QT features?

J

Jayford

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a few Q's I have about QT features as I am considering switching to the registered version, and dumping Ensign. I am not asking QT directly as I am looking for some unbiased assessments. This will also save me the time required to learn the software on my own, only to discount it later if not adequate, so Thanks in advance.

1) From my brief experience with the backfill, it seems to be slow, and a hassle. I know there is a method for auto backfill, but how fast is this. With my current setup, no need to backfill period on charts I always run, and new ones backfill in about a second or two. This is important.

2) Speed and EASE of creating charts new symbols. Again, with Ensign its a one click operation for any time frame I choose, and nearly instantaneous. Same?


3) ease of trendlines, parallel, horizontal, etc. Needs to be one click, no menu. Same for zoom in/ out.

Also, anyone use it with paid data from DTN?

Cheers,

Jay
 
Quote from Jayford:

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a few Q's I have about QT features as I am considering switching to the registered version, and dumping Ensign. I am not asking QT directly as I am looking for some unbiased assessments......
More...

Jay.....

In short, QT is good software. All things considered, it is very good. Backfill is fast and easy. Same for putting on a new symbol and bringing up the chart. While there's a few things I'd change, I believe you will be very pleased with the latest QuoteTracker.

BTW---In times past, I was not a fan of QT.
 
Quote from Jayford:

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a few Q's I have about QT features as I am considering switching to the registered version, and dumping Ensign. I am not asking QT directly as I am looking for some unbiased assessments. This will also save me the time required to learn the software on my own, only to discount it later if not adequate, so Thanks in advance.

1) From my brief experience with the backfill, it seems to be slow, and a hassle. I know there is a method for auto backfill, but how fast is this. With my current setup, no need to backfill period on charts I always run, and new ones backfill in about a second or two. This is important.

2) Speed and EASE of creating charts new symbols. Again, with Ensign its a one click operation for any time frame I choose, and nearly instantaneous. Same?


3) ease of trendlines, parallel, horizontal, etc. Needs to be one click, no menu. Same for zoom in/ out.

Also, anyone use it with paid data from DTN?

Cheers,

Jay
More...

I really like QT. There's an option with which you can select to have charts you open backfill automatically. I think the backfill speed is largely a function of your data provider and whether you use true tick backfill (not so much to do with QT). I used DTN/IQFeed with QT for a long time, and I was relatively happy (I use IB's data feed now -- it's fine for my needs and it's essentially free instead of paying $43 to CME, $53 to CBOT, $43 to NYMEX, etc. through DTN).

The support for QT couldn't be better. Responses are always prompt, effective, and friendly. If you let them know you need a problem fixed, they'll often take care of it right away and make an updated beta version available within a few minutes.

Good luck with your decision.


Regards,
 
Quote from Jayford:

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a few Q's I have about QT features as I am considering switching to the registered version, and dumping Ensign. I am not asking QT directly as I am looking for some unbiased assessments. This will also save me the time required to learn the software on my own, only to discount it later if not adequate, so Thanks in advance.

1) From my brief experience with the backfill, it seems to be slow, and a hassle. I know there is a method for auto backfill, but how fast is this. With my current setup, no need to backfill period on charts I always run, and new ones backfill in about a second or two. This is important.

NOT SURE WHY YOUR HAVING A PROBLEM. BACKFILL USUALLY ONLY TAKES A FEW MOMENTS.

2) Speed and EASE of creating charts new symbols. Again, with Ensign its a one click operation for any time frame I choose, and nearly instantaneous. Same?

WHY THE NEED FOR SPEED. I DONT HAVE ANY PROBLEM CREATING NEW CHARTS WITHIN A COUPLE OF MINUTES.


3) ease of trendlines, parallel, horizontal, etc. Needs to be one click, no menu. Same for zoom in/ out.

