eSignal 7.7 Feature of the Week

[DuaneG]

I had a lot of questions regarding this feature of eSignal during the Chicago Traders Expo two weeks ago. I thought it would be good to go through it again as it's a very cool feature that saves quite a bit of time....

For those who are interested in pulling results from the Scanner into a Quote Window, the Dynamic Symbol List is an efficient and quick way to do this.

Dynamic Symbol List

1. To begin using the Dynamic Symbol List, go to the File menu; choose New and Scan



2. Change the List Name field to something unique. In this case, we called it My Scan Results



3. Open a new Quote Window; go to the Quote Options menu and choose Dynamic Symbol List



4. Using the List Name pull-down menu, you'll see that the name I gave the original scan is now a selectable option. Choose this name and the Quote Window will be populated with the results from the Scan.





Keep in mind that while the Scanner doesn't count against your symbol count, if you import the results into a Quote Window, it will count against the total amount of symbols allowed by your account. Have fun!

[DuaneG]

Last week we covered the Dynamic Symbol List. This week I'll outline how to use the Dynamic Quote File feature.

For those who are unfamiliar with this feature, it is quite powerful and can save a lot of work when importing symbols from a external file (i.e .txt) into eSignal.

The Dynamic Quote File feature is used to load data from a file generated outside of eSignal into the eSignal platform. This is particularly useful when working with a large group of symbols.

Let's say that I have generated a .txt file with 500 symbols. Rather than type these 500 symbols one by one into a Quote window, I would rather use the Dynamic Quote File to bring all 500 symbols in automatically with just a couple of keystrokes.

We'll pretend that the screenshot below was an output file from some source like QCollector.



Now I want to bring the results from this outfile into eSignal for some in depth analysis. What I need to do is open a new Quote Window. Once the new Quote Window is opened, I need to go to the Quote Options menu and choose Dynamic Quote File.



Now I need to browse for the output (.txt) file that was created earlier.



Once I locate the file, I then click OK on the Dynamic Quote File window and the new Quote Window that I opened earlier is now populated with the symbols from the output file. Notice that I didn't have to enter a single symbol into the Quote Window. The Dynamic Quote window did all the work for me.



Another thing to keep in mind is that if there are any changes to the original output file, then the Quote Window will pick up on those changes and update itself accordingly; hence the word Dynamic.

[DuaneG]

Last week we had a great question about how to follow multiple columns of stocks within a single window. With a Quote Window, we are limited to following stocks within a single column, basically we can't add a second symbol column to a Quote Window, but we can with a Summary Window. Here's an example

Quote Window



Notice how there is one symbol column per Quote Window.

Summary Window



As you can see, with a Summary Window, we have the option of placing multiple symbols on the same horizontal line. This is useful for making the most of the space we have available on our screens. If you are only looking for a few selected fields with your stock data, the Summary Window is great way to view an increased amount of symbols in the same amount of real estate.

To open a new Summary Window, choose File---->New----->Summary Window

[DuaneG]

Hello everyone,

With the 7.7 release candidate, we will be re-naming this thread to encompass the new features that are now available. We'll continue to update the thread with features that are available in eSignal 7.6 but the short-term focus will be on eSignal 7.7. Stay tuned.......

[DuaneG]

Hello Everyone,

This feature has been long awaited. Alex touched on it last week, but I wanted to bring it to the forefront as I think many of you will be quite pleased in putting it through the paces.

Go To Date Feature

This feature allows users to jump to a particular date and time within an Advanced Chart.

***Important***: This feature will only recall the data that is loaded into memory; therefore, you'll want to make sure that you are using a Time Template that encompasses the date of the data that you are attempting to recall.

1. To specify a particular date, right click within an Advanced Chart window. Choose Tools and select Go To Date



2.Select the date and time that you are looking to recall. The information that you are looking to recall can be justified on either the right or left margins of the chart, or it can be centered. Pressing the OK button completes the search and recalls the date and time that you specified.



Have fun.

[DuaneG]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. We have posted the video tutorial to the eSignal University website. This lesson reviews the major features and enhancements in eSignal 7.7 including the new Symbol Search Window and News Manager. Click here to view the latest addition to the eSignal Users Audio / Video training!

*This video is approximately 16 minutes in length.

[DuaneG]

Standard and Non-standard Options

There is now an Option Type column that can be entered into Summary, Quote, Detail and Option Chain windows.

This new column header offers more specific information regarding whether the options tied to an underlying symbol are standard or non-standard. In cases where an option contract does not equal 100 shares of controlling interest, they will be labeled as NS or Non-standard options. This should prove quite helpful as some option contracts control odd-lot shares rather than the more common 100 share lots.

[DuaneG]

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to take a moment to point out another feature that you may not be aware of regarding the eSignal 7.7-release candidate.

All Link Window Broadcast

As you know, each window within eSignal can listen for changes by setting the Symbol Linking to a specified color. These colors are coordinated so that windows of a particular color will change with other windows of the same color. Within eSignal 7.7, users can set their windows to Link to All which basically means that the window will listen for broadcast changes regardless of the symbol linking color of the other windows.

[DuaneG]

Hello everyone.....here is this weeks installment to eSignal Feature of the Week.

One of the new features of eSignal 7.7 is the Windows Shortcut Bar. This feature adds a numbered toolbar to eSignal that allows users to refocus the attention to any open window. The beauty of this feature, is that is can also be used to open a particular window type that isn’t already open.

To activate the Windows Shortcut Toolbar, go to the “View” menu and check Windows Shortcut Toolbar.



To select and assign any button to a particular window type, right click on the preferred number in the toolbar where the following dialog box will appear.

[DuaneG]

Hi Folks,

I received a question about this feature during one of New User Training Sessions and thought it would be good to discuss it in more detail.

This feature is one of the many new additions to eSignal 7.7.

Locking Pages

The Lock Pages feature is basically a way to insure that your eSignal Page file retains specific content regardless of how the page is constructed.

The Lock Page option behaves very similarly to that of a Read-only layout. The Lock Page feature allows eSignal users to "lock" specific windows into the page file. If any new windows are opened within a locked page file, the windows will not re-appear when eSignal is restarted even if the Page file was saved prior to exiting eSignal. The Lock Page feature allows users to prevent inadvertently closing needed windows. Any window that is part of a Locked Page, cannot be closed until the page is unlocked. Small changes to Page files can be made under the locked Page option, but the size and position of the windows will remain "locked" so that they are in the exact same place every time the page file is loaded.

If there are any new windows that a user wishes to add to a Page file, the Page file must be unlocked before these windows will be added.

[DuaneG]

Keeping with the theme of Locked Pages, I thought it would be a good time to go through a similar feature that has been recently released in eSignal 7.7.

Page Reload Feature

The Page Reload feature is designed to allow users to assign a specific keystroke combination to refresh the windows of a Page file and bring them back to an original configuration.

This feature will reload a Page file without saving or asking the user if they wish to save their respective changes.
The keystroke combination can be set through the Tools---->Customize Keyboard menu options.





This is an excellent way to revert back to any changes to the windows in a Page file and a great way to fix any uh-ohs that are made on a particular Page file.