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Peter Gibson wrote:
>
> I am considering order the End-of-Day data from Bridge Data. A couple of
> questions:
>
> - data clean?
> - does the software allow you to easily construct continuous data for use
> by TradeStation?
> - is cash market data included for all futures?
> - Price is higher than charged by CSI for Unfair Advantage. Is it worth
> the premium price?
I 've had Bridge (formerly Knight Ridder) for 2 years
now. I have found their downloading process to be very reliable. I think
their server
was down only once in the last 2 years. They have an 800 number for
accessing the
data so you are not reliant on the internet. I almost always get on in
the first
attempt, which I usually do at 7-8:00 ET, but used to do earlier. The
downloading of
all commodities, options, volatilities, and a list of their news stories
from the day
(about 90 pgs.) takes about 2-3 minutes. The distribution of commodity
data (not
options) takes a couple of minutes. (I currently only store the raw
option data, and
don't distribute that.) Unless they've added it via a newer version of
the data
management program, there is no facility for continuous contracts.
However, a nearest
future file can be maintained. You can download up to two weeks of raw
data if you
missed a day, but you cannot download historical data. (They do have a
new website I
think, I don't know what this has other than charts.) The data can be
stored in a
wide variety of formats. If you use the graphing program they supply or
sell for $50,
you must store the data in their own format (which TS supports). I
really don't
compare their price data with other sources. Obvious errors are rare. In
"normal"
contracts these are repaired, usually the next day, apparently by a line
in the next
day's file. In less popular contracts, (Midam, peso for ex. ) I've seen
a couple
errors not get fixed. Only total volume and OI is supplied, and that is
put in the
nearest future file only. The data includes the night sessions. I don't
believe there
are alternative symbols with only day data. When I was paying attention
to it 6-12
months ago, the option data had some problems with the price scale
changing or the
protocol for the naming of the data file switching midstream, resulting
in
discontinuous file(s) for one option. Also some strike prices/exp.
months were
missing. When i renewed I was given 2 months free on the option data.
They said they
had programmers working on it. Since I am not currently using option
data, I can't
say if they've succeeded. I have had so little reason to contact tech.
support, I
can't really comment on that! In the morning you can subscribe to the
fundamental
commentary written by Hightower, greatly discounted. Several other
services (1 other
advisory and 2 mechanical systems) are offerred with slight discounts. I
believe
"major markets" runs $360/year and "all markets" runs $600 (?).
In short seems pretty reliable but maybe not as flexible as some other
vendors. I'm pretty satisfied, but will re-evaluate before renewing to
see if I'd be better served by one of the other ones.
Conrad Bowers
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