Last opportunity!

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
traderstuff
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Last opportunity!

Postby traderstuff » 18 Nov 2008

Greetings all,

Did all MC owners receive an e-mail this morning from Stefan Knittel, sales manager for TSsupport titled as above subject, and pushing to sell the MC Pro version for 'just' $9900.00?

I know their current business model has changed quite a bit over ths past 3 or more years, and some of it has been discussed on this forum - but one line from that sales letter sort of stood out to me, quoted here -

" Once we release MultiCharts 4.0 Gold we will charge an upgrade fee for all major future upgrades. But you will be entitled to receiving all future upgrades at no cost at all. Let us estimate the upgrade fee that you would have to pay in just 5 years: with the average upgrade cost of $ 200 and the number of upgrades being 4 per year you would end up paying $ 5,000 - the value that you will be receiving for free as an owner of MultiCharts Pro. "

Any comments?

Best

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TJ
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Re: Last opportunity!

Postby TJ » 18 Nov 2008

Greetings all,

Any comments?

Best

if eSignal changes the datafeed format in 2010... who is responsible to make your MC comply with eSignal's new format? eSignal?

It costs money to keep your car running...

It costs money to keep your computer running...

It costs money to keep a software program running...

such is life.


If you are not happy with the cost structure... there is always NT and QuoteTracker.


p.s. I do think the fee they are proposing is a bit high... They should have a special rate for all the loyal supporters who stood by them and endured all the inconveniences while they sort out the bugs.
(or maybe no fees for the 1st 5 years?)

SP
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Postby SP » 18 Nov 2008

"Quant House high-quality data feed for MultiCharts. This is a premium data feed that provides order execution within 60 ms. The price of connecting this data feed would be US$ 5,000 "

Is that Tradingtechnologies/X-Trader?

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Januson
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Postby Januson » 18 Nov 2008

Wonder when MultiCharts 4 is out then? :roll:

I've been a loyal customer since version 1 or so, is this the way to treat me? Something I've to pay for in the Christmas and within so short time.

I didn't even see any guarentees for bugs or a comprehensive feature list 8)

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RobotMan
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Postby RobotMan » 18 Nov 2008

Dedicated Premium support, which assigns high priority to all of your questions so you will not have to wait, even if other customers are in the line. This exclusive VIP support saves your time which is priceless.
"Priceless"
So, actually, the real price should be in Infinity dollars (US). C'mon, $9900 is a bargain!
Quant House high-quality data feed for MultiCharts. This is a premium data feed that provides order execution within 60 ms. The price of connecting this data feed would be US$ 5,000
Why would I need this with MC? I don't see any reason I would use this for scalping as I do with my $50/month NT (under a grand for a lifetime license). MC has been developed for "portfolio backtesters" not for intraday scalpers. Hell, there's not any real-time simulation mode, simultaneous tick replay or chart trading capability or DOM. And unless IB buys TSSupport and integegrates the two platforms, the development will take at least a year to get there. (From what I have seen)

This is a limited offer that expires on the 05th of December. Please keep in mind this will be absolutely the last tiem yo uget this opprtunity.
Let's face it. This email is a marketing ploy for much needed cash flow written by an over exuberant head of sales. If you want to send him a dumptruck load of money for vaporware, go ahead. ( After December 5 the price will only skyrocket! ) I'm sure Marina is groaning at her desk right now and rolling her eyes on having to even respond to this thread on a subject that she probably didn't even have anything to do with. (Ask Andrew to respond instead, which would be a smart move.)

The customer base for most all charting packages is made up of non-traders hoping to learn/discover a way to make money. Only a minority actually use it to trade and would see the value. If I were just starting out and did not realize what a great program MC was, this email would scare me into Neoticker, AB, Ensign, SC, etc... hell, opening an account with TS doesn't even seem a bad idea. (Oh God, did I just say that?)

Conclusion: Smile at the email and delete it. Wait until MC has the features you want and then lay down some serious dough for it. Otherwise, I have a flying car that I am developing, want to buy it right now?

Bob Perry
Los Altos, CA

tosk

Postby tosk » 18 Nov 2008

Are we even sure this came from TS Suport? This looks and reads like spam. The price is too high for an impulsive purchase however.

Tom

blaster79
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Postby blaster79 » 18 Nov 2008

I've just bought lifetime license some days ago... because i really like this software and i find it useful for my trading. Also i got good support even if i was on trial period. I don't like paying monthly fee so i was happy to see that it was possible to pay one time and get all the future upgrades (as stated on the Upgrade Policy). Now if i should pay $200 4 times a year to get upgrades... well... i really start crying! :shock:

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Januson
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Postby Januson » 18 Nov 2008

I've actually bought a lifetime license years ago, but will be very disappointed if this is cancelled because of something weird reason.

