In my opinion, QQL filled a void in the market. Yes -- QQL is basic and inexpensive but some of us prefer that.
Despite my complaining, I spent a few hours today trying to set up Esignal. And while it required more work than QQL, I don't think my layout is too bad now. There are still some things I can't seem to figure out, and though I liked my QQL layout better, I may be able to live with Esignal. We'll see tomorrow when the market is open.
formicatrading "Despite my complaining, I spent a few hours today trying to set up Esignal. And while it required more work than QQL, I don't think my layout is too bad now. There are still some things I can't seem to figure out, and though I liked my QQL layout better, I may be able to live with Esignal. We'll see tomorrow when the market is open. " " Trust me when you see how nice the data flow is with e-sig you will forget about QQL prety damm fast. And the Advanced charts are very nice .
It looks to me like I can get IQ feed on quotetracker with futures, and I guess than means e-mimis and the big ones, for $40 a month. I only want tick charts a few basic indicators. I do my orders through IB. Does anybody know of cheaper futures charting package? I can't real tell from what's been posted here. I think, not completely sure, such a package would cost abouit $80 with Esignal.
First off, for longer-term charts, I'm happy with Worden Brothers' TC2000. It doesn't have complicated charting some of you might like, and it depends on its own proprietary algorthms (which is irritating since as the user you don't know the variables) ... but I find it gives an adequate sense of where a stock is going. And the program is very well organized, with excellent scanning capabilities. **BUT FOR INTRADAY, all I want is a good datafeed with highly legible, quickly configurable Price/Volume charts and Time-&-Sales windows.** I used to use QQL for much more than that, but when it gets down to it, that's all I really need to daytrade. What could be simpler??!! But eSignal intraday charts have problems: 1. The volume bars are so skinny you can't quickly grasp what the trend is. 2. You can't readily compare close-up intraday charts because there aren't pre-set magnifications. (I like to put charts one above the other and see if they're moving in sync or not.) (And what a pain in the ass it is that when you switch intervals, like from 1-minute to 5-minute, you automatically zoom out and lose your focus.) 3. You can't quickly read the Time-&-Sales charts because they have all this extra, unremovable crap (specifically, the info on the exchanges). (I use three 19" monitors, but the eSignal Time-&-Sales charts are so inefficient in use of space, that the 3 monitors are not enough!) So, DOES ANYONE HAVE A SERVICE TO RECOMMEND for these limited needs: clean, readable Time-&-Sales windows; quickly configurable Price/Volume charts; reliable datafeed. Please? Thanks in advance.
Take a look at Nextrend . One of the nice features of Nextrend was the ability to have 4 pre set screens set up at one time. all you had to do was click an icon the software to bring up the other screen. So basically you could have one page with a chart , one page with a bunch on t & S , one page with a bunch of level 2 and one page with a mix of stuff. The Nextrend feed was good . Only reason I left was because e-sig gave me a great deal to come back as a former customer. Only reason I left in the first place was because the month to month was too expensive. As for you comments on e-sig , the advanced charts are easy to read . The old e-sig charts candle charts are basically worthless. As for the time and sales , change your font to 8 and you can fit a lot of them on one screen.
RE: "The old e-sig candle charts are basically worthless." Those poor maligned eSignal standard charts. They're pretty bad in a lot of ways, but definitely not worthless. One unique feature I've not found anywhere else is the way that blank area for the entire current day's data (all future periods) is reserved and displayed in full from start time to end time. The user sees blank area reserved for the entire day before data begins, and future periods remain visible all day. Data fills the reserved blank area from left to right, ending the day at the right chart border. Compare this to most charts that plot at the right chart border and give limited or no visibility into future periods. How is this useful? Well, with future periods for the entire current day visible, lines can be projected into those future periods. Using a 3 or 4 day chart (intraday periodicity) with the current day blank, the line user gets a clear view into the day unmatched by charts that fill at the right border. Unfortunately, although eSignal standard charts are a great tool for line users, the line tools are severely inadequate. Zooming-in causes lines to disappear and skew, there are no Fib tools, line work cannot be saved (all line work has to be redrawn every day), etc. Lots of room for improvement there.
I tried QuoteTracker today. I like its interface a lot better than eSignal's. However, it doesn't seem to offer Time & Sales -- or I couldn't find it if it does. (QT has something they call "Raw Data," which shows trades and bid and ask, but it doesn't show Bid Size or Ask Size.) I've emailed them to find out if I'm just missing it. It *does*offer Level II, however, which I suppose I could use in place of the way I use Time & Sales. Also, QT doesn't offer anything beyond intraday. I thought that would be OK because I use TC2000 for longer-term analysis. But it's a bit hard not to be able to look at the intraday in the context of at least the day before. My datafeed today was just my Datek account. (QuoteTracker is free, you just have to provide your own datafeed.) I had problems, but I suppose they were due to the Datek datafeed -- like failing to update for one long period today. Also, with Datek, Level II is limited to just Island, which is worthless. I'm looking into alternative datafeeds. I don't mind paying for them if they give me what I want. Frankly, I'm very frustrated. I'm not warming up to eSignal with additional use. And I called and found out that in the Advanced Chart you still don't have what I would consider a usable Time & Sales window. Also, it sounds like the Advanced Chart doesn't let you look at a couple days in a single glance. I WISH THAT eSIGNAL WOULD JUST OFFER THE QUICKEN SOFTWARE WITH THE eSIGNAL FEED. Intuit's interface was just MUCH better. I don't mind learning a new program, but when you learn it and find out that you have about 5 extra clicks every time you want to make a change in a chart or symbol ... you just can't speed trade with that. If eSignal would just make the basic version USABLE, I'd stick with it; but it appears I'll be bailing before the month is out.
Quote tracker is great for a free service but anyone who will compare it to E-signal and say it is as good or better is crazy . As for the interface being better then E-signal , once again not even close , E-sig blows them away . I use Quote Tracker as a news source only . You have to rely on third partys for the feed for level II . If you think datek will give you a good feed think again . the trouble you had today you will have everyday. The Raw Data is a Time and Sales screen but a lot of the trades are consolidated where as a true T & S is trade by trade. Don't get me wrong, I like Quote tracker but if you are serious about Day Trading you need much more. Try Nextrend , I think they still give a free month . I did use them and liked the service.
What is it that you like about the eSignal interface? Maybe I'm too stuck in QQL to see it, but I'm open to learning to appreciate it. In QT, for starters, I can see and "grok" the bloody candlesticks and volume bars at a glance. I can switch time frames and intervals quickly with keyboard shortcuts (rather than going through endless clicking). I can switch the symbol I'm looking at in a chart without having to recreate the timeframe and interval and lose my focus each time. What is it about the eSignal interface that you prefer? I expect that you're right about the Datek datafeed, which is why I'm looking into paid alternatives. This was my first day using QT and I used Datek just to check it out. I have no problem with paying more for a Level II feed (if I can't get what I thought was Time and Sales, with Bid Size and Ask Size). Per QT support, a true tick-by-tick datafeed would provide something very close to Time & Sales; but they still won't provide the Size of the Bid and Ask. (What was that on QQL that they called Time and Sales?) Why have you gone to eSignal instead of Nextrend? (I'll give Nextrend a deeper look. I forget why I didn't like what I saw when I looked at their website over the weekend.)