Alternatvie to eSignal, anybody?

[Jyde]

Hi all,

first things out of the way first: A big thank you to all the posters on this board, you are really providing a great help to a beginner.

Having read through most of the advise on this board, I am left with one certainty: Using eSignal for my needs is overkill, both in price and functionality.

I have been trading in the small for litttle over 6 months. I started out with a very limited budget of £500 (this was completely new to me so wanted to get a feel first) though had to bang that amount up a bit for obvious reasons.

I started out using eSignal as my charting package and data provider (suplemented with IG Index as broker), through reference.
I find eSignal very straight forward to use, though quite frankly I only have the need to use about 1% of its functionality.
The monthly fee for just this package is a bit out of proportion to both my needs and current budget and I would very much like to hear from someone who have been in the same situation and have found a satisfactory alternative.

I am trading S&P, Dow, Nasdaq, GBP/USD , EUR/USD and Gold, all futures only, and need delayed data.
MyTrack seems a very good provider alternative, very good priced (about 1/20 of the eSignal subscribtion). I just need for a good (graphical!) charting/analyze package that can take the feed

Now, I am not looking for a free ride, nor am I looking at something that has the same amount of functionality but in a far poorer quality, but rather only the basic functionality I need but in a good implementation.
Mayby if I tell you what tools I use instead, you will be able to point me to something good?
I need:
Trendlines
Fibonacci retracement
Fibonacci extensions (!)
Fibonacci time
Andrew's pitchfork (not a must)
Moving average
Inserting text
Saving the result in a file with all the text, indicators, etc..
Exporting raw data to a CSV file.

I have, naturally, been through all of the tools pages here, and have tried a lot of the programs on trial and for free. My problem is that either the programs don't contain all of the above (specific, but really rather basic, I am sure you will agree - especially the Fib Ext is an often lacking feature) or else they are not well implemented and functional.
The best hit so far has been AmiTrader, though not quite there in implementation.

So, in short, it boils down to this: Is there any graphical package that implement the basic tools listed as good and intuitively implemented as in eSignal, without me having to pay for all the rest I don't need?

Apologies for the lenghty post - I tend to explain myself too much maybe.. Just read the above two lines and you have it all in a nutshell really.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated, especially since it will free more funds to actually trade with.

Thanks all in advance and all the best!
Jyde

 

[Roberto]

I was in much the same position as you. eSignal was too big and too expensive for me and I only ever used a tiny fraction of it. Take a look at www.prorealtime.com. They will give you a week's free trial of the real-time service before asking for your credit-card number, and as you'll see from their website, it's an awful lot cheaper than eSignal. I've had the week's free trial and am about to subscribe on Monday. Indices + Currencies is about 30 pounds per month, and I think their software will probably do just about everything you say you need. Having used eSignal before, you'll find it extremely easy to learn to use it. I'll be interested to hear whether you like it. I have only 1 week's experience with it so I can't say too much more about it, but I certainly have no complaints at all with the product, the company or their staff (they have replied promptly and very helpfully to questions).

 

[Jyde]

Roberto, thank you for the fast reply.
I have noted, though, from their pages, they do not seem to implement the Fib Ext, which I simply cannot do without. Would this be right?

Jyde

 

[Roberto]

Roberto, thank you for the fast reply.
I have noted, though, from their pages, they do not seem to implement the Fib Ext, which I simply cannot do without. Would this be right?

Jyde

Ah, I see ... sorry. I can't really access the thing at the moment (am using my wife's PC after a major disaster on mine with Windows XP Service Pack 2, as discussed in another thread!) but I'll confirm on Monday. I imagine that you must be right, though. In which case you need to tell them that they need to make Fibonacci Extensions available quickly!

 

[ardhill]

Is this what you mean?

The image of the tool bar shows the button you press to get the levels.

Sorry, I am not much of an expert on Fibonacci, so I may have gotten my level mixed up with my retracements with my arcs

 

[waverider]

Fib extension is available in esignal.

WR

 

[knorrie]

Jyde

If you are referring to AmiBroker (by AmiTrader), I'd be interested to know what you mean by 'not quite there in implementation'?

I've been using AB for several months now and am continually amazed at the features this package provides for the low cost, all with excellent support. It hasn't crashed or hung up once in that time (although when I first installed the demo a few months earlier I did have some minor problems).

KenN

 

[Jyde]

Ardhill, thanks for that. You are right in it is possible to use the Fib Levels, though you would have to first draw it on the origanal wave, finish it there, and then move it to the new location for compairson. I have a feeling that it might get a bit tedious in the long run - well, it got there after just a few attempts, to be honest. Might seem like a small point, but I use them heavily on my methodology.

WR: I know, that was the starting point of the thread. Find me an application that implement it as well as eSignal, though not so bloated and of lesser money. I use eSignal, but I am paying for way to much functionality for my simple needs. Please see my original post for requirements.