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RobotMan
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Postby RobotMan » 19 Nov 2008

Tosk,

It's for MC PRO, not regular old MC.
and... it doesn't seem to really exist... yet.

Bob Perry
Los Altos, Ca

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Postby gautama2 » 19 Nov 2008

I don't care about a professional datastream and programming service for an unstable platform with lots of bugs still to handle. Wouldn't pay thousands for that.

Anyway. Take this software as what it is and use it for the purposes that it can handle.
No soft can do everything better than all others. If you need a scalping platform, then use one that does this job well. If you need a backtesting engine, then use one that fits your purposes in this terrain. If you need something that charts a lot of different datasources at one time, then take a soft that can just do this. If you need autotrading open an account at TS as you never get a correct standing of your positions from IBs API and therefore if you got an internet interruption you don't know which positions you still got in your account. Take a platform that gets such data correctly from your broker. I don't know any soft that can get positiondata correctly from IB. Every soft has to mae its bookkeeping internally and you can just go on hope that it fits with reality. MC is still not an animal that lays eggs, gives milk and also got wool.

:D

Stefan Knittel
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Postby Stefan Knittel » 19 Nov 2008

Hello everybody,

Sorry for the possible confusion.
Let me clarify the situation.

The initial plan was to release the GOLD version as 4.0 but we decided to develop MultiCharts further and make the version 5.0 the GOLD version of MultiCharts.

We will be releasing 2 upgrades per year, which will include new features and functionalities. We are planning to charge about $ 200 for each upgrade. You will be free to upgrade without any obligation to do so. If you are satisfied with the features you have now, you certainly will be able stay with the GOLD version and you can be sure you will receive the same support even if you decide not to upgrade.

At first MultiCharts PRO was intended for institutional customers but over time we have observed an increased demand for it on the part of individual customers who want to use a custom data feed / broker which is not available in the standard version of MultiCharts. It’s also invaluable for customers who need to get their own trading logic programmed professionally. Owners of MultiCharts Pro are entitled to receiving full 75 hours of free custom programming!

The premium support that owners of MultiCharts Pro get secures you the highest priority in resolving possible issues even outside of our normal support hours. We have a special hotline for MultiCharts PRO customers where you can get support before and after our regular office hours.

Quant house is a premium data feed that guarantees providing data at the highest speed.
For more information please check their webpage:

www.quanthouse.com/

We already have an ever-growing list of customers (both institutional and individual) who have purchased MultiCharts Pro and are very happy with it.

If you have any further questions, let me know.

Stefan Knittel

Peter
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Postby Peter » 19 Nov 2008

Hi,

I also received this email. So I have no idea why you guys are all screaming here for help.
I am reading the forum quite often but never saw a reason to post.

If you guys are buying software, who the hell say you get everything for free??? Be reasonable people. Sure they do a good job and I already good the bucks I spend for it 300 times back. So I have no problem in paying for upgrades.

If it is 4 times a year or two times. I make money so I am willing to pay a bit back. You guys are just to greedy in this matter.

So guys form tssupport, keep up the good work. I will think about MultiCharts PRO, it sounds really good to me.

Peter

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RobotMan
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Postby RobotMan » 19 Nov 2008

Hi Peter,

Except for one of the posts above, I don't think anyone was complaining about the price or trying to get something for free. It was the "out of the blue" presentation of an offer for software that none of us had heard anything about before.

Stefan presented us with a bill before we had a chance to see the menu or taste the food. He did not realize that most of us are only familiar with MC ver 4 or ver 5 and the accompanying problems of the past or present. In my opinion, it was not very well thought out prior to mass mailing everyone and wreaks of desperate high pressure sales techniques.

MC PRO might very well be "all that". But who buys a pig in a poke? In an age where everyone posts videos on YouTube, I think a presentation could have been put together along with an indepth website page, and those who found it interesting would have emailed him directly. A one time, 30 day demo could have been arranged for free or even a minimal cost. I wouldn't even buy a $10K car without a test drive.

I have seen too much "Vaporware" and "Infomercials" for investment software in my day to be sucked in anymore. I have seen companies stop development and pull the carpet out from under loyal paying customers. (Not implying that TSS would EVER do that) But if something does what it says it does, why not purchase it? It seems to me that TSS is a serious and competent software developer and seems to be on the cutting edge of retail trading software development. I just want to be sure before I go down that road and MC 5 becomes "MC Lite", that there is more to this than a poorly written email.

