Why is it that at least a few times a week during very active market times (like now as EUR reports are being release) that the data feed stalls. I trade from minutes to hours, and depend on accurate data. Yet now, I am staring at my backup crap FREE charting package, because MCFX is taking a nap with no refreshes. Come on guys. I know what is involved in building out a reliable server farm. Pay someone to build/program it right the first time. I would rather be paying $200/mth and have a reliable feed since I would easily have made up the difference just in the last hour by not having to mess around with getting my backup charts up.
And, automated trading?? That is what first attracted me to mcfx last year. But it is still coming next week, next week, next week, next week, next week.
I am close to choosing another feed provider, despite that I prefer your software over your competitors. But not enough to endure the stress and lost trades from second guessing it all the time.
Frustrated by stalled data feed
-
Marina Pashkova
- Posts: 2758
- Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Dear David,
During active markets, have you tried comparing quotes in MCFX and FXCM's platforms? If the quotes are delayed in both platforms, the problem in on FXCM's end.
If the quotes in FXCM are shown without any delays, while there are lags in MCFX, could you please check the CPU usage by MCFX?
If the CPU usage is normal, the problem in on our end and will require further investigation.
Regarding auto trading.
We have spent the past 3 months working on autotrading. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of FXCM's API, many of the features cannot be physically implemented. For example, FXCM's API doesn't support OCA orders etc.
As a result of all those limitations, only market orders that have been plotted on the chart can be sent to the broker for execution. Basically, auto trading will be pretty much the same as in the previous version - only in the new version it will work without any issues.
We are planning to release a new beta by the end of this/beginning of the next week.
Best regards.
During active markets, have you tried comparing quotes in MCFX and FXCM's platforms? If the quotes are delayed in both platforms, the problem in on FXCM's end.
If the quotes in FXCM are shown without any delays, while there are lags in MCFX, could you please check the CPU usage by MCFX?
If the CPU usage is normal, the problem in on our end and will require further investigation.
Regarding auto trading.
We have spent the past 3 months working on autotrading. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of FXCM's API, many of the features cannot be physically implemented. For example, FXCM's API doesn't support OCA orders etc.
As a result of all those limitations, only market orders that have been plotted on the chart can be sent to the broker for execution. Basically, auto trading will be pretty much the same as in the previous version - only in the new version it will work without any issues.
We are planning to release a new beta by the end of this/beginning of the next week.
Best regards.
Thank you for your reply. Yes I am aware of fast market lags, and system/network issues as potential problems. I eat those issues as a cost of doing business when they happen.
In this case though, the FXCM prices were very actively moving, but MCFX looked like a Sat. afternoon. Nothing. CPU was hovering around 20%. About 5 minutes later, the prices sprang to life. When this last happened, I chatted with your support, and he did something to restart the feed. It would be ideal if the software detected a condition where there is no data, and actively alerts / resets / restarts or something.
I look forward to autotrading coming out. Thanks for the update.
In this case though, the FXCM prices were very actively moving, but MCFX looked like a Sat. afternoon. Nothing. CPU was hovering around 20%. About 5 minutes later, the prices sprang to life. When this last happened, I chatted with your support, and he did something to restart the feed. It would be ideal if the software detected a condition where there is no data, and actively alerts / resets / restarts or something.
I look forward to autotrading coming out. Thanks for the update.
-
Marina Pashkova
- Posts: 2758
- Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Hi David,
You're saying that MCFX data stalls whenever the markets are active - for example after a news release. We would like to monitor MCFX behaviour on our end to see if it's going to stall during an active market. Do you expect any major news releases that would affect the market any time soon? We would then monitor MCFX behaviour around this time.
Regards.
You're saying that MCFX data stalls whenever the markets are active - for example after a news release. We would like to monitor MCFX behaviour on our end to see if it's going to stall during an active market. Do you expect any major news releases that would affect the market any time soon? We would then monitor MCFX behaviour around this time.
Regards.
The problems David is referring to look to me like the server outages that used to be even more common. Data simply stops arriving for periods typically between a few minutes and half an hour. Sometimes several of the charts will pick up a lagging data feed, but refreshing them causes all information in the chart to vanish. If the data feed remains unavailable for a while, FXServer.exe will sometimes begin to consume all system resources and has to be terminated.
There was an example of a short outage between approximately 0843 and 0905 GMT (and ongoing) this morning. As I write (0907GMT) some of the charts are picking up lagging data (a few minutes out of date), but none will refresh correctly. This looks very much like a server problem to me. This happens, as David says, several times per week, and seems more common in the European morning. Restarting MCFX has no effect - likewise, restarting the computer. The same effect occurs on different computers and different ISPs.
At 0915 GMT MCFX now seems to be working normally again, with no lag, but those pairs that I've checked have a few minutes of missing data at around 0843 GMT.
I used to report these outages as they occurred, but frankly there are so many that it becomes tiresome, and I never had the impression that it was regarded as an important problem by the MCFX team.
