Multicharts User Thread

[amibroker]

I think that what you are after can be easily done using $TIMESHIFT command of ASCII importer. Provided that your old TS data are in text files you can import them and time-shift them during importing using
$TIMESHIFT importer command. It allows fractional shifts so not only hour shifts are possible but also minute.
For example 1/60 of hour would be one minute, so
$TIMESHIFT 0.16666666666

will give you one minute shift forward, and

$TIMESHIFT -0.16666666666

will give you one minute shift backward.

More info in ASCII importer reference http://www.amibroker.com/guide/d_ascii.html#TIMESHIFT

 

[Candara]

AmiBroker do You plan to increase charts level in the future? You have great program but charts are poor. Trendlines change position when timeframe is swiched. Would You improve it?

 

[amibroker]

Trend line co-ordinates do NOT change when you change the time frames. Trend line co-ordinates are saved as (x - datetime, y - price ) pairs (one for start and one for end) and they stay unchanged no matter what time frame you are looking at. This of course applies to START and END points of the trendline. This can be easily verified if you bring up trend line property page. You will see that the co-ordinates are the same. If you are using different time compression the middle part of the trend line may cross price points in different points exactly like monthly chart does not look exactly the same as daily chart zoomed out.
Other than that I am not sure what you mean with "poor". We have got all bells and whistles when it comes to charting including drag-drop indicator creation, object oriented drawing tools, user-definable layers, quickly switchable layouts.
Our charting is superior to many others if you actually try to use it and learn about possibilities that are there.
I am open to discuss with you any possible improvements but what is needed is detail description (such as "I want thicker line for this and thinner for that") as qualifiers like "poor" are meaningless in terms of software design.
Please feel free to contact me at support address to discuss it further as ET is not our support channel.

 

[Candara]

Quote from amibroker:

Trend line co-ordinates do NOT change when you change the time frames. Trend line co-ordinates are saved as (x - datetime, y - price ) pairs (one for start and one for end) and they stay unchanged no matter what time frame you are looking at. This of course applies to START and END points of the trendline. This can be easily verified if you bring up trend line property page. You will see that the co-ordinates are the same. If you are using different time compression the middle part of the trend line may cross price points in different points exactly like monthly chart does not look exactly the same as daily chart zoomed out.
Other than that I am not sure what you mean with "poor". We have got all bells and whistles when it comes to charting including drag-drop indicator creation, object oriented drawing tools, user-definable layers, quickly switchable layouts.
Our charting is superior to many others if you actually try to use it and learn about possibilities that are there.
I am open to discuss with you any possible improvements but what is needed is detail description (such as "I want thicker line for this and thinner for that") as qualifiers like "poor" are meaningless in terms of software design.
Please feel free to contact me at support address to discuss it further as ET is not our support channel.

OK. I would like to see in new version of AmiBroker:

- customizable chanels (it makes me very angry that I can't move or change positions more then only one trendline!)
- fibo chanels
- fibo time projections

 

[WTB]

Does MultiChart have any type of custom scanning feature? TradeStation's RadarScreen is a fantastic feature, but all in all it mounts up to over $300/month.

 

[gttrader]

Quote from Andrew Kirillov:

It is not data loading that is 2x times faster in the latest MC 2.1 verson. It is the optimization speed that has been increased 2 times.

Meanwhile, we have been working to increase the data loading speed as well. In 2.2 version (due end of 2007) the data loading will be so fast it would make you satisfied.

Andrew,

The number one issue with Multicharts for me is speed of loading data and changing resolutions so I’m looking forward to any improvement in the 2.2 version. If I were to make a wish list for improvements to Multicharts optimization speed would not feature. To me the fact that you improved that before data loading speed shows your priorities are in the wrong place.

Quote from vivimos:

I took a quick look at MultiCharts but was unable to find a quote window or time & sales. If not, is there an add-on that provides them?

Quote from wiseass:

just wondering if MC has the time and sales function>

Quote from WTB:

Does MultiChart have any type of custom scanning feature? TradeStation's RadarScreen is a fantastic feature, but all in all it mounts up to over $300/month.

The lack of basic features such as Time & Sales and a Quote/Radar screen is the next biggest draw back of Multicharts. Most, if not all, of your competitors already have both of these along with a news reader.

I think you are missing out on many potential customers by focusing development in the wrong areas, certainly many traders I know would consider moving from Tradestation if you had all the functionality and speed of charting that they are accustomed to, but don’t really care much about benchmark test results.

Having said that I do very much like the charting and user interface of Multicharts and EasyLanguage compatibility is a huge advantage to me. So I think you have the potential to make an excellent product one day.

 

[Tums]

Quote from Andrew Kirillov:

MultiCharts doesn't have Time and Sales because we didn't want to duplicate the feature that the brokers already have.

This makes sense. Most broker interface would have this feature already. I don't need it, I couldn't care less if MC does not have it.

However, from a marketing point of view, since this is not a difficult module to write, if I were MC, I would add this feature immediately on the first request by a potential customer. This a no-brainer reaction. I have seen this request on MC board and on this forum numerous times. But no, MC would not add it. This is typical of MC style of doing things: they would rather rationalize it, argue about it, dance around it, than to listen to what customer has to say...



p.s. MC is a Russian company; they still have not mastered the capitalistic method: to get the customer's money, you have to give them what they want.

Don't be self-righteous: don't decide for the customer what they need. Let them have what they want.
If they don't have the "proper" want, create it for them. The more "Wants" they have, the more opportunities you can sell them something.

 

[WTB]

I totally agree.

Times and sales, scanning feature and faster loading up and MC is pretty much set.

 

[gttrader]

Quote from Andrew Kirillov:


MultiCharts doesn't have Time and Sales because we didn't want to duplicate the feature that the brokers already have.

Andrew,

Like many traders I keep my execution platform on a separate computer from my charting application. In Tradestation I can create T&S windows in my workspaces to put next to the charts where I can see them easily.

Quote from Tums:

This makes sense. Most broker interface would have this feature already. I don't need it, I couldn't care less if MC does not have it.

However, from a marketing point of view, since this is not a difficult module to write, if I were MC, I would add this feature immediately on the first request by a potential customer. This a no-brainer reaction. I have seen this request on MC board and on this forum numerous times. But no, MC would not add it. This is typical of MC style of doing things: they would rather rationalize it, argue about it, dance around it, than to listen to what customer has to say...

I think you summed it up very well Tums. Looks like I'll have to put my $899 back in my pocket and stick with Tradestation then.

 

[potemkinvillage]

My primary data feed is esignal however occasionally I use IB for data and the time to load a new workspace is excruciatingly slow. Anywhere from 30 -60 mins! Compare this with esignal which takes maybe 5 minutes to load.

The very slow loading of IB data has been raised many times but I still see no improvements.