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Ensign supports the TransAct feed, and it can be processed simultaneously with any of the other vendor feeds. See these instructions for installing the Ensign Data Server which is used by the TransAct feed. Ventrilo Upgrade: The site where we have purchased the Ventrilo services we offer for free to users upgraded their server for Ventrilo to a new version 3. This caused a mandatory upgrade of all clients to the matched version 3.0.1. The Ventrilo page on our web site had been updated to show downloading the Ventrilo client 3.0.1. Simply download and install the new Ventrilo upgrade, and it will prompt you to uninstall the prior version. etc. Install in the same default folder. And when you run the new client all your settings seem to be preserved.
Ensign also has a Form T column on its quote page. And the Form T trades will show on Time and Sales and on a chart if the market hours are extended or 2nd session hours are present and the Day Session Only box is unchecked.
Double click on any column caption to change the selection to Form T on the panel of choices. New Ensign Status: Our wiki documentation continues to grow, and I am so pleased that it is so easy to maintain. Many times I can edit a page using material from a chat transcript to improve the documentation or the illustrations. So please take the time to read the material on the wiki. A key page about the beta version features is the following link. http://ensign.editme.com/c070815
CJ, you are fine to stay on that version for a while longer. Beta version does have new features, but it is still in beta testing wherein we want good feedback about behaviors that need to be fixed or improved on. I see that more than 150 users are on the Beta version, so it does get lots of use each day, which is good. No one seems to be having any particular problem or complaint.
Soon I will be able to return to adding more new and exciting features.... the current features seem to be well under control and functioning as intended.
If you are unsure which version you use, you can tell by seeing if you have menu File | File Manager | Database Manager. Beta users have this menu, official release version does not. Today I worked on the display of Overlays that are right shifted so they do no erase the material in the margin on a new tick. But that is a feature used by a very few, but still one item on the punch list that is fixed in the 11-07 release. I have been watching the Task Manager System Use meter with the following running:
The CPU use on my dual core athlon computer runs around 3% with an occasionally and repetitive cycle to 12%. I was interested in whether it was Ensign that was causing the repetitive cycle to 12% can kept shutting things off, like unchecking the FXCM feed, then the TransAct feed, etc. Finally closed Ensign and the cycle continued. Cycle to 12% finally stopped when I closed Ventrilo, which was not what I expected. Reran Ensign and all feeds without Ventrilo and then the CPU use was typically under 5% without any the cycle rhythms. So my friend Ventrilo was consuming more CPU bandwidth than Ensign with all these feeds running...... interesting.
mixer, I do not think it is memory leak, but rather how Windows manages memory.
Yes jtrader, that you can do. Just watch the installation screens for the prompt where to install, and go install in different folder like EnsignBeta instead of the default C:\Ensign. As stated before, I have things to implement on the Price Histogram as the next priority, and hope to get underway with a rewrite of PH this coming week. TWS upgrades: On the unexplained list are a couple items. One user with TWS 878.5 is seeing TWS pink screen frequently, and suspect it might be related to attempting Ensign refresh. I have not seen this in my use of TWS 878.5, and do not think others are reporting any problems with 878.5. The behavior is new for the user, but I do not know what the issue might be.
OK Buffy, I did not think about the Java being a factor.... good point to remember.
