Exponentially slow backfill

I have come across several other posts mentioning slowness in backfilling, but none of them seems to provide a solution, and I almost came to the conclusion that it's just the way MultiCharts works. Nonetheless I thought I'd make one more attempt and ask on the forums, hoping if not for a solution, at least for a confirmation and an explanation.

I am using TS as a data feed and I have enabled the setting to store data in the MultiCharts database in the Quote Manager.

I have downloaded all the data I need and I'm using MultiCharts offline, therefore all the data is being loaded from the MultiCharts database and nowhere else.

Backfilling several years (let's say from 2010 until now) worth of data in any timeframe from 5 minutes to 1 hour is slow, really slow. Those are the timeframes I'm using, and the smaller the timeframe the slower it gets, somewhat intuitively. For one chart, it will be let's say a minute for 1 hour timeframe, increasing to slightly more than that for smaller timeframes.

The more charts I add to a workspace, or the more workspaces in a desktop where I open charts, the slower it gets, exponentially.

I've now opened 10 workspaces, each containing on average 8 charts, for a total of approximately 80 charts, and my quite powerful laptop is sitting here at 30% CPU and 35% memory usage (meaning, largely unused) waiting for MultiCharts to backfill those charts for an hour and more. Most of those charts are loading the same instruments, amounting to a total of no more than a dozen unique instruments.

Considering that all the data is in the MultiCharts database, I would expect this operation to be nearly instantaneous, and yet it's taking huge amounts of time.

Can anybody help, or does anybody from MultiCharts support provide an explanation about why it should be so slow?

Hello simoneb,

We’ll need to check your setup and logs collected at the moment, when the behaviour was reproduced, to provide comments on it.

When it happens again in Offline mode, please send us a report via the main MultiCharts window -> Help -> Feedback.
In the description field please specify symbols we should check.
Then select the following options:
Attach a screenshot;
Attach log files…;
Snapshot of the current MC setup;
Open workspaces…;
Data for all instruments (TSSTORAGE.GDB)…;
Upload collected data to Help Desk;
uncheck other options and click Send.

After we receive the report, we’ll analyze the case and get back to you as soon as possible.

Will do, thanks

What was the outcome ? Could Multicharts help you ? I have this issue also -- ASCII Mapping , 14 Charts - 5 min back to the year 2000. Takes forever

Dear All,

I am a Multicharts user since the beginning and I wish I could go back to the early days where it was fast to load charts . Now it is unbearable and pretty much the whole software is not usable for me anymore.

Here are the details:

I use Multicharts as a research tool and not for trading. I therefore use it OFFLINE. I work with 40 futures markets charts in 5 min resolution and data going back until the year 2000 all loaded in one workspace. Its a lot of data. I understand. The loading of this workspace is not possible anymore. Takes hours while at the same time the CPU (10%) and Memory usage (33%) is low. I also tried to import ascii data directly into each symbol in quote manager, hoping that it is faster but it is the same.

So when I try to load a workspace with 5 charts only, it takes about 2 minutes. So indeed it gets exponentially worse when you try to load more charts. The funny thing is that when I close the workspace with the 5 charts and reload it right away it takes 15 seconds only. However when I close Multicharts in the meantime and load that workspace again it takes again 2 minutes. So I am trying to find a way how to load the same workspace with 40 charts every day , but fast -- isnt there a way that the ascii data is stored locally in the database and that it can be loaded fast ?

I am willing to pay for this extra if necessary but I think this affects all users that work with ascii data and use Multicharts as research platform. In addition this problem will just get worse and historical data gets more over time. You need to provide a solution for this.

Thanks

... its been 2 hours now with the loading of 40 charts ! I can see from Task Manager how Memory went from 33 to 35% -- very slowly it loads . Not sure where the bottleneck is (CPU at 5%)

4 hours later -- 5 charts loaded -- 35 Charts to go

Hello amadeu1,

In simoneb’s case the loading time was confirmed to be expected after we’ve checked the user’s setup.
If you’d like us to check your case, please submit a report as described in my post above.

After almost 6 hours I closed it because there is no way this is normal. I created this workspace 2-3 years ago and I could work with it ok. Now with version 15 (Build 26125) impossible !! It is more data than 2-3 years ago but for sure cannot be explained by that only

Please follow these steps:

In the MultiCharts main menu go to File → Preferences → Misc tab.
Uncheck the “Show statuses on chart” box there.
Close all MultiCharts components and make sure there are no MC processes left in the Task Manager → Details tab → Description column.
Start MultiCharts.


This helped me to load the 41 charts in 10 minutes -- would be nice if I dont have to reload all the historical ascii data every time I start Multicharts . For backtesting you normally only work with the same historical data