Display


 

Items

Description

The Page field displays the name of the current page being displayed. If you know the name of a page or chain RIC you can type it in here. Pressing the Go button loads the page.

The Page Date and Page Time controls allow you to change the date and time at which the page is displayed. Taqtic maintains a full history of the Reuters SpeedGuide. This means that you can view any page as it appeared at any time over the historical range. This can be very useful for seeing how markets have changed over time.

Some Examples:

  • LSE Stocks have background pages (eg VOD.LB1 ) that list earnings results, dividend announcements and other information. By examining these pages over time you can gain information on the history of a company.
  • The IN/SHIP02 page lists the names of ships docked at Mumbai port in the last 24 hours. This information is available back to 2003.

After changing the date or time, click the Go or Refresh buttons to reload the page at the new time.

Navigation Buttons and Menus .

Menus :

  • File->New Window - opens another SpeedGuide window so you can look at multiple pages at once.
  • File->Save As... - Allows you to save the text of the current page to a file.
  • File->Close - Closes the window.
  • Edit->Copy - Copies the selected section of the page window to the clipboard. If no text is selected then the entire page is copied.
  • Shortcuts - Contains a number of useful links to SpeedGuide pages.
  • View->Text Size - Allows you to change the size of the font used to display pages.
  • View->Display Colors - Allows you to select from a number of color schemes to display page text.

Navigation Buttons :

  • Back/Forwards - The SpeedGuide window keeps a history of pages you have visited in your current session. You can use the Forward and Back buttons to step through this history. Note that changing the date at which you view a page creates an additional entry in the history list.
  • Refresh - This button reloads the current page at the specified date and time.
  • Home - This button takes you back to the top-level REUTERS page.

The Page Text display area. A Speed Guide page is typically a block of text (80 columns by 25 rows), though some are longer. Links to other pages and RICs on the page are highlighted. These links can be clicked on to navigate to other pages in much the same way as you can click on links in a web page.

There are three types of link:

  • Page Links : These are links to other pages in the Speed Guide. Clicking on them will cause the page to be loaded and displayed.
  • Chain Links : Many of the links on Speed Guide pages are Chain RICs. Clicking on a chain RIC doesn't load a new page, instead the chain is expanded and the contents are displayed in the RIC List (see below).
  • RIC Links : Occasionally a link to an individual RIC appears on a Speed Guide page. Clicking on a link of this type causes its details to be displayed in the RIC List.

Note: The Reuters Speed Guide was originally designed to run on a Reuters Terminal. This is why the pages are all the same size and display in a non-proportional font.

Chain Display

If you click on a link that is a chain RIC, the Speed Guide window changes to display the expanded list of RICs that make up the chain. It is possible to select one or more of the RICs displayed and add them to the Instrument List.

 

Items

Description

When a chain RIC is selected, the contents of the chain are displayed in place of page text. This display is the same as the instrument list or the display of search results. One or more RICs can be selected by clicking the check-boxes in the leftmost column of the list.
The following controls are available to manipulate the RIC list:
  • Clear All : Uncheck any selected RICs in the list.
  • Select All : Check all RICs in the list.
  • Add To Instrument List : Add checked RICs to the Instrument List