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Being a new kid on the block, I've been listening for a couple of weeks to
get a feel of what is happening here. What I have found is there appears
to be about a 60/40 split in favor of the whiners. I have never found
whining produces the results desired. Lets try attacking the problem.
Since I also feel that if you "don't vote" you don't have the right to
bitch, I'll stir the pot by "casting my vote". The first pot I will stir
addresses program BUGs and what to do about them.
With close to 20 years as a code cutter and an active T/A investor (even
dumb enough to be a CTA), it feels like I have been involved with
computerized T/A since day one. Guess what, programming BUGs have been
here longer than dirt and they will probably be here long after dust. What
is really important here is what are "WE" going to do about them.
For a long time I fought with Microsoft Borland, WordPerfect, Novell, etc.,
etc. about bugs in their programs. Similar to what is being faced here,
there was/is an issue with just getting them to admit to their existence.
What I found to be the most powerful influence was public knowledge. GET
THE WORD OUT. It would take more fingers and toes than I have to count the
number of companies I have seen fade away once the user community became
aware their flagship program was tagged as JUNKSOFT. To this end I have
several BUGs which have MS and Signal currently engaged in a finger
pointing war and are in need of attention NOW.
Bug 1:
I am currently an EOD user with Signal. I use M/S Download (v6.0) for
populating current day prices in M/S data files. What I noticed sometime
back was that on numerous occasions I would not get an opening stock price
or the opening price would stay the same across several days. This open
price would remain even if it was well out of the trading range for the
day.
Reviewing this against my Signal data screens displayed revealed a
disparity between current day data on the Signal screen and what appeared
in the M/S data files.
One partial cure was to have Downloader reset the portfolio prior to
receiving any current day data. This has resulted in my having to expand
the actual download window to 3 hours just to get all data. Even this
would not get all the data. Several conversations with both MS and Signal
technical support has disclosed the following.
Signal does not always transmit complete packets of data. i. e. Open,
High, Low, Close, Volume, OI. As for the Open, this is usually the initial
tick for the day. Signal will capture this with their data manager from
what may be an incomplete data packet. This means Signal DM has this
information before the actual EOD. Downloader, on the other hand captures
it's data based on the Close price data. The net result of this is that
Downloader may get it's data from an incomplete data packet. When Signal
transmits the Open data later, Downloader has already removed this security
from it's capture loop.
Signal says it's a problem with the way Downloader captures data. MS says
it's a problem with the way Signal transmit the data.
Bug 2:
Missing Security Data:
As stated earlier I am currently having to reset the Signal portfolio prior
to performing an EOD download. Failing to perform this results in my
receiving "previous data". Previous data being defined as data from N
days before today. N being define as any fixed point back from today.
i.e. if today is 6/15, I could be caring the specific data from 6/01.
Resetting the portfolio clears this problem but creates another. I now
have securities which do not download for the current day. These are
random. In reviewing the current day data on Signal, I find it present and
correct. Signal says it's MS. MS says it's signal.
Bug 3:
Financial Futures: Many of the financial futures are trading "around the
clock". For the currencies Signal's EOD data is actually a miss-mash of
the 24 hour Open, High, Low and Close. This can have an impact on you T/A
based on when you download your data. The data you are using may fluctuate
based on the what is currently happening on the current exchange currently
trading currencies. Nice. Signal provides you with two alternatives to
this.
1) Use the close only data provided for the Chicago market. Guess their
analysis of T/A has concluded that Candlestick charts are a waste of time.
2) Download the current day Chicago data from a 15 minute window between
the time the Chicago markets close, Signal assimilates the data for
broadcast and the next global trading market opens. One problem,
Download/Signal "release/gather" the data at this time of the day. This is
before some EOD release flag is set. Signal says it's MS. MS says it's
signal.
Maybe if they would both would place their respective fingers in their
respective mouth and listen to their "CUSTOMERS" they would address these
problems or realize there may be alternatives that do not include either of
them.
Bug 4:
Downloader File Mangling. In an attempt to address this open issue I wrote
a program that sets the open price based on an evaluation of the previous
day's close and/or trading range and today trading range. Not perfect but
at least I don't have an open price 100 ticks out of today's range.
Since I don't care to pay MS for a developers kit to fix their bugs, I use
the export/import functions to work with these files in a text format. The
only way I have found I could get a clean import is to delete the security
file and have the import function create a new security file. What I would
find is missing days of data, especially at the end of the file. Volume
numbers incorrect. I can see the data in both the text import and export
data files.
While I am open to other software/data venders recommendations, I would
really like to have these issues addressed by their respective owners. To
seen one of the best approaches to this, maybe these venders should visit
Nirvana's web site. "NIRV.COM" Their flagship package is OmniTrader.
Even though I promised myself to never buy another trading package, I bit
on a solicitation for OmniTrader. Starting with v2.5 I am currently
test/using a beta of v3.1b2. The release of v3.0 was not as smooth as
desired. And there are still some issues being addressed. But what is
most important is the position assumed by Ed Downs, the president and
Nirvana. They used their web site to "ADMIT" there were issues and "POST"
the fixes as they were addressed. In addition to this I have found "THEY
ACTUALLY WANT TO HEAR OF ANY PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS" you may have. What
a novel approach. On several occasion when speaking with tech support, I
was advised they were aware of a bug and would give a projected fix
date/version. Now if we can find some way to get Nirvana's attitude to
these other folks....
Enough my "whining". I am looking for ways to address the four issues
above. I am open to ending my relationships with both Signal and MS if
some one has a better approach. As for the OmniTrader, I am impressed with
both the product and the company and would like something compatible with
OT. My deciding vote will be cast for something that works or with someone
I can work with. Are you LISTENING Signal and MetaStock!!!!!
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