Qcharts vs another charting platform

Any suggestions for a reliable charting platform other than Qcharts? thanks

I like Think or Swim. I don't know if you took Wall Street Basics, but I have my charts set up just like Gary's. They just don't have a 55 min or 233 chart but are supposed to be adding them soon. They have a 1 hr and 4 hour that I look at in place of the others. They are free when you add an account with TD Ameritrade.

I use Qcharts. My spouse uses Strategy Desk. I use Qcharts because I have 5 years of information on them and have grown use to them. My spouse uses Strategy Desk because it is free.

I have been using Tradestation for the last yr or so and I think it is quicker and more reliable than anything else Ive used yet. Ive used Qcharts and Strategy Desk. If you trade enough shares at TS the platform fee is waived; there is a small data feed fee but I think I pay less than $30 per month for it. I still use TOS for futures since its free.

Gary William's is a great teacher.

Yes, Qcharts is expensive; therefore, I'm using OptionsXpress with the exact same possible layouts. Click on blue toolbar Quotes, then Streaming Charts. You need the latest Java. Then once a chart is up, click the Detach arrow by the question mark at the upper right corner. Set up your layouts and desktops. They have custom times: 233...but you cannot use more than one custom time per layout.

I use Full Stochastics with a near exact trigger. I have requested to them to implement StochRSI. MY HOPE: To get enough people to rally and have them add StochRSI as an indicator. The ADX can have a different setting as the DMI when overlapped on a separate chart.

I use their Indices Futures, but their policy is you need to enroll (simple process) in Futures and Margin with OptionsXpress; of course I don't trade Futures or use Margin, but I did sign up.

Call OptionsXpress: "They're very, very customer friendly".

Strategy Desk (SD) that it offered from TDameritrade is very comparable to Qcharts allowing intraday history. I use SD and TOS (Think or Swim platform) in combination with each other and they are both free. TOS has the futures available along with great option chains that are chartable. Give them a try and I think you will like them.

Can anyone say what Gary is recommending for charting these days? I think we all agree that the eSignal folks keep raising the price on QCharts without doing any work on it; not even fixing known issues such as quote sheet symbols changing on their own.

I have a Think or Swim account (TOS) and really like think desktop for its option analysis capabilities. I can quickly estimate the probability of a stock moving far enough and fast enough to make a potential option position profitable. TOS does now allow for custom intra-day time intervals, BUT, the time period for them is limited. For example, you can only have setting of less than 60 minutes for charts with up to 20 days of data. Over 20 days back and the minimum period you can use is 60 minutes. One other awesome aspect of TOS is the OnDemand feature of think desktop. You can actually go back in time to a specific date, select a stock, pull up its option chain, and then go forward in time to see how prices changed from day to day, or even during the day. This takes earnings research and practice trading to a whole new level, in my opinion. I believe they have data back to early 2010 for this feature.

I also set up a TradeStation account at the end of December and agree with traderva. It is a reliable, fast platform. The learning curve, however, is somewhat steep, but there is a lot of online education available. By default, TradeStation downloads historical data in one minute increments for intraday data. Once you have it downloaded, scrolling back several years on a 233 chart is nearly instantaneous. Not like QCharts where you have to wait for the software to assemble data on the server and then pass it to you. I find that outside of regular trading hours, I can download 10 years of stock data from TradeStation in about one minute and once the data is on your PC it stays there based on the "days to keep data" setting you choose for keeping downloaded data before the program "flushes" it. In all fairness, though, TradeStation does not have a "go to date" feature like QCharts. I does, however do synchronized scrolling by date so when you jump back in time on weekly chart, your 55 chart, and any other charts, go to the same date - very handy for earnings research. My only other complaint about TradeStation is that you cannot manually set the spacing between candles. You can set the thickness of the candles, but their spacing is always the same. I got used to spacing out my candles a little further than the default in QCharts.

I spent quite a bit of time testing all of Gary's indicators in both TOS and TradeStation to get them to match as closely as possible to QCharts. TOS required no custom indicator coding except for the ADX indicator and only because the ADX line has a different length than the DMI lines. TradeStation took more work and required custom indicators for StochRSI, and the XMAS cross, but the upside is that you can customize any of the indicators. A big plus for TradeStation is their Radar Screener. It is a quote sheet on steroids, allowing you to use any or all of your indicators and set real time alerts for things like when they cross. I just happened to catch a "special deal" that TradeStation was running and my costs are very low. Even at full price, their data feeds are much less than QCharts, although some of the more esoteric index symbols that eSignal/Qcharts provides do not appear to be available from TradeStation. I would suggest asking about any "specials" they have available if you decide to call them to ask about opening an account. Also, their quoted commission for options is $1 per contract with no per order charge. This beats most other brokers until you reach 40 or more contracts. I do not have enough experience with them yet to offer an opinion on how much price improvement they provide on orders.

