Really unhappy with Ensign and DTN/IQ data feed

J

jo.m

I would like to caution others about the DTN/IQ feed because I subscribed to it -- to use it with Ensign Windows, which was rated so highly on ET and because several posters here said the two work very well together. Well, the combination of the two totally trashed hours of my work yesterday AND today (I use a lot of custom indicators, trend lines, etc, etc - which is very time consuming) when the data feed was very sloooowwww and I tried to cancel a new chart because it was almost 5 minutes, the chart had still not loaded, and the stock I was checking was moving quickly. In spite of telling this whole tale of woe to the DTN customer service rep, he insisted that I will still be billed for an entire extra month because if I cancel today there are not 15 days before my next billing cycle is due. I then talked to the DTN support person - more than an hour later, still no solution. It's only $50 for the extra month, but it's the principal of the thing. And I'm not willing to chance using it again for active trading! Thankfully, I had sell limit orders in place both times before the whole disaster happened. The Ensign Windows is very glitchy and difficult to use, especially to switch between different time frames, and I'm going back to ESignal. I used that for years and had zero problems.

jo.m
 
That is a problem with Ensign to do with how it handles refreshing charts when you have many charts in a single workspace. It's a nightmare if you do it like that.

Best regards,
MK
 
Unless its changed ensign used to set up a new data file for every time/tick/vol scale u used. And so every time you do something new it has to backfill all the data again. That could have caused the delay.

Sierrachart just uses 1 file and will interface with DTN. You might want to try it while you still have a "free" month of dtn.
 
Thanks to all of you for your feedback and validation that Ensign has serious problems. It really really does. If you accidentally click on the X and close a chart, it is gone forever. Any work you have slaved over to draw lines, notes, etc, etc is gone - which is a real problem for me, because I use my own indicators and there is a lot of hand-drawn stuff involved.

I do think the DTN feed was also seriously at fault, though, because if it was the Ensign software it would always take 5 minutes for a new chart to fill in with the data bars. And both times I had a disaster this week, it was when the market was only slightly more busy and EVERY stock and every chart took longer to fill in. I thought some of my charts were not automatically updating, but it was just because the data feed was taking so long. And when I tried to stop a 1-minute chart because during this whole looonnngg process I could not use my cursor at all and I could not even check the streaming quotes I have set up with my broker, the whole thing hung up. I had to reboot my computer and restart Ensign (which is a process, believe, me, because when you restart Ensign old charts pop up and you have to get rid of them (even if you've saved everything and closed everything properly on a good day). Then whole "workspaces" for individual stocks were either GONE entirely, moved helter-skelter throughout the list of workspaces, or were altered (as in some charts had all lines, notes, etc missing and these were not recoverable).

So I'm positive it was both the Ensign AND the DTN data feed. I was really upset with the DTN customer support person yesterday because of his insistence that I will have to pay an extra $50 - and also with the tech support guy because when he couldn't figure out what was wrong and had to admit that I had already tried everything possible to make it work, he said, "Well, you can't prove that it's our data feed" so tough luck on not having to pay the extra $50.

This is a great example of the importance of doing business only with people you enjoy and respect. I don't want to have bad feelings and so I have decided to GIVE the DTN people $50 and chalk it up as a lesson learned. I restarted my ESignal subscription last night (you can do the whole process online in a few minutes), I was up and running in 10 minutes -- and now I have a lot of work to do to get all of my lines and indicators in place. But it's worth it to be out of a potentially disastrous situation by trying to make the Ensign/DTN thing work. I'm convinced it would only be a matter of time until the next disaster happens. And I don't want to do business with anybody who extorts an extra full month of subscription charges from everybody in the first place. It's unreasonable to demand 15 days advance notice to cancel, under any circumstances, or you have to pay another full month's fee. If you decide to unsubscribe from ESignal, they prorate the rest of that month's subscription and it's done on the spot.
 
Quote from jo.m:

Thanks to all of you for your feedback and validation that Ensign has serious problems. It really really does. If you accidentally click on the X and close a chart, it is gone forever. Any work you have slaved over to draw lines, notes, etc, etc is gone - which is a real problem for me, because I use my own indicators and there is a lot of hand-drawn stuff involved.

