BullCharts discussion: Switching to Metastock Data Source

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Switching to Metastock Data Source

Printed From: BullCharts Forum
Category: BullCharts
Forum Name: BullCharts discussion
Forum Discription: General discussion about getting started with BullCharts and exploring its features.
URL: http://www.bullcharts.com.au/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=447
Printed Date: 28 Apr 2025 at 11:13pm
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Topic: Switching to Metastock Data Source

Posted By: sleepy
Subject: Switching to Metastock