I am considering Metastock Pro but am confused about how realtime data packages work with this program. My understanding is that with the Pro version I can perform realtime and EOD/Offline tasks. What I don't understand is how metastock handles the realtime data for offline work. My short term intent would be to get eSignal basic (needed for another program) and collect the complete N.A. symbol universe (daily periodicity) and save it for local offline use. I also may want to occasionally perform an intra day update of this full portfolio. My questions are:

1) If I have 25000 symbols in my portfolio, can I perform an intraday update that will create a daily bar with the Hi, Low, Open, Close up until that point in the day?

2) If I do another update 2 hours later at noon, will it adjust the daily Hi, Low, and close considering the new data?

3) I know there are separate programs (like Qcollector) that appear to do just that, but isn't this feature/function built in?

4) How is the initial symbol file created? eSignal only provides what is requested and they don't have symbol files. How are symbol files created and maintained (adjustments for new and old issues)? I assume a history CD comes with the program but is probably a year old or more and likely does not have new issues.

These may be obvious questions but I have only dealt with EOD providers and it appears eSignal only intends their real time data to be used in On Demand mode.

Thanks,

Carl

hey carl..... i'm using meta pro 9 for esignal......
a couple of your questions are things i don't do so not in a position to answer......

meta comes with the stocks divided up in folders by various means.... by industry, s&p 500, nas100 and such..... you change them up to suit your needs.... mine came with a historical cd that was perhaps 2 months out of date at the most.... those symbols match esignals, hence meta 9 for esignal..... the downloader program handles all that......

when online esignal is data on demand as you mentioned.....


meta 9 will limit you to 6000 security per folder....

there is a selection under tools to update the symbol base...... you can at anytime add or subtract symbols, theres nothing to it......

you can save intraday data but i don't, .... its done with the downloader and doesn't appear to be a difficult task..... but is doubtful you will have 25k intraday.... that would be a tremendous amount of data so the bandwith issues alone would prevent it.......

i'm running realtime but if i loose connection for a hour, the chart i have up will just start ploting again from the reconnect time.... the missing data stays missing..... closing and reopening the chart will fill it in.....

it sounds like you have a good plan, both meta and esignal should fit right in........ btw, reuters has the broad market securitys that are only available from them..... just a little over a hundred bucks a year and worth it........ h

Thanks for the comments hayseed. 25k is a large number, it should of been 2500 (~roughly the optionable stocks).

Data on demend does not really help me since I need to scan my portfolio to find a stock for a potential trade. When I talked to an eSignal rep about wanting to update my database with EOD he said to use Rueter's since they don't support Metastock with EOD!!! I talked with another rep from another company associated with eSignal and he said real time data is for read only data on demand use and not to be read to a local database. After further questioning he offered to contact an eSignal technical rep who confirmed data could be collected, but the support would come from Metastock (which I assumed). After this ordeal with eSignal I wanted to talk to users of Metastock about what they can or can not actually do with the program.

Since I will need a live feed for another program I wanted to know if I can use that same feed with Metastock and collect daily bars. This would eliminate the need to have a Rueters EOD feed and a live eSignal feed.

Thanks again for your comments. I would appreciate anyone else commenting on how they use their data feed.

Carl

hey carl.... the esginal rep must have misunderstood.... esignal does support end of day, i download everything in various manners every day from them..... and of course they offer real time also.....

you mentioned scaning a folder for potiental trades.... yes that can be done in real time also..... in meta its called an exploration.....

even though i'm primarily in the 'oex', 'spy' and 'dia', i will run scans/explorations on the s&p 500 and nas100 several times a day looking for, as you mentioned, potential trades.....

it takes about 6 minutes to scan all 600 of the above at 53k dialup and less than half that with dsl, for something simple like crossing the 20 day ma......that will be scaning 'esignals folders', which are real time.....

that exact same scan takes just 18 seconds using your locally stored data in 'metastock folders'......
if you start getting lenghty with your conditions, it will be slower.........

and of course you can always attach your conditions to the securitys via an expert and meta will alert you immediately when that condition is met...... obviously there are limits to the number of security's that can be watched in real time.......h

thanks again hayseed. It sounds like this program will work great for my needs.

Happy trading!

Carl