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Dear Group,
I've subscribed to realtime futures data services since 1985, beginning
with Market Information, BMI, and DBC via satellite, & currently
Quote.com via internet. For the past couple of years I have run
Quote.com into DB's Dynastore for Quote.com in a P3/500, with its data
output feeding TS4 in a P233.
Several weeks ago, I made a post on the Omega list searching for
possibilities for continuing TS4 if Quote.com sometime in the future
curtailed its futures data service. For a US subscriber primarily
interested in futures data, I found no currently available alternative
except for eSignal. My past dealings with DBC, and particularly what I
observed as a substantial decrease in service following DBC's
acquisition of BMI several lyears ago, left me not wanting to do
business again with DBC, which in the interim has become eSignal.
Out of a combination of curiosity, desperation, and fairness, I decided
to subscribe to eSignal for a month so as to run a parallel experiment
of my current hardware and software system using Quote.com vs that using
eSignal. Here is how I set up the comparison:
Computer #1 = P3/500 with Win98SE
Quote.com data into Dynastore for Quote.com outputting into Computer #2
eSignal data into Dynastore for eSignal into TS4 (the "eSignal
computer")
Computer #2 = P233 with Win98SE
Computer #1 data input into 2nd copy of TS4 (the "Quote.com computer")
Both computers and TS4 programs were set to collect ES2M, NQ2M, $INDU,
$NDX, and $TICK.
Both TS4 charting programs displayed identical workplaces, consisting of
one workplace, with that workplace consisting of five charts: 5 Tick &
25 Tick NQ and 1, 2, and 15 Minute NQ with modest use of indicators etc.
I ran the Tick windows from the two TS4 programs on side-by-side 21"
monitors.
I ran the comparison last Monday and Tuesday. My observations:
1. I did not detect any relative time lag in receipt of data between
the two systems, except as described in #2 below.
2. While the eSignal data appeared to be received at a more or less
steady rate, the Quote.com data occasionally appeared to come in
"bursts" --- specifically, receipt of Quote.com data would occasionally
stop for several seconds and then, as if a dam had broken, the chart
would print a sudden stream of rapidly-charting data, which, within a
few seconds, would catch up with the data received by the eSignal
system. I was consistently using the Sunnyvale Quote.com data servers
(I am in Seattle and have consistently observed the least delay in
Quote.com data receipt on its Sunnyvale servers.)
3. Concurrently with the running of the two computers above, I also ran
a Dell P3/500 (which I had recently purchased on eBay --- the computer I
had intended to use for the comparison but for my inability to get the
Dell to recognize the TS4 dongle). On the Dell, I ran IE5 and the CME's
MarketSound program for NQ2M --- in effect an independant data source
for NQ using a squawkbox. I did not detect any relative time lag
between either of the Quote.com or the eSignal TS4-charted data and the
CME squawkbox data.
4. At the end of both days, the eSignal computer collected a few
hundred more NQ ticks than had the Quote.com computer (total ticks of
approximately 40K daily); I did not check this for the other data.
5. During the two days, neither computer posted an obviously bad NQ
tick (ie, current price many points away from its previous price).
I discontinued the experiment after these two days and have since been
collecting only the eSignal data and using the eSignal computer system.
So far, at an increase in cost of approximately $20 monthly, I have
found the eSignal data and system to be preferable. I hope that I will
find that that will continue in the future, that DBC and eSignal's
service has improved from what it was but a few years ago when I was
last a customer of theirs, and that I am not just exchanging new,
currently unknown problems with eSignal in the future for old, more
known problems with Quote.com in the past.
At least for a short-term stock index futures trader such as myself who
wants to use TS4, my observations and experiences suggest that eSignal
and Dynastore for eSignal appear not only equal but preferable to
Quote.com and Dynastore for Quote.com. I don't want to continue
subscribing to both data services and have until the end of the month to
cancel one or the other. In my opinion, the score so far is eSignal 1,
Quote.com 0. I would be interested in hearing anyone else's
observations or comments about these issues.
Sincerely,
Richard
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