An ex-TS Customer and 10 year Omega-List Subscriber,
Bob Perry
Los Altos, CA

blaster79
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Postby blaster79 » 19 Nov 2008

Hello Peter, i just don't want to get everything for free.. i think that if a "lifetime license" exist with a particular cost and the TSSupport team says "free major and minor upgrades" they all did their own business plan before putting this product on the shop. Who spent money for a license 3 years ago is in a different situation from who bought it today - reading the upgrade policy - and then hear rumours about a 400$ yearly fee to get his product updated. I think this is not correct. Unfortunately not all people get back the bucks they spent on it 300 times... especially if you spent it yesterday. I hope (and i'm very confident) that TSSupport will find a good solution for this :wink:

traderstuff
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Postby traderstuff » 19 Nov 2008

Thanks to everyone for your interesting postings.

Peter's post seems amusing as it appears he joined the list just today.
[11/19/08]

With out searching all the posts, I seem to recall that Marina relayed something to the effect that even if one does not want all the extra cost upgrades in the future, certain features would be kept up to date for lifetime license holders at no cost, for instance if IB or another broker required a minor change in MC to keep access to their real time data, etc,
etc.

Perhaps I am not accurate about that?

Bob (Robo) I too am a 10/11 year member of the 'omega-list', from back in the days when it was a really active list, and the likes of Mark Brown were prolific posters..

Thanks Stefan for further explaining your original note.

Best,

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 28 Nov 2008

Hi everybody,

Just to re-iterate what has already been said before:

1. We have always promised that free upgrades will be provided up till MultiCharts Gold is released. There is software out there that allows you to view past versions of different websites. You can use that to check with what we wrote on the website before. In no way are we breaking any promises now. We are doing exactly what was promised.

2. Upgrades will not be mandatory. You will only pay for a particular upgrade if you want to get the new features it will include.

Regards.

traderstuff
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Postby traderstuff » 29 Nov 2008

Welcome Back Marina,

I hope that you enjoyed your 'stateside' visit!

I do hope however, that the oft quoted "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" is not completely true in your case as I am almost sure that you have learned some new things about what successful traders of most any nationality want from their trading platforms.

From your quote below, perhaps missing is that some people habitually keep full 'copies' of websites and forums that might be updated and kept much longer than some of the popular search engines such as Google keep.

Of course, this is NOT meant to imply that anything you mentioned below is inaccurate.

I do not think you answered my questions pertaining to free updates (if necessary) to such popular data streams such as IB and similar? [OK, maybe they are in archives somewhere, but a succinct answer here would be welcome)

Also, from the distant past, is the much discussed internal ability for MC to create 'Continuous Future Contracts'. Has this been implemented and if so, what method or methods were chosen?

I Do hope that you folks at TS will not be bitten by the 'Hasty' bug thinking that the Finish Line of the so called "Gold Release" is in view, and make a mad dash rush for it, tripping along the way...

Best,


Hi everybody,

Just to re-iterate what has already been said before:

1. We have always promised that free upgrades will be provided up till MultiCharts Gold is released. There is software out there that allows you to view past versions of different websites. You can use that to check with what we wrote on the website before. In no way are we breaking any promises now. We are doing exactly what was promised.

2. Upgrades will not be mandatory. You will only pay for a particular upgrade if you want to get the new features it will include.

Regards.

Nick
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Postby Nick » 01 Dec 2008

I quite like MC particularly that it compiles easy language that I am too lazy to convert or have converted. I have to say this made me smile, I am currently running V3.something having tired of the painful, time and money consuming upgrade game. I wish you good luck getting people to pay 6k to beta test a new product, particularly those that remember the pain of early versions of the standard edition. I also hope you do well with your institutional customers where rock solid stability is demanded (in upgrades too) rather than simply requested.

zukkaweb
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Postby zukkaweb » 01 Dec 2008

in the basic version of multicharts 5 we need at least:

Time&Sales

SuperDom

Automatic Rollover

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Postby Tresor » 01 Dec 2008

in the basic version of multicharts 5 we need at least:

Time&Sales

SuperDom

Automatic Rollover
Yeah, SuperDom :D

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Postby Nick » 03 Dec 2008

It will be interesting to see what is considered basic functionality and what is considered gold functionality. There are still functions that might be considered basic functionality I'd like to see in the basic package. There are also things that with some small changes would be really useful tools rather than features that are there so TS can 'tick boxes'. Volume profile springs to mind off the top of my head.


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