Roberto: I did get to try the Fib levels on PorRealTime,. Same as my message above. If it is a tools you rely on heavily, work-around does get to be tedious. Shame, because it really does work well otherwise.

I think I must have been through something like 20 analytical applications by now, none of them have this implemented in a good way (apart from eSignal). I am beginning to get the feeling that I might be the only one in the world making use of extensions (with Elliot Wave counts))? Are you guys simply not using it, am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks all, much appreciated!
Jyde

 

[Jyde]

Knorrie, thank you for replying.
AmiBroker - as I mentioned - is the one that comes very close. There is a chance that I might have given it too quick a glance over (I have been installing and uninstalling so many programs lately, so it's a real posibility)..
I will list what it is that seem to give me the impression that it is not quite there in implementation - hope this is not going to sound to picky - and if you can put me right, ie. it might just be me that is not using the application to it's full potential, I would be very happy to be put to shame on that. Believe me, I do want it to be good, for as you say, price and product seems extremely good in general.
I can't seem to get it to scale well, either on price or time.
I can't seem to figure out a way to 'grab' the curve and move it left/right/up/down. (cursor works on sideways movement but is really slow)
I cannot move a bit beyond the current postion in time, thus giving me space to make my retracement et al in the blank 'future' space, thus all are just one unreadable jumble on top of each other (I am positive that I must be the one not knowing how to do this as otherwise the screen is vertially unreadable, surely that would not be the case with such a quality product)?
There are a few other bits and bobs, but those are probably down to force of habit.

Once again, thanks all for taking the time on this. I really is a big help, not having to reinvent the wheel and all.
Jyde

 

[JJL3142]

Jyde,

The proverbial dogs XXXXXX for Fib (ext, retracements, time and projections) is Dynamic Trader !

It also contains EW (from what I have seen of it it is similar to AGET)

But it is expensive !

 

[knorrie]

Jyde,

I think I can help you with some of the things on AmiBroker, here are my comments to your points:

I can't seem to get it to scale well, either on price or time.

To change the horizontal or time scaling, use the green (+) zoom in and yellow (-) zoom out icons in the View toolbar (or View/Zoom In/Out from the main menu).

To change the vertical or price scaling, use the View/Zoom Shorter Bars/Longer Bars feature in the main menu. You can add icons for this to the View Toolbar by customizing it to make it easier it if you use this feature a lot. To do this, right click on the View toolbar (the one with the green/yellow zoom/magnifying glass icons) and click on the Customize context menu option. You'll see the up/down arrow icons for these commands in the left hand side of the Customize Toolbar window, select these and click on the Add button. You can then change the position of these icons relative to the others in the View toolbar by selecting them in the right hand side, and clicking the Move Up/Down buttons.

I can't seem to figure out a way to 'grab' the curve and move it left/right/up/down. (cursor works on sideways movement but is really slow)

There is a horizontal scroll bar below the chart for moving it left/right or backwards/forwards in time. You can't scroll vertically, all you can do is use the Shorter/Longer bars feature I mentioned before. Try adding the icons to the toolbar, I think you'll find once you get used to it, it's not a bad way to move around the chart.

I cannot move a bit beyond the current postion in time, thus giving me space to make my retracement et al in the blank 'future' space, thus all are just one unreadable jumble on top of each other (I am positive that I must be the one not knowing how to do this as otherwise the screen is vertially unreadable, surely that would not be the case with such a quality product)?

By default there are 10 bars of space at the right edge of the chart . To change this, click on the Preferences toolbar 'gear wheel' icon (or select Tools/Preferences from the main menu), click on the Charting tab, and change the value for 'Blank bars in right margin'.

Hope this helps, and by all means fire away with any other questions.

KenN

 

[timaru69]

I use www.prophet.net

7 day free trial of all services

Real time feeds and streaming charts with all the fib and tech indocator tools you could ever need including a stock scanner

All for $39.95 a month, bargin

Examples of some interactive java charts . I have only shown the fib retracements and drwan acouple of trend lines.

Good Luck

 

[Jyde]

Pervaz: I know about DT, and I have actually used it (a friend of mine signed up for the trial). Intuitive we did not find it to be, but with some work I am sure it would be just fine. My problem, as you state, is clearly the price. I am not in that league (yet, I hope).
(PS: Are you actually using Miner's methodology? I am, getting his daily too, though so far I am not too impressed by his results.)

Knorrie: That is brilliant, thanks very much for that. Would you believe that I actually overlooked the scrollbar at the bottom even though looking desperately for a way to scroll?
I am still not too happy with having to click zoom buttons to scale, but as you say, it must be a matter of getting used to it. On your input and recommendations, I am now using it side-by-side with eSignal and going to see if I can get a bitter feel for it. Thanks ever so much for your time and help!

Timaru69, I will definitely check that one out too - it being Monday, I will only get around to it later. It looks to be a thin client, prefer fat ones, but I will find that out. Price is good too.

Again - and I know I keep repeating myself, but - thanks all. I wish I had come to this forum before!