All in all, I would say that the effort required to learn TradeStation has been very well worth it. As for QCharts, the handwriting is on the wall that they want to move everyone to eSignal. They have stopped any development on QCharts and have even been adding QCharts features, such as the autowave indicator, into eSignal. I doubt that QCharts users will be able to keep the QCharts prices after moving to eSignal, and eSignal prices are even higher than QCharts. This is just my opinion, please do your own due diligence.

Qcharts offer an excellen product, but their prices are much to expensive. Strategy Desk and Think or Swim together gives me everything I need to trade. I use OptionsExpress as my practice account only. Scottrade is the brokerage service I use. I really like free stuff-especially when I get what I need-FOR FREE!.

As I mentioned, I used OptionsXpress FREE and it's an awesome replica of Qcharts.

I should clarify what I said above: Many different custom timeframes (up to 7-8 charts per desktop) can be used at once for a "desktop"; it's just that a desktop cannot be saved with more than one "custom" timeframe. But any trendlines or markings will carryover. Difficult for me to explain, but check it out.

KG

I have used alot of different platforms. Qcharts, Think or swim and Tradestation . By far Tradestation is the best platform to use. Qhcarts is way too expensive, Think or swim did not have the indicators that I wanted. Trade station has everything that I wanted . Being one of Gar's y former students you all know that indicators that I was looking for. Tradestation gives me these indicator, plus at a price that you can not beat. I currently get the platform for Free, who can complain about that. Though about 3 months ago one of my friends signup and they we getting charge $100 per month if they did not do 10 trades per month. Still less than half of Qcharts. Also the cost of trading options is cheap. They only charge 1 dollar per contract, so 5 contracts cost me $5, which is the cheapest that I have found. Over all I am impressed with trade station.

Another plus about Tradestation is they have a strategy network where people sell indictors and strategy. Not that I like to vary from my current training but I found a indictor that helps me hit my entry on all of my trades. I am thinking that this guy must have been a former student of GW because for some reason his indictor signals at the same time as I would get into a trade. The guy says he uses 4 indicators but will not tell you what they are but looking at it from my training, it always seems to be either a FP or HRFP. The indicator on on the staregy network is called the W.I.N (The W(hat’s) I(mportant) N(ow) ). The Guy does give you a free trial so there is nothing to lose.

So if you are looking for another Platform I would suggest Trade station and I would also suggest the W.I.N indictor of the staregy network. It is by far well worth it and it has help me out greatly.

Quick question... I have been trying to find a way to get the autowave line indicator into tradestation. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Seems like you have created a workspace that is nearly identical to GW's in tradestation. I've gotten close and the only thing missing is the autowave. Any help would be much appreciated!

May the trades forever be in your favor. Haha

Cheers,
John

I switched to TradeStation. They don't yet have AutoWave: I'm tooling around with ZigZag v.2.5 indicator on just a plain chart of candles. I've also made an inquiry to their online Help community forum and noticed others talking about it. Perhaps it would be good if enough of us commented to them. They make improvements/upgrades. It's a great software, don't you agree?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2013 06:41PM by Chunk.

Just a heads up, got back from a GW class this weekend, he has a student who is starting his own charting software company, he has already licensed the code for qcharts and will improving upon it. GW says that he has a small stake in that company and has promised that the end result will fix the problems with the existing qcharts, add features in line with what's out there in other products, on top of some GW specific chart features... release is slated for Q1 or Q2 next year. The price should be inline with what qcharts currently costs as it will be competing for customers that use other charting products as well.

Trade station by far the best. Cost FREE. So if you could do the same thing and not pay 200. Which one would you pick?
Just thinking out loud

BigMoney,
I was looking into TS and wouldn't mind switching but I don't meet the minimum criteria to get the application for free and it would cost more than I pay for qcharts, maybe once I get rolling on real trades I can look into it again.

