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Tomasz,
I've worked with a few companies that have been around for close to
100 years, and they still like to do things "the old way." Their
marketing reflects this fact, as well (they have very little
marketing budget). They rely heavily on word-of-mouth, which is a
form of branding.
Word-of-mouth is only as good as your product offerings, however.
If you don't listen to your entire customer base (and the ones on
these bulletin boards are not a good representative sample, IMO),
and take their wants and needs to heart, it does not matter how hard
you work -- you are not making your customers happy, ultimately.
Good products begin with a good means for building customer
relationships through an ongoing customer feedback loop. A Yahoo
message board is good, but also bad, for your purposes. For one, why
doesn't AB host the message board on its own servers if the staff
there is really tech savvy? On the other hand, we have here a
developer who actually makes product changes the day he receives the
request -- most unusual.
What I recommend here is to find out what your customers really do
want. If they ask for something, generally -- they want it. But it
works against you to jump at every development opportunity the
people on these message boards lay before you, because they are not
your entire target audience. You want to serve ALL your customers,
and not just a select vocal few. The ones who are making your
paycheck possible may not be the same ones on this message board.
You should take a moment to develop a standardized feedback form
(that does allow limited custom text entries) and post this on your
web site. Force users to register in order to cut down on skewed
data. Ask customers what specific changes they want to see. Ask them
what other products they have tried. Ask them how much they want to
spend on their trade software and their data feed. Ask them about
quality concerns. And so on. Collect all this data, and do some
fuzzy logic on your SQL and aggregate the results into groups. Look
at the needs of the largest group -- what do THEY want? This should
be where your focus is, since you have the freedom to develop
anything at will.
If the product comes bundled, which data feed providers do they want
to come with AB? The answer to this should set you (your marketer,
that is) off on a quest to develop new relationships with these same
companies. If not, I personally will give up on your product because
it would demonstrate a resistance to really wanting to serve your
customer. Egos commonly get in the way of active listening. Just
like a real relationship -- because it is one.
It's not what YOU think is a better product. It's what your
customers think is. They are the ones spending the money on your
product, not you. Perception is everything.
Add incentive for people to fill out your feedback form by giving
them some sort of discount or free bit of AFL code or something they
can use. You can trade off free advertising with S&C magazine, and
they in turn can give those who give you feedback a magazine
discount.
I hate to see all your hard work get buried, due to poor marketing
strategy. Imagine what you can do when you blend a good work ethic
with quantum thinking in your marketing? This often spells BIG $$$.
Anyhow, I don't want to set a bad example. I'm not getting paid
here. If you folks want to trade product for low-cost consulting,
I'm open to that. I like your product and your devotion, and would
like to see the successes come rolling in. Just let me know.
Thanks,
Brian
--- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Tomasz Janeczko" <amibroker@xxxx>
wrote:
> Brian,
>
> These are all valuable thoughts that I thank you for.
> On the other hand I am not marketing guy and my 'mission' is to
deliver
> the best product out there and fit (almost) everyone needs.
> I know that this sounds like heretic in marketing world but this
> worked for me for many years.
> I belive that quality+dedication+time is all that is really needed.
>
> This is one of the reasons why I am "driving myself nuts trying to
please everyone"
> as Dingo said. This of course will never be possible but it is
good just to try.
>
> And, by the way, I don't think that Tradestation or Metastock
> is higher end to AB. They are more expensive but definitelly not
better.
> It takes time however to find this out however.
>
> Best regards,
> Tomasz Janeczko
> amibroker.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian" <brian@xxxx>
> To: <amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 3:31 PM
> Subject: [amibroker] Re: IQFeed plugin version 1.5.1 released
>
>
> > Tomasz,
> >
> > All good questions. I was waiting for you to ask, in fact.
> >
> > As it stands, AB customers are going to come in different
flavors --
> > 1) those who are testing every conceivable product, and are on a
> > tight budget in order to do so; and 2) those who want to try
> > different data feeds to make sure they are getting the best
value
> > for their money; and 3) those who look at what they spend on
regular
> > living costs, and compare eSignal's fees against that and
realize
> > there are a lot of con artists in the trading world.
> >
> > AB is obviously useless as a product without a data feed. All
> > successful marketing offers tiered product offerings. You have
your
> > gold customers (eSignal premium), your silver customers (eSignal
> > standard), and your bronze customers (IQFeed and other feeds).
