Now that Qcharts has rated it's base rate to $99 a month, I am now considering moving to TradeStation for the same rate. TradeStation has the added bonus of backtesting capability. Any comments on TradeStation vs. Qcharts vs. Esignal? Thanks. -- M
I didn't want to compare with Tradestation as I've heard it's in a different category...much more powerful product and I think it's an overkill in my case....
Q-charts -----------------best charting software with a worse datafeed and very bad customer support . E-signal ---------------- good datafeed , at the time I used it expensive Tradestation ----------------very good datafeed , good software , good brokerage Nexttrend ------------very good datafeed , average charting software , not cheap
Esignal is a great datafeed, however I think their charts are just plain difficult on the eye. Ensign, Tradestation and even Metastock all seem to have much cleaner bar charts. It actually surprises me that they haven't made any attempt to improve their chart layouts given that it would be so easy to do. Even Sierra charts, allows you to easily adjust the shape of the bars, and that program is virtually free. Runningbear
I have the impression that QCharts price feed has been a lot better over the last few weeks. Has anyone else noticed a difference?
I used QCharts for a few years and switched to eSignal several months ago. QCharts is easier to use and, as I have said in posts to other threads in the past, the software is downright inspired. However, the data feed is slow, unreliable and almost never real-time. As my trading time frame decreased, I found QCharts less and less suitable to my needs. When I switched to eSignal, I noticed 2 striking differences. First, eSignal is less easy to use. Second, eSignal's data feed is excellent. As lazy as I may be, I'll take reliability over ease of use any day. But give me both, and you'll really have my attention. There are other differences between the two products, but these two are your real trade-off. As an aside, and as someone mentioned in a prior post, eSignal has an excellent feature for using multiple monitors which I find useful. If I am not mistaken, to do so with QCharts, you need to open multiple instances of QCharts from different directories to use multiple screens. This is a less efficient use of computer memory.
I have been using Qcharts for 6 months now. In Nov. and Dec. last year there was a period where data feed was very poor... perhaps related to addition of a new server farm in Florida. But in the last few weeks my feed has been spot on. I use Qcharts with the Assent Hammer platform and know instantly when there is a lag. Hitting a new server usually corrects the problem if it does not correct itself. On Qcharts I run a 50-stock watch list (love the sort on rel strength) and 3 charts; with two linked to watch list. One chart is a daily with 200,50,20-DMA and stochs. The other two are 3-minute charts with 20-tick MA and stochs. There are times when I wish for more charts/data and think of adding another monitor. But other times I feel less is more. Qcharts seems to offer the right balance for me at this time.
Same here ... I ended up using Stockwatch pro on eSignal because it gives you both. It has a QCharts feel and is easy to use + reliable feed from eSignal. See my comments: http://www.elitetrader.com/so/?action=view&SR_ProductID=18
I use Qcharts across multiple monitors; just extend the workspace across as many monitors as you want to. And then within each workspace have as many chart windows as you want to. The Qcharts data feed has improved enormously over the last few weeks, and during the wonderful spikes of FOMC announcement and Afghanistan/Pakistan rumours Qcharts didn't lose a tick of data. I've not had any data outages for weeks and weeks and weeks now, not since the introduction of the new server farms.