Open for anyone, I would call trade station and say I want to trade free for life. Now what that means is you only pay for commissions dollar per contract. Call and talk with someone. Ask questions to find out what you need to do. Things change. Worst case scenario is you lost time on a phone call. The minimum requirement at that time was only 5k. You pay 2400 a year with Q charts. You do the math. They are brokerage service. Start saving your money and put it back in the market or whatever it may be.
I will be creating a start up hand guide for people who need it for tradestation. Keep qcharts for a month that way you can compare.

BigMoney Out

CF:

My brother was at GW's this weekend; I'm trying to sway him to switch charts.

I agree with BigMoney. I use TradeStation. I opened/moved cash from a 403b for one basket and small cash for a separate basket into TS.

I trade virtually directly off their charts. It's a sweet system.


I went through:

Corey Andrews
Account Executive
TradeStation
Local (954) 652-7435
E-mail: candrews@tradestation.com

---Chunk

I'm using TOS mostly because it is free, and that's about all I can afford for now. I've seen a couple of posts concerning Trade Station vs other platforms like Q-charts, and Think Or Swim (TOS). A few have stated that TOS doesn't have all of GWs indictors. From what I see the ONLY indicator not available on TOS is Autowave. All the others are there. So what's the problem with using TOS? Oh did I mention TOS is FREE unlike the other two mentioned :-)

Again, from what I see TOS has all the indicators GW wants, EXCEPT "autowave". Am I missing something here?

Yes, both are better than $200 per mo., and I'm glad all us of us have found them.

Looking at the TOS images posted on the other parts of this forum, I like TradeStation (essentially free except $6 mo. data fee if you find the right promotion timing) because it is visually and technically appearing a closer match to Qcharts.

Whatever floats your boat...let's just swim and not sink.

Chunk

Here is how my screen is currently setup. I erased the indicator settings of course:-), but atleast you can see how it looks. I think it looks very similar to how I had Qcharts setup up. Except on Qcharts I had a much lighter background. Like a blue-green color or whatever the default was.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2013 02:19PM by RichieRick.

TOS has the OnDemand feature that lets you go back in time to see what happened in real time. Very valuable when you are learning this stuff. I tested both TOS and Tradestation and kept the former for this reason.

GW had said he would use trade station if Q charts went away that's why I made switch. That was in Raleigh when he had the get together class. Regardless $200 is not being wasted even if your doing well. Save the 200 then and give to someone who could use it or whatever

If someone can explain how to upload a pic I will upload a pic from my workspace. With the W.I.N

BigMoney,

Go here, and read Robert's instructions. The steps are in the 7th post in the thread. That's how I did it:-) I made my image to small so you will have to check to see which is better. I'll go back tomorrow, and make mine a bit bigger so everyone can see the details better:-)

[www.researchtrade.com]

Concerning workspace settings. Right now I'm not able to make up my mind about how much to zoom in or out on my chart windows. Right now I think i'm showing 35 candles in each screen, but I'm having a hard time determining the best setting. If i zoom out to much it seems to clutter, if I zoom in to much I feel like I can't get a true "big picture" feel.

I remember GW saying in class that really the only part of the chart that matters is the far right side edge, but to me it seems hard to focus in on what would amount to 4 or 6 candles. What do you guys think?



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2013 05:23PM by RichieRick.

Chart

Daily radar screen

233

1. Chart you fill in the blanks.

Green blocks means earnings are confirmed. Count down timer for earnings

You see that the radar screen says daily that is the name of the window and that is true but I have the abily to switch back and forth to a 233 or smaller if I choose. Black,Red and Green come with the WIN Package.

Ask way

Hello Everyone here is a screenshot of my TOS workspace. IT is looking at the DOW with the weekly on the left and moving down the the 34 on the right. You have to click the link below. I hope it works once i post.

[i.imgur.com]

Thanks

Wow, the admin moved that very fast. Sort of confused me there for a moment:-)

Blessed, I can see you image just fine. Tell me, do you have it spanning across 2 monitors?

Richie i have 3 monitors that it is spanned across.

Big money
With that setup, you must be killing the market. Let me guess... about six figures this year?

TOS for me.

Big Money,

With a light background, I've got my white/red candles outlined in black, just like GW Qcharts, making the bodies and wicks bold---easier to read and much more appealing. I found out how on the Tradestation community forum search. It was easy to apply the code.

If you want, I can look back and tell you.

Chunk



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2013 07:31AM by Chunk.