Presentation and two questions

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arnie
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Presentation and two questions

Postby arnie » 11 Feb 2009

Hello.

This is my first message and I'm very happy to have finally bought MC.

I come from 10 years of Metastock usage and althought I continue to use it everyday for my EOD signals (I have a complete trading system in it), when I decided a couple of months ago to get back to daytrade again, I decided to upgrade my EOD version to the professional one. What a disaster. I never thought MS would act like that.

My computer started to work almost frame by frame, MS was "eating" all the resources he could to be able to keep up with the data flow he was receiving.

Then a friend of mine told me about MC and from the moment I opened it I was hooked. I had 12 charts updating realtime with no problem what so ever.
So let me thank to all MC developers and associates for their job well done :)

But my reason for this first message is regarding MC ability to read Metastock data format. I'm sorry to say this but what a disappointment.

I have a very extensive daily EOD database ( I subscribe PremiumData service) that is distributed by several folders. Since I can't work with daily data from any of the realtime data providers I've tested so far (at the moment I use IQFeed) because all of them have all sort of problems, I'll continue to subscribe this service.

So my question is this, is there a way for you to enhance your Metastock plugin so it could be able to read from multiple folders.

I know that MC is made especificaly for daytrade but since my daytrade is based on daily data and since I cannot trust the daily data from the RT providers, this Metastock problem produces a little setback.

And since we are discussing daily data and I read other users complaining about the same problem, though using a different data provider, why can't MC "sustain" the previous daily bar on the chart? Let me give an example, if I open a daily chart, I'm able to see today's bar but when the new session begins, that bar disappears.

What I've been doing is in QuoteManager delete the data and then recall the chart again. Normally, this resolve the problem for that day.

IQFeed says the problem must be with Multicharts because using their own software, IQFeed says that all bars are correct and being update without any type of problem.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 12 Feb 2009

Hi arnie,

Thank you very much for the positive comments on MultiCharts.

Could you please specify in what way MC's work with EOD MetaStock files disappointed you? MultiCharts can work with multiple MetaStock folders. The issues that our customers had in the past were related to them using different symbols located in different folders but having identical names. Unless this is the case with your files, there should be no problem using multiple MetaStock files for plotting data in MC. If you need help setting up the folders correctly, please contact our customer support for online assistance.

You are saying that there is a problem with the previous sessions' daily bar:
Let me give an example, if I open a daily chart, I'm able to see today's bar but when the new session begins, that bar disappears.
To help you resolve the issue we will need the following information:

-----------------
MC version
Data provider (I assume this is IQFeed?)
Symbol
Exchange
Exchange time zone
Your system time zone
Session times specified for this symbol in QuoteManager -> Edit Symbol -> Sessions
------------------

The bugs on daily data that have been reported to us over the past several months, have all been fixed. Other cases were the result of wrong settings.

If you want you can contact our customer support for online assistance.

Regards.

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Postby arnie » 12 Feb 2009

Hi Marina.

Thank you for your reply.

Regarding Metastock files I was able to solve the problem. Don't ask me what happened but the first time I tried to add folders I was only able to add 1 folder, therefore my problem accessing data from other folders.

So let me remove my previous comment when I said MC was a disappointment. Now MC is 100% perfect :D


About the other issue:

MC version - 5.0 Beta 2 (Build 1781)
Data provider - IQFeed
Symbol - @ES#
Exchange - CME
Exchange time zone - YES but chart is plotted with my local time
Your system time zone - GMT
Session times specified for this symbol in QuoteManager -> Edit Symbol -> Sessions - Exchange & ECN sessions

An example, at this moment, ES daily chart is showing February 12 with a small inside bar and the bar that is being updated now has a February 13 date :?

I confess that I have problems understating the concept in selecting the sessions source in QuoteManager and then be possible to overide that same selection in Multicharts, changing the chart session or the display time zone. However, since I'm new to MC, it's natural that some things create some confusion :oops:

Regards

PS: Almost forgot to mention that EURUSD.FXCM symbol sometimes have the same problem with the daily bars.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 13 Feb 2009

Hi arnie,

It looks like I have to ask you to contact our customer support for a remote connection session. Could you please contact them either by phone or via LiveChat?

As for the sessions, here's the way it all works:

Your chosen exchange must have a correct time zone selected. For example, CME will be GMT-6 - Central American Time USA and Canada. If you choose any other time zone for CME (in Tools -> Exchanges and ECN’s) it will interfere with accuracy of your data. It might even result in gaps and other glitches.

Sessions created in QuoteManager form a sort of a time grid: anything beyond the specified times will be simply filtered out. Sessions in QuoteManager can be set Exchange Time zone, GMT or LocalTime. For example, if a symbol is traded on CME and its session times are from 09:00 till 16:00, when creating sessions in the Exchange Time Zone you need to enter these exact values. However, if you decide to enter session times in local time zone and your local time zone is Eastern Time the indicated session hours should be 10:00 and 17:00 respectively.

Finally, when you plot charts you can choose data to be shown in either Exchange or Local Time Zone. These settings do not override whatever you specified in QuoteManager. They simply affect the timestamps of the bars that will happen to be within the time grid created in QuoteManager.

I hope the above explanations make sense. If something is not quite clear please give us a call at 888 817 6385 and one of our customer support representatives will tell you more on how this works.

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Postby arnie » 14 Feb 2009

Hi Marina.

Thank you for the reply.

Let see if I'm able to arrange a proper time to contact the costumer services then.

Based on what you said and as far as I could see, with intraday data the problem is non existent, meaning, using exchange & ECN's session in QuoteManager and then change to local time zone in Multicharts, the only thing that changes are the timestamps of the bars as you said, but when change intraday into daily, the problems begin.

It seems that MC can't deal with daily bars when they are collect with the exhange time zone and then plotted as local time zone.

Taking into account what I had previously said:
An example, at this moment, ES daily chart is showing February 12 with a small inside bar and the bar that is being updated now has a February 13 date
In this case, February 13 would be the next day and MC assumed, because of the local time zone, we were on the 13th when in fact we were on the 12th. This examplifies the problem that MC have with daily bars.

I changed the bars from local time zone into exchange time zone and I was able to see the correct daily bars.

So , again, with intraday data, there is no problem in changing the bar timestamps to local time zone but when we change to daily data, we need to maintain the QuoteManager exchange time zone also in MC to have a proper daily bar display.

Regards.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 16 Feb 2009

Hi arnie,

Once again, if we could take a look at all of your time settings we might be able to make sure you don't have those problems with daily bars.

We are available here from 6:30 am till 4 pm EST. The best time to contact us would be before 1 pm, though - then we'll have engineers around who'd be able to step in should we need them.

Regards.


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