MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

Hi guys,

There are still a lot of irritating bugs mainly because you encounter them many times a day and each time they take a few seconds to correct. Generally they are UI type things.

1) If you have linked cursors and click on another chart to make it active the previous chart will jump to that point in time. Im constantly adjusting charts back. (of course the previous chart might jump while you are fixing the last chart). Click on a 5 minute then a daily the 5 minute will jump back days. This is a major PIA as if I have linked cursors on I'm constantly scrolling charts back to the current time.

Actually I like this now though a quick way to return all charts to the current bar would be good. Currently I just go to the lowest time frame chart scroll to the right and click on the last bar. This brings all linked back.

2) Chart windows minimise/maximise in random places sometimes off the screen.

3) Chart scaling and zoom factor is not remembered session to session.

4) After minimising and maximising multicharts the toolbars re-arrange themselves so they are 'stacked' rather than in a ribbon end on end. This is mentioned in the beta thread by another user. i think its something to do with a dialogue box from another application grabbing focus. It occurs if you have an application flashing on the task bar minimise MC then maximise it again. I have now turned off my toolbars which is not accebtable long term.

EDIT: 5) Zoom mode. You remain in zoom, I think probably you should not. This would be OK if it was easy to cancel (right click perhaps). As it is if I want to zoom in to adjust a drawn line I need to select another tool to cancel zoom then click in chart to cancel the tool. Right click cancel/undo would be neat in drawing by the way.

Drawing Tools.

1) Snap - snaps to the object on layer 0. It should snap to the object with the tick next to it (or at least to the first data series). Just a simple chart with price on top of volume, Drawing tools will snap to volume. My use is more complex and it is not possible to have price on layer 0 as it will obscure indicators.

2) Drawing tools are not consistent some need click some need click and drag.

3) Andrews pitchfork requires an extra click before it starts excepting points.

4) Linear regression is 'hard wired' to work on layer 0 so dosen't work unless it finds data1 there, similar to problem 1. I think I have discovered other areas where MC assumes that data 1 is on layer 0, can't remember off hand. Understandable as layering was not designed in from day one but added later.

I'd love to see drawing tools get a make over when time permits. A lot of extra utility could be had for minimal effort. Take a look at Ensigns drawing tools and how they are implemented, worth checking out the range of visualizations that are available there too.

As I said these are small issues but all except the last couple cause headaches!

All the best.

Cheers,
Nick.

Drawing

5) 3rd point of a trend channel (equidistance) does not snap.

Cheers,
Nick.

Dear Nick,

Thank you very much for the list, we'll consider all your offers and make the changes if necessary.

Hi Stanley,

Thanks, I completely understand how busy you must be with implementing stratergies, data feeds, integrated trading etc.

MC is shaping up to be great for study orientated trading however when your shedule permits I'd love to see drawing tools get some attention There are a surprising number of traders who trade with simple channels, pitchforks trendlines, fib tools etc.

I could post a list of wish list items as well but if the developer who tackles this area took an hour or two playing with ensign they would get a good idea of what makes that so popular.

Thanks for your attention and hard work.
Cheers,
Nick.

Version 865
Perhaps the most irritating bug is the "Server Busy" window that typically appears (but not always) on opening the 1st workspace.

It doesn't go away until the the buttons are clicked on repeatedly. This could be between 20-50 times!

Beta 985
One of the Trader Logic studies went funny during rollover....looked like it got hit by a hurricane. MC have been notified about this one. No improvement even when I switched back to v865.

Also some charts will not open/refresh in the workspace. quotemanager indicates the Complete Transaction but chart remains blank and indicating establishing Connection - Online. Btw, I am using esignal.

Histogram and Barhigh/Barlow type plots have rounded bar ends so when you 'stack' plots they over lap. See attached. (keep rouded ends as an option)

Some studies need 'trafic light displays'. The level of the plot is not important in this case its the colour that matters, for example you have 3 "stacked" plots that dont vary in value (always assigned the value 1,2 and 3) but change in colour (say red or green).

Cheers,
Nick.

Hi,

Studies in sub panes do not scale correctly if you remove all status line fields (titles). The scaling dose not take into account the extra space freed by turning titles off. This wastes a lot of space if you have several sub panes. See attached.

Cheers
Nick

This attachment shows the above problem is worse when you have a small pane....You waste over half of it and the study is practicaly unreadable

Chers,
nick.

Hi,

Studies in sub panes do not scale correctly if you remove all status line fields (titles). The scaling dose not take into account the extra space freed by turning titles off. This wastes a lot of space if you have several sub panes. See attached.

Cheers
Nick

Actually you can't remove the status line, you can just hide all the titles. May be we'll add this option in the future.

Ahh OK,

If you look at the blue volume graph in the second post it is pretty much useless as the space reserved for titles is more than the data!

perhaps if I change the fonts size to 1 or 0 that might help

Cheers,
nick.

EDIT: Ahh OK that works but it reduces the font in the main chart to 1 too so not useful

After ticking use "as default" on a study the next time you apply the study the defaults are lost. Doesnt happen allways butr is irratating as you have to spend a minute or two making the settings again.

Cheers,
Nick.

Hi guys,

There are still a lot of irritating bugs mainly because you encounter them many times a day and each time they take a few seconds to correct. Generally they are UI type things.

...
2) Chart windows minimise/maximise in random places sometimes off the screen.

...
Nick.

this is really PIA.

Newly placed drawings are placed 'under' existing drawings. This means you can not adjust them if they snap to the same bar as an existing drawing. Presumably MC has a linked list of drawings it will always find the oldest first making it impossible to adjust newly placed drawings if there handles overlap. They will overlap if you are snapping to high low.

Cheers,
Nick

Thanks, Nick, we'll be adding this to the To Do list, this makes lots of sense.

As an incentive to upgrade I wondered if any of these had been addressed from the previous beta?

I know I keep banging on about it but comprehensive patch notes AND a comprehensive list of known bugs would really motivate people to continue testing your product.

Cheers,
Nick.

Hi,

As far as I can tell all these things are still bugged in the new beta (point 1 of the original list might be working as intended I take that one back!!! I actually like this now I have used it a while)

Drawing tools desperately need a look. This beta introduces a new problem. Sometimes a point is placed without releasing a mouse button. Sometimes both points in a drawn line get placed with one click. Different tools still need placing in slightly different ways. The seem even more 'clunky' for example if you drag a line it dosen't move smoothly when 'dropping' it they often jump several pixels making them hard to place accurately. Its quite frustrating.

Let me be blunt. They certainly are not 'state of the art' as claimed in your literature. To be honest they are probably amongst the worst I have used. I hope you will forgive my directness but its an area where MC is let down. As new features are added (with there own need for de-bugging) I wonder if these basic features will ever get the attention the deserve?

I know you are going to be very busy with release coming up but that was the whole point of this thread. Things that come up all the time and will put potential customers off. Windows not maximising off the edge of the workspace are a great example of this. Fine in a beta unaceptable in release software. Something that anyone that works by maximising and minimising different charts will notice immediately when they re-start multicharts.

Again I'd like to apologies for being critical just want to get some action in this area!

Discovered another strange drawing related bug. Drawing a rectangle near the bottom of the screen (for a support area). If you drag the second point close to the X axis (maybe its the margin area) its 'drops' the point without you releasing the mouse. The 2nd point is dropped with the same y co-ord as the first (i.e. the rectangle looks like a straight line).

Much easier to do than describe just draw a rectangle that is right at the bottom of the screen.

As an aside do you plan to fix any/all of these issues before release? Some are very irritating others less it would be nice to know which (if any) are on the list.

Dear Nick,

1)

If you have linked cursors and click on another chart to make it active the previous chart will jump to that point in time.

(point 1 of the original list might be working as intended I take that one back!!! I actually like this now I have used it a while)

Ok. I believe you are not going to have any problems with this point anymore.

2)

Chart windows minimise/maximise in random places sometimes off the screen.

We can only confirm windows restoring defect in case at least one QuoteManager window is present in a workspace. In this case the QM window is restored incorrectly.
For any other cases give us more detail please. Does the problem appear when "Windows -> Arrange All" menu is used or under any other circumstances?

3)

Chart scaling and zoom factor is not remembered session to session.

Please provide more detail.

4)

After minimising and maximising multicharts the toolbars re-arrange themselves so they are 'stacked' rather than in a ribbon end on end. This is mentioned in the beta thread by another user. i think its something to do with a dialogue box from another application grabbing focus. It occurs if you have an application flashing on the task bar minimise MC then maximise it again. I have now turned off my toolbars which is not accebtable long term.

Please provide more details and screenshots before/after.

EDIT: 5) Zoom mode. You remain in zoom, I think probably you should not. This would be OK if it was easy to cancel (right click perhaps). As it is if I want to zoom in to adjust a drawn line I need to select another tool to cancel zoom then click in chart to cancel the tool. Right click cancel/undo would be neat in drawing by the way.

Use "Reset Scales" toolbar button to quickly cancel Zoom.

Drawing Tools.

5)

1) Snap - snaps to the object on layer 0. It should snap to the object with the tick next to it (or at least to the first data series).

This is the way it works now and will work in the nearest future. Probably we will add this functionality in the future.

6)

2) Drawing tools are not consistent some need click some need click and drag.

What do you mean by this?

7)

3) Andrews pitchfork requires an extra click before it starts excepting points.

At the moment we do not have any plans to change the way it works. Perhaps in the future.

8 )

4) Linear regression is 'hard wired' to work on layer 0 so dosen't work unless it finds data1 there, similar to problem 1. I think I have discovered other areas where MC assumes that data 1 is on layer 0, can't remember off hand. Understandable as layering was not designed in from day one but added later.

See 5).

9)

5) 3rd point of a trend channel (equidistance) does not snap.

Please provide more detail on how you would like for it to function.

10)

Histogram and Barhigh/Barlow type plots have rounded bar ends so when you 'stack' plots they over lap.

We are aware of this problem. It will be fixed later.

11)

Some studies need 'trafic light displays'. The level of the plot is not important in this case its the colour that matters, for example you have 3 "stacked" plots that dont vary in value (always assigned the value 1,2 and 3) but change in colour (say red or green).

Give me a detailed example.

12)

The scaling dose not take into account the extra space freed by turning titles off.

This is fixed. Just uncheck the "Enable status line" check box in "Format Window" window.

13)

After ticking use "as default" on a study the next time you apply the study the defaults are lost. Doesnt happen allways butr is irratating as you have to spend a minute or two making the settings again.

This will be fixed in the release version.

14)

Newly placed drawings are placed 'under' existing drawings.

I can not confirm this. New drawings are placed over the existing ones.

15)

Sometimes both points in a drawn line get placed with one click. Different tools still need placing in slightly different ways. The seem even more 'clunky' for example if you drag a line it dosen't move smoothly when 'dropping' it they often jump several pixels making them hard to place accurately.

Please provide more detail.

16)

Drawing a rectangle near the bottom of the screen (for a support area). If you drag the second point close to the X axis (maybe its the margin area) its 'drops' the point without you releasing the mouse. The 2nd point is dropped with the same y co-ord as the first (i.e. the rectangle looks like a straight line).

Do not release the button even if you see the 2nd point appear. Just move the cursor higher and the rectangle will appear.

Nick: good grief. 6 months later, someone reads your posts.

Sadly I am off to the beach for a months vacation. So it's unlikely I will be able to provide further information until I return.

To be honest if some of these things are not immediately obvious to you there there is really little hope. Some of the things are subtle but most are bugs that happen every time and always have done. Some of these things have been reported several times by several people over the last couple of years. As an example if you shut MC with windows minimised it forgets where to restore them to. When you restart MC they restore off the botom of the screen with just the title bar showing. Half a dozen people have complained about this. Same with zoom - zoom gets reset after restarting MC. This information is just not saved session to session. I don't know how else to describe these problems to be honest.

When you introduced layer ordering (great feature btw) you introduced numerous bugs. In several places the code expects to find data series 1 on the first layer (example snapping rectangles - though lines seem ok now).

Thats no longer the case since ordering can be changed data series 1 is not always on the bottom layer. It needs a fixing pure and simple (search the code base for anywhere that layer 1 is explicitly referenced and change it). I reported this in detail after layers where first introduced. I also updated that report as I found other instances where it appeared the program erroneously expected to find data on layer 1.

Drawing tools are completely 'clunky' you are saying its a feature that Andrew pitchfork always misses the first mouse click?

When I return I will try and provide detailed reports of these 'features' (sometimes for the second or third time which is frustrating) . I do think that more rigorous testing your end and most will be pretty obvious.

Cheers,
Nick.