General unreliability

Questions about MCFX and MCFX Data Feed.
geoff238
Posts: 7
Joined: 12 Mar 2007

General unreliability

Postby geoff238 » 26 Mar 2007

I have been a user of MCFX for just over a month now and, unfortunately, don't see my way clear to persevering with it much longer. The intentions of the technical support people appear to be good and they are genuinely helpful, but frankly, I can't continue to allow the world to pass me by while I wait endlessly for charts to update (over an hour so far for GBP/USD 15 minutes and not far behind for USD/CAD 15 minutes - neither of which show any hope at all of ever downloading anything. And there are more, many more, with the same problem) or for some other problem to be resolved. I am using T1 cable during the day and DSL at night from home. Everything else I do downloads in seconds. I think its a sad indictment on MCFX that I now have to turn to the freeware charts on FXCM to get the information I am looking for. Add to that the many times that FXCM data doesn't align with the charts and the times where there are gaps on the charts (EU/USD - 15 minutes and 30 minutes (didn't bother to check through every one) for Friday 03/23 06.45 CDT all the way through the rest of the day)

I can't for a moment believe that these problems are unique to me?

sparkz
Posts: 64
Joined: 16 Mar 2007

Postby sparkz » 26 Mar 2007

Yes, you're not the only one. I only waited half an hour before giving up though.

As a matter of interest, have you got any errors in your application event log (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer). I've got loads of errors for MCFX although the program doesn't say anything is wrong? Just sits there "waiting for data"!

yosnappyj
Posts: 112
Joined: 14 Feb 2007

Re: General unreliability

Postby yosnappyj » 26 Mar 2007

I have been a user of MCFX for just over a month now and, unfortunately, don't see my way clear to persevering with it much longer. The intentions of the technical support people appear to be good and they are genuinely helpful, but frankly, I can't continue to allow the world to pass me by while I wait endlessly for charts to update (over an hour so far for GBP/USD 15 minutes and not far behind for USD/CAD 15 minutes - neither of which show any hope at all of ever downloading anything. And there are more, many more, with the same problem) or for some other problem to be resolved. I am using T1 cable during the day and DSL at night from home. Everything else I do downloads in seconds. I think its a sad indictment on MCFX that I now have to turn to the freeware charts on FXCM to get the information I am looking for. Add to that the many times that FXCM data doesn't align with the charts and the times where there are gaps on the charts (EUR/USD - 15 minutes and 30 minutes (didn't bother to check through every one) for Friday 03/23 06.45 CDT all the way through the rest of the day)

I can't for a moment believe that these problems are unique to me?
I agree. I'm left with the overwhelming impression of paying for an unfinished product.

The latest version has cured the major problem I was having of (I presume) cascading math errors in the indicators, but the data feed reliability is far from adequate. It's incredible to me that with three different data sources, not one is reliable.

Connection times are generally good for me, but occasionally a chart will refuse to connect - usually a longer time period chart compiled from 1 hour bars, e.g. a 16h chart. This happens even when the status bar reads "Connection OK" and connection speed 10M or better.

I also find the documentation completely inadequate. It shouldn't be necessary to hunt through manuals for other products (e.g. the Easylanguage manual from the Multicharts download page) to figure out advertised but undocumented features of MCFX.

I intend to persevere for the moment, largely because of the time I've already invested in getting MCFX to do what I need it to do, and because *IF THE DATA FEED PROBLEMS CAN BE SOLVED* MCFX would be a good package at an excellent price. But I couldn't honestly recommend it at the moment, and I'm considering my alternatives.

yosnappyj
Posts: 112
Joined: 14 Feb 2007

Postby yosnappyj » 26 Mar 2007

As a matter of interest, have you got any errors in your application event log (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer). I've got loads of errors for MCFX although the program doesn't say anything is wrong? Just sits there "waiting for data"!
I've just checked, and I have over 1400 events logged over the last three days, the overwhelming majority from MCFX. This seems to happen on startup of MCFX. I just closed and restarted the package, and over 100 events were added to the list.

