X axis time frame on standard charts

[Patrick]

please fix the interval display.

with today, ver 7.9 doesn't display any interval for the entire day.

upgraded (euphamism) to 7.9.1 and now can get some indication of the day's time frames, but only in 15 min intervals.

Tick charts and interval charts are both affected. If you zoom in to a time frame of less than 15 minutes, you have no frame of reference other than "guestimate" of what the time of the bar is. I was in ORCT and couldn't tell when the open came to switch from premarket to regular hours for trading -- expensive.

Live Rep was unaware of issue. 5 min on hold for a tech on the pay to call line, no help -- was aware that someone else had reported issue but that was it. Waste of time.

This year, eSig is unlikely to get my vote in the TASC poll if these sorts of problems continue (I've reported others with bad data like on the $TNX, days of blank charts when holiday occurred, etc.) Have yet to see a fix. But hope springs eternal -- this should be do-able.

Peace and Justice --- Patrick

[JayF]

I was able to duplicate this eventually after zooming in and out a few times. We are investigating this issue.

As a work-around, may I suggest using the Info Window. When you hold down your mouse button, it will display further information about that bar including the time of that bar.

[Patrick]

Hi Jay,

You apparently don't trade as I do with multiple monitors, multiple charts open and multiple fast moving issues (as well as multiple computers you have to switch between) or you wouldn't suggest something as cumbersome as having to position the cursor and hold down a mouse button to see information that should be (and was until today) available at a glance. At least the data and chart providers on the other boxes didn't have the problem and that may be the best solution -- just bag using eSig for anything other than Level 2 and T&S until my subscription is up.

I'm surprised that you didn't see the problem right off. I have found that the minimum time interval displayed is more like 45 minutes and if one zooms in under that there is no interval reference point. Yes, a workaround would be to open an info bar, however that takes up screen real estate, manage a cursor on each chart every time I want to find out what time is displayed and would mean having to reconfigure a lot of layouts and charts - perhaps tonight I'll try that on a few, however while trading I have no time for such distractions so probably won't bother.

As I use charts at these time periods (3 min and under), I trade purely on price and volume, not some CCI or stoch cross over. Moreover, Advanced Charts are worthless (to me) as tick charts --they can only display about 3 minutes (or less) at the size I normally use for a standard chart (about 6 inches wide) which can cover multiple days down to minutes.

I know I'm being critical, but it's frustrating when you have a nice working system and then it goes south for no apparent reason and without warning. Today it was also expensive. I surmise it had to do with either the daylight savings to standard time change or perhaps the latest change to version 7.9.1 from the RC1, but that's just guessing. If the problem can be corrected, it would be great so I'll remain hopeful and watch to see if there's a fix.

Peace and Justice --- Patrick

[Patrick]

Still no solution? Or just being ignored? The problem remains.

Peace and Justice --- Patrick

[JayF]

Patrick,

You are correct in your assumption that I don't trade like you do, however the fact remains that not posting a work-around for a problem that can't immediately be addressed would be an injustice and an incomplete answer to your original post. In addition, we really have no way of knowing how each client trades in order to filter out possible solutions to a problem.

I can certainly understand the impact that this has had on your trading, and the subsequent frustration that would go along with it.

Regarding duplicating the problem, on my system it took more then a few tries of zooming in and out, and it really depended on what bars I zoomed in on, how many bars to include in the zoom, what interval was selected, and the hours of the chart. I was able to duplicate it as was our QA department. It has been recorded as EDL#21705 and has been assigned to an engineer.

[Patrick]

Thanks Jay,

I don't expect you to anticipate all variants of ways that users trade any more than I expect you to anticipate all the possible machines and software combinations users have.

I found the problem on any standard tick or interval chart at any zoom length on the X axis of less than 45 minutes length, as I posted. However, unlike you, I knew what it looked like before it broke -- it was always possible to see a time for a frame of reference. Now that's not the case -- e.g., if you zoom in the length of the X axis to under 45 minutes, you won't see when the open or close is if it is within that 45 minute time interval. If it is a longer time interval, then you only have 45 minute blocks of time to reference, e.g., left side of chart shows 06:15 and next interval that can be displayed is 07:00 PST time zone) and any further zoom in looses all time indications, thereby being unable to tell what the trading is at the open.

