I have been trying out QCharts for the last couple of weeks and my ping time (displayed down in the status bar) gets greater than 1 second way too often. I switch servers and get a good ping time for a little while, then it will slow down as well. Is anybody else having this problem? I can't imagine such a popular program would actually be this inconsistent. I can't use this feed if I'm constantly trying to find a good server and don't know how far behind my quotes are. Is it just me?
Well, the good news is at least they give you a way to tell if you're lagging. Unfortunately, this has been an off and on issue for them for years. It's one of those things that is hard to pin down, as some of the delay could be in the internet rather than their servers. I have used numerous data services and they all will have slowdowns from time to time. The important thing is to use a broker with fast quotes, like IB, and always compare the prices before trading so you don't inadvertently enter a trade on a bad price.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48067 The 1-2 sec. lag doesn't matter unless you trade a small timeframe.
It can matter, depending on the market and whether you use limit orders. However, as a past user of QCharts, I recall that delays of only 1 or 2 seconds were very rare. Usually, the intermittent lags were of much longer duration, regardless of how many times you switched servers. With its splendid user interface, QCharts could be a serious contender in the data vendor market if it ever decided to take any pride in its data integrity and reliability. However, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
Yea, I should have made it clear that it's the frequent >10 second lag (more than 5 times this morning on multiple servers) that has surprised me. I'm impressed with all other parts of Qcharts, but i don't know how they can get people to pay $100/month for this poor reliability.
I will say I have had what seems to have been an increase in delayed quotes the last month or so. Today my QCharts has been fine however, right in synch with the the broker's data.
Q charts has a great charting pkg and the worst feed in the business. It is a real shame. Before I got away from them, in a fast market they could lag IB as much as 3 or 4 min. And customer service is the worst. I'd look somewhere else. Keith