Data Sources Overview

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Understanding Data Sources

MultiCharts is a data feed neutral trading platform, it doesn’t come with any prebuilt real-time data feed. We believe that our customers should be able to choose a data provider that suits their needs best. The only data feed available right after the installation is Free Quotes, free end-of-day historical daily data coming from Yahoo, Google and MSN (see Free Quotes). To connect to a live data feed a customer needs to have an account with any of data providers. Since MultiCharts supports multiple data vendors and multiple brokers it is important to understand that in MultiCharts data feed and broker connections are separate. To establish connection to a broker one should set up the corresponding broker profile in MultiCharts (see Broker Profiles). Data feed connection settings are configured in QuoteManager.

Operating Data Sources

This tool is used for managing data sources. It allows adding/removing data sources, editing their settings, names and abbreviations, receiving data source information, their states and versions.

Adding Data Sources

Data sources are added automatically. The system auto-adds a data source as soon as the data feed's DLL is placed in the DataFeeds folder.

This data source appears in the data sources list but it is still inactive.

To activate the data source press Activate button (see Activating Data Sources section).

Contact us to receive further information concerning the API for developers.

Activating Data Sources

Activation/deactivation is used to set the list of daily used data sources or for activating a newly added data source.

For full access the data source must be activated. If the data source is present in the list but marked in red, this data source must be activated.

To activate a Data Source:

  1. Open QuoteManager window
  2. On the Tools menu, click Data Sources, or click the Data Sources 07_DataSources.png icon on the toolbar.
  3. Select the data source using the keyboard or mouse and click Activate. The data source is now marked in green and the Settings, Name and Abbr parameters can now be edited.

Deactivating Data Sources

If a data source is not used, it can be deactivated. In this case, it will not be displayed in the list of available data sources when a symbol is added; if necessary, the data source can be reactivated later.

To deactivate a data source:

  1. Open QuoteManager window
  2. On the Tools menu, click Data Sources, or click the Data Sources 07_DataSources.png icon on the toolbar.
  3. Select the data source using the keyboard or mouse and click Deactivate. The data source is now marked in red and the Settings, Name and Abbr parameters cannot be edited.

Configuring Data Sources

Most data sources have unique parameters, e.g. server IP address, port, user name/login information, etc. See the Built-in Data Sources section for more detailed descriptions.

All the parameters for the integrated data sources are described there.

To edit a data source's settings:

  1. Open QuoteManager window
  2. On the Tools menu, click Data Sources, or click the Data Sources 07_DataSources.png icon on the toolbar.
  3. Select the data source using the keyboard or mouse and click the Settings button.

Cloning Data Sources

To use a data source with different sets of settings it must be cloned. Cloning creates a virtual copy of the data source with modified parameters.

For instance, to receive data from several DDE data vendors one needs to have several DDE templates.

In this case for every DDE data feed a unique data source must be created. If there are two DDE data feeds, Universal DDE and Universal DDE 2 must be created and a DDE template selected for each.


To clone a data source:

  1. Open QuoteManager window
  2. On the Tools menu, click Data Sources, or click the Data Sources 07_DataSources.png icon on the toolbar.
  3. Select the data source using the keyboard or mouse and click the Clone button.
  4. Enter a Data Source Name (up to 3 characters).
  5. Enter a Data Source Abbr (up to 3 characters).
Note: Only Universal DDE data source can be cloned with different from original Universal DDE settings. All other data vendors will be simply duplicated and use the same connection settings.

Editing Data Sources

  1. Open QuoteManager window
  2. On the Tools menu, click Data Sources, or click the Data Sources 07_DataSources.png icon on the toolbar.
  3. Select the data source using the keyboard or mouse and click the Edit button.

Deleting Data Sources

  1. Open QuoteManager window
  2. On the Tools menu, click Data Sources, or click the Data Sources 07_DataSources.png icon on the toolbar.
  3. Select the data source using the keyboard or mouse and click the Delete button.