Updata

[Rognvald]

Updata also run a bulletin board giving support for all aspects of their service. I think I am right in saying that the TA bb is served mostly by a gentleman with the nick of S8 who is their leading TA authority and the brains behind their TA program.

It is often the case that the solutions to thorny problems appear on this bb. The contributors are users with a high level of knowledge of using the software and not much gets past them. I'm not sure whether the bb is open to people trialling the software but it would be worth asking
http://www.updata.co.uk/bbforum/

As a regular former contributor and as a now casual onlooker I can say that the level of problems with the software has fallen dramatically in recent months and the accent has shifted to datafeed problems.

Updata use S+P Comstock as their source but I don't know which package they buy from them. It is not really possible to point the finger without a degree of knowledge that we as users are unlikely to acquire.

Updata tended to be very defensive at one time but this is no longer the case and the "tone of voice " has changed considerably of late

 

[oatman]

P&F charts were our office wallpaper when I started in the City.
They've been around a lot longer than Indexia.

 

[Nildes]

I've had less problems with Updata since upgrading from Win98 to XP and since they improved their database structure.
I've got one version running at home on the old structure and one at work on the new. The new is quicker and less prone to problems.
You can't run the two concurrently but are allowed to switch the registration from one machine to another. I'll upgrade the home program when I get time for some downtime.
There are still some tender spots to the program. For instance, if you try to scroll whilst the Optimiser is running, you crash it and no optimisations are produced until you re-boot...but the rest of the program still works.
There seems to be a tendency to optimise everything against everything & whilst empirically it may work, there's no attempt to suggest a theoretcal basis as to why it should.

 

[Rognvald]

Nildes - if you pay you can of course take 2 licences to run simaltaneously on 2 machines - say on a small network

 

[dunlop]

GRUNTNOWAY
dont know or care what your program is.
my pc is less than one year old.
i simply downloaded the program from the link sent to me by mr linton.www.updata.co.uk/welcomeback.
no i did not ring help desk on the basis if updata want my money for thier product,that product should be good to go without any more drama.not an unreasonable idea is it!!!
I am looking for a realtime data/software program that wont cause endless reboots,phone calls to help lines.WHY SHOULD I OR ANY ONE ELSE PAY A LOT OF MONEY FOR A PRODUCT THAT MAY OR MAY NOT WORK.would you buy a new car ,then spend time ringing a help desk to get the car to start??!!.
it is up to updata to cure thier problems not the customer.

 

[oatman]

Downdata recommend XP not 98

in fact they gave out XP Home upgrades with the 1st edition.

 

[Nildes]

Rognvald...but I can only be in one place at one time so there's no point in two licenses for me.
The one license is fine provided I remember to uninstall security before I leave. I could run other instances on the laptop too if I wanted.

Dunlop, its rare to find a TA program which doesn't have a glitch or two and I've found that the frustrations that accompany the install usually extend to the initial learning curve too.

Besides which, Microsoft set the (low) standard for supplying barely functional software, why set a higher standard for the Minnows than you'd expect from the Giants? 80)

 

[DaveJB]

Fair point Nildes,
I think it would be fair to give Updata the chance to fix this - many a user hits barriers getting the hang of my program, I help them through it as best I can and as quickly as I can... sometimes errors are simply down to the OS - you also get tiny tiny errors due to CPU sometimes! PC's are very complex, it all goes horrible and it turns out to be your firewall running amuck, etc. Crashes cannot always be laid at the door of the program that crashed - it might crash because of problems elsewhere.

As for the idea that I learned P&F from Indexia - no, I did some online investigation and bought books on it, once I'd got the idea I went looking for a program that would let me do better charts than Sharescope provided. I found Indexia quite user hostile, gave up on it, and wrote Pfscan as a result. Pfscan is actually founded totally on the sheer awfulness of P&F software in mid 2000 or so.

Pfscan is also coding for an RT version, which will maintain and scan a sort of portfolio of stocks/times, with 'click the button to see the chart' bits, using 1 to 60 min bars. Some way of completion, and I just throw this in to show that despite my EoD head I'm not past hope for the shorter timeframe brigade.

Oh, Pfscan 2 actually does candle and barcharts as well, although the emphasis IS on P&F, you can scan for a few reversals and MA crosses for example. Just in case you hadn't noticed Rognvald - not a criticism, but from your earlier comment I wasn't sure you knew that - the 'non-PF' part or Pfscan is, indeed, given much less emphasis than the P&F side.
Dave

 

[Rognvald]

Dave JB
Sorry if I gave the impression that pfscan was p+f only - its name and emphasis seems to be mainly on this. I'm happy to have any errors I make corrected.

Your program will be taking its place amongst the others in the Software Guide soon

 

[GruntnoWay]

The thing is we all have an axe to grind and a trumpet to blow. We all think (and know) we have bought the best software or we can write the better software than the pros, so why even bother arguing about it. It is rare that anyone praises anyone else's choice of software but that's the standard moaning mentality on bulletin boards. I suppose, if what you have got works for you, who cares what anyone thinks about it. I will stick with mine and you stick with yours and we will agree to disagree. My point is I USE the software, I don't sell it, so if it doesn't work for me then I will get rid of it and buy something better. I've been around long enough to know.

Sharescope? Point and figure? - you have to be joking. Indexia was the best by far - solid and accurate. I reckon Technical Analyst is better. oops oh dear, there I go again :-0 sorry

 

[Nildes]

I think I've got an open mind. I'm certainly going to have a good look at DaveJb's P&F charting program at some point.
UpdataTA is good but it might be a little like one of those Swiss Army knives that has one of everything in it.
I'd like to look at some of the more restricted but specialist tools to see how they might extend my capabilities.

 

[DaveJB]

Rognvald,
no worry, having had a go at reviewing lots of programs a year or so back you can't be omniscient - it IS primarily P&F. the assumption was fair enough.
I'm not here to flog programs, I'm a bit surprised that I'm turning into a defence lawyer for Update though !
Gruntnoway - "Sharescope? Point and figure? - you have to be joking. Indexia " etc... if that's aimed my way then I said I was looking for better charts ... I bought Indexia because the P&F was so bad in Sharescope, I'm unaware of anyone who actually has ever said a word in favour of S's P&F charts!
Indexia 2 was a DOS program running on my 2000 computer, I had a number of problems as a result - it's nice to be able to print a chart, for one. As I said earlier I wanted to locate patterns in large numbers of stocks - I didn't (and still don't) want to have to eyeball every chart in the FT350 if I can cut that down to a couple of dozen using a simple filter for double or treble tops. As far as I'm aware Updata doesn't do that?
You are quite right, if you are happy then there's no reason on earth not to use the program - as I've said all along I think it's a good program, like others here I've had a poor experience when trying the support side out, I think that has coloured a lot of people's opinions of what is basically a better program than it is often painted.
I've seen plenty of posts on T2W in support of different software packages, I think you're wrong to assume that this is some sort of typical moan going on here.
Dave