I've seen people talking about Qcharts, Esignal, S&P Comstock, RealTick...etc What's the best data vendor in your opinion? and Why? Thanx. Raphael Aranha
I use qcharts and it basically sucks. I just don't understand how they can have such a flaky data feed. Almost everyday when the market opens my data is lagged. I just watch NYSE stocks so it's not like there are millions of trades going through like on NASDAQ stocks. So... you may ask why I'm still with qcharts? I used their programming interface to build custom charts in a program that I wrote. Now I'm sorta stuck. As soon as the new GenerationV data feed is released by Nanex I will switch to that. Nanex is the company started by the designer of the qcharts data feed (qfeed). It looks like there will be lots of new charting apps for GenV, including one designed by the guy that originally wrote qcharts. BTW, Qcharts (and qfeed) was great until Lycos bought them. Not that there were not problems... but at least they were quickly addressed. Fletch
Do you know which data vendor displays the whole SIZE of each offer? I mean, usually we have to add 2 zeros in all offers to have the total amount of volume. I know that tradestation does offer a level 2 with the real volume displayed. But now they only sell DATA for those who open an account with them. I've called them today. Besides Tradestation, does anybody know which data vendor display the Level 2 window that way??? Thank you all for your help. Raphael Aranha
well, there are several threads about this. I don't think starting a new one will help very much. The 'best' is really subjective idea, so we all have different opinions. I would recommend to try several of them with their free trial. There is no other way to know from your location and your style what is 'best'. I am not avoiding the subject [I wrote long comments on several providers since I had the chance to try them at the same time]. some comments to help you for the trial. eSignal : try it with Ensign otherwise it sucks RealTick / PCQuote : avoid PC Orbit, go for the real thing PCQuote. QChart : some users never have a problem, some just can't use it. if you try it, try RavenQuote with it. AIQ : advanced alerts and very reliable feed, but limited chart drawing tools WindowOnWallStreet : it was OK, others had problems with connection. really, try them and if possible at the same time so can really compare. What is considered 'best' does not mean anything once again. After trying all the ones mentioned above [and some more] I finally use eSignal/Ensign. They do have several limitations though but some features are precisely what I need. This makes it best for me, and very bad for you. I can't know. neo
I would concur with tntneo's comments above. We are all looking for the (near) perfect data vendor, which does not exist at this point. I would add one more to his list: AT Financial (now a part of Thomson Financial, ILX Systems) Very reliable data feed, very good support, but a little pricey and their charting, while ok, could be improved. (best vendor I have found for real time Options data) http://internet.atfi.com/.
I used QCharts until just after Lycos took over. Problems were not too bad before Lycos but after QCharts was not functional really. And this was with DSL service. Maybe they fixed it by now. I'd like to know. I switched to E-Signal and there are no problems except for rare lapses for a few seconds or so. I'm using Advanced GET. JMeyer
Nanex info is available at: http://www.nanex.net Join the yahoo development group to get the current status Fletch
I use eSignal and find the quote feed very reliable. For charting you will have to find another program than what's provided. I use MetaStock Pro. Others recommend Ensign.