Personally I've found esignal.com the most valuable software I've used over the years .. anyone else? What other software have you used that's simplified your trading and/or helped you get an edge?

Name-brand stuff only, please - no individual software devs/shills saying "hey try this (no-name) software"... thanks!

to trading well,

Ken

I'm currently using two platforms: ThinkorSwim, and TD Ameritrade. My trades on TD Ameritrade execute fairly quick...but on a -300 pt down day (like today Feb 29)...had a little snag logging into my account. That may be a downside to TD Ameritrade. But I'm still on the lookout for a nice platform that will give me great 1 minute charts. ThinkorSwim is great for the Swing trader, but the intraday charts could be a little better.

I have been using esignal going on six years, but the 10.0 version has caused problems,see esignal forum. Hopefully 10.1 will correct the more serious problems. I had to switch back to 8.0 in November. Anyone else having problems with version 10.0?

Esignal: Good points re v10, haven't had any issues myself except the time/sales window doesn't work the same as it used to, which takes some getting used to. Got a link for the forum at esignal for us to look at? Agree esignal's the best overall. Also I can't get it to save "pages", I get an error whenever I try to do that, not sure what the difference is between pages and the regular layout /.lay files..

Haven't used TOS myself, I use interactivebrokers.com for swings, and esignal charts. Online brokers are fine for swing trading, but for daytrading you need something fast (I use cybertrader), or realtick or similar... many daytraders also use interactivebrokers.com, as it's a favorite, worth taking a look at.

-ken

yes go to esignalcentral.com then on the left click forums go down to product/data category, first forum esignal. There are many posts/threads that describe the various issues.

I was having problem with Esignal 10 as well. After many hours of converstation with Esignal I realized that my page had somehow been corrupted. I recreated my main page and the system has been stable for the last 10 days.

The earlier post also referred to TOS. In my humble opinion, thinkorswim is a must have for serious option traders. It would be hard for me to imagine trading complex option strategies without their analytic tools.

I got a chance to speak with Scott Johnson, Vp of Client Services for Interactive Data (eSignal) at the NY Traders Expo. He is aware of the issues with V10 and they are working on it.

The problem I am having is that once or twice a day winsig, the esignal process begins gobbling up RAM to the point where it will stop running. I have had an eSignal memory error that said, "eSignal-Out of memory!"

I only have about 30 symbols open. Scott had said that he has customers using over 240 so the number of symbols is not my problem. If you bring up Windows Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del) and go into processes and look for "Winsig" you can see how much memory it is using. Under performance you can see how much memory is being used and how much is available. When my memory available gets down to 300,000k I am apt to see the memory error. I can forestall it by closing other applications to free up memory in the short term. I think in the software programming world this is called a "memory leak" where the application addresses memory space for a given task and instead of giving it back when done with the task it keeps the memory addressed. So the next task has to address additional memory instead of using memory that was supposed to have been given back as available. As this is a problem that develops over time my short term fix is to close eSignal when I go to Lunch and reopen it when I get back. I can usually get through the day without a problem. Also the more other applications you have open the more memory is being used and the problem will manifest itself quicker. Close whatever you are not using and be aware that anti virus software uses quite a bit memory.

I use Trade Navigator Its Great Havent had Trouble Yet Their Customer Service Is Very Helpful Their Software Is Easy To Use And Learn

Scott's a great guy, has been very responsive for years to traders, so I'm sure he'll be able to help.

Re memory, agree winsig.exe/winros.exe can take a lot up, I've never had any problems, running 4 gigs of RAM. I used to have 2 gigs and my pcs frequently locked up/crashed... ever since moving to 4 gigs, on my winXP new machine, I've had less than 1-2 crashes a month.

Tip: it also helps to check taskmgr.exe / task manager to sort by memory, and see what's using a lot.. for example firefox can take up a lot.

-ken

I always get confused about this. My machine has 4GB of RAM and is recognized during the Dell boot up process. Once in Windows Task Manager, under "Performance" only 2 GB is recognized. Somewhere I read that XP is only able to address up top 2 GB. There is a switch that you can set I believe its in the boot.ini file that can get it to recognize 3 GB.

I've never been successful getting this to work.. The 4 gb (I'm told) would be recognizable by the 64 bit version of the operating systems... but that seems like it might open more problems then its worth....

I used to use eSignal for a few years...I switched to Thinkorswim a few months ago...their data and charting software platform are excellent (and it's free)...so, I'm saving $250/month that I would otherwise be spending on eSignal...and I get a lot more than just data and charts...great analytical features for trading options, and the ability to import all of my personal watchlists (stocks, ETFs, indices, currency pairs, futures) that I built over the years to scan them to look for various types of trades, as well as monitor my lists throughout the day at a glance in a variety of formats...also, their support team is fantastic (available 24/7 too)...very polite, helpful and knowledgeable, and very quick to respond to questions/problems...also, there is a ton of archived videos on how to use their platform, as well as weekly live training seminars...very user-friendly!

I spend just about $100/month on esignal w/annual prepay, and it's terrific. Good to hear re alternatives as well, it's good for traders to experiment with a variety of charting software to see what works best for their particular trading styles. Great comments!

re memory, I'm not aware that you even need to set any software flag to get the winxp o/s to need to recognize 2 vs 4 gigs of ram; I've got 4 gigs and it's all used automatically by the system as far as I know; that's likely a good question for a tech type board, somewhere else online though..

Ken