3 minute hang today on consumer confidence number

[jgr]

My esignal hung up for a full three minutes today when the consumer confidence number came out on the back of Fisher's statement that things will stay bad for a long time. The tick rate spiked.

In that time, the SSO moved 1%.

I am downloading the latest maint release now. Maybe that will help.

FYI, I was running another application on the esignal data manager which did not hang at all and showed the entire move. So the data feed was not the problem.

[bf2]

jgr,
You may recall I had the same issue back in August when Bernanke spoke, but since then I haven't experienced it even on high volume days.

I have been experimenting with lots of combinations. What seems to have solved it is that I have got rid of the moving average that I had. I use seconds charts (eSignal is significantly slower in loading, for example, a 59-sec chart compared to a 1-min chart), so I figured maybe the MA is creating a lot of additional load on the charts.

I now use more charts of ES than I was using then (5 now as opposed to 3 then, some of which are still seconds charts), but I now have only one EFS that draws a few high-low lines. The same EFS is on all 5 charts but that doesn't seem to have caused any performance degradation.

If you do have to use heavy indicators, I suggest you don't use any seconds charts.

Other tips:
1. Fetch only the minimum amount of data you need in your time templates.
2. Track only the minimum number of symbols you can get by, note the indication at the bottom right of the screen.
3. In your EFS, do as much as you can in preMain() rather than loading all your logic in main().

[jgr]

Thanks for the feedback. I violate most everything you found worked. The issue is that I use esignal specifically so I can write my own indicators and program custom alerts. I do use 6S charts of SSO and SDS with $TICK study below. I also track the $TICK on the tick basis with alerts on high/low and I calculate the Accumulated TICK which relies on a long SMA.

Plus I have a bunch of quote screens where I watch sectors, ETFs and issues in play. So I am running about 120 stocks.

If I have to scale back to what you suggest, then quite frankely there are other platforms I have accesss to WITH NO CHARGE that would do just as well.

I have communicated at length with esignal folks about this and they promise that sometime, probably next year, they will have a new version that processes information in a way that takes advantage of the power that is built into currently available computers. They have also advised me that the thing really bogging it down is the number of displayed bars that it has to update with every tick. So even minimizing a chart will help and keeping them narrow with only a few current bars showing helps. I have seen some improvement since watching those things. I have also cut down on the number of charts that I was running but seldom looking at. I can always open one if I need it.

As I become more skilled in trading, the amount of different information displays that I need should also decline. At this time I am still trying to figure out what I need and don't need and also the style I will ultimately trade in. Scalping, daily trend, swing etc. I try to use the 3 screen method of Elder too which puts additional charts up. I actually trade on a separate computer with a broker that imposes a lot of restrictions on shorting and margin requirements. While this keeps me out of trouble it limits what I trade and forces me to switch between the long and short version of the leveraged ETFs a lot - and keep both visible.

jgr

[Loki]

I appreciate the posting thread here.

How do you monitor the "tick rate" in eSignal? I watch the processor load but would like to see and track the tick rate.

Thanks!

[jgr]

I don't know how to monitor Tick rate. the NYSE $TICK can be put in chart or Quote screen.

When all the prices are changing furiously you know that the tick rate is high. The download througput if you have a gadget to monitor that can also be an indication. Setting up a chart on say SPY with the time interval of t would give some indication.