Does Multicharts Really Suck This Bad?

[daedalus 10]

Ok... So i'm trying to use multicharts and this is what i've found to be wrong... a couple things are just things i'd like to see but if any of you use multicharts and could tell me if indeed there are issues with some of these things or if its just me not knowing how to setup the program correctly please let me know!

 

Heres my lists of problems.

 

Don't get me wrong - I love the idea of multicharts and I think it could be great but i'm staggered by how much of the program just flat out doesn't work and that they are charging money for this thing.

 

A small list of things that just don't work...

 

The resolution link on the charts. There is no way to link resolution to the scanner window.

 

The workspace tabs can't be moved to change their orders. The move buttons don't work and they can't be dragged.

 

Indicator alerts don't work consistently. The dialogue box comes up maybe once out of every 20 times. While the audio alert does work, it leaves me scanning 20 open charts to see what candle actually fired. I think it is related to if you have the platform running actively ontop of everything else... it like if you are already looking at it and then the alert fires, it doesn't label it. And even then its a crap shoot.

 

A small list of things that need to be included...

 

HOTKEYS! How hard would it actually be to code this? Honestly? I can do it in VB in about 20 minutes? Yet this feature requested by their userbase has somehow gone undeveloped for years. For those of us who use drawing tools a lot having hot keys saves us tons of time. Having to click the damn tool bar and then come back to the spot on the chart we want to draw on is a huge inconvenience.

 

And a small list of things that always seem to go bad with its interpretation of data...

 

Soo all of my charts this morning linked to Tradestation data? Multicharts is convinced that from the time I shut off the charts last night until I turned them on this morning no market movement occurred.... and it translates this into one massive bar from where it left off until where it is. Chart refresh maybe? Sure- but it doesn't do anything.

 

 

Its just unacceptable. Fix the SERIOUS flaws and then i'll switch. Until then I continue to be dissapointed and waiting for you guys to get your act together.

 

And while I sound like a scathing a-hole let me make something clear. I want to buy multicharts and use it. I would love to eliminate my monthly platform fees with tradestation. The program is so lean and fast - I love that. A lot of their features are very innovative and the overall package I think is better. The easylanguage editor is very nice and much more robust.... BUT the platform has yet to address underlying issues in the foundation of the program IMHO.

[Tams 20]

Ok... So i'm trying to use multicharts and this is what i've found to be wrong... ...

And while I sound like a scathing a-hole let me make something clear. I want to buy multicharts and use it.

 

 

you are... LOL

 

 

JK... ;-)>

 

 

 

as in anything in life, I am sure there are incompetence/deficiencies in both parties.

Edited June 22, 2009 by Tams

[trader273 10]

what data feed are you using to feed it?

[daedalus 10]

Tradestation right now. I was planning on using OEC.

 

I resolved the data issue, but I had to go into TS and refresh each data feed there...

 

My fear is that when I get rid of TS and go to OEC I wouldn't be able to have that "out" to fix it?

 

Or I guess maybe i'd just have to open up OEC Trader and refresh from there?

[BlowFish 10]

Having come across MC version 1.0 and buying in early version 2.0 I can say its a whole lot better than it used to be. Having said that there are lots of little (and not so little) niggles (some may or may not be fixed version 5.0. I gave up upgrading as it was often a painful and expensive process ) Stuff I reported way back when has still only got attention in V5.0, staggering really.

 

Compared to say Laurence and the guys at Tickquest they just don't have that spark. BUT it has native support for easylanguage and decent data feed support. That counts for quite a lot. Most things it does adequately but ELA support is actually pretty damn fine. Its a shame,that makes it an OK drop in replacement for TS and that is a strength but a weakness too. It could be so much more with some ahead of the curve thinking.

[trader273 10]

The charting is only going to be as good as the data it gets. Tradestation's data, at least when I used them some time ago, was absolute garbage.

 

I currently use OEC, and what does MC offer that OEC cant do since it does handle EL code pretty damn good.

[daedalus 10]

^^ Thats the only thing I didn't know about. I tried their demo but the demo doesn't allow the importation of .eld so I couldn't confirm if any of my indicators worked or not in the platform.

 

I would like to think they would as basically they are just basic candlestick show me's written with High, Low, Close comparisons in IF THEN statements....

[trader273 10]

^^ Thats the only thing I didn't know about. I tried their demo but the demo doesn't allow the importation of .eld so I couldn't confirm if any of my indicators worked or not in the platform.

 

I would like to think they would as basically they are just basic candlestick show me's written with High, Low, Close comparisons in IF THEN statements....

 

They should work in the Demo. Did you install the custom indicators plug in?

