The symbol limit can really kill you are an options trader. You basically have to subscribe tot heir biggest and most expensive package with the most symbols, since just getting quotes on the options on the S&P 500 index (or SPY for that matter) quickly puts you over 500 symbols.
Check with other companies for DDE... DTN gives you 1300 with their base subscription and for $40 more you can 500 more symbols for a total of 1800... http://www.iqfeed.net/index.cfm?displayaction=data§ion=services Check that if you use them that you are getting the quotes you want... Check out MarketFeed DDE... http://www.marketfeed.com/internet.htm eSignal costs too much for the number of symbols they provide... Their DDE is not well supported... On your own plus their Help manual is what you get... Their DDE & their Data Manager Uses up to much CPU and freezes when their are bursts of data from the exchanges because they are single threaded apps and poorly coded... eSignal is going to be IN A BAD WAY as the volume from the exchanges grows and grows over the next few years because of the introduction of Reg NMS... good luck... <img src="http://www.enflow.com/p.gif">
Here's one suggestion that might help. Option chains can be displayed in dynamic or static mode. They both deliver the same information but dynamic mode keeps each symbol streaming in real-time and each symbol counts against the symbol limit. When you change to static mode, the entire chain counts as just one symbol and you can keep refreshing the screen for new updates. If using static mode, you could then insert selected options in a quote window and see those streaming in real-time, all while using just a fraction of your symbol count. Hope that helps.
Try Metastock Quotecenter. Has DDE and apparently option symbols are not counted in the 500 or 1000 limits. This is a real platform not a retail marketing driven toy If you have a third party eSignal app that you like and are just hanging on with this company to use that App it may (MAY-check first) be possible to use it with other data feed programs by running a linking program which uses DDE as the feed in and Tradestation DBC emulation as the out feed. Check if Metaserver DDE for TS2000i will do this. I am not affiliated with Metastock, just an eSignal user who cancelled in disgust and want to share my solutiuons and help others the same way others sharing their solutions here saved me from going up blind alleys. The best software is rarely if ever the most heavily marketed.
My problem is that I am using eSignal to feed a third party application, OptionVue 5. OptionVue has done all they can to manage the symbol limit, such as allowing you to suspend updates in groups on your Quotes Display and automatically going into the eSignal data Manager to delete all the symbols when you close a matrix of options. But the problem remains that when you open a Matrix of options, all the symbols in that option chain (plus your Quotes Display, plus any other options chains) count against your symbol limit. Plus, they of course allow you to have options chains from multiple assets open simultaneously. This is easy to manage on any multi-monitor set up, but esignal forces you to look at and trade one at a time - it doesn't seem like they their current data plans have changed as the way people trade has changed.