IQFeed update 4.3.0.3: For our IQFeed users, there is an upgrade to the IQFeed software... they are on version 4.3.0.3 and all IQFeed users are encouraged to upgrade to that version. We have a download of the 4.3.0.3 on the Ensign web site download page. You download and run the installation, and it all installs smoothly and then you rerun Ensign. On the Setup | Connection form we show which version of IQFeed you are running, and the field will show 4.3.0.3. after you upgrade IQFeed. Cursor on All Charts: In case you were not aware, beta version has new pop-up menu for Show | Cursor on All Charts. This is a quicker way to put cursor in that mode for all charts than going to the Setup | Charts form to check the cursor option boxes. I think I am done with my discussion/training, and will open the class now for general question and answer period. Please use CTRL+Q to show ? icon by your nickname and I will call on you. That way the conversation is not so mixed up. Pre/Post Market stock feed: Q: The Pre Market streaming charts problem - the solution is to install the Beta version? My feed is from eSignal. A: No, should not make any difference which version you use. Let me help by seeing some of your screen images. Pick a symbol that is active, like MSFT and lets get it working for it. Show me MSFT.5 min chart by opening that chart, and press CTRL+J to post picture for me to see. http://charts.dacharts.com/2007-11-07/NZ626254-03.png OK chart looks good, lets watch it while I take another question. I have my official release version on eSignal with the same MSFT.5 chart open with extended 2nd session hours. My chart looks like yours. Lets wait for activity now. Open Time and Sales for MSFT using menu Charts | Time and Sales. While I typed it did tick volumes of 1400, 100, 488,, 1412, 100, 125. And new bars are showing on my chart. Forex Chart does not update: Q: Howard, can u help me? I can't get USD/JPY+ to show movement. Its working on the quotes & other fx works great A: If you start using the beta, then this same symbol needs to be on the Setup | Manager list to indicate we are to store data in a database for it. Your symptom sounds like there is a bum record for this symbol in another quote page, and the chart is attaching to this bum symbol that does not update instead of to the symbol on the Forex quote page. Go to Setup | Charts and select Maintenance tab. On this form perform task #1 to erase all quote pages. Open quote page, Forex page, and see if USD/JPY+ has ticked and posted a record in the list. Then reopen the chart. Is the chart updating now JTrader?
Some how you got the Forex symbol in a wrong market group. Possibly you manually entered it on a page, and the page was the wrong page. Bad High on Daily chart: Q: If I refreshed from eSignal for today - does refresh work like rebuild or should I delete bar then refresh on daily. It is the high of the 8th that is wrong on the daily chart for ES #F. A: The daily bar for the 8th comes from quote page. In my testing, I cleared the Futures quote page and then connected to the eSignal Data Manager. The bum high is coming from the eSignal feed when they send the High to Ensign. Refresh will not change the quote page which is the source for the last bar being drawn. Though you can edit the bar on the chart, the data feed will undo your edit as long as they continue to send the bum high value. Color Bars Conflict: Q: Fairly often I set my bar colors to something I like and then I put a study on the chart which changes the bar colors back to some default bright green/red. For me, this is a stochastic usually. After that, I lose all control over the bar/line (up/dn) colors. Deleting the template doesn't help, changing bar style and changing it back doesn't help. This behavior is not limited to just this study and is totally unpredictable to my reckoning except that checking the "no frame" box on/off can sort of fix the problem. Sometimes I just have to rebuild the chart from scratch and not use the study lest I lose control of the bar or line colors again. A minor thing but any suggestions? And thanks for your tireless work keeping Ensign up to date and flexible. A: Sounds like you have this conflict of having a Color Bars study selected, such as Close vs. Open, and then the template/study is doing a color bar marker, and the marker uses its own colors as set on the study property form. You should have color bars either by the color bar study selection, or by the study marker, but not by both. Your confusion is over which is doing the coloring by having color bars from multiple sources. On the Color Bars drop down list, change the selection to the Normal selection and then the coloring will be solely by your study (if any). The color bar study will execute first, but then the studies might override and change the bar coloring, like you described. The color bar marker on a study property form is in the marker drop down list. It is the 9th icon from the bottom and has a red, black, and blue bar in the icon image for the selection. Cumulative Volume: Q: What is the easiest way to see cumulative volume as an integer via DYO study or is there something already in the software? I'd like to see it real time updating bar by bar without having to mouse over the bar on a minute chart. I use IB feed and this is for ES futures. Maybe something in the quote page? The cumulative volume would reset each day at the open or perhaps another time. Basically on a 5 min chart (or