QCharts 6.0.3.1613 Feedback

[tradertom]

Starting a thread for feedback.

My most sincere thanks to Jay and company for this release.

Jay, is there any update on intraday options charting? Thanks again!

All the best!
Tom

[tradertom]

Duplicate Lines

OK, I'll start. Like many others here, I use horizontal lines on my charts a lot and not just on the price pane. I also have horizontal lines on study panes as well. With this new release, I am seeing duplicate lines on my charts. At first I thought the thickness had somehow doubled but after zooming in, it appears there are now two lines where there previously was one line. Some are extremely close together so as to look like one line but, there are two there.

The problem appears to be limited to indexes. I am wondering if the line translation function (Continuum to eSignal) somehow went haywire.

Thanks,
Tom

[JayF]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the post.

On the subject of intraday options charting, the tick server team is currently finishing up the roll-out of Phase 1 of extended intraday data for the eSignal product. They then have a high priority item that addresses building multi-session bar logic into the server such that we won't need to use the "Multi-minute Bars" functionality in QCharts to get correctly formed bars that cut off at the correct end-of-session time (a large task, but a very big gain to chart speed and bandwidth.) To be frank, (no pun intended <g>) we likely won't see option intraday data until 2010.

On the duplicate line issue, this is likely because you may have had previous lines saved in that workspace under the Continuum INDEX:___.X format. QCharts 6.0.3 previously was turning those into the $___ eSignal format incorrectly such that the .X versions were taking precedence over the eSignal format (i.e. if you had newer lines drawn in 6.0.2 in the eSignal format, then they weren't showing up when converting to 6.0.3.) The fix to this code could create duplicate lines if you had lines saved in both formats, because QCharts 6.0.3 is now correctly displaying both sets of lines.

The easiest way to find and remove any duplicates is using the Edit Lines command from the right-click or the Chart menu.

If this is a big issue for a number of people, we may be able to look into creating some logic to remove duplicate lines. My only fear of that is that it could introduce other scenarios that might inadvertently remove lines that aren't exact duplicates.

[JimRutherford]

Originally posted by JayF

The easiest way to find and remove any duplicates is using the Edit Lines command from the right-click or the Chart menu.

If this is a big issue for a number of people, we may be able to look into creating some logic to remove duplicate lines. My only fear of that is that it could introduce other scenarios that might inadvertently remove lines that aren't exact duplicates.

Jay, this would be a whole lot easier if the edit lines function were sortable. I need some time to think about this and in the mean time I have to set aside this latest build until I can work through this issue. Slogging through that many indexes to correct the horizontal lines is going to be extremely time consuming. I do notice though that the additional lines are not always exact duplicates and not limited to the bar/candle area which tells me that this will have to be a manual exercise.

Jim

[tradertom]

Thanks for the reply Jay (and for being Frank!) As for the lines issue, I hadn't considered the existence of old symbol lines but that seems to be the case here. Like Jim, I have many lines that are extremely close together but not exactly the same value. Also, I agree with Jim that this duplication elimination will be very tedious since it involves zooming over and over to find and kill the duplicates. Thank goodness it is largely only apparent on indexes!

I would suggest that rather than having an automatic conversion of lines built into QCharts, perhaps a stand-alone utility would be easier to develop and maintain since it is needed only occasionally when a symbol changes. In addition, the functionality of such a utility could be expanded to make line/text management easier. For example, it would be nice to place a line on a study pane at a value, knowing what that value is rather than estimating the placement with the cursor. The ability to produce a list of lines and their values (coordinates, thickness, color, pane, etc) would be just fantastic as the ability to manage them (copy one or all lines/text to another symbol/workspace, etc)!


All the best,
Tom

[tradertom]

Experienced frozen white screen both days now. At open (yesterday and today) and at close (yesterday), I have a frozen white screen for 3 minutes or so. Not so with version 1550.

edit: QCharts title bar displayed (Not responding) for three more minutes. QLink continues to work.

Tom

[ckelly]

Tom,

I am also seeing the frozen screens. This is not new - it has occurred with each release, although not nearly as much now as say, 6 months ago.


Additionally, the larger intraday time frames are not painting correct candles.

See pic.

Carol

Edit: Note the 390-min candle is pictured, I also see the same thing on a 240-min candle as well.

[ckelly]

Along the same lines, the Daily and Intraday charts indicate multiple different opening prices and no gap or huge gaps.

See pic.

Carol

[tradertom]

Hi Carol,

You are right about the white screen; I switched to x.1550 and saw the same freezing white screen. I just haven't noticed it this severely since 1550 was released.

It is updating now but it is lagging on price updates on all charts as far as I can tell.

All the best,
Tom

[bobscott]

Tom,

The attached is an image of STLD from QCharts 6.0.3.1613 T&S as compared to another feed which are both directly from the exchanges and I see no apparent lag.

~Bob

[tradertom]

Hi Bob,

The lag was earlier this morning and I believe it was related to QCharts software and not the server. I was comparing NQ #F prices on QCharts and NQ #F prices on Excel using QLink and the QCharts prices were lagging somewhat but as the morning progressed, this lag went away. It might be related to the CPU or memory issue that was causing the white freezes.

All the best,
Tom

[JimRutherford]

Jay, regarding the lines issue. Let me put forth some observations here.

1. A very quick review last night reveals that there are 20 symbols affected. Possibly more but 20 that are obvious. For each symbol affected, there are a minimum of 5 charts and sometimes as many as 8. This is using the tire builder workspace so it's probably a safe bet that many more people than just Tom and I are affected by this.

2. The horizontal lines and rays are placed based on candle open or close values.

3. The differences observed in opening and closing values of weekly, daily and intraday charts will affect placement of lines. If those values are inconsistent or subject to chage then line placement has little to no value and may even be misleading. I have not documented or reported this but I have observed gap areas move where I have placed lines to identify the top or bottom of a gap and later those lines are not aligned with the candle bottom or top that formed the gap.

4. I believe I remember reading somewhere that there are plans to have intraday bar/candle values computed on the server side rather than the client side as it is presently done.

This is a real quandry. Do I invest the time rebuilding 20 symbols worth of lines in order to move up to build 1613 and invest that time and effort only to find that it all has to be done again before long? I estimate a couple of days worth of work would be required. Also, how can we be sure that the only charts affected are the obvious ones?

What are your thoughts Jay?

Thanks

Jim

[btrluckythngood]

flat/horizontal bollinger bands

I've seen this issue for the past four or five versions: I consistently experience flat/horizontal bollinger bands. More noticeable on larger time frame charts.

This is not due to low volatility, as I will see flat BBs on QQQQ but the nasdaq futures, which correlate pretty well with QQQQ, aren't flat on identical time frame charts when displayed at the same time as QQQQ.

Maybe I'm the only one having this issue, but I hope it will be looked into prior to 6.1 release, as I noticed it did was not listed on the bug list.

Other than that, I've been pleased with the performance of this version.

[Larry Marchman]

To follow on CK's report earlier on symbol ESI.
Methinks it's noteworthy that it was not about regression in 1613 vs previous versions.
As the screenshot shows, the goofy charts also manifest in 1550.

Seems this was symbol specific. I didn't see this goofyness for other syms.
Why goofy for ESI, and not for another symbol?
Not a clue.

LAM

[bobscott]

This is not surprising to me as the last intraday trades (prior to 16:00) were at 15:59:58 with a price of 92.11 but the Official Closing price was at 16:00:18 and was 92.04. Hasn't this always been the way it was? Or am I "up-and-locked" again?

~Bob