A typical error report reads:

Échec de détection du produit '{BE5EE35F-224B-4BF3-B931-
9EEC31F1A2FD}', fonctionnalité 'MCFX' lors de la demande
du composant '{3383E97F-F6E2-4FA5-B69D-1F8B0683F512}'

(I'm running French Windows!)

roughly translated:

Failure to detect product '{BE5EE35F-224B-4BF3-B931-
9EEC31F1A2FD}', functionality 'MCFX' on request for
component '{3383E97F-F6E2-4FA5-B69D-1F8B0683F512}'

or

Échec de détection du produit '{BE5EE35F-224B-4BF3-B931-
9EEC31F1A2FD}', fonctionnalité 'MCFX', composant '{73E41D70
-52A4-498B-AA29-8E269DCD187E}.
La ressource 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
\TSSupport\MCFX\Installer\LogsFolderLink_PM' n'existe pas

or

Failure to detect product ...
The resource ... does not exist

dof
Posts: 81
Joined: 08 Jul 2006
Contact:

Postby dof » 26 Mar 2007

MCFX it's a work in progress, everybody subscribing should now that. They have some issues, like sparkz said, there are many events in the log, but almost all of them are warnings not errors.

When you analyze, MT is more reliable, has more features, it's free (at least for the user) and has a mobile version. The only disadvantage with MT is easyLanguage, it doesn't support it.

MCFX compared to TS is inferior but a lot cheaper. I'm using MCFX for a few months now ( i don't think it's a year yet) and they did lot of improving. It's getting better. I can handle the small problems for the price difference.

So you have to know what you are looking. If you just want a powerful charting tool, you can use MT with different brokers, demo accounts. If you want to use some easyLanguage indicators or addons you can use mcfx for less or you can use TS for a lot more. You can get TS for free if you trade a certain quantity using them.

geoff238
Posts: 7
Joined: 12 Mar 2007

Postby geoff238 » 26 Mar 2007

I'd like to see it succeed. I really would. I never get the feeling that anyone is trying to hide anything and tech support is helpful, albeit way too stretched. I'm just not too sure how long I can hang out there. Charts are my lifeblood when it comes to trading. Its one thing to be patient and charitable, but its another when you lose money because your first line tool is malfunctioning.

ij woods
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Location: Las Vegas

Postby ij woods » 26 Mar 2007

I have just started using MCFX and the first week was a very good experience. For the price I thought it was a fine package. But starting Sunday I began to experience what some of you are talking about. Sometimes the data won't load and othertimes it freezes. Fortunately my trading style is not so short term that I've been impacted-- yet. So, now I find myself having to use both the free charts out on the net, like fx powerchart, and MCFX plus I keep my eye on the trading application. This is not why I spend money on a charting package. I've already used one premium package but didn't like it so much- and even that was dodgey on the reliability side. I am going to slog it out for the 30 day trial and then make a decision. I like the spirit of the support here, but if I get creamed one day because the charts are not working properly I'm going to be in one hell of a mood. Maybe the only way to get something reliable is to spend $100 a month.

yosnappyj
Posts: 112
Joined: 14 Feb 2007

Postby yosnappyj » 27 Mar 2007

MCFX it's a work in progress, everybody subscribing should (k)now that.
It's normal for software to be released with a certain amount of bug fixing left to do: that's the nature of software. However I can't help feeling that MCFX was brought to market too early. If it's genuinely a work in progress, everybody subscribing should be told that.

So you have to know what you are looking. If you just want a powerful charting tool, you can use MT with different brokers, demo accounts. If you want to use some easyLanguage indicators or addons you can use mcfx for less or you can use TS for a lot more. You can get TS for free if you trade a certain quantity using them.
None of the complaints have been about a lack of features: they've been about glitches, poor reliability, and lack of documentation.

I subscribed to MCFX Basic for a number of reasons. My trading system involves indicators applied to indicators, and this is specifically mentioned on the MCFX site. I didn't want to change brokers (as TS would require) and MCFX uses the FXCM data feed. I didn't want to learn EasyLanguage initially, but wanted the option of upgrading in the medium term, hence MCFX Basic seemed ideal.

It would be, if the data feed was actually "fast and reliable" as advertised at the top left of this page.

dof
Posts: 81
Joined: 08 Jul 2006
Contact:

Postby dof » 28 Mar 2007

I don't know what are you complaining but i start MCFX sunday and close it on friday and everything is working. I get my signals, i got my emails.

geoff238
Posts: 7
Joined: 12 Mar 2007

Postby geoff238 » 28 Mar 2007

Then you're the lucky one. Today is the 4th day in a row I can't access 15 min, 30 min, 4 hr and many more variations on GBP/USD. That same problem applies to USD/CAD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF and frankly I stopped trying with other pairs beyond that point. Nobody from technical support has made any comment or said when and how this might be fixed. Any wonder I'm cynical and frustrated?

Les
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Contact:

Delay not typical

Postby Les » 28 Mar 2007

While your posts certainly indicate that some of you are having problems, I think it should be understood that delays in receiving data are not typical.