I do think the DTN feed was also seriously at fault, though, because if it was the Ensign software it would always take 5 minutes for a new chart to fill in with the data bars. And both times I had a disaster this week, it was when the market was only slightly more busy and EVERY stock and every chart took longer to fill in. I thought some of my charts were not automatically updating, but it was just because the data feed was taking so long. And when I tried to stop a 1-minute chart because during this whole looonnngg process I could not use my cursor at all and I could not even check the streaming quotes I have set up with my broker, the whole thing hung up. I had to reboot my computer and restart Ensign (which is a process, believe, me, because when you restart Ensign old charts pop up and you have to get rid of them (even if you've saved everything and closed everything properly on a good day). Then whole "workspaces" for individual stocks were either GONE entirely, moved helter-skelter throughout the list of workspaces, or were altered (as in some charts had all lines, notes, etc missing and these were not recoverable).

So I'm positive it was both the Ensign AND the DTN data feed. I was really upset with the DTN customer support person yesterday because of his insistence that I will have to pay an extra $50 - and also with the tech support guy because when he couldn't figure out what was wrong and had to admit that I had already tried everything possible to make it work, he said, "Well, you can't prove that it's our data feed" so tough luck on not having to pay the extra $50.

This is a great example of the importance of doing business only with people you enjoy and respect. I don't want to have bad feelings and so I have decided to GIVE the DTN people $50 and chalk it up as a lesson learned. I restarted my ESignal subscription last night (you can do the whole process online in a few minutes), I was up and running in 10 minutes -- and now I have a lot of work to do to get all of my lines and indicators in place. But it's worth it to be out of a potentially disastrous situation by trying to make the Ensign/DTN thing work. I'm convinced it would only be a matter of time until the next disaster happens. And I don't want to do business with anybody who extorts an extra full month of subscription charges from everybody in the first place. It's unreasonable to demand 15 days advance notice to cancel, under any circumstances, or you have to pay another full month's fee. If you decide to unsubscribe from ESignal, they prorate the rest of that month's subscription and it's done on the spot.
More...

In my experience DTN/IQ is one of the fastest and most reliable data providers out there. I would respectfully suggest that you give their feed another try with a different product, such as QuoteTracker or Sierra. It's entirely possible that the problems you experienced are all due to Ensign.

Good luck.
 
I agree with Jango. There are even times IQFeed LEADS my brokerage feed.

Whats interesting is I use the same setup as the OP, Ensign/IQFeed, I use custom formulas, and have not experienced problems.

To the OP: regarding your custom indicators, in DYO there is a "Close Only" option which would cause your formula to calculate on the bar close, not every tick.

Regarding loss of lines, text, etc. Yes it is somewhat of a problem. More of confusion really... If you open a chart from a symbol in a quote page, the chart and all items get saved properly when you close the chart. If you just "create" a new chart you have to specifically right-click and "save objects" before closing the chart. Also, there is a way to reconstruct a screwed up chart, assuming it was saved properly in the recent past. It's easy since all the data, studies, lines, etc are stored separately. Just some copy and renaming of files.

Also you can have/use multiple templates, any one of which can be applied to any chart.

Good luck
Osorico
 
Hmm?

I don't have any of these problems.

My charts refresh in about a second except right at equities open when others are requesting the same thing. The only time I ever refresh is first thing in the morning when turning on the PC. About a second per chart.

Time frame changes? Instantaneous. Not even a second, plus the software will save different defaults/indicators based on time frame. For example, when I use a 5 min bar chart, I use volume, I don't for 15 min. To switch time frames I press one button, and the chart changes instantly. Trendlines, etc are also all in the right place depending on where they were set.

My only problem is that Howard refuses to optimize the program for multi monitors so maxing a window is a pain in the ass.

Compared to Signal? Gimmie a break. Esignal has to have the worst data feed in the industry. It lags or crashes on a regular basis. Always has. Yes, I used it for years.
 
To update my original posts about Ensign Windows and the DTN/
IQ feed doing weird things for me earlier this week, including the data feed hanging up and then losing charts and indicators: After another long conversation with the tech support person at DTN, he admitted that they are planning to make "major changes within a few months" so that it will connect more like ESignal. I am absolutely positive that the DTN data feed is very slow at times and lags significantly behind my broker's quotes.

In addition, after the tech support person talked to him, the billing person at DTN apologized to me for the way he acted yesterday, and they will not be charging me for the extra $50 for another month's service. The Ensign person was very polite when I asked her to cancel my subscription.

I will miss some of fancy lines you can use in Ensign! But that's about it. It is a huge relief to me to be done with both products and back with ESignal.
 
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