I posted these questions on another thread a few days ago, but no one has posted any replies, so I thought I'd put it on a seperate thread and see if anyone can help. I have been using RealTick for about a year but I constantly have problems with input lock during high trade activity on the E-minis and Townsend Analytics never could help. Besides that I want to change brokers, (commissions too high), so I'm looking for charting and trading package alternatives that might be as functional as RealTicks capabilities,(minus the lock-up problem of course). I'm testing Ensign Windows with Esignal data feed, but there are some features of RT that are lacking in Ensign (and Esignal). There are 2 functions in RT that Ensign seems to lack. Does anyone know of a charting package which also has functions such as: 1. Snap chart to window (as oppose to expanded detail). (Same as RT's F7 function key.) 2. Overlay multiple studies, i.e. MACD and volume and allow data axis to be displayed on right or left of chart. (otherwise dissimilar studies won't display properly.) Also in Ensign, it's news window doesn't seem to be able to filter the news based on keywords i.e. 'S&P, Nasdaq, Dow', etc. You can set alerts but thats really kind of useless since you have to search through all the other news stories in the window to find something pertinent to the alert. In RT, you can filter the news service to only display news pertinent to the keywords. And then you can display the story automatically in the bottom half of the news window. (I use this to see the news on the economic data for the morning.) I'm also use to the Level 2 display in RT and I'm currently testing J-Trader, which is so completely different that I'm having difficulty looking at it's 'Depth of market' window. Is there any other trading platforms that have a more traditional looking L2 display and shows the market depth for Futures? Also, in RT, on e-mini's they show the bid, ask, shares and number of orders. J-Trader doesn't show the number of orders, only total shares per price level. I'm currently planning on using Advance Futures and they only offer J-Trader and X-Trader. Any suggestions on these questions would be greatly appreciated.
This question has been discussed many times over the last couple of years here on ET. You asked a two part questions. 1) I've worked thru every broker that provides RT for the trading platform. No offers decent comissions on the RT platform for futures or stocks. Some come close on stocks, but futures nothing close to IB, Advanced futures or the like. If you find one post it! I've for four years now. 2) I've starting using another charting package that's working for me and kept RT just for the L2 montage on emini's and order entry. As far as fast market lockups. That has been beaten around many times and Townsend just either doesn't get the customers point or they don't care(of course they always post we care but each release speaks for itself.) Not sure which it is. Based on the last few major releases the focus is always order entry and the charts are low priority in my opinion. I'm sure Townsend feels differently about that. Proofs in the release notes. Charts are minor fixes and minor upgrades and order entry is bug fixes and major upgrades. Again my opinion, but based on extensive hands. Do a search on RT here on ET. Lots of posts on the subject. Good luck and good trading. Bsulli
My comments are not directed towards Townsends customer support group. They are responsive to the occasional problems I call in. Bsulli
I didn't mean to imply that Townsend was unresponsive. They did attempt to help me, but they were unsuccessful at finding a resolution. One of the main reasons was that they couldn't duplicate the problem on their end and since it only occurred when the trade rate spiked, by the time I could get someone on the phone to troubleshoot with me, the trade rate slowed back down and we had nothing to troubleshoot. The problem may very well be on my machine. Maybe a 1.2Ghz AMD Duron doesn't have the ability to multi-thread properly to correctly use their platform... I don't know. I'm currently testing J-Trader in conjunction with Ensign. If I see any similar lock-ups during news releases, then I'll know for sure my machine is the problem. We'll see.
My comments weren't directed towards you but to anyone who read the thread and mis took my comments as bashing customer support. The fast market locks are very well document on various chat boards around the internet. Here at ET, Silicon Investor, and a few others. The only solution I've ever seen anyone come up with that solves the problem is a true dual processor box. If you read the RT Q & A thread here on ET I asked Townsends to see if the new Intel Hyper Threading processor would be of any benefit. There customer support passed it along to the developers for review. Like most things Townsend it goes off into the Black Hole to never be heard from again( i know I have some of the developers direct phone number extensions). I've submitted my share of requests for enhancements along with many many others and rarely do those seem to get into the software(unless it's order entry related). If you read the Q & A thread in the time frame that 7.6 was released you'll find alot of bitching about the subject of enchancements. If something is truly a bug they will attempt to fix it, but the hoops you have to jump thru to get them to acknowledge that it really is a bug can be frustrating at times. There is another thread here on ET called Futures brokers and RT where folks were asking the same questions you originally posted. Same results reasonably price brokers and RT combo don't exist. It's ashame in my opinion the amount of business Townsend could pick up would explode! Like everything in life bigger badder workstations make a difference! Fwiw, again good luck and good trading. Bsulli
The Futures thread you mention is where I first posted my lock-up problems, but from the responses I got, it sounded like very few, if any others, experienced the same problems I had and the one reply that comes to mind pointed to my CPU utilization as being the culprit. But I had already verified that my CPU % utilization was never maxing out and that couldn't possibly explain why my keyboard and mouse clicks, (in trying to place an order), would get buffered and then passed on after the trade rate slowed back down, which could be anywhere from 5 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the trade activity. If your saying this kind of problem is well documented on various chat boards, Townsend acts as though this kind of thing must be particular to MY machine because no one else has reported it. So I have no other choice but to find alternative solutions. Thanks for your input.