Esignal and Q charts

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by erichsiao167, Aug 29, 2007.

  1. Hey Guys,

    Im looking to sign up for Esignal/Qcharts type service that provides real time market feeds along with historical intraday prices.

    Has anyone used Esignal or Q Chart? Anyone have any other recommendations, or ones that possibly offer student discounts? Im not looking for anything too advanced..

    Further, any opions on interactive brokers would be appreciated as well.

    Thanks in advance
     
  2. All right, I'll bite since no one else did. I doubt anyone will give you a student discount. I've used e-sig for a number of years and overall they're great. They offer about every indicator you can think of and a variety of chart options (candles, 3line break, PNF, etc...) If you get serious about trading - either part -time or full-time - it pays to have a quality service - even if it sets you back 200+/mth.
     
  3. davez

    davez

    If you are trading US equities, I would definitely NOT recommend eSignal (even though I'm an eSignal user). They were far behind TradeStation years ago during the eSignal 7.x versions. Then just last week eSignal released a new 10.0 version that still does not include any of the missing features TradeStation has to easily monitor many stocks at once.

    Details of eSignal's shortcomings are described in my previous thread http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=952575#post952575

    But if you are trading futures, or forex or options which are far fewer in number than equities, eSignal might be ok.

    Hope this helps
     
  4. davez

    davez

    I also use IB. Their tech support used to be very helpful with questions on using TWS. Now if its not an installation problem, they transfer you to Customer Service. Three or four times in the last month, customer service has then transferred me right back to tech support. I gave up a few times.

    And if customer service can't immediately see the problem, they say send a screen cap. Two months later an email reply from IB comes saying "I would suggest that you call IB with such an inquiry as soon as you can as email is not the most efficient way of addressing a time sensitive issue such as the one described in your email. Also, this form of communication receives the lowest priority of service, therefore the delay in responding to your inquiry. In the future please use the Trouble Ticket System through the Account Management Menu."

    Again the run-around. You call, they say send an email. You send an email, they say call. I haven't tried their "Trouble Ticket System through the Account Management Menu" but it doesn't sound user friendly.
     
  5. thanks for the input guys..

    i might go with esignal, but it doesnt seem like they have historical intraday futures data.. anyone know of a service that provides this ?
     

  6. eSignal offers 120 days of historical intraday futures data.
     
  7. djxput

    djxput


    I use both IB and Qcharts

    I use Qcharts because IMO nothing matches the ease and beauty of thier charts. Sometimes theres techincal issues that are annoying; which supposedly are being worked on ie they have a pre-release beta out atm.

    IB isnt bad ... had them for awhile now. I get annoyed by all the little things thou; ie cancel order and charged - large margin rate increase - limits on account if you are trading with a smaller account etc ...

    another example - I stopped trading for like a year but had some money in my account. IB charges 20$ a month for data if you dont trade. I didnt get a warning or anything but my account fell below some threshold and my account was closed.

    I dont remember what the threshold is or was. 250 or 100$

    I do like some things about IB thou - they offer alot of products and supposedly are cheap on commissions if you trade in mass.
    But for the little guy it might not be the best choice.
     
  8. sammybea

    sammybea

    Personally use qcharts. I have tried other services in the past including CQG and tradestation, but I always come back. And I feel like the added support esignal provides is only a plus. Also, pretty excited to see they are expanding their service to include international exchanges. (dax baby!!!!)
     
  9. Marcell

    Marcell

    Does QCharts offer a way to trade right off the charts, just like integrated trading with eSignal? Can't find any hints on their website.
     
  10. davez

    davez

    I have one computer with HT (hyper-threading) for trading only, and a second newer computer (with dual-core CPU ) for everything else. Can you even buy a computer today that, if not dual-core, at least has an HT processor? HT has been around for five years (maybe more?).

    But despite that, eSignal is not multi-thread designed. So in effect, eSignal can only use half your computer's processing ability. OK, that's not completely true, so tech types tell me, but its almost true. eSignal themselves told me it would be a waste to buy a dual-core CPU just for running their program.

    So, if you are going to be running lots of other programs together with eSignal on one computer, then their lack of multi-thread design makes no difference. But if you have a dedicated trading computer, it will.

    I'm not a techie, so if I'm wrong about this I'd like to know, in which case I'd use my newer, faster computer for trading.
     
    #10     Sep 2, 2007