similar) I'd want to be calculating the total cumulative volume on the day from the open. http://www.ensignsupport.com/email/1290.mhtml A: In this example just change Line B selection to be Volume instead of Ask Volume and have Number field be 0. This will sum across all bars on the chart, and be an ever increasing value from 1st bar on chart. If you want to reset the sum at a new date, you can change the flag on Line A to test for Chart Flag | New Date and do the Line A reset to zero on the presence of the new date flag. You can change the Section to show in section 1 and the Message text to be [C] which will show line C value. No Data Feed: Q: I am getting a pop up warning "No Data Feed" but usually everything seems to be working. I seem to get it every couple of minutes after hours but only once or twice during the day. Sometimes the chart skips bars and won't refresh to include those bars. A: Go to Setup | Connection and uncheck the Warn on No Data Feed check box, or just leave the waring box up and move it to bottom of screen. All it means is we did not see symbol quote traffic for 2 minutes, and that might be normal depending on how many symbols followed, and the thinness of the markets in the evening. I am not concerned, and think all is normal for you. Alerts with +1 Bar Offset: Q: I would like to know if is possible on the alert proprieties windows..to adjust in the trading system box the last price + 1 or last price+2 ? A: Though you can make it +1 or +2 it becomes illogical for evaluating the last bar. The needed data would not exit yet and would not evaluate. So do not try to design a system with +1 or +2. It may look great in hindsight but will not work in real-time. Thanks for attending class... thanks to all the beta testers for their feedback (over 150 on beta now). Have a good week and see you all soon.
Other Improvements: The current version fixes the draw tools flickering while being constructed on the chart. This was an issue oft reported about the beta redesign, and it has been resolved in the 10-31 version. So upgrade, and then I won't hear any more about it.
Also, the 10-27 version changed a characteristic about building range bars and trying to avoid inserting a zillion filler bars on a bad tick. This impacted Index symbols that naturally have big value increments, such as the $ADD, and this was fixed in the 11-01 version as well.
The 4th item on the What's New list is that options to build new bars at either session open for ticks, volume and range bars has been put back in the program. I thought it was a good thing to force the bars to start over at session opens, but not all agreed with that opinion, so the optional check boxes to have or not have the feature have been returned to the Setup | Charts form. Also, studies such as averages that are left or right shifted would not continue to draw correctly as the chart shifted leftward, and that behavior was fixed as well. So, with the latest round of fixes, the 11-01 beta version should be is really good shape.
I added to the top of this web page about New Features a directory of links to the various wiki pages that discuss the new feature. The primary source of the discussion has been in 3 class transcripts over the past 2 months. Some other pages also exist that document the new feature, such as the R-Squared regression study calculation. So, use this page heavily, please, to teach yourself about the significant new features in the current beta version, (and which are NOT in the official release version). We are maintaining 2 parallel versions, and official release version with the new features and an official release version without the new features. Occasionally a change needs to be made to either official release version, and hence it gets a new upload date. Please don't be confused by which has the most recent upload date. On the Download web page, the version without the new features is listed as the Prior Ensign Version. Fast Markets:
In general, beta will have more capacity to handle heavy volume markets. If you are on beta version and still sluggish, then the suggestion to have fewer charts open is a worthy suggestion, so there is less visual screen updating required and the CPU has more capacity to process the data feed.
Also, if you use the IQFeed data feed, then upgrade to the 4.3.0.1 IQFeed version which you can download from our web site, as that version also has efficiency improvements which means it can process a heavier volume feed than any earlier version.
Berma, I am unsure about the answer, and in doing side by side Time and Sales comparisons between TransAct feed and the Open Tick feed, I did see more ticks on the TransAct feed. For example, I would see on TransAct tick volumes of 71 and 25 go by, and on the Open Tick it would post a volume of 96, which seems an obvious chunk of the two ticks. I do not yet know if that is typical, and indicates a sampling rate or not. My understanding will increase as I get more experience and learn from others who know the details about Open Tick. As I polish off existing implementations, then I have a solid foundation and platform from which I can then resume adding new features to. So, Price Histogram is next on the list when I can resume new features. The Open Tick project kind of jumped ahead of the PH because of some need by our partners at TransAct. Now that Open Tick project is finished, I am back to polishing off a short list of things and then ready to start on PH additions.