IMO QT IS ONE OF THE BEST FOR TRENDLINES. LEFT CLICK ,DRAW YOUR TRENDLINE AND A RIGHT CLICK ALLOWS YOU TO MODIFY IT FOR THICKNESS, EXTENTIONS,COLORS, ETC.

Also, anyone use it with paid data from DTN?

Cheers,

Jay
More...

QUOTETRACKER ONLY HAS TWO PROBLEMS. 10 DAYS IS THE LIMIT AND PUNY OHLC BARS. STILL THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK OUT THERE.
 
if you have a feed that is supported by Qtracker, it is easily the best cost/performance charting software for nonscalping purposes.

for scalping u probably need a ultrareliable and "clean" feed... as i get too many bad ticks from my provider.

backfill is actually a bit slow... i think the programmers are doing something to speed that up according to the latest release... but its not too slow to get in the way most of the time.

one thing about the cache... imo it would be helpful to clean out that directory every few months or so... the program seems to corrupt when the cache gets over 100-200mb or so.
 
Jayford,

Since you now got some replies from QT users, I figured I would jump in.

1) Backfill speed - Its mainly dependent on the datafeed vendor. eSignal for example is very fast. So is Ameritrade. For historical data, BigCharts is very fast as well (equities only). Some others are working on improving their speeds (IQFeed)

Also note that you can just select Backfill All option, and then if you have QT getting level I quotes, the charts will be already filled in when you bring them up.

2) Speed and ease of creating new charts - We really tried to make this as simple as possible:
* You can change timeframes between the predefined ones by just hitting the keyboard shortcuts - 1, 2, 3,4, 5, etc.
* Frequencies are changed by holding down CTRL key and then hitting 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
* You can change the symbol by just typing it in. If the symbol is not already in your portfolio and you have auto backfill enabled, QT will backfill it at that time.

3) Trendlines - you can just draw the trendline - no menus or buttons. Click and draw. To make the trendline horizontal/vertical, hold down the shift key while drawing, or while dragging one of the ends of the trendline if after initial draw. Right click on the trendline to change options like thickness, extending, colors, arrows, Fib Retracements, AND Trendline alerts.. You can setup some of those options as global settings.

Zooming is also very easy. +/- to zoom in/out. You can also hold down the CTRL key and just highlight the area you want to zoom in on. And you can adjust the zooming or scrolling by just adjusting the edges of the scroll bar on the chart, so whichever way works best for you.

For Y axis adjustments (dynamic, fixed size sliding window, or static), you can right click on the Y axis. There are also keyboard/mouse shortcuts that let you do it faster.

Couple of other things that might not be obvious but will speed things up:
* You can maximize the chart by just double clicking on the top chart (where the main price chart is displayed). Same thing for restoring to normal
* You can quickly bring up the "Select Indicators" screen by double clicking on one of the bottom charts.
* And of course note that most menu items show their corresponding keyboard shortcuts, so you can use those instead of the mouse to do things faster once you get more used to the platform.

Keep in mind that QT relies heavily on the right click - on portfolio, Level II, charts, T&S, etc.

dividend - cache file is dynamic - old data is erased as time goes by, so there is never more data than what you have QT set to store. If you got a corruption message, get the latest version - it fixed a situation where that happens.

Hope that helps

Jerry Medved
http://www.quotetracker.com/
 
Quote from BSAM:

Sure wish the up & down arrows would change the chart to the next/previous symbol.
More...

That assumes that there is just one portfolio. QT can have multiple - the symbol can be in multiple portfolios as well, and then there is also the watchlist that can be used to open charts. That option is not feasible.
 
Jerry.....

This feature is available in Prophet.net, with multiple watchlists. Don't understand why my QT can't do this.
 
Prophet's charts are tied to the portfolio/watchlist. QT's are not.

if you want to scroll through a set of symbols on the chart, you can link the chart, then click on the first symbol in the portfolio, then use the down arrow to move to the next one. The chart will change to the new symbol.
 
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