Your
> > product and your data feeds should come bundled, and tiered.
This
> > involves successful affiliate relationships being built with
> > companies such as IQFeed. This is why affiliate marketers can
make
> > so much money (off contractual commissions). It is not anyone's
> > responsibility to form these relationships, but as a company
that is
> > competing against real competitors who are already thinking in
these
> > terms, you can't afford to ignore reality. Eat, or be easten.
That's
> > the way it is.
> >
> > Product co-marketing and co-branding is not demeaning to your
brand
> > in any way, unless of course you deliver an unsatisfactory
product
> > through these relationships. This is where the quality and
talent of
> > your product development team will need to rise to the occasion.
> >
> > **Your application development decisions should be based on a
> > thorough understanding of your customer base.** 10% of your
> > customers will generally generate 90% of your revenue. Who are
these
> > people? What is their churn (turnover) rate? Are you able to
keep
> > these customers, or are they moving on to higher-end products
such
> > as TradeStation or MetaStock?
> >
> > My guess is that your customers who can afford higher-end
eSignal
> > data are going be the same customers who are selecting higher-
end
> > trading software as well. AB strikes me as possibly catering to
a
> > more coding-savvy crowd who enjoys having more hands-on with the
> > product, and enjoys the fact the developers have made something
> > streamlined and straightforward that the user can modify to
their
> > liking.
> >
> > All of this is likely out of your realm because you are the
> > developer. You can, however, pass some of these concepts on to
> > management (if you are not management, that is).
> >
> > I've worked with Microsoft, Qwest, and other companies
developing
> > affiliate marketing relationships and bundling products,
> > strategizing customer relationship management (CRM), and
crunching
> > huge databases while acting as a marketing data analyst for
these
> > clients. AB's problems are simple, straghtforward, and obvious
to
> > me, from my perspective. You have all your own customer data at
your
> > end to help to begin resolving these issues today, if you want
to.
> > It may be time to look at customer data, rather than looking at
tick
> > data ;-) This is where the real gold for AB may be at right now.
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > Brian
> >
> > --- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Tomasz Janeczko"
<amibroker@xxxx>
> > wrote:
> > > > That is the nice thing about IQFeed. You just buy the data
and
> > that's what you pay for,
> > >
> > > Agreed 100%.
> > > But could you please tell me, if you are just paying for the
DATA
> > alone, shouldn't you expect the QUALITY data ?
> > > I mean NO BAD TICKS, reliable API, no ZERO prices sent in OHL
> > fields during pre-market hours, etc ?
> > >
> > > Why everyone expects the developer of the charting application
to
> > fix ALL DATA problems that DATA VENDOR should fix in first place?
> > >
> > > Why am I forced to implement hundreds of workarounds to make
> > IQFeed data usable ?
> > >
> > > Why IQFeed sells the same data 2x cheaper to QuoteTracker?
> > >
> > > Why don't they implement ANY fix to their API for over one
year
> > from pointing out all problems ?
> > >
> > > Why should I spend enormous amount of time working on IQFeed
> > plugin considering the fact that it generates ZERO REVENUE for
me ?
> > > ( I didn't receive ANY commission from IQFeed )
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Tomasz Janeczko
> > > amibroker.com
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: ed
> > > To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 2:43 PM
> > > Subject: Re: [amibroker] Re: IQFeed plugin version 1.5.1
released
> > >
> > >
> > > ok thanks for the explanation.
> > >
> > > Possibly I am switching to eSignal Premier though ... The
thing
> > with eSignal (what I think is annoying) is that I wish they
would
> > sell just the data for a good price. Now you get charting and
all
> > kind of scanning stuff that we program ourselves in Amibroker
and
> > other stuff like news you actually do not want and ofcourse this
is
> > included in the price. That is the nice thing about IQFeed. You
just
> > buy the data and that's what you pay for,
> > >
> > > rgds, Ed
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: global_investor
> > > To: amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 2:15 PM
> > > Subject: [amibroker] Re: IQFeed plugin version 1.5.1
released
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In amibroker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Tomasz Janeczko"
> > <amibroker@xxxx>
> > > wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > A new version of IQFeed plugin (1.5.1) has been released
to
> > > > http://www.amibroker.com/iqfeed.html
> > > >
> > > > Direct link: http://www.amibroker.com/bin/IQFeed1510.exe
> > > >
> > >
> > > now we have the old bug again. I know this experience ;-)
> > >
> > > Open & Low of last (rightmost) bar is now always 0 again,
when
> > the
> > > base-interval is daily.