I don't want to argue, and as you've turned it over to the 'engineers' I'll remain hopeful. My last post was occasioned because as I said previously, the workaround isn't practical, I hadn't seen anything beyond your "we're investigating" and the problem clearly remains. I've seen software problems get ignored before and come to realize that if one doesn't follow up and ask, it is apparently regarded as "must not be important". Perhaps posting the action being taken would avoid this. Thanks again and please keep me posted on the progress on the problem.

Peace and Justice --- Patrick

[Patrick]

Still no solution, other than to move my post to an out of the way thread --- is that how problems are being solved??? I said I would wait, but my tickler says it's time to give a call.

Seriously, how can one work with short time frame charts where the span of the X axis is under a couple hours? Or must I find another way to work?

The functionality of eSignal is going downhill, IMHO. Can't say as I'd recommend it to anyone that trades as I do for it's charting -- data remains one of the best, but then that used to be the strength (and only product line) anyway.

As I've heard nothing for weeks, I must conclude that the engineers have filed this under "too hard", "not important" or "who gives a damn". Got any information to the contrary?

Peace and Justice --- Patrick

[ScottJ]

Hi Patrick,

We likely should have set a clearer expectation for you when we say "it's been assigned to an engineer". The upgrade code for 8.0 is nearing lockdown and this issue will not be resolved in the next release. That means the earliest it will be addressed would be in Q1 or early Q2 of 2006.

To add to the problem, the underlying code of our standard charts is quite antiquated. Due to limitations in it's design, we opted to build an entirely new module and release that with 7.0 nearly 4 years ago ( Advanced Charts ). We've made very few changes to Standard Charts since then and have basically "frozen" the code on that component. We certainly didn't expect to "break something" in 7.9.1 so we are going to try to address the problem as soon as we can. Still looking at early 2006 at best.

Thanks.

[Patrick]

Hi Jay,

"We likely should have set a clearer expectation for you when we say "it's been assigned to an engineer". "

Yes. But then good communication has been minimal since I first asked my question. Your prior answer certainly implies that it would be an item to be fixed soon, with an assigned identity number of some sort by QA and such. FWIW, there are software developers who do not move at glacial speeds and do produce quality products. Unfortunately, eSignal is not one of them.

I understand that the standard charts are "old code". If I could do what I want with the advanced charts, I would. However, the advanced tick chart are not an adequate substitute for the original standard tick chart. The shortfalls of advanced charts include:
1) there is no fast way to zoom in on an advanced chart on any time interval;
2) the number of ticks that will display is quite limited (on a stock like SNDK today, the X axis is limited to about 1 minute of data);
3) there is a very limited ability to customize the quote area and information available (e.g., no average vol, or high and low for day);
4) data takes considerably longer to load at the tick level (try a tick chart for a high volume stock like SNDK -- no studies except volume);
and
5) switching to a high volume tick chart while other active charts are running occasionally causes the application to crash.

Perhaps some of these will be addressed in ver 8.0, or someday?

I don't mean to be abusive, but I do feel betrayed and ignored. For the past month I've struggled with the broken standard charts and the inability to see a reference time for less than 1 1/4 hour has really hurt. I have been with eSig for many years, watched it grow, relied on it's simpler abilities, recommended it to many, defended it often, and built my trading strategies and skills on it's standard charts. When advanced charts appeared, I found that trading an opening range breakout or some other fast moving intra day pattern on a high volume stock with them was not possible, so continued to use standard charts.

I'll try harder over the holiday weekend to figure out a workaround, now that I know that there is no fix within a reasonable time. Perhaps reverting to an earlier version (pre ver 4.9) would restore the functionality I need. Do you know if that would work? Pleases respond to this question at least. Otherwise, learning to trade fast moving stocks on a one minute chart and L2 may have to be my handicap.

Have a good holiday.

Peace and Justice --- Patrick

[ScottJ]

Hi Patrick,

I'm not sure with what version that issue with Standard Charts began. If you contact Technical Support, they can point you to older versions and you can try to downgrade. We really discourage downgrading, since we make many improvements in each version (despite the step backwards in this one area) but if you really need to, we can assist you. We don't publish the links so you'll need to call in for help.

Thanks.