Long Load Times -Intraday Advanced Charts

[nife01]

I run 24 intraday advanced charts. Each chart has 8 indicator tabs and runs a fairly lengthy efs file. I am running with version 7.4, build 608, which I upgraded to about 1 month ago.
I had a pentium III 600 with 320 meg RAM and it always took between 1 and 5 minutes to load the layout. Also, at certain times during the day I would experience lengthy delays in scaling and moving forward & backwards on individual intraday charts of 25 days worth of data.
I have subsequently switched to a pentium IV 2.4 with 1 Gig RAM and a 64 Mg video card. It still takes between 1 & 3 minutes to load. I also decreased the intraday length to 3 days, however scaling & moving through different time ranges in the charts still is quite slow at times.
A programmer friend advised me that since eSignal is written with Javascript, a more powerful video card may help with the extremely graphics heavy software.
I realize that I may be testing utilization extremes of the system. However, aside from decreasing the number of charts I use how else could I increase the speed at which eSignal runs? Do you think upgrading my video card would be worthwhile?

Ian

[FibbGann]

No... the videocard should not be the problem. I am also having similar issues and my pc is a powershouse. I will get to the buttom of it soon and will post back here.

Fibbgann

[JayF]

Ian,

First off and just to clarify, eSignal is not in and of itself written in JavaScript. It is a standalone application written in a compiled language (I believe we use C++) as opposed to an interpreted language (like Java and JavaScript). The JavaScript reference comes into play from EFS (eSignal Formula Script) using Core JavaScript to base its language on.

Regarding the long load times, I suspect this is due to the amount of data that needs to be downloaded and processed. When the Layout is loading, does it appear as if the data is loading into the window in segments, or is all the data not there and then suddenly appear after a given length of time?

You also mentioned that you use a lengthy EFS file. Depending on how it's programmed, this may be the cause of the problem. To narrow it down, I would suggest removing that EFS file then note any changes in performance. You can also check the performance of an individual EFS by using the EFS Performance Monitor (Tools --> EFS --> Performance Monitor).

[nife01]

Jay,

Generally, once eSignal is opened the page loads up fairly quickly and quotes begin to display. All my advanced charts are minimized. Once an advanced chart is maximized, the interval data is displayed but not the indicator nor the efs plots. Then the system freezes for an allotted time, during which, periodic alerts are triggered but everything else is still frozen. Then, all at once, the system comes back online and the indicators and efs plots join the display.

The average time for each call of my efs is 2.2 ms according to the performance monitor. After approx. 10 min, 3000 ms worth of calls were made. I'm not sure how this ranks in terms of efficiency, but it translates into only 3 seconds worth of calls after 10 min.

Ian

[JayF]

Ian,

Could you send me your Page file to look at further? I would be able to better analyze the situation have that.

[Frodo]

Long load times

I have the same problem every now and then. Attached is a chart of WM that I opened 3 min ago and so far only one bar has displayed. Daily works fine but for all symbols right now I can not get intraday data. Everything was working fine 15 minutes ago and will probably work fine 15 minutes from now.

[JayF]

Ian,

Thanks for sending me your Page File. After testing this over the last few days I didn't run into many performance issues. The only notable items I saw were a long initial load time, and a large number of alerts coming in. CPU was nominal on my P4 2.4Ghz 512Mb SDRam machine (eSignal 7.5 build 622) once the Page was loaded.

The only suspect I have that may be contributing is the number of shapes and text used with the TriPlay efs file (seen below).



You may want to consider limiting the shapes and text drawn on the charts by using something like the below.

if (getCurrentBarIndex() > -100)
// ... then draw shapes and/or text

Basically, it's a check that will only draw text and shapes on the 100 oldest bars, greatly reducing the amount of load on eSignal.

[JayF]

Re: Long load times

Originally posted by Frodo
I have the same problem every now and then. Attached is a chart of WM that I opened 3 min ago and so far only one bar has displayed. Daily works fine but for all symbols right now I can not get intraday data. Everything was working fine 15 minutes ago and will probably work fine 15 minutes from now.

This sounds to me like a connection issue either on our end, on your ISP's, or somewhere in between. Alternatively, there could be an issue with the server you are connecting to, albeit that is quite rare. When you see this occur, the easiest work-around is just to restart eSignal, however if the problem persists beyond that then I would suggest checking your Internet connection by running a trace or ping to 208.240.76.1. If that looks clean, and the problem still persists, then it would be best to contact our support department.

[Frodo]

Thanks

I suspect it is a server because while the load times for intraday charts take forever, I can pull up a daily chart or any other info instantly while at the same time. the intraday just sits there saying it is receiving data. Either way the problem always seems to resolve itself after a few minutes and today it is fine.

[nife01]

Jay,

Thanks for trying to help me troubleshoot this issue. I generally like to see how my signals perform throughout the day. Therefore, I dont think I want to limit the number of bars it will draw to the last 100. I do have a lot of redundant signals on this efs (ie. for a given parameter, the efs will produce an alert for every tick within that interval, sometimes equating into dozens of alerts.) I tried to eliminate this several months back and I remember running into some problems. This would certainly reduce the number of shapes & sounds created for each signal. If you could suggest anything I would appreciate it.

Ian