> > >
> > > Well, as a workaround I'll try if it's possible to install
> > Amibroker
> > > two times, each installation with a different version of
the
> > IQFeed
> > > plugin.
> > >
> > > To Ed: The important thing to note here is that data with
> > > base-interval daily does NOT contain any bad ticks.
Your QQQ
> > > example was a daily chart generated by compressing 1
minute
> > bars. Of
> > > course, if you compress bars with bad ticks (garbage in),
you
> > get
> > > again bars with bad ticks (garbage out).
> > >
> > > But if the backfill is done with daily-bars (instead of
minute
> > data),
> > > there is no spike problem and the data is wonderfully
> > clean. Which
> > > means that with IQFeed one would be able to look at clean
daily
> > > charts, updated in realtime without any spikes, if only
the
> > plugin
> > > didn't contain any logic errors.
> > >
> > > The fact that daily data doesn't have bad ticks has
something
> > to do
> > > with how the IQFeed historical data architecture is
working:
> > daily
> > > data is NOT generated from tick data (so it cannot include
bad
> > ticks),
> > > but minute data is.
> > >
> > >
> > > > It implements bad data filter which is based on ATR
(average
> > true
> > > range).
> > > > The filter is turned ON by default and uses 9-bar ATR of
> > High-Low range.
> > > > If next bar High-Low range exceeds X times ATR then this
bar
> > data
> > > are filtered
> > > > to eliminate spikes.
> > > >
> > > > You can control both averaging (ATR) period and X (the
> > detection
> > > threshold)
> > > > from File->Database Settings->Configure.
> > > >
> > > > You can also TURN OFF the filter already by going to
> > > > File->Database Settings then clicking CONFIGURE button
and
> > > UNCHECKING "Enable" flag in
> > > > "CONFIGURE" dialog.
> > > >
> > > > Please note that filter by default runs ATR(9) and if
> > current daily
> > > H-L range
> > > > exceeds by default 4 (four) times the ATR then it
considers
> > this bar
> > > as a spike.
> > > >
> > > > This may or may not be correct for each and every
symbol. (My
> > > experiments shows
> > > > that this is good choice but I was checking only Nasdaq
100
> > symbols).
> > > >
> > > > You may increase the threshold from default 4 to say 5.
> > > >
> > > > Anyway as I wrote many times the filtering or fixing bad
> > ticks
> > > should be done by feed
> > > > on tick-by-tick level (not on minute bars) since only
that
> > way it
> > > can be accurate.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > And this is what I am hoping for in API 3.0.
> > > >
> > > > Anyway I have done already more than I planned (I have
> > planned to
> > > wait for bad tick filter in IQFeed
> > >
> > > yes, filtering on the plug-in level doesn't make much
sense as
> > you
> > > need all individual ticks instead of ticks in aggregated
form
> > (=
> > > minute bars).
> > >
> > > Therefore instead of the ATR-filter, it would be very
helpful
> > if the
> > > plug-in was simply working correctly when the base-time
> > interval is daily
> > > (see rationale above).
> > >
> > >
> > > Btw: Maybe Jay Froscheiser from DTN Market access is
following
> > this
> > > thread. This problem with the IQFeed plugin underscores
why I
> > > strongly argued for making IQFeed's API publically
available
> > (without
> > > the $300 licencse fee).
> > >
> > > Even though I'm busy with a lot of other things I have to
work
> > on, I
> > > certainly would be interested in developing an own IQFeed
plug-
> > in for
> > > Amibroker which could also be released to the public. (I
> > would do
> > > the plugin development in Java, however, and TRY to do the
> > integration
> > > with Amibroker via Java's JNI interface, the latter would
be
> > the
> > > hardest part.) What's more, the plug-in development could
> > ideally
> > > even be an open source project, hence allowing a peer
review
> > of the
> > > sourcecode and in turn better elimination of bugs!).
> > >
> > >
> > > best regards,
> > >
> > > Wolfgang S.
> > >
> > >
> > >
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