[thrunner 10]

I want to buy multicharts and use it. I would love to eliminate my monthly platform fees with tradestation....

 

^ Thats the only thing I didn't know about. I tried their demo but the demo doesn't allow the importation of .eld so I couldn't confirm if any of my indicators worked or not in the platform.

...

TS platform fee is waved with broker account and 10 Futures round trip per month. MC is not a data provider. OEC lacks comprehensive backfill history and market internal data.

 

MC can only import TS eld from TS 8.3 and earlier. It will probably not import any eld from 8.5 onwards. Use copy and paste and it should work with a little more customizing.

 

There is nothing wrong with MC/OEC combination if you don't trade based on a lot of backfill data and other market internals, otherwise you would still need to find a data provider equivalent to TS.

[TIKITRADER 10]

Yes the one thing OEC lacks for MC is historical data. Other than that, MC- Oec run well. It is possible to merge data.

 

What you will get with MC is outstanding customer support.

If you have a question ask. My experience with support is great. They address all questions immediately, and resolve it in a timely fashion.

 

Based on the customer service alone, MC is worth the investment.

Marina Pashkova has been superior in that division.

 

Seriously just write to them, they place the customer needs a priority.

[daedalus 10]

They should work in the Demo. Did you install the custom indicators plug in?

 

I can't seem to find the plug in to download anywhere?

[daedalus 10]

drrr... I just found it.

[sevensa 10]

Yes the one thing OEC lacks for MC is historical data. Other than that, MC- Oec run well. It is possible to merge data.

 

What you will get with MC is outstanding customer support.

If you have a question ask. My experience with support is great. They address all questions immediately, and resolve it in a timely fashion.

 

Based on the customer service alone, MC is worth the investment.

Marina Pashkova has been superior in that division.

 

Seriously just write to them, they place the customer needs a priority.

 

I am sorry, but I cannot agree that their customer support is outstanding. Yes, on the surface they appear to be great, but if you take a closer look, you will see they only reply quickly to the easy questions that have easy answers. For more serious bugs and issues, they get very defensive, then either ignore them, claim it works as designed, make you jump through hoops to prove to them that this is a real issue and when they cannot deny anymore that this is a real issue, they give you the vague answer that this will be solved in one of the feature versions. Some of these issues have not been resolved in years.

 

Having said that, if you want to use it for basic charting with simple indicators and not for any of the other features they advertise on their website, it is a pretty decent product that support multiple datafeeds.

[Tams 20]

...Indicator alerts don't work consistently. The dialogue box comes up maybe once out of every 20 times. While the audio alert does work, it leaves me scanning 20 open charts to see what candle actually fired. I think it is related to if you have the platform running actively ontop of everything else... it like if you are already looking at it and then the alert fires, it doesn't label it. And even then its a crap shoot....

 

 

 

The Alert window has a tendency to pop up under MultiChart's main window.

If you take the MC program down from full screen, you will see the alert message.

I don't know if this is a MC problem, or a Windows OS problem. I agree it is annoying.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Tams

[insideday 10]

 

MC can only import TS eld from TS 8.3 and earlier. It will probably not import any eld from 8.5 onwards. Use copy and paste and it should work with a little more customizing.

 

 

I have no problems importing ELDs which i exported with TS 8.6 2525.

[BlowFish 10]

I am sorry, but I cannot agree that their customer support is outstanding. Yes, on the surface they appear to be great, but if you take a closer look, you will see they only reply quickly to the easy questions that have easy answers. For more serious bugs and issues, they get very defensive, then either ignore them, claim it works as designed, make you jump through hoops to prove to them that this is a real issue and when they cannot deny anymore that this is a real issue, they give you the vague answer that this will be solved in one of the feature versions. Some of these issues have not been resolved in years.

 

Having said that, if you want to use it for basic charting with simple indicators and not for any of the other features they advertise on their website, it is a pretty decent product that support multiple datafeeds.

 

I Agree with you Svensa and Tikitrader. Support is outstanding if it is merely a support issue (i.e. it can be fixed by configuration or changing parameters etc.) However if it turns out to be an issue with implimentation and so comes under managements/developments remit you can pretty much expect around 6 months or so (if it is a major issue effecting lots of people) or 18 months plus if TS management consider it 'minor'. Even if it is 'major' if management decide that it is too tricky to fix it will still get put on the back burner while they half implement wizzy new features so they can 'tick boxes' on feature lists.

 

Support is outstanding if it is simply a support issue, chance are it will be a small buggete or something that has been implemented in a daft way.

[thrunner 10]

I have no problems importing ELDs which i exported with TS 8.6 2525.