I make a support product for MCFX and my organization has MCFX running on 10 computers using a number of different ISPs.

Certainly there have been problems when the server goes down, but when the server is running properly, charts are drawn in seconds virtually all of the time.

I would guess most of your problems have to do with your local configuration (firewalls, virus software, etc.), but waiting more than a couple of minutes for a chart to draw makes no sense.

I would suggest you contact TS Support personnel when this happens and have them take a look.

sparkz
Posts: 64
Joined: 16 Mar 2007

Postby sparkz » 28 Mar 2007

I've got similar problems to Geoff. I've also spoken to support and they acknowledged that there are still currently problems with missing data.

Three things I noticed.

1. The problem is far worse on 5, 10, 15 mins intervals compared to 1 hour etc. I've got nearly 2 days missing on EURUSD 15mins but on 1 hour there is only one bar missing.

2. While current bars are collected and displayed ok in a live situation. If you reload or restart the program these recent bars are lost. I don't know how far back this goes but certainly for today.

3. The dates for how far you can go back seemed to have changed. I noticed on Monday that some of my charts wouldn't load but once I changed the start dates they were alright.

geoff238
Posts: 7
Joined: 12 Mar 2007

Postby geoff238 » 28 Mar 2007

I just spoke with technical support and they were their usual helpful selves. My problem was twofold. I was using port 9000, which I had been advised to do, without anyone mentioning that it only carries 16 currency pairs (yes, there is a message buried in December 2006 that explains the ports, but what hope does anyone have of finding that?). Secondly, when I change the start dates, as I was now advised, I can access the 15 minute, etc, charts. The short solution here is to have a space on the website that deals with the more important of these issues. It would kill 90% of all tech inquiries. I am very slightly above average on technical issues, but I don't know what I don't know!

User avatar
Kate
Posts: 758
Joined: 08 Dec 2006

Postby Kate » 28 Mar 2007

Three things I noticed.

1. The problem is far worse on 5, 10, 15 mins intervals compared to 1 hour etc. I've got nearly 2 days missing on EURUSD 15mins but on 1 hour there is only one bar missing.

2. While current bars are collected and displayed ok in a live situation. If you reload or restart the program these recent bars are lost. I don't know how far back this goes but certainly for today.

3. The dates for how far you can go back seemed to have changed. I noticed on Monday that some of my charts wouldn't load but once I changed the start dates they were alright.
Sparkz,

Could you contact us via our live chat or give us a call and show these problems via HelpDesk?

sparkz
Posts: 64
Joined: 16 Mar 2007

Postby sparkz » 29 Mar 2007

I had a long seesion with them today.

Issue 1 is still a work in progress.

We got to the bottom of my issue 2. There's a problem now (wasn't last week) when you use a start date for the data. Changing this to a number of bars fixed it. Now after a reload or restart I don't lose the recent bars. :D

Issue 3 is due to limits being put into place to reduce the strain on the servers.

One thing that does surprise me with MCFX. Is why the program doesn't save the old data. Surely this will take a lot of the load of the servers which are obviously struggling a bit at the moment if users are putting in requests for too much data.

gombert renaud
Posts: 1
Joined: 05 Oct 2007

Postby gombert renaud » 05 Oct 2007

Just received my login 24h after purchasing... I was very happy to try MCX, but 3 hours layer I know i'll not keep it.

First, paying to try a software is questionable, even if you can be refunded within the trial period. I had to pay, then to wait one day, then ran into dificulties installing MCFX on vista... and finaly it's useless. Do you realy want people to goi try other trading software ?

Everything is too comlex and "closed" with this business aproach. Even the acces to the forum, impossible before subscribing. Usualy i'm "zen", and can understand program has bug and company work on it... but i had to know . Here i had to pay to discover the problems. And i'm glad i have not opened and funded an FXCM account to get all these MCFX annoyances "for free".

Guys, your app seem promising as i saw while brievly trying multicharts (and more brievly MCFX) and i wish you good luck and succes with it. But please... open your forum, offer un real trial version (working, but if not with saying clearly what it is about). I'm not wise enough to be a paying beta-tester.

User avatar
Marina Pashkova
Posts: 2758
Joined: 27 Jul 2007

Postby Marina Pashkova » 08 Oct 2007

Dear Mr. Renaud,

If you have any specific questions about or problems with MCFX you could either e-mail us at support@tssupport.com or post your questions on the forum and we would try to help you.

If you find that you don't want to keep using the software - you can cancel your subscription and if this is done within 30 days after the purchase you will be able to get your money back. Thus, in the end of the day you do not spend any money.

Regards.


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