Attn: QCharts Users

Since the QCharts Yahoo Groups Moderator won't allow me to post this in that list... hopefully the word will get around that this is here.

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To the QCharts Yahoo Groups List,

Most of you aren’t aware of recent events at Quote.com, so I, Mr. Random Lycosian, shall bring you the latest. As of today, half the QCharts Support Staff including their manager was laid off… This was decided by Mr. Don Zereski out of the Waltham, MA office. Most of you who have tried to contact support in the past have been frustrated with long wait times and substandard support… well these changes will only make things worse.

This isn’t the worst of it though… not even close. Our beloved Mike Condra has left Quote.com! Rumor has it that he has taken at some other competitor (i.e. maybe RealTick?). No more updates on QCharts as he was the only developer working on it and no more answer on this forum. Other recent departures:

LiveCharts & Continuum Developer
Continuum (Quote.com Server) Developer
Continuum Development Manager
Network Architecture Manager
Product Support Admin. Manager
QCharts Product Manager

This does not bode well for us, guys and gals. I wish I had better news, but it looks like QCharts will either be milked for everything it’s worth and fail within the year, or be sold off and assimilated into a competitor.

Yours Truly…
Random Lycosian

 

I have seen the service get worse and worse lately.

I really do like the software though and old habits are tough to break so I really hope they get their act together soon.

It must be a huge cash cow so I doubt that anything bad will happen to them.

Maybe this is the kind of shake up that they need!!!

Maybe things will get better soon ? after all they have been dropping the ball forever.

 

did Mike confirm this?

 

I would like to know where Mike Condra is working now. He is great and will be an asset to the company that hired him. I am always looking at platforms because I have never found one that is a perfect fit for me. If I knew who was smart enough to pick up Mike I would give them a second review.

 

Lets just hope Lycos sells it off to someone who actually cares about a quality product.

 

I have been using QCharts for about 6 years.

I will be canceling my subscription at the end of this month.
They never even emailed me about raising the subscribtion rates
for all the different packages. I had to read about it on ET and
see it on my credit card bill.

 

Quote.com job postings:

http://jobsearch.lycos.newjobs.com/...http://company.monster.com/lyc&aj=Lycos,+Inc.

 

What will you use then?
What did you cinsider?

 

I quit Qcharts and went to Tradestation. The only thing I miss is the capability to read % change directly with a move of the cursor. In fact I am going to recommend TS add that feature.

Max

 

In the last four+ years I've been privileged to work in an industry I love, AND to talk daily with perhaps the most intelligent and entrepreneurial people on the planet -- independent traders who read boards like EliteTrader, and who subscribe to charting services.

YOU, who routinely put your families' welfare on the line in self-directed trading, who undertake to manage your own finances in an unforgiving market, are MY heroes.

You would like to find a data and charting vendor as committed to your success, as are you. To use a little hyperbole, the company selling the service should be so totally focused, they’d march into hell and put their careers at risk to give you timely quotes at market open. (If the stock you owned opened low on bad news but bounced, could you have traded it?) A take-me-to-hell-now-if-it-fails commitment to success should exist all over the place. People at eSignal are highly committed. But I am getting ahead.

I have been doing the same thing as you: trading when possible (sometimes fast); looking for strategies; talking with traders; playing nightly Trivia occasionally on mIRC OtherNet #daytraders (secret weapon: a T1 line); subscribing to advisory services; scanning the market; trying to make a 1000-stock quote sheet into an intraday stock-screening tool; trying to do fancy stuff in Excel with streaming time and sales. Because I had an opportunity, I looked for ways to make things easier and more understood. But most of all, I channeled YOUR continuous stream of good ideas, so they became part of the service. And as YOU collectively have several thousand brains, while I/we have only a couple, any progress in the last couple years was YOUR doing. An eSignal manager offered that continuous, incremental improvement is the standard mode of operation. But I am getting ahead.

My good luck continues; I am honored to get to work on eSignal’s charting code, and to continue talking with traders as I have. The belief is that, through an ongoing, anywhere/anytime exchange of ideas, questions and suggestions, eSignal data and services can become and remain your preferred trading partner. And that you can make more money.

If you look at the eSignal web site, it’s hard not to notice the large number of services available. Where to start? eSignal’s long-term plan, I believe, runs like this: with eSignal data and tools, you will be able to chart and trade ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, on the platform of your choice, at ANY time. You will be able to put a BlackBerry on your desk at your internet locked-down place of employment or commuter train, watch a stock and trade it. You will be able to roll your own web-aware eSignal studies in the EFS JavaScript language and sell them, and exchange portfolio and watch lists between handheld and desktop programs. And you will have access to a continually growing set of data and exchanges.

eSignal is democratizing the process of writing charting software, through its use of EFS JavaScript for studies and perhaps other charting components. EFS is to eSignal what Windows 1.0 was to Microsoft: the seed of an excellent idea, whose implications will become clear.

One week ago had I written this note, it would have read: “I have moved to eSignal, and look forward to the opportunity to work with you in the near future.”

Now the letter says, in short: “eSignal is a great company, and the logical place to look for data and tools. The people are committed; the quotes are timely and reliable. You can write and sell your own studies in a 21st-century net-aware programming language. The code is solid; and the prospects for the future just rock. You’ll be tempted to go there on your own soon enough, no matter what I say. When you do, let me know if we/I can assist.”

Mike Condra
Yahoo IM: mcondra
AIM: mcondra9