Thanks. It good to know newer MC versions have caught up with reverse engineering the eld container format. As you know, TS eld has changed since version 8.5 and even earlier TS versions (eg 8.3) have trouble opening the newer format.

[insideday 10]

I know. If i read goose posting correct, TS 9 will changed completely, offering a TS "Strategy Network" and marketplace which allows developers to upload their codes to a network like collective2.

 

https://www.tradestation.com/Discussions/Topic.aspx?Topic_ID=90402&PAGE=3

[sevensa 10]

I Agree with you Svensa and Tikitrader. Support is outstanding if it is merely a support issue (i.e. it can be fixed by configuration or changing parameters etc.) However if it turns out to be an issue with implimentation and so comes under managements/developments remit you can pretty much expect around 6 months or so (if it is a major issue effecting lots of people) or 18 months plus if TS management consider it 'minor'. Even if it is 'major' if management decide that it is too tricky to fix it will still get put on the back burner while they half implement wizzy new features so they can 'tick boxes' on feature lists.

 

Support is outstanding if it is simply a support issue, chance are it will be a small buggete or something that has been implemented in a daft way.

 

BlowFish, careful to agree with me if you still care to use MC. TSSupport have decided to revoked my license, refunded my money, called me an enemy agent and suggested that I find an alternative after I dared to say that their support is not as great as it appears. I guess in a way that supports the point I was trying to make.

[daedalus 10]

Are you frickin' serious? For comments made on this forum or on theirs?

[sevensa 10]

Are you frickin' serious? For comments made on this forum or on theirs?

 

I have heavlily critized them in the past and pointed out some serious flaws in MC, but they referred spefically to this post on TL for their reason. They have become increasingly more and more defensive and agressive against any negative remarks against them. My advise would be to stay away from them and save yourself a lot of trouble. MC is good and convenient with it's EL compatibility, but that is about it and the issues you see with it now, will not be resolved anytime soon.

 

I guess it is time for me to brush up on C# and give NinjaTrader a serious go. According to the release notes for the upcoming 7.0 version, this looks like it will be a big and impressive improvement over the 6.5 version and C# seems to be a lot more flexible than EL with regards to coding, but also with a steeper learning curve. Same with Amibroker which is incredibly flexible, but AFL is not the easiest to learn.

[daedalus 10]

OEC does have basic EL compatibility as well... I've gotten basic stuff to work with it... but it gets a bit more complicated if your indicators use functions a lot.

[Tams 20]

I have heavlily critized them in the past and pointed out some serious flaws in MC, but they referred spefically to this post on TL for their reason. ....

 

 

 

I think that's over reacting.

 

Mind you, I have not had much problem with MultiCharts...

 

I have been using it since 2006, I have never experienced problems that cannot be resolved.

 

... and I don't consider myself a light user -- I regularly have 5~8 workspaces opened, with 4~10 charts in each window, and 10~15 heavy duty indicators in each chart. You can say, I pushed MultiCharts pretty hard.

[BlowFish 10]

BlowFish, careful to agree with me if you still care to use MC. TSSupport have decided to revoked my license, refunded my money, called me an enemy agent and suggested that I find an alternative after I dared to say that their support is not as great as it appears. I guess in a way that supports the point I was trying to make.

 

Voting with your wallet is always an option. When I bought in it was ... err .... I can't remember $50 or maybe $99. For the longest time I thought I had made a mistake. Funnily enough they did threaten to revoke my licence when I was being particularly vocal about things that where driving be absolutely potty.

 

If I didn't use easy language I can't imagine sticking with MC. One day someone will design something with, ensigns drawing (and a couple of novel studies), TS easylanguage support, Neotickers openness accuracy and general 'hardcore'ness, Ninja's order management, IRTs profile and marketdelta stuff. etc.

[forrestang 10]

I used MC for about a year. I had indicator-itis though and was for some reason about finding the new and latest indicators.

 

I don't think I had any real problems with MC. Other than the fact that i was using a TA data feed, and it gave me all types of problems in that arena. But MC for some reason always felt incomplete to me? Like it was an unfinished product.

 

Just misses a lot of things....and it's not an all in one charting software. No T&S, can't trade on charts, options chain, adding symbols was cumbersome, just things like countdown timers (had to go out and find studies), the cumbersome add in replay feature....... blah blah blah.

 

I dont know how much of this would have been resolved with a real data feed though? If I didn't have the thing on 24 hours, I would have gaps in my data. Would be nice if they offered like an EOD service or something.

 

This last time I had an issue was the last draw for me. Although the support was always good IMO.

 

Also, no shortcut keys.....I'm glad someone else mentioned that. Please people, put the damn short cut keys in there!!!!:helloooo: