It would be great to see DTN improve the search engine on their Symbol Lookup . Finding anything with this tool is nearly impossible. For example, try searching for 'U.S. Dollar Index'. Many times, I simply have to call customer support and ask them for the symbol because I can't find it with this.

On a related note, it would be absolutely wonderful to see DTN use the same symbols assigned by the exchanges. i.e TY for the 10 Yr T-Note pit traded contracts and ZN for the electronic contracts. They differ in volume and can sometimes paint different pictures.

Are you are referring to the website search engine, or the lookup integrated within DTNiQ? For the website, I did a search for 'US Dollar Index' (removing the periods) and it returned DXY$Y - US Dollar Index Cash - NYBOT. Was this the symbol you were after?

I understand the search engine is not perfect, but there are a few things you can try if you cannot find the symbol you are after:

1. Try broadening your search. For example, instead of searching for 'U.S. Dollar Index', search for 'Dollar' or 'Dollar Index'.

2. Work from being more specific to less, since you could return thousands of records with a very broad search statement. For example, "Micro" will return Microsoft, as well as the "BRAZOS JMIC MICRO CAP GROWTH PORTFOLIO" mutual fund (along with 63 other matches).

3. Try removing any punctuation (periods, commas, etc.).

4. Try downloading the entire symbol list by using the link DOWNLOAD link above the Symbol Lookup form. This will enable you to import the list into Excel or your own database if you are more comfortable using those search tools. It is updated nightly.

Please let me know any other questions or frustrations you have with the serach tool on the website. Any improvement we can make for you will likely please many others as well.

I would like to add that a lot of times it is easier to find symbols using the symbol guide instead of the search. Most people know where the issue trades. For commodities, it is often easier to go to the guide, choose the exchange, then look for the contract your are interested in. Since we only list the root commodity, there aren't too many items to browse through.

We are definately open to suggestions on how to improve the search. Unfortunately, often times it is a case of "what do I search for if I don't know the format of DTN's description" (ie. how do you know to search US vs U.S vs U S ?). The only option in this case is trial and error. Again, if you have some suggestions on how we can improve it, we will definately look into it.

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Jay Froscheiser
DTN Market Access, LLC.

Have you consider powering the web-based symbol lookup tool with Google's search engine?

Regarding the Tnotes:

We have chosen not to use exchange symbology in some cases due to the fact that exchanges don't guarantee unique symbology. Some services get around this by forcing the user to enter exchange identifiers along with the symbol, but we prefer to keep the symbols shorter. We do have separate symbology for Pit vs. electronic contracts however. For Tnotes for example, the pit is TY and the electronic is @TY. We have standardized on using an "@" in front of the symbols for electronic contracts. Another example is the highly traded Emini SP which is @ES.

Hope this helps!

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Jay Froscheiser
DTN Market Access, LLC.

Its not something that we have looked at, but it is something we will consider looking into.

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Jay Froscheiser
DTN Market Access, LLC.