eSignal options chains not updating

[syd697]

I've spoken to Drew & William in tech support and have been waiting for a definitive answer. The futures options chains are not updating dynamically. You have to keep hitting the "OK" button at the top of the chain to get a manual refresh of the option prices. This has been going on for months and the problem has been duplicated on your end. It has been quite frustrating not only because I can't see the prices update dynamically, but also because I pay for real-time futures exchange fees which are hundreds of dollars a month. Please respond back here to let me (and other subscribers) know when/if this can be fixed. I'm running the current version 10.0 and it was happening on the earlier version too. This is only a problem for futures options chains. Stock option chains are working fine.

Thank you.

[eSignal_AveryH]

Hi Syd697,

I understand that you've talked to a couple of the Technical Support Representative here who confirmed you're having a problem with the Future Options in the Option Chain window. I've been looking at the future option for most of the morning, connecting to different servers within the farm and can not seem to duplicate. I will continue to troubleshoot this problem into trading on Monday. If you could please PM your username and contact information I so that I can see which servers you're connecting to and try to duplicate your connections as best I can to see if this is a problem servers issue.

Thank you
AveryH

[syd697]

Thanks for looking into this, but I'm wondering how you can test this problem on the weekend when the markets are closed? I look forward to hearing back tomorrow (Monday 11/19/07) to see if it works when the markets are open. You can test it on futures options such as crude oil (CL F8), coffee (KC H8), sugar (SB H8), etc. Make sure the option settings are for front-month only because if you try to see all the months at the same time you'll go over the symbol limit.

Thanks.

[syd697]

Sorry about the last post. I didn't see that you sent it on Friday 11/16 while the markets were still open. Hope we can get it fixed.

[syd697]

Still trying to get an answer on when this issue may be resolved. Futures exchanges data fees cost losts of money every month and it's frustrating that I can't get the info I need from eSignal. Talked to Drew & William in tech support on multiple occasions, and although they've been more than helpful, I never hear back from anyone on when this may be resolved. Is there a way to get thru to Scott Johnson as I would like him to know about the urgency of this issue.

Also, the other problem I've posted about the futures options chains hasn't seemed to be resolved either.

http://forum.esignalcentral.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24083

This is just the fact that eSignal seems to be missing posted bids/asks from the ECBOT during the grains option trading session overnight.

Hope to hear back from someone. Maybe Scott Johnson.....

[syd697]

I'm just wondering why something like this issue is taking so long to be resolved. It's been going on for at least six months and the issue has been duplicated on eSignal's end. The futures options chains used to work, now they don't, and I'm trying to find out why they don't work anymore and when it will be fixed. How could a feature of eSignal just stop working? This is a main feature of your product - futures options chains.

Here's the breakdown: The symbol limit is not a problem. All I want is to pull up a single month's worth of a soybean option chain or a crude oil option chain or coffee option chain, etc. and have the option chain data stream realtime for that one specific month. It used to work no problem and the symbol limit was never an issue. All of a sudden about six months ago, the futures option chains stopped streaming realtime. They only give me fresh data now when I clicked on the "OK" button at the top of the option chain. So now I'm constantly clicking the "OK" button so I can get fresh data. That is not how it's supposed to work and that's now how it worked in the past. The futures options chains should be receiving the data constantly from the futures exchanges and updating dynamically within the chain without having to manually refresh the screen by hitting the "OK" button. This is what I'm paying hundreds of dollars a month for so I can get streaming futures options data. If eSignal is getting the data from the futures exchanges, then your futures options chains should be updating dynamically, streaming in realtime. It worked a few months ago and so why doesn't it work now? This should be an easy fix.

What can be done about this? Is it truly that hard of a fix and that low on the list of bugs that after 6 months it can't be fixed?

I need someone to tell me what is specifically wrong, why the futures options chains aren't updating dynamically, and when it will be resolved. How can I talk with someone in the engineering dept?

Scott Johnson, where are you?

[ACM]

syd697
Based on the description of the problem it could be that the Option Chain window was set at some point to Snapshot mode instead of Dynamic mode and then saved as the default.
Try closing down all your Option Chain windows then click File-> New-> Option Chain (or click the New icon in the main toolbar and select Option Chain from the list). Then before inputting the symbol check the D/S icon (circled in red in the following image)



If the letter S in the icon is colored in blue (meaning Snapshot mode) click the icon so that the letter colored in blue is the D (for Dynamic mode) as shown in the following image



Once you have done that select Option Window Options in the main menu and click Save Defaults.
At that point add a symbol and if this was indeed the issue you should see the quotes updating dynamically
Hope this helps
Alex

[syd697]

Thanks Alexis, but we've got the problem solved already in a different way. By the way, the D/S icon button that you mention is only applicable to stock option chains, not futures options chains. That button is greyed out when you pull up a futures options chain.

[ACM]

syd697
Glad to hear that the problem was resolved.
I overlooked the fact that you were referring to futures options. Sorry for the confusion
Alex