Hello. I'm new to trading and am trying to decide between ESignal and RealTick as my decision support software. I'd very much appreciate any comments from anyone who has experience with both packages as to the relative merits of each. Many thanks in advance for whatever assistance you may be able to provide.
Esignal has some great new software. However, it has had a problem with data freezing in the new release. The problem has been going on for months now and they have not been able to fix it. I have used both Realtick and eSignal at this point I would go with Realtick. It appears that eSignal may need more time to get their problems solved. When trading you have go to have solid data.
I have used qcharts, esignal, the late lamented quicken quotes and realtick. I honestly believe anything other than realtick is merely a toy if you're doing serious daytrading. Otherwise it probably doesn't matter. Realtick allows you to do so much more. Heck, their manual is like 350 pages, and that doesn't tell all of the neat little tricks.
I have working with many packages, and presently I have a preference for eSignal because it is more reliable than other, specially RT! Advantage for eSignal very reliable signal in fast market (important if you daytrade), have now a programming language inside their package, can plot post and premarket, basic fee not too high, fast Level 2 and T&S over competitor, also very quick for to switch from one symbol at another. Disadvantge for eSignal virtual no possibility to use external programming laguage, a limitation on the number of symbols, historic data limited (but should be corrected in near time), badtick filter is limited. Advantage if you want to program with TAL interface, you have access at a lot of data. No symbol limit. Some basic scanner integrated in the latest version. Good historic data. Disadvantage not very reliable, frequent shortage data in fast market and while you trade the opening, data lag frequently (between 10-30 trades, very bad!), very expensive fee for the quality, no pre or postmarket graphic, some refresh take a lot of time.
Care to expand on that? Don Bright said platforms don't matter much, shouldn't he know he has seen them all, right? what else have you used, so I know where you are comming from. i.e. what platforms do you consider toys? Much Thanks.
Realtick is very unreliable in a fast market Esignal is better in that regard If they could mate Realtick software with Esignal data feed, that would make me happy
realtick or the data feed you used for realtick? do you trade remote? I see some people in the software section ripping a particluar platform for being slow, but then they won't post whether they are using t-1, cable, dsl, who their data comes from, it is hyperfeed, comstocks, who? Where does realtick get its data "feedwise" if you trade remote? thanks.
I would say it must depend on where you are getting your realtick from. Lately we have been having a problem with stale instinet quotes on listed stocks because realtick is integrating instinet trading into our listed stock arca executions but otherwise realtick through arca is much more stable and accurate than some of the previous platforms we have used. A guy sitting next to me uses esignal and it is solid but he refuses to use the new version until they get all the bugs out. So in summary the old esignal is fast and stable. RealTick can be very fast and so it must depend on your broker or which servers you are on. I am not saying it is perfect but you should speak to people who are using your broker.
I have an account with Terranova - so the feed is from Townsend I have a cable modem with speeds around 1500K In a normal market, everything is fine When the market starts ripping, TAL data bogs down The esignal is right there on time though - and believe it or now, IB is fairly accurate also
... is that even with a T-5 the problem will be there in fast market. This application need to be redesign because to old and cannot support the amount of information that the trader required. While eSignal control the bandwidth with a limit on the symbol, this will give an assurance that a moron don't will scan all the market with his homemade scanner and jam your application because he overload the server. If you have a little bit of time and money, run these two application at the sametime on different computers (with the same speed of course) and check what happen when the market surge on the T&S. Also atttempt to switch of symbol at the same moment. RT will be delay or freeze, while at the same time eSignal will be able to respond quickly.