The options data in e-signal is not good. You can not get t & S history at all for options. Nextrend was very good for options .
I like esignal's charting package-much better than realtick, or any other software provider. Only downside to esignal is that their level 2 is horrible, no ecn book quotes, which causes their live ticker to get all F'd up. I run 22 charts on 5 monitors and I have no problems with esignal. -Pound
What is wrong with esignal's data feed? I have been using them for quite some time. I have never had a problem. -Pound
Been using Qcharts off and on for the last 3 yrs. Never had a problem that I could tell when trading with broker over the phone. Been using IB the last 2 months and their quotes have been right with IB for the most part. A one minute spike has resulted in slow charts but then a guy can trade off of the price anyway. I tried a couple others but for the charts I keep with Qcharts. Make 'em pretty, Chris
I have often used many plateform at the same time for benchmark performance, feature, reliability of each. For QChart, their graphic engine is very nice et like many thing that you can find inside it, their zoom is very funny to use, it is easy to read a lot of graphics in few space. Also their software seem to have few bugs, it is robust. Big historic data, API is enought available, no limit on symbol are other important features. The problem is that if you want daytrade on short timeframe, only one thing to say: «don't trust them in fast market or at the opening». Also, the T&S are not so completed than eSignal, it lag often at the more critical moment. For eSignal, they have feature that could interested daytrader, because you can control the spacing between candle (squeeze control), very fast refresh between switch of stock on graphic, can hide the window title bar for space saving and a lot of thing as this. Also the next release for July, will have a lot of intresting features as backtesting, script formula on tick chart, integrated trading for many new brokers and some other stuff. the most important point for short timeframe is that they are very reliable in all time. Since over 1 year, only one day, and the problem wasn't form them but from ISP with their barebone. The problem is the limit on the symbol and few access at their API if you want to program some news features.
Well, I've had QQL, Qcharts and eSignal side by side for a day. Like I said I had several disconnects with eSignal on first use during market hours. I was using their default layout with only a handful of symbols. When eSignal went out, my broker and QQL were still up and running--who knows--probably depends on how you're connected and where you are relative to their servers. I've very rarely had disconnects with my broker and never with QQL. With eSignal it was three in the span of two hours. As far as being user friendly, QQL is first, Q charts close second, eSignal distant third. I spent a couple hours with eSignal basic and another 5 or so with advance charting. Nothing intuitive about eSignal--hell of a time duplicating my QQL setup and I kept screwing up. Q charts matched my QQL set up in less than 2 hours. Q charts help manual is way better than eSignal. That said, eSignal is more sophisticated and allows you to do more with charts and other types of noodling which was part of my problem--getting through all of the stuff to get back to basics. If you're a quant type, eSignal will probably be for you. Me, I started with all the indicators in the world and went back to basic old chart reading, sometimes using stochastic(5,3,3), MACD, Bollinger bands, and MA's. I do look at different time frames allot, and track a dozen or more charts at one time. So the ability to fiddle with minor settings quickly and intuitively was important to me. The software has to be an extension of my thinking . Anything that slows me down or frustrates me during the heat of trading gets canned. Qcharts was easy as pie. Like Einstein said, "keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler".
I've used eSignal + MetaStock Pro since '99. (If you count the days when they broadcast over FM, since about '92). The two work seamlessly together, and MetaStock has all the bells and whistles. If you don't mind the cost, they will probably solve your data and charting problems.
So I today I had QQL, Q charts, eSignal, and my broker running side by side from Fed meeting to close. Guess who screwed up big time with price quotes--I mean off by by as much as 20 cents, or just plain delayed--yup, Q charts. Even when the status indicator returned to green, after being yellow and orange, prices were still off. I should add that most of the stocks are not big ones(500k to 2 million shares trade vol.). However out of my 4 sources only Q charts messed up. So now I'm kinda back where I started. Both Q charts and eSignal have screwed up, though I'm more upset by the Q chart mess up.