How much historical data does eSignal carry?

[ScottJ]

Hi derekg,

Still looking at Q3 or Q4 of 2005.

Thanks for checking in.

[kevins]

Fundamentals, how far back?

Hello,

Regarding the page that shows how far back historical data goes, found here , how far back does the fundamental data go?

So far, nobody in sales or tech support has been able to answer this, so if you can, you are the man! (or woman).

Thanks very much.

[ScottJ]

Hi Kevins,

In terms of our servers, we are only storing current fundamental data. If you want some history, I'd suggest you click the Research tab (within eSignal), then S&P Compustat and type in the ticker you are interested in. You'll find data going back 3-5 years, in most cases.

Thanks.

[RobMc]

Any update on the 2yrs of data. It's nearly time and I'm getting very excited! This will be a great step forward.

Thanks
Rob

Originally posted by ScottJ
Hi derekg,

Still looking at Q3 or Q4 of 2005.

Thanks for checking in.

[derekg]

Don't get too excited. Last rep I talked to said they had *no* plans to increase historical intraday data. Maybe someone here will say otherwise but, frankly, it's going to take actions not more words at this point. They've been leading us on for years with empty promises and I grew tired of it and switched. Won't consider coming back until it actually happens.

[ScottJ]

derekg,

I'm sorry but you were given some inaccurate information by the Support Representative you spoke to. Please PM me their name and I will make sure they have the correct information.

We have every intention of expanding our intraday history and we are making good progress on the project. We are storing more than 120 days now but we must release a new server for mass storage before we can display that additional data. Due to other high profile projects and the complexity of this project, it does appear likely that we won't be making the initial release date goal however. Looking more like Q2 or Q3 of 2006 at this point but there remains a small chance we could be ready by Q1 of next year.

The amount of data being sent by the exchanges continues to surge in the ballpark of 50-100% a year and processing and storing that data (across almost 100 exchanges) is an enormous task. 1 minute data is not too difficult to store but still requires an architecture change. We understand how much our customers want access to more history data so there's no question that this is still an active project.

Thanks.

[RobMc]

ScottJ

Thanks for the reply.

I don't understand the technical side of things but surely you don't have to bring all the worlds exchanges up to 2yrs in one go??

- Start with the US, then Eurex or LSE then Forex or whatever.

- Charge for it as an add-on maybe, and then it doesn't have to be across the board because only people who want it will opt in thereby not requiring servers as big as the moon or whatever because people will just choose the bits they want, like just futures, or just US stocks or forex etc .....

- Or set up a facility whereby people can import historical data that doesn't interfere with the feed for current data, and again maybe charge for the privilege, and again it doesn't have to be across the board because only people who want it will opt in.

There must be something that can be done that means we don't have to wait another year!

It would be a tremendous step forward for eSignal to be able to use your charts and efs on more extensive data. Obviously this isn't a priority so I assume there is no real demand for it - is that assumption correct?

Just trying to be constructive but it is frustrating. Here's hoping for Q1 next year :-)

Regards
Rob

[ScottJ]

Thanks for the ideas. We won't neccessarily make the data available for all exchanges in phase 1 but the primary obstacle is the mechanism we currently use to deliver bulk amounts of data.

When we initially provided history data "on-demand", we only had 1 day's worth. We grew that to 5, then to 10, then to 30, 60, etc up to it's current 120 days. We've pushed the current infrastructure for intraday history about as far as it can go. The goal is to make a major leap forward and create a system that can handle far more data, deliver it quicker and more efficiently, and be smart enough to self-clean (i.e. handle corrections, insertions, deletions, symbol merges, etc). It's a big task.

No doubt, we'll get there.

Thanks.

[RobMc]

Update?

Go on, go on ............ tell me its any day now .............. pleeeeease

[ScottJ]

We continue to make good progress but have no specific ETA at this time. With the recent addition of Quote.com, we now have access to many years of historical data on most US equities and futs. That deal was just closed earlier this month so we are just getting started in researching and reviewing their technology.

Our goal will be to merge and leverage the strengths of both networks, where it makes the most sense. Should have more to announce in 60-90 days.

Thanks.

[RobMc]

Scott - how's it coming on? There must be something more definite by now - I hope!

Cheers
Rob

[ScottJ]

Hi Rob,

We are preparing to upgrade all our servers for our 8.1 release (to handle corrections, insertions, deletions, display trade conditions, sequence numbers, etc.) and should be done with that project by end of July or early August. We've begun to spec out what we need in terms of hardware to expand our history database to at least several years of intraday data and be able to grow that to 10+ years.

Look for the 8.1 release later this summer and we should have the next status report a bit after that release.

Thanks.

[RobMc]

Scott,

This question first started being answered on this thread in Nov 2004 and the estimate was Q2 or Q3 2005 when the servers were updated and from your most recent answer sounds like it is realistically still at least another year away.

I'm just a customer asking a very simple question. Is there any answer you can give which I can rely on? Can anyone give a reliable answer? If it is "sometime never, its not a priority, go elsewhere" then at least be honest and say so I can stop bleating on about it. I'm seriously unimpressed at the moment.

Regards
Rob

[ScottJ]

Hi Rob,

I can appreciate that you'd like to know exactly when we'll have the extended history available. We have every intention of implementing "years" of intraday history but the landscape has changed several times, dictating that other projects be given higher priority.

The acquisition of FutureSource in late 2004 and Quote.com in Mar of this year represent two events that caused a shuffling of some of our priorities. Quote.com has years of minute history so we're closer than ever in being able to introduce addt'l data w/in eSignal. I can't give a specific ETA but it remains an important project for us.

Thanks for your patience.

[nolik]

Originally posted by ScottJ


I can't give a specific ETA but it remains an important project for us.

Thanks for your patience.

The Summer 2006 is almost finished.
I appreciate any comment on the subject.

Regards,
Ilya.