|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
<x-html><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
(Pardon my changing the subject title.)
<P>Richard Estes wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>I don't have answers to your questions. But I would
like to hear from you
<BR>and other users about 6.5 pro.</BLOCKQUOTE>
Forgive me for my long-winded ramblings. Maybe there's at least one
thing here that will shed some light. :-) I don't have
the time to clean this up.
<P>FWIW, in general:
<BR>It looks and feels just like 6.5, with the obvious difference of collecting
real time data. However, there are a couple of changes that I've
stumbled across which may or may not be of interest to you. (At least
I don't remember them being in earlier versions.) System Testing
"Options" now lets you enter on an open (or H,L,C), and exit on a close
(or O,H,L). In other words, you're not restricted to exiting at the
same entry choice. You can also choose to exit at the actual Stop
price by checking the "Exit at Stop Price" box, rather than having to exit
at the O,H,L, or C. The position is closed at that exact stop
price level, even if you've set a trade delay.. (Trade delays are
ignored if the Exit at Stop Price box is checked.) There may
be other changes, but at the moment I don't recall noticing any.
I really haven't looked very deep. Oh yeah, the Full Screen
feature no longer causes a crash...at least not in my experience.
And in the past, every now and then my machine would dump when I opened
the data Window, but no longer.
<P>One minor annoyance I have experienced is that the Price Chg doesn't
work in the End Of Day mode. (It's supposed to.) I installed the
patch that I <I>believe</I> was supposed to fix this, but it didn't work
in my case. So I plotted a price change indicator on existing charts
and also added it to the default template. Next best thing.
<P>>How you use it?
<P>Where you from? And who taught you English? LOL.
Just kidding, Richard. I drop words from e-mails all the time.
On with it...
<P>I usually have at least two real time charts open, sometimes as many
as 6, along with one or two end of day charts (so that I can see where
I am in the world). Generally I only display one or two charts simultaneously
(the others are minimized). I guess that I am collecting rt data
on maybe a total of 20 or so securities. I'm happy with 6.51.
It does what I want: collect rt data. And it allows me to use the
all of Metastock's capabilities like the System Tester, Explorer, Experts,
etc. on that data.
<P>A typical day for me is to have <I>at least</I> two real time charts
open. I sometimes display a second real time security in the main
securities' inner window. I do this because it saves a lot of room
on the screen, especially when I delete the title bars. (Easier on
the eyes.) Also it's the best way to go, IMO, if you're ever inclined
to look for divergence between securities, which I do at times.
<BR>So if you count the above example as two charts (I do), I usually have
a total of 4 rt charts: two maximized and two minimized. Also,
I have at least one EOD chart minimized. Additionally, often, but
not always, I have two Signal On Line charts and a SOL quote window minimized,
my internet browser minimized, and my OnLine software program. Why
in the world am I telling you this...
<P>I do this on my poky P 133, 80MB, 6.4 HD, running Win95. Sometimes,
but certainly it's not the norm, things get a bit sluggish. Not the
incoming data, but waiting for a chart tip window to open, for example,
may take 2 or 3 seconds. At times like these, sometimes I'll close
all unnecessary programs and charts, and then things get back to normal.
I might even close and re-open Metastock for an extra good measure, leaving
the Equis Data Server and the Metastock File Server running so as not to
interrupt the data stream. In the background I also have Norton CrashGuard
running, which has saved my butt several times when I had too many programs
up. Of course, I don't need all that open, but you know how it is.
Gotta push things to the edge, right? Equis recommends a minimum
of a P-100 and 64MB, if memory serves. That's adequate, but bigger
is better. And the bigger the better, IMO.
<P>The incoming data on my charts is always at least 3 seconds faster than
what is reported on the CNBC bug. I would say that 3-4 sec's faster
is the norm. I've noticed that in extremely volatile periods, Signal's
data beats the bug by 10 sec's to nearly a full minute. I'm using
a USR v.90 modem, BTW.
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>Their choice of data providers does not agree with
me. I am trying to see
<BR>why I would change data provider and what I would gain.</BLOCKQUOTE>
I'm interested in what bad experiences you had with them. (Seriously.)
I would like to focus on their weaknesses and give 'em some crap.
(Not seriously.) ;-)
<P>I wasn't thrilled by their choice of Signal either, based solely on
a few posts that I read on other lists. But so far I don't have any
real complaints. Occasionally I get a <U>wickedly</U> bad tick, like
all of a sudden a tick will jump astronomically, or maybe go to zero.
But in my experience these are few and far between, especially considering
how many ticks there are in each day. All vendors give bad ticks
on occasion. It's just that when you have a position on and you get
a BIG bad tick that moves against you, there's a couple of seconds when
your brain goes numb. In Signals' defense, last week I was short
and in an instance the price upticked something like $3000 against me.
Once I picked myself up off the floor, I called my broker's quote line.
They recorded the same bad tick, so it must have come from the exchange.
Yesterday was another example when the Fed announced the rate cut.
About a minute later the e-mini ticked up to something like 1300.00.
My broker's quote line reported something like 9999.75, which is what the
CME posted on it's web site yesterday. My EOD provider put out something
like 1064.00 (I don't remember the exact figure.) I still don't
know which is the correct high. Guess I need to bop over to the CME
and see if they have it posted correctly.
<P>>good/bad?
<P>It does a good job, in my opinion. I'm a happy user and would
definitely recommend it.
<P>>Restrictions?
<P>Not exactly sure what you mean, but my only "complaints" are directed
at Signal. Last I checked, they don't supply intra-day historical
charts or data...only daily history. For me it's really no big deal,
since I already had some tick data. I guess it depends on exactly
how big your trading world is. My world is small, so I can buy all
the tick data I need for about $50. I did buy some additional data
from Tick Data, by the way. Another annoyance is that you only get
TODAY's data on Signal-On-Line's charts. Not even yesterday's prices.
If there's a way to get around this, I don't know it. And at midnight
CST, prices disappear, so you end up staring at a blank screen until the
first tick occurs. And then you end up staring at one tick until
the second one appears. And then it occurs that maybe, just maybe
it's time to get a LIFE! Or you could just run Metastock 24
hrs a day and not loose anything.
<P>Of course, that's unless you happen to lose your internet connection,
which has happened to me a few times. To my knowledge, Signal provides
no way to replace that data. A downloadable data file would be oh-so-welcome.
On all but one occasion I was at the computer and was able to resume collecting
data in about two minutes, so no great loss. It's not nearly
as serious as losing a daily bar on an EOD chart, IMO. Or you could
opt to use the s-l-o-w but more reliable (I assume) FM, or cable.
<P>Price: DBC discounts are available thru some brokerages, I believe.
Look for about $20 per mo
<BR>lower fees. If you pre-pay, that brings the cost down to about
$135 per month plus exchange fees. It ain't $75 like you may get
elsewhere for rt charts, but then again "elsewhere" doesn't allow you to
take advantage of all of Metastock's capabilities. In my opinion,
it's the difference between night and day. If you don't need to use
MSPro for your trading, there's certainly nothing wrong with staying with
your current setup.
<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>I presently use DTN
<BR>RT and Ensign, I am very happy with that setup. I would love to have
custom
<BR>indicators and system test capability.</BLOCKQUOTE>
One word: <B>MSPro. </B><G>
<P>Ken
<P>PS- Earlier you asked for a screen shot. See attachment.</HTML>
</x-html>
Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\5minBondsMSPro.gif"
|