My issues with E-Signal 11

OK so having never tried E-Signal I signed up for a trial this month... I downloaded the lastest version 11.something. I don't want to learn on 10.6 if they are going to be updating shortly in the future. Here are my issues and problems with the platform... maybe someone can help me with them. I might try the eSignal forums after but I would prefer to hear from other traders on ET rather then the designers who obviously never traded before.

1. The platform looks and feels great but it just ain't made for trading. At least not the way I trade. Everything seems to be setup for point&click with a mouse. This is way too slow. I much prefer keyboard shortcuts. My first issue is this... Is there OR why isn't there an ability to create your own keyboard shortcuts? For example... I want to zoom in or out on a chart... why can't I use +/- on the keyboard to do this? Why can't I press a number to change the time frame of the chart... instead I need to make sure the box is selected and not the symbol box otherwise I change the symbol to 5... yeah that makes sense. There are a number of other examples but you get the idea
   
2. Why can't I permanently minimize the title bars of the charts which take up way too much space. I minimize them and then as soon as I change something they appear again and never minimize themselves.
   
3. Why does it always show pre/post market data. I select my time period but it changes back the next time I open it up even after I have saved multiple times. There should be an options place to turn ALL pre/post market data ON/OFF... simple!
   
4. Another gripe with the chart options is that they are all fluffy stuff like colors etc but leave out the important options like locking the charts so that it can't be changed until its unlocked. The amount of times I have accidentally changed the chart is annoying.
   
5. Alerts - there are loads of options for the alerts which is great but it is so annoying to enter the alerts. You need to use the mouse AGAIN! and click like 3-4 things and then type in the price you want and unselect email sending. This is so slow to do. Why not just make it a right click on the chart and press a short cut key? The price would be the point that you clicked the right button on the mouse and the alert would automatically make it above/below the price depending on the current market price. So easy but simply beyond the developers it seems.
   
6. There is an option in the chart menu to apply to all charts or set as default. No matter how many times I click this nothing seems to change. It always starts every chart with hi-low candles, all market data (pre/post market) and no volume study, and with the MACDs. So annoying. Am I missing something here?
   
7. When I double click a stock on a watch list I should be able to open it in my detailed stock window (ie a window I designed to have different charts, times frames, and studies to watch while trading the stock). Instead it opens ups a trading window.... I DON'T WANT TO TRADE WITH THIS PLATFORM. How do I disable this nonsense paper trading? Again... why are there not options to be able to change the "double click event" for watchlist etc.
   
8. I sometimes login at home. However when I exit the program it stays logged in on the data server or something like that. When I try to log in at work it doesn't allow me as I'm logged in still at home. Is there an option or why does it not just log out the other session of the account in favor of the new one. Like most other programs such as internet banking do.
   
9. Is there a way to link or get eSignal to talk to Sterling? It would be great to double click in esignal and my level 2 changes to that symbol in Sterling (my trading platform). This is probably wishful thinking I'm sure.
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   I have others but can't think of them at the moment. If anyone can help me with any of this stuff it would be much appreciated.
   
   Thanks
   
   PTmtl

 

MTL,

Thanks for your comments. I know you wanted to hear from other ET'ers on your questions, but I had some thoughts to share as many of these things are doable now or are coming in 11.

We are soon extending eSignal 11 to include customizable keyboard shortcuts, but there are a number of them already in place to take advantage of. Zooming can be done with Alt+Right / Left arrow. Pressing a number in the chart will automatically insert it into the interval area... Press 5 then Enter will change it to a 5-min chart. You can also press the comma key to force the cursor into that interval box (i.e. Comma - D - Enter gives you a Daily chart). Numerous other keyboard shortcuts are present as well such as line tools seen here... http://screencast.com/t/chWduNPrm9

It sounds like you are using Auto-hide Title Bars, but instead you want to always keep them hidden. Click on the ES button, turn off Auto-hide, and then click Hide All Title Bars. Alternatively, you can hide any window's title bar selectively via this command in the upper-right of each window... http://screencast.com/t/9xPZMNbAsJ47

Using an Auto Time Template will take care of this. R-click the chart, select Time Templates and choose "Auto". After you have done this, you can set this as default by right-clicking, select Style Template, and Set as Default. We will be making customizable toolbars which will include an ability to toggle the Auto Time Template on and off as you describe.

Great idea. We'll add this to our list to do in a future release.

Agreed. We are planning on honing the Alerts usability in a future release.

We just launched eSignal 11.1 this week which improves this functionality dramatically. Head on over to the download page to update to the latest.

Try using symbol linking for this effect as seen here...http://screencast.com/t/eHP3McXLj

With symbol linking enabled a single left-click will update all windows with the selected symbol. Alternatively, a press of the spacebar in the watch list, goes down to the next symbol and sends that out to other linked windows. Very handy for quickly reviewing charts one symbol at a time.

The application should close both itself and the all the data connections at exit. Try updating to 11.1 and see if this still occurs. If it does, then there may be a 3rd party application still using the data connection. A quick call to our techs will be able to work those issues out...http://www.esignal.com/support/esignal/contactus.aspx

eSignal 10.6 does have this ability and a future version of 11 will also be compatible with Sterling. We are also expanding our ability to allow 3rd parties even more access to our data and application in the future for even more integration.

Regards,
Jay Frank
eSignal Product Manager

 

Thank you Jay for replying in such a professional manner. I appreciate it.

--- (keyboard shortcuts) yes I saw those shortcuts but the fact that your allowing customizable short cuts is great news. This is a much needed feature.

---(auto hide title bar) The Auto hide feature is working properly. I was doing it on each chart however the option in the main menu works well. Problem solved.

---(chart data) The pre-market date option is working well now. However I can't seem to get this saved as the default for a new chart. I'm duplicating an existing window in order to replicate the options for the chart.

---(lock charts / windows) Thanks, yeah the lock feature would be great

---(easier alert setup) Good because this would improve the speed and also my use of eSignal

--- (chart saving/defult/apply to all) I only downloaded it on Monday, I thought this was the most up to date but maybe there is an update?

--- (login issues) It was not logging out properly at home. I guess it would be good if I login again it should cancel any currently running session. Anyways its not a big deal.

--- (Sterling interaction) This would be awesome. I would really like the 2 programs to talk to each other. When it comes down to it I can trade without eSignal but I can't trade without Sterling. If they could interact then the usfulness of eSignal would increase immensly. I don't want to enter orders from eSignal but clicking symbols and linking the level 2s would be great.

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New Issue
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I forgot to include this before...

Is it possible to put a comma in the volume numbers i.e. 5679043 is displayed as 5,679,043 instead. Looking quickly at a number its difficult to tell whether 5million has been traded or 500 thousand.

Also, is it possible to display the numbers in thousands instead of 100s... for example 100 shares is shown as a 1 in the time and sales. Thus this would be the same for volume... the number above would instead be 5,679k. I have this with Sterling and I find it is much easier to process information quickly by having it shown in this form

Again, thanks for your help

 

Alerts - The new update makes it much quicker to add an alert. Good job! However my suggestion of automatically making it an alert for above the cursor price if the last tick on the stock is below the cursor level.... and vice versa. This could be called quick alert or something and you can cut out the opening of the alerts window... i.e. avoiding an additional step. You can then double click the alert directly from the chart to view and edit this alert if you want it to be something different i.e. based on volume etc

I hope this makes sense

also... as per my last post I still would like to know about this one

 

Thanks for the idea on the Quick Alerts. We will consider this when we next touch the alerts portion of 11.

Regarding adding commas to volume, this can be added by going into Application Properties (click the eS button), and choosing Data and Group Delimited under the Volume area. Alternatively, you can choose Abbreviated, which puts it into a 13.9M style.

 

Awesome. I will change that tomorrow.

 

Jay,

Is there an ability to open up the default chart and edit the default. I'm having problems setting up my default charts. For example when I try to apply my moving averages across all of the charts on the page it only applies 1 of the averages and deletes the others.

I would imagine there should be an area to open the "default chart" and edit it. This can then be the chart that is opened when a new chart is created. further more you could select a chart and apply the default options.

The current apply all and set as default really do not seem to work. Even when I set as default... I open a new chart and it still has no volume study and no moving averages in addition to the timezone chart settings going back to 24hr. Doesn't seem to work. Am I missing something?

Thanks for your help

 

Setting a default chart can be done by first setting one chart window the way you like it and then click Chart --> Style Template --> Set as Default. Alternatively, it is faster to click on this icon:



I agree that "Apply to" in the Edit Chart area is working a bit strange, and we already have plans to change it in the next version.

 

In regards to setting up watchlists, what are the available data columns that can be selected ?

 

Hi Jay. On the new ES chart, how can I see net change? You have it on the 10.6 chart (on that little bar after OHLC). But it seems its not there on version 11's chart. I trade base on charts and I usually have 20 charts open for different securities. It's a huge inconvenience not to be able to see the net change on the charts. thanks.