There was an example of a short outage between approximately 0843 and 0905 GMT (and ongoing) this morning. As I write (0907GMT) some of the charts are picking up lagging data (a few minutes out of date), but none will refresh correctly. This looks very much like a server problem to me. This happens, as David says, several times per week, and seems more common in the European morning. Restarting MCFX has no effect - likewise, restarting the computer. The same effect occurs on different computers and different ISPs.
At 0915 GMT MCFX now seems to be working normally again, with no lag, but those pairs that I've checked have a few minutes of missing data at around 0843 GMT.
I used to report these outages as they occurred, but frankly there are so many that it becomes tiresome, and I never had the impression that it was regarded as an important problem by the MCFX team.
One of these disruptions is happening as I write. All charts ceased updating at 0911GMT. At present (0931GMT) some charts are updating with a lag of several minutes, but reloading any chart causes all data in that chart to vanish - the status line shows "Establishing connection", but no data arrives - the chart remains blank.
At 0939GMT the problem is ongoing.
At 0939GMT the problem is ongoing.
-
Marina Pashkova
- Posts: 2758
- Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Hi MKlein,
There are issues with the server due to the overload resulting from too many requests by many users.
The problem will be solved within the next 2-3 days. We're about to launch a cluster of servers. They will
1. Efficiently distribute the workload preventing overload issues in the future.
2. Provide the 'redundancy' effect. No data outages will occur again.
To ensure the gradual transition from the old sever to the new cluster, both will be available for some time. But we strongly recommend to switch to the new one as soon as it's available.
If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Best regards.
There are issues with the server due to the overload resulting from too many requests by many users.
The problem will be solved within the next 2-3 days. We're about to launch a cluster of servers. They will
1. Efficiently distribute the workload preventing overload issues in the future.
2. Provide the 'redundancy' effect. No data outages will occur again.
To ensure the gradual transition from the old sever to the new cluster, both will be available for some time. But we strongly recommend to switch to the new one as soon as it's available.
If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Best regards.
That's very good news.The problem will be solved within the next 2-3 days. We're about to launch a cluster of servers. They will
1. Efficiently distribute the workload preventing overload issues in the future.
2. Provide the 'redundancy' effect. No data outages will occur again.
Only one springs to mind. If you know that MCFX has regular and ongoing server capacity problems, why not say so immediately, and keep your customers informed of the nature of the problems and their frequency, and up to date with your efforts to fix them? You could advertise "Free, fast, and reliable data feed, subject to ongoing server capacity problems which we're working to resolve", for example...If you have any further questions, please let me know.
FYI, this morning the feed stalled from 1358 GMT to 1432 GMT. I informed support via instant chat. I had to ask three times for them to do something. When the data returned there is a nice gap during the downtime. Luckily this does not affect my strategy that much, but I surely don't want to automate my strategies know that i could be blind for 30 min. There MUST be a way to be for us AND your support team to be alerted when the feed/server dies. You should NOT have to rely on your users to tell you when things go down.
Any recommendations from anyone on how best to program a ping/feed detector into my strategies? To alert me if it is down?
I took me all of a few hours of development to write a script that informs me if any of my application servers are in trouble. (my day job) I am usually able to fix the issue before any of my users alerts me. That is called proactive monitoring. Regardless of whether you are getting a new server, or some fandangled cluster. If you don't have basic server monitoring going on, it won't matter.
Any recommendations from anyone on how best to program a ping/feed detector into my strategies? To alert me if it is down?
I took me all of a few hours of development to write a script that informs me if any of my application servers are in trouble. (my day job) I am usually able to fix the issue before any of my users alerts me. That is called proactive monitoring. Regardless of whether you are getting a new server, or some fandangled cluster. If you don't have basic server monitoring going on, it won't matter.
-
Marina Pashkova
- Posts: 2758
- Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Dear David,FYI, this morning the feed stalled from 1358 GMT to 1432 GMT. I informed support via instant chat. I had to ask three times for them to do something. When the data returned there is a nice gap during the downtime. Luckily this does not affect my strategy that much, but I surely don't want to automate my strategies know that i could be blind for 30 min. There MUST be a way to be for us AND your support team to be alerted when the feed/server dies. You should NOT have to rely on your users to tell you when things go down.
Any recommendations from anyone on how best to program a ping/feed detector into my strategies? To alert me if it is down?
I took me all of a few hours of development to write a script that informs me if any of my application servers are in trouble. (my day job) I am usually able to fix the issue before any of my users alerts me. That is called proactive monitoring. Regardless of whether you are getting a new server, or some fandangled cluster. If you don't have basic server monitoring going on, it won't matter.
Please see the post below for the answer to your question.
http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?t=5221
Regards.
-
Marina Pashkova
- Posts: 2758
- Joined: 27 Jul 2007
Dear David and MKlein,
We have just released a new version of MCFX supporting the new cluster of servers. Please see http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?t=5234 for more information.
Best regards,
Marina
We have just released a new version of MCFX supporting the new cluster of servers. Please see http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?t=5234 for more information.
Best regards,
Marina
-
Marina Pashkova
- Posts: 2758
- Joined: 27 Jul 2007