Volume Based Charts Request for HELP

[walterw]

Brown : your issue is very serious and has to be dwelt professionaly... TS doesnt have the apropiate volume information (period).... from My experience esignal would be the best alternative in that aspect and in terms of service... hope you can migrate nice and smooth to the right change.... cheers Walter.

[notouch]

Brownfan, how much do you really need EasyLanguage? Do you program your own unique indicators with it? If not I would choose Ensign over MultiCharts. There's so much functionality within Ensign that unless you really do have some unique indicators, you probably won't need to do any coding. Volume based charting is really Ensign's niche and they have some features not found elsewhere. Having tried out the various options I would say Ensign is the best charting program and eSignal is the best data provider. I found MultiCharts buggy and Investor/RT was the worst piece of software ever (on a Windows PC - I understand it was designed for the mac).

Best idea would be to get a free trial of eSignal Premier and also a free trial of Ensign and MultiCharts then you can test them all out on eSignal data for free.

[bh_trade]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	bh - the 'shortcomings' you refer to are specific to TS. If you are using tick bars then this does look like a small thing. It'd be the same if you said your 233 tick chart is actually displaying 233-500 ticks each bar and you have no idea whether it will be 233 or up to 500 each bar. Would that impact your decision making? Could that possibly create scenarios where your setups either do not appear, appear to late, or appear when they should not? If so, that's the issue at hand here. Just b/c you do not use them does not mean this is a non-issue. It's a non-issue to you and you are attempting to discredit the importance of this simply b/c you don't 'get it'. Like I said, if your tick bars were off by as much as 30%, you'd probably care then.

No, I understand what you guys are saying about the volume bars. And I also said I *have* used and traded from volume bars. My main trading vehicle is ER2 so the volume bar differentials are very minor. I suppose if you are charting equities which can have wider per tick volume differential then I can see where your larger 20% error factor comes in. Now I guess what I dont "get" is how or why a 500 volume bar vs a 600 volume bar is such a big deal when making your trading decisions. I mean price is what it is - right?

[brownsfan019]

Great ideas guys, thank you.

I am testing Multi now and will take a look at some of the others as well. Multi came recommended from a few others using volume based charts. One nice thing I like about Multi is that you can buy it outright and then just pay for data. Not too bad in my opinion if you decide that software is for you. I'll have to read into how that works more, but never had that option with TS or ESignal.

[brownsfan019]

	Quote:	bh_trade
	No, I understand what you guys are saying about the volume bars. And I also said I *have* used and traded from volume bars. My main trading vehicle is ER2 so the volume bar differentials are very minor. I suppose if you are charting equities which can have wider per tick volume differential then I can see where your larger 20% error factor comes in. Now I guess what I dont "get" is how or why a 500 volume bar vs a 600 volume bar is such a big deal when making your trading decisions. I mean price is what it is - right?

bh - the problem with 'randomly' based VBC charts is simple - I have no idea if my setup is legit or not when taking a trade. Again, as stated above, as soon as ONE candle is off, everything after that is off.

Since I use candlestick analysis, having candles that aren't even true is completely misleading. Having a hammer on a true VBC chart is much different than a completely random TS chart.

I can see at face value how a difference of 500 vs 600 does not seem like much, but you have to remember that EACH candle is COMPLETELY different in terms of how much volume is actually represented there. I mean, I have NO idea if the next candle will have 500, 600 or 700 contracts represented. With that info, plus knowing that my candlesticks are completely inaccurate, does that make sense?

[bh_trade]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	bh - the problem with 'randomly' based VBC charts is simple - I have no idea if my setup is legit or not when taking a trade. Again, as stated above, as soon as ONE candle is off, everything after that is off. Since I use candlestick analysis, having candles that aren't even true is completely misleading. Having a hammer on a true VBC chart is much different than a completely random TS chart. I can see at face value how a difference of 500 vs 600 does not seem like much, but you have to remember that EACH candle is COMPLETELY different in terms of how much volume is actually represented there. I mean, I have NO idea if the next candle will have 500, 600 or 700 contracts represented. With that info, plus knowing that my candlesticks are completely inaccurate, does that make sense?

BrownsFan: Ok, I admit, not a candlestick guy, never have been. More of a price structure (higher highs, lows, trendlines, etc) guy.

TS works for me and I don't pay for the platform because I do in excess of 100 RT's per month. They have some quirks for sure, but then again, every platform will. If precise volume bars are important to you then you probably need to swith platforms. BTW, no offense was ever intended. Best of luck in your trading.

[ezduzzit]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	Great ideas guys, thank you. I am testing Multi now and will take a look at some of the others as well. Multi came recommended from a few others using volume based charts. One nice thing I like about Multi is that you can buy it outright and then just pay for data. Not too bad in my opinion if you decide that software is for you. I'll have to read into how that works more, but never had that option with TS or ESignal.

Browns... I would think twice about migrating over to Multi as many say it is full of basic bugs and slow as molasses compared to TS. I have run volume based charts on both ESignal and Ninja Trader and had no problems whatsoever. Ensign is certainly another strong contender for what you desire. ESignal just never stops increasing its prices and in fact recently announced an upcoming price increase again for July 1, but I will say that it does provide a reliable and clean datafeed compared to most.

Good luck in your transition.. I too would make a changeover if I were wishing to use volume bars and got what TS provides you.

Happy Trading

[brownsfan019]

	Quote:	ezduzzit
	Browns... I would think twice about migrating over to Multi as many say it is full of basic bugs and slow as molasses compared to TS. I have run volume based charts on both ESignal and Ninja Trader and had no problems whatsoever. Ensign is certainly another strong contender for what you desire. ESignal just never stops increasing its prices and in fact recently announced an upcoming price increase again for July 1, but I will say that it does provide a reliable and clean datafeed compared to most. Good luck in your transition.. I too would make a changeover if I were wishing to use volume bars and got what TS provides you. Happy Trading

ez - I will be trying multi this upcoming week and will be sure to let everyone know how it goes. It appears to have what I need (which is not much to begin with) so we will see. I demo'd ESignal again today and just not impressed with it. Some basic features that I have grown accustomed to are not there. Ensign will be a consideration if there's any issues with Multi.

[walterw]

let me add that esignal as software its not very nice, the data service from esignal is very good, you have a great amount of softwares compatible with their data feed,about prices, if you are not a ts acct customer esignal is much cheaper.... cheers Walter.

[brownsfan019]

Here's what I found out about pricing so far:
Multi is $49/mo

Data feeds vary:
IQfeed.net is $99/mo for the data I need
eSignal is $115/mo for the exact same data
TS data is also $115/mo or higher

I think the difference is that iqfeed.net is just a data provider, not also a charting company (I think).

The other nice thing about Multi is you can buy it outright for $799 right now. Apparently that price has gone up in the last few months, so it's like 'act now, or else' type thing. But at $800 = 16 mo's of service at $50/mo, so in month 17 it has 'paid for itself'. Assuming of course you like the software. I am going to use it for a few months and then consider purchasing.