Over Complicated, Over Priced and Does NOT Perform
Ok, having been using MT4 for the past 2 years I had to start using Ensign because I bought Trendsignal. I will offer my conclusion first and then my review.
Conclusion Utter Shyte ! How they have the balls to charge $50 a month for this piece of cr@p is scandalous.
Tick Rate
Without question, the most important expectation of ANY trading platform is that it displays the correct price of any given market at that time. Here Ensign fails miserably. The free data feed that comes with Ensign is supplied by FXCM but its tick update is atrocious. Charts constantly freeze and can do for 30 seconds or more at a time (record is 1min 30secs). Its not hard to see because a candle countdown will just stop and the next thing you will see is a new candle that is 10 seconds into its formation. Im Europe and all I can assume is that the tick feed is being sent from across the Atlantic and not local. You can opt for another signal provider but that requires an additional monthly subscription.
Chart Display
Again, performance is completely unbelievable. Never, ever trust any chart you open on Ensign until you do a refresh. For whatever reason, Ensign does not do this automatically. It is gobsmacking the differences you can see in a chart before and after a refresh. To compound this, if you have a gap in your chart Ensign just completely ignores it, without warning, and just blends it into the previous bar.
Support
There is an online chat room available for support but it seems to be manned by only one person who is based in the states and is only available during US business hours. The problem is, you will need this guy as Ensign is incredibly complicated. I am way off being an idiot when it comes to driving a PC and Ensign has seriously tested my resolve. Nothing is simple. Ensign is powerful but sometimes I think it is too powerful for its own good and makes the simplest of task seem an unnecessary, drawn out process. There seems to be little, if not any, support on the Net from other Ensign users. Anything I have found is way out of date and is more geared towards Ensign 10 and not Ensign Windows, which this review is about.
Indicators/Alerts/EAs
Ok, this is where Ensign does shine. The indicators you can place on your charts are far superior to anything else I have tried. Alerts are very easy to set up and have a very high level of filtering. I really am impressed with the indicators. EAs forget it. They dont exist from what I have found.
Backtesting
Forget it. Im used to hitting one key to go back years on a chart with Ensign it is different. Depending upon the timeframe depends how far back you can go. On the 15 minute TF, for example, you can only go back about 5 weeks and on the 240mins, 4 months. There is a procedure for going back further but it is complicated and you can only do it in 4 month blocks and for each individual market and they have to be downloaded. There is also no 'go to date' option. You can not even scroll a wheel on your mouse or hit a key to go back in time. Your only option is to 'drag' a chat from left, to right.... pathetic!. Oh, and this is the most annoying thing. THERE IS NO RULER ON ENSIGN . If you are used to pressing your left mouse key and dragging the cursor to the top of a candle to see exactly how many pips the distance is then forget on Ensign. You have to get the calculator out.
Summary
Well I wouldnt have paid for single months subscription for Ensign past my weeks trail had it not been for the fact that Ensign is the life support for Trendsignal. Based upon the points I have made above regarding Tick Rate, Chart Display and Backtesting. I would not recommend Ensign Windows. Alerts on Indicators yes. But charting... NO