MOW, 5-10 is fine, but we also have later versions of the official release, and you should upgrade to the latest official release. You do not have to go to the beta series. So upgrade to the official release of 10-26 as shown on the Download page. We are not forcing nor encouraging a mass migration to the beta version. We are still in beta status, and still have more significant features to add. And once all is tested and found to be stable, the beta status can be removed and the version will replace the official release version. See the What's New page for the official release changes over the summer. Tick Pool Replaced:
That is correct virt. #3 was the selection to delete the Tick pool. In the beta the tick pool does not exist as it was replaced by the various database files. So there is not a tick pool to delete. Also, the reason why a tick pool might need to be deleted in the past is because the quote table pointers to the tick pool threads would get out of sync. If a computer crash prevented Ensign from storing the quote table records and the tick pool file in memory. In the new design, there are no quote page pointers any longer to any tick pool threading. So this potential for a problem form a crash has been eliminated from the design. But that is all behind the scene stuff that the user should not have a need to be aware of.... you just want it to work reliably, and the Beta is taking steps toward that end objective. I may yet have a new maintenance task to add to the form, and it can then use the #3 slot. Max Bars parameter:
One thing to consider is to have a smaller Maximum Bars setting now that the database collection is independent of the chart file size. Use a smaller size like 2000 instead of an abusive size of 65530. That will greatly improve speed. And if and when you ever need a big chart file, you can set Maximum Bars higher again, and rebuild the chart from the database files.
Yes, Max bars can be a low number like 500. I guess my theory on that topic of an appropriate max bars setting to use would be around double the number of bars you can show on the screen at once. So if you can see 500 bars, then have max bars be 1000. If your chart and screen size is such you would only view 250 bars, then 500 would suffice because you have view of current screen and a prior screen size. You do want max Bars to be bigger than the number of bars to view on the screen so the studies have some bars to calculate across and stabilize prior to becoming visible at the left edge of the chart.
The default for Max Bars is set by you on the Setup | Computer form. This default is used by all new charts, and thereafter, it is a private property for the chart that can be edited on the individual chart.
See the frame labeled Max Number Chart Bars.... these are the default values for new charts. The Tick selection is used by tick based charts, which are tick, range, volume and seconds charts. The Minute selection is used by intra-day minute based charts. The Daily selection is used by daily, weekly, and monthly charts. I have my Daily example at a higher value because the daily file is the database for that symbol. Daily does not have a separate database file like has been implemented for the Tick and Minute databases. 30000 daily bars would be over 90 years of daily data, and only $INDU and a couple other charts have refreshes that go that far back.
The cycle forecast study is based on finding waves in the chart file, such as X-A-B, where X and B are swing lows, and A is the swing high in between those 2 lows. A cycle forecast can be made by measuring the X-B width, and then doing some fib rations on that width, and posting the measurement from the A swing high as the forecast. The analogy is we are doing the Fibonacci Forecast on Time instead of on Price. It is the same principle, but with the measuring tool turned horizontally instead of vertically.
This is the Cycles Forecast study. For each swing pattern in the chart, there will be multiple forecasts made, such as at .618, 1.0, 1.618 etc. That is why the chart will have more arrows than swings. What we look for is a congestion of arrows. The green arrows pointing up were all measured from swing lows. The red arrows pointing down were all measured from prior swing highs. The chart is considering swings that are off the left hand side as well.
Some find the tool of little value because it has too many points marked and they overlook the confluence factor, or they are confused by having both red and green arrows at the same point. Another way to view that is you have two time markers indicating a turn, and just disregard that fact one was measured from a prior high and the other from a prior low.
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