Real Time Quotes on Yahoo Finance

[JLJ 10]

Maybe there's a better way.

I use Fidelity's Active Trader Pro for actual trades, but all day I look at the MACD and price trends on Yahoo Finance. Today Yahoo Finance froze repeatedly, on both my machines - one is Vista and I use Firefox, my other computer is brand new, super-fast, with Windows 8 and I use Internet Explorer on that machine.

I tried everything - closed and re-opened Yahoo Finance, re-booted both computers, etc. This went on for a couple hours which was scary and frustrating. I set stop-loss orders to protect myself but I would have traded differently had I been able to see the MACD. This occured between 11 am and 1 pm today

Maybe it was a problem with Yahoo's servers, but I'm wondering if there's a more reliable way to get this info?

[brownsfan019 17]

Problem probably results from using a pirated windows 8 b/c that's about the only way to get the next version of windows.

 

[JLJ 10]

I mis-typed.

I have Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on that machine.

[brownsfan019 17]

Just playin!

 

If you want reliable, real-time data then you need to find a broker or charting/data solution that offers this. Relying on the free yahoo stuff is fine when it works but not so great when it does not. And since you aren't paying for it, there's not much you can say.

 

Find a better solution. It may or may not cost you money.

[BlowFish 10]

maybe try to have a backup, freestockcharts are neat (prefer them to yahoo). Aren't they delayed 15 or 20 mniutes anyway?

[JLJ 10]

Yahoo Finance is not free, it's $14.95 a month. I'd pay more than that for info that's updated fast enough. Yahoo is updated once a minute, except when it hangs/freezes, which is too often.

I looked at freestockcharts and it was so different from what I'm used to that I was intimidated. In Yahoo Finance I can easily see the MACD and the price and the volume, and being a newbie, if I see much more on the screen than that, I get overwhelmed. Please don't laugh. ...OK, if the veterans here laugh I don't blame them. :-)

[brownsfan019 17]

Yahoo Finance is not free, it's $14.95 a month. I'd pay more than that for info that's updated fast enough. Yahoo is updated once a minute, except when it hangs/freezes, which is too often.

I looked at freestockcharts and it was so different from what I'm used to that I was intimidated. In Yahoo Finance I can easily see the MACD and the price and the volume, and being a newbie, if I see much more on the screen than that, I get overwhelmed. Please don't laugh. ...OK, if the veterans here laugh I don't blame them. :-)

 

Ok, maybe not free but not exactly a top tier service either. I had no idea yahoo even had a service they charged for. If you want to treat this as a hobby, then most days the yahoo thing will be just fine. If you want something more reliable and serious, then you have to look elsewhere.

 

Other option is to find a broker that supplies this to you for free or discounted. Open ECry provides charts/data to customers for free or you can get a monthly demo for a fee.

[BlowFish 10]

Yahoo Finance is not free, it's $14.95 a month. I'd pay more than that for info that's updated fast enough. Yahoo is updated once a minute, except when it hangs/freezes, which is too often.

I looked at freestockcharts and it was so different from what I'm used to that I was intimidated. In Yahoo Finance I can easily see the MACD and the price and the volume, and being a newbie, if I see much more on the screen than that, I get overwhelmed. Please don't laugh. ...OK, if the veterans here laugh I don't blame them. :-)

 

They do have a free option which is delayed (I believe). I guess they have a paid option too Maybe Quote.com or Esignals live charts might suit you? (I think esignal bought quote)

 

Did you need stocks ? Lots of brokers giving out free real time futures stuff.

[JLJ 10]

Yes, stocks. I'm very new to this so I'm not comfortable doing futures.

BTW, It's occured to me that my internet security software (McAfee) may be causing the problem, because when I open Yahooo Finance, I always get a message basically asking if I want to run a program that may not be safe. Regardless of whether I click "yes" or "no," I get into YahooFinance - then before long, it freezes. I'd thought during market hours that maybe their servers weren't keeping up with the number of users - but I went in on Saturday night and had the same problem.They couldn't be that busy then!

[wjrusnak 10]

Maybe there's a better way.

I use Fidelity's Active Trader Pro for actual trades, but all day I look at the MACD and price trends on Yahoo Finance. Today Yahoo Finance froze repeatedly, on both my machines - one is Vista and I use Firefox, my other computer is brand new, super-fast, with Windows 8 and I use Internet Explorer on that machine.

I tried everything - closed and re-opened Yahoo Finance, re-booted both computers, etc. This went on for a couple hours which was scary and frustrating. I set stop-loss orders to protect myself but I would have traded differently had I been able to see the MACD. This occured between 11 am and 1 pm today

Maybe it was a problem with Yahoo's servers, but I'm wondering if there's a more reliable way to get this info?

 

If you're serious about charting and have the need to use indicators, then I would use a better platform. I haven't traded stocks in a year, but I know that Interactive Brokers has TraderWorkstation included and also TradeStation is a good platform for just about every instrument, but a bit expensive (you have to trade 5000 shares/mo. or pay $99/mo. to use the platform... but only 10 round futures trades!). Anyway, I would certainly avoid using free (EDIT: cheap) tools for such an important task.

[MadMarketScientist 11]

I would agree the Interactive Brokers option can be a good one -- if you trade there you will get the data for free. Their charting is decent, but you could also get the Ninja Trader platform for free and connect it to Interactive Brokers data. As long as you weren't requiring streaming tick data it is a good solution in the low/no cost. Of course, it means trading with IB, but that can be a good thing considering their breadth of products in a universal account including stock, futures, options and forex (though only full size, no mini) plus many international exchanges.

 

I like Tradestation a lot as well but as the prior poster mentioned you do have some minimum trading volumes or you pay a monthly platform fee which I think is $200+.

 

Datafeeds are definitely an area not to cut corners on since it's your primary link between you and everything you need to make your trades.

[JLJ 10]

I wish I could blame my learning curve (i.e., losses) on the platform I'm using. I thought it was me. :- (

What's different in a better platform? I just use the MACD, bid/ask, volume, etc. Pretty simplistic, I've just started day trading. It's painfully clear that I don't know what I'm doing. In my 3 weeks of really serious practice trading, I did very well. But since I started using actual money, I'm mostly losing and don't know what to do about it. It's discouraging. I've got a high tolerance for frustration, and I know I have a lot to learn so that's OK - I just wish I knew what/how to learn. I don't want to keep losing money unless I'm learning from my mistakes.

Maybe I'm not cut out for day trading? I might do better at swing trading.

BTW, if you no longer trade stocks, what are you trading now?

[JLJ 10]

(Forgive me if this posts twice, I replied earlier today, but I don't see it.)

As Yahoo Finance continues to freeze, I'm now mostly using Fidelity's Active Trader Pro. Seems robust to me, but I don't have much a basis for comparison.

If you're day trading stocks and ETFs (as I am), what are the differences between different platforms? I wish I could blame my lack of success on my choice of platform, but unfortunately I think it's because I don't know what I'm doing. I listen to the business news, I pick a few stocks (or ETFs) to watch, then I watch the MACD for buy and sell signals - very simple compared to most of you guys here.

When paper trading I did very well, but since I began trading with real money (about 2-3 weeks ago), I pretty much stink at this. Fortunately I have a high tolerance for frustration and I'm willing to work, but I have so much to learn I don't know where to begin. Most days, I'm losing money, which wouldn't be so bad if I could figure out what to do differently. Every time i think I figure something out, tomorrow's trading seems to contradict it.

[MadMarketScientist 11]

JLJ -- the short answer from me is after 3 weeks of trading you are just starting the journey. I have never met anyone who was consistently profitable after 3 weeks trading. Especially daytrading -- there's a steep learning curve and a bit of "school of hard knocks" that is involved. The fact that you've jumped in I think is a great sign - your challenge would be having the staying power to stay with it.

 

If you're using just a basic MACD for buy/sell you might want to realize that over time that is likely going to change as your experience grows. Maybe post more specifics about your approach and others here will be able to give you some feedback.

 

I haven't found just using an indicator out of the box to be very effective for me personally but others might feel differently. Things like RSI, stochastic, MACD, etc...on their own can provide some insight to the hundreds of bars you look at but usually cannot be traded as straight signals (like oversold you just buy, etc...)

 

You'll probably have to focus a lot on developing your trade plan, do a lot more testing, and go back to simulated testing - see if you were just lucky for a few weeks or maybe with real money you are just not following your plan due to that added pressure.

 

As for your Fidelity platform I'm sure that is fine for what you're discussing -- not the Yahoo one but you're good on the other.

 

Thanks.

[JLJ 10]

Thanks for your encouragement. I know what I'm doing is pretty simplistic and I expect to add other indicators as I learn about them. I've heard about RSI & stochastic but don't have any idea of how to use them. I know I have a great deal to learn, but I don't know what to read next. (Posts on this forum, for one thing:)

 

This is what I do (stocks or ETF's I'm watching based on the news or what I infer from the news): I buy when the MACD starts to go up fairly sharply, well before it crosses the line. Sometimes I sell when it levels off but because I've observed that it'll often come back up, some times I don't sell until it's definitely dropping - which I can regret it if continues to drop and drop.

I think a lot about where to set my stop loss, I'm reluctant to lose too much on one trade, but if I set my stop loss at a 'safe' level then too often I get kicked out prematurely when the price drops - "prematurely" meaning the price often comes right back up, then I wished my stop loss hadn't kicked me out so soon. But after learning from that, I tried setting a much lower stop loss to avoid getting kicked out, and then the price often drops and drops and I lose money. I feel like I'm chasing a moving target.

I rarely buy more than 300 shares of anything because I don't know what I"m doing yet.

Maybe I ponder too long when deciding whether to buy, The window of opportunity is pretty fleeting, I'm realizing. When I'm watching a stock and I see the MACD and the price going up, I may wait too long. One _could_ get a nice gain on a price increase of only a few cents (assuming you buy enough shares) but only if you act fast. But often I'm sitting there thinking, trying to decide whether to buy, while a few seconds pass. Then I finally buy but I've just missed most of the upswing.This can be profitable only if the price continues to go up, but often it'll drop as soon as I buy, so I lose. Getting in this late will only work if there's a big sustained price increase which I don't often see.

Granted buying 300 shares won't get me far on a price increase of a few cents. But I want to know what I'm doing before I buy more.

thanks folks for your suggestions!

[MadMarketScientist 11]

JLJ - maybe someone can weigh in on some suggestions for places to put your stop. I realize on entry you seem to have a reasonably good idea of when you are entering -- other than sometimes being a bit unsure of whether it's totally ideal (then missing the move) -- it does sound like your stop in particular is very subjective.

 

There may be better suggestions but you could consider something like an ATR stop (Average True Range) -- so some multiplier of the ATR of the period of the charts you're watching.

 

Others on here might be much more adept using Fibonacci retracements -- there might very well be a way you could use one of these to identify stops of some safety but that would allow you to move to more of a rule-based exit which I think would help you.

 

Perhaps others can weigh in.

[JLJ 10]

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it.

I'll look into Average True Range - don't know what that is but I'll find out. I should probably spend more time reading about technical analysis. And I'll read around this forum about how people decide where to set their stops - there are probably threads devoted just to that!

thanks again...