I posted the following on Yahoo Qcharts board but maybe someone here would also be interested...or maybe not!
I have also been a subscriber since 1997/1998 area and have experienced lots of little problems over the years. The beginning of this month was the worst and I felt it was time to look at another service. I signed up with ESignal on their one month free trial. After 2 weeks I found only minor stall that lasted only 5 or 10 seconds at the same time Qcharts went into major time delays and attempts to switch servers. Only that one time did Esignal fall behind while Qcharts had numerous failures. Esignal does run 2 seconds ahead of Qcharts, but in my trading I don't think that matters much. It is nice to see all the market makers on Level II for a change, having ISLD back is an improvement but without the rest the full picture is not shown.
Though the basics are the same I prefer the look of Qcharts. A lot of little things make the difference, like on Level II where the bid and ask have full numbers rather than the last two zero's are dropped on Esignal. All the fields available on Level II on Qcharts are a plus missing from Esignal. The quote sheets on Qcharts are much better, easier to read, delete and add symbols and the Hot List depth puts Esignal to shame. I run quite a list on my quote sheets and Esignal ones are very hard on the eyes. I spent most of today playing with colors and settings and they are better now but still not as easy to read at a glance.
I have not figured out why but one thing that is completely different between the services is the reporting on the NYSE Trin. Nasdaq Trin reads the same on both but NYSE is way different numbers. Most all other indicators read very close using the same setting but will vary slightly.
I did not want to leave Qcharts, after so many years it is comfortable but my frustrations led me to investigate other programs. I did not know what billing cycle I was on so I called Qcharts to find out and when asked why I explained I was thinking of canceling. I was told everyone was on first to end of month and he could cancel me then effective last day of month. Made it easy for me to say OK even though I had not decided which way to go. I find that ironic that Qcharts is working so hard to attract new customers by offering free months for referrals, yet they almost encourage an old customer to walk away.
I am a bit of a procrastinator and still have 2 working days left on my Esignal free trial but Qcharts expires today. Qcharts has been working great for the past few weeks, though it seems to me most of the problems occur during high volume and that has not present.
In summary I would have stayed with Qcharts had they done anything to encourage me to, but at this point it is easier to leave. |
