Switching to Metastock Data Source

Hi Sleepy

I've added metastock to Bullcharts and it works pretty well. I use JustData for an LSE EOD feed.

You can either go into preferences and set metastock as your primary data source, this will allow you to run scans etc and use it in same way as with the bullcharts data. However if you want to use them together I basically individually opened and saved the LSE top 350 shares with the primary data set to Bullcharts and this then means you can run them both together.

There are no real problems except the pain of having to switch to metastock as a data source if you want to scan all the metastock database, but if you are happy just following a few stock codes then use BC as your primary and open them individually.

I am personally not aware of any loss of functionality it basically works exactly the same once you have saved the metastock watchlists of the stocks you are interested in.

The daily data collection is a separate process (about a 10 minute download and update every day), plus the bullcharts data collection. You do have to be careful not to open bullcharts and start looking at charts while you are downloading the metastock data, otherwise you run the risk of corrupting the metastock database, which is a pain.

Good luck.

Originally posted by blackdog You would probably also lose the updates to BC that are free to subscribers.

I've been using Metastock data for years but until 3.6, I've been able to download and install updates.

I trade markets all over the place so use MS data directly. (By directly I mean that the data is not imported into Bullcharts, just read straight from the MS data source.)

v.3.4 runs fine.  Of course there is no fundamental data in the MS source.

v.3.6 doesn't work for me at all.  When I try to access the MS data source the program falls in a heap.  Tested on a clean build (XP SP2) patched to Sep 07 with the same result.  No idea about Vista but I have too many legacy products to spend time on it just yet.

You *are* entitled to the updates despite not subscribing to Bullcharts.  v.3.6 is not downloadable (for anyone) because of the SQL server change.  There is a very reasonable small admin charge of $10.50 (I think) to cover the media and postage costs.

ITT.

Dingo,

That's interestng.  Could you outline the software set up. Patch level, a/v, firewalls etc.

As I say, I ran v.3.6 on a totally clean install, i.e. just XP and patches and it fell over consistantly with MS data.  To anyone else concerned about this, let me be re-iterate that v.3.4 is fine.

With regard to the intellicharts issue,  I use Norgate for my EoD ASX data who allow the creation of custom folders, so I've dumped the top 2000 stocks into one folder and use Bullcharts watchlists to create industry groups, take-over target lists etc.
This seems like an obvious route to take so I suspect you've eliminated this as an appropriate solution for you specifically but it may help someone else.


ITT.

Dingo,

I've had a hurried play with it this evening, see if this makes any sense...

All hypothetical:
Lets say my base metastock folder is C:\MostASXStocks which contains around 2000 listings.  (My data provider allows me to create a single custom data folder with whichever stocks I choose.)

Lets also create multiple watch lists. for example:
the ASX20
the XXJ (financials ex-prop trusts) and
"Stuff to Keep and Eye On".

We'll assume ANZ exists in all.

If I pick ANZ off the ASX20 watchlist, draw a trendline, switch to another stock then back to ANZ but from the XXJ watchlist, the trendline is still there.
However if I do FILE - OPEN METASTOCK and select ANZ from C:\MostASXStocks then the trendline is not there.  I suspect this is the problem you've been referring to.
Moreover, if I open ANZ via FILE - OPEN, add a trendline, switch to something else, then re-open ANZ via FILE -OPEN the trendline has gone.
So on first glance the best method would seem to be to use only watchlists and skip the FILE-OPEN method entirely.

Apologies its a bit rushed and considerably less rigorous than I would like but hopefully helps.

Regards,
ITT.