stockwatch pro

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by spike.usa, Sep 22, 2001.

  1. Anyone here have experience with Stockwatch pro? I started a 14 day trial yesterday and ran into a few problems.

    1. The candles on one of my charts descended below the time axis and I couldn't find any vertical scaling option. Closing the program and restarting cured the problem.

    2. I am trying to plot a custom study with the following formula:

    (Bar[High,D,1]+Bar[Low,D,1]+Bar[Close,D,1])/3

    It simply calculates a single value (pivot point) from yesterday's high+low+close divided by 3. When I include this custom study on a 5 min chart it plots a new value for each bar instead of a single horizontal line across the chart. It would appear that it is performing the calculation on every bar, despite the fact that I have specified the Daily values. I tried something simpler like Bar[High,D,1] to just plot a single horizontal line at yesterday's high but the study calculates a new value for each bar, regardless of timescale. Bug?


    3. Anyone know of a users group or bulletin board for SWP users?

    Thanks

    spike
    p.s. comparing stockwatch pro with ravenquote - had rq probs as well
     
  2. SWP tech support have confirmed that the problem of candles descending off the chart is a known bug. :(

    The problem with the custom studies is also known - the chart ignores the timeframe specified in the formula (!) What's the point??

    Oh well..........

    spike
     
  3. Been looking for an effective way to get alerts and was about to sign up for RavenQuote today when I saw your post about the fact that you tried RavenQuote and had problems so are now trying this service Stockwatch pro. What seems to be the difference between the two and what did you not like about RavenQuote ?
     
  4. I have persevered with RQ for a couple of months now. It is an excellent package (I particularly like the charts). Unfortunately it suffers from server delays, which at busy times cause it to become totally unusable. Charts fail to update, L2 stops etc, which makes it totally unusable. The data feed for RQ comes from Quote.com. I have compared server delays between Qcharts and RQ, and in theory there shouldn't be much of difference, but RQ is reliably (!) slower than Qcharts by a factor of at least 3. On Friday is was over 4 mins!! I have discussed it at length with RQ tech support (very helpful) but we haven't got to the bottom of the problem yet.

    A significant benefit with Stockwatch Pro is the built in Backtester. I tried it out this morning and was quite disappointed. It cannot report reward/risk ratio or ROI. Entry price is restricted to o,h,l,c on the day of execution. I find the whole user interface of SWP very clumsy after getting used to RQ.

    I plan to continue with the free trial of SWP, just to see if it suffers from the same server delays - it also uses quote.com for its datafeed! Unfortunately the bugs I reported earlier in this thread are enough to put me off subscribing.

    I am trying an earlier version of RQ (1.41) to see if that cures the server delays (from comments on the RQ bulletin board). Some say going over to win2k sorts the problem out too.

    I have also used AIQ for about a year - excellent package, never had any problems, but the charts suck compared to RQ - and RQ has the built-in intraday scanner. When someone puts all these features into a single package they are going to make a killing :)

    spike
     
  5. m_c_a98

    m_c_a98

    spike,
    I use Ravenquote with win2k and don't have any of the problems you talk about.
     
  6. You point out that RavenQuote has an intra-day scanner. Two questions about that. 1. Does Stock Watch Pro have intraday scanning abilities as well 2. From what I read on the RavenQuote site, I think under the FAQ section that they pointed out that there were bugs with the intraday scanning abilities, have they fixed those bugs.
    What are the differences in features in the two programs that would make one better than the other in your opinion?
    Are the charts as good on Stockwatch Pro as they are on RavenQuote, if no what is the difference?
     
  7. Tradin4profit
    Yes, SWP has an intraday scanner. Haven't used it much yet but as far as I'm aware it can scan across multiple timeframes, which is often quite useful.

    SWP vs RQ?
    1. SWP has backtesting as I've already mentioned - RQ doesn't.
    2. SWP has ATR as one of the studies - also very useful
    3. The charts are virtually identical - both very clear - but SWP does not make a note of the timeframe on the chart header - easy to forget (for me!)
    4. The user interface on RQ is much better - SWP feels very clumsy
    5. RQ remembers the workspace layout - SWP doesn't - very annoying
    6. L2 layout on RQ much better IMHO.
    7. Your question regarding bug fixes in the RQ scanner are best sent to their tech support.

    I have only been using SWP for 24 hours but my impressions so far are that it is not as slick as RQ.

    spike
     
  8. what other scanners are there, that traders have found useful (hopefully sharing that tidbit will not be viewed as one losing control over their treasured asset).

    Also, on your software/hardware platform, while running SWP or RQ do you find your monitor and processor over taxed while maintaining L2 windows openen? Also, how many Level II screens as well as other processes running?, have an impact upon your 4 min delays?
     
  9. snorton

    snorton

    Dear Subscribers,

    On behalf of Cron Technologies, I would like to inform you about the release of Stock Watch Pro 2.1. This version is based primarily on valuable feedback and suggestions from our active users. You can download the new version from http://www.crontech.com/swp/download.html . Please note that Stock Watch Pro 2.1 is by default installed to "C:\Program Files\Cron Technologies\Stock Watch Pro 2.0" folder so that you can use your existing layouts and workspaces from version 2.0.

    Some of the new things in V2.1:

    - Implemented Bar Lines (can be setup using any
    formula, see BarLines.chl chart layout for a sample
    setup)
    - Added Log Scaling (see Log button on Chart Toolbar)
    - Added Vertical Scaling (see "SP" buttons with arrows on Chart Toolbar)
    - Fixed "candles running off the chart" issue
    - Display Interval/Session in chart title
    - Added space between the last bar and Price axis on the chart
    - Allow non-historical fields (e.g. Bid, Ask) to be used in Custom Chart Studies
    - Display Level II Island Book in decimals
    - Strip new-line characters from formulas to facilitate copy/pasting from email to Formula Wizard
    - Added "Use QCharts INI file" option to Login dialog

    I hope you like this new version and I'd be delighted to receive your feedback.

    Sincerely,

    Steve Norton
    snorton@crontech.com
    http://www.crontech.com
     
  10. I came into the office today to do some chart work and was unable to log in. I'm hoping it's due to the fact that it's Sat. and the server is down for the maintenance. I spoke to Dave at RQ on Thurs. and he said they had a buyer and won't shut service down for the month. I hope this is in fact the case. Would hate to loose RQ. I don't really feel like setting up a whole new workspace right now:mad:
     
    #10     Dec 1, 2001