Logic that I prefer............my email to Linnsoft has already been sent. "Volume Breakdown indicator logic: If price <= bid....put in bid volume If price >= ask...put in ask volume If price is in between....not considered for the delta" Also, I predominantly use 317 tick charts or 4 tick range bars, and so far I have not seen any major problems. On occasion when the VB is set to accumulating delta bars I will have to click the chart and hit the space bar to clean up an abnormally computed bar (maybe once every other day....no biggie). Of course Chad already knows about this and I am sure this will be resolved in time......nothing that I am worried about as this does not affect anything I am doing with my trading.
I might kill 2 birds with 1 stone here on this post... Ahh, yes bolter, indeed correct. Way I take care of this is to only ever do tick data refreshes. If I must do a longer minute backfill request (which I don't generally need to do unless charting a new instrument for the first time), then I follow that up with a maximum tick refresh. Like that previous screenshot I posted for billp. At the start of each day, I hit that and make sure all my instruments have the last session worth of tick data. You are indeed for the need of consistency between the delta determination algorithm. They recognize that and I assume will do that first thing Monday. I had several emails from linnsoft on this issue during the weekend (pretty good getting replies on weekends!). A previous poster made the point of being able to filter out by lot sizes. You can do this both with the footprint charts and the VB indicator. I do this often, quite amazing some of the differences one can see. Also, the new Footprint charts are not only limited to futures like they used to be - can be used on absolutely any instrument that you can receive data on. I am no way affiliated with these guys, other then a happy customer. I know the learning curve is steep as it always is when learning complex software like charting applications. I am glad to offer assistance to anyone having trouble with it, although I am by no means an expert. kind regards, MK
I had the following response from Trevor - "We will be changing this in the near future to make it much more difficult to overwrite your tick data with intraday 1 min data." So obviously he is aware of the problem and a remedy is on the way. bolter
Running a live -side-by-side betwen the old and new versions this morning on the MSCI Taiwan index there are indeed appreciable differences. The new version allocates volume differently. For example, a print of 50x52 gets classified as 0x102 on the new version. Over the ocurse of time this can produce significantly different looking footprint. What I have observed is the new version produces consistently more extreme column deltas. I'll report this to Trevor.
I'm starting to feel like a beta tester (honorary I might add). It looks to me like nobody else has tested the bloody thing. Here's a serious bug with the new version. Note this 1 min footprint - decidedly bullish looking. In fact overly much so - markets rarely trade like this. Now look what happens when I swap to a 5 min chart and then back to a 1 min. This is spooky. bolter
Bolter, You are not the only one who is doing the beta testing. I'm a member of this club too!!!! This new platform. imho, is over complicated. I'm a new user and just got used to the old version of MD. From my point of view, the beauty of MD was that you were not reliant on lagging technical indicators; now we have 130 of them to choose from. Try putting up a candlestick and footprint chart, simultaneously, and you can't minimise the candlestick. It can be open or closed. You can't drag the footprint chart to size, with the candlestick chart running on the same screen. Well, I couldn't get it to. Despite, it's quirks the old version was very simple to use and did the job that it was supposed to do. Why the quirks couldn't have been ironed out, whilst retaining the core application, is something that I find hard to understand.
Midknight, Thanks for all your help. I've spent so much time on this conversion thing that I feel that I'm looking at the leaves now and forgetting all about the trees and forest. Thus, if you don't mind can you shed some light on item #1. The others are just my thoughts. Thanks. 1) I look at many stocks, each day there will be some similar stocks and some different stocks. Thus, I do not want to keep all these stocks in my quote page, neither do I want the software to download all these data everyday (when I first start the software each morning) as these are kept in my CPU which takes up unnecessary clutter. Thus, I tend to add/delete these stocks each morning and during the day. Unfortunately this results in more problems as I am no expert in this software and the software tends to cater more for those that have a 'fixed basket of instruments' (ie do not keep changing their instruments etc which would cause download confusion). 1 problem here. Any possible advise on this? 2) The different methods of download. Yes, I've tried them so many ways so many times. I even saw the tape on downloading using 24 hours. Even when Bolter and you highlight the different in calculating the delta, I'm not surprised as I did notice that at times the 'deltas do not include the price between bid and ask spread' for the charts although it was included in the footprints etc. 3) This software at this stage seems to have bugs/differences in calculation and is more suitable for those that are more IT inclined and/or those that have found delta/other features that are extremely useful to them that they are willing to go through this 'testing period'. For me, I'm not IT inclined. However, I will go through whatever it takes if I believe or have found the delta/other feature to be extremely useful for me that cannot be found elsewhere. As of this stage, I find that reading the normal chart majority of the time gives me a better edge than reading delta. As such, I've decided to give up on this software for the time being as I feel my efforts, money, time etc are better utilised elsewhere. Not ruling the possibility of coming back in the future though when I feel that I really need to master this delta thing. 4) As for your comments that it needs time to master such as price/volume, yes totally agree with you. That's why I had kept trying and was initially prepared to give it a few more months. At this stage, I would say that it helps me a bit but also confuses me more. Also, I prefer the delta logic of the old version. If the new logic is implemented, I am less likely to go back and try it again. I thank you for all the help that you have rendered. Perhaps, 1 day I will go back to this software. I will however, follow this thread with great enthusiasm and contribute productively if possible.
Alann, You, Bolter and myself seems to agree on the old version. Yes, it was much simpler to use. That's one thing I like about simple softwares and many times I find myself willing to pay more for this simplicity and willing to forgo some features that might be beneficial as it was too complex for my simple IT skills. Despite the quirks in the old version, I've never complained once to Trevor, however with this new version, I've written him emails, talk to him etc--all in the space of a week! I wish all the best to users that are making this transition and may all the struggles be worthwhile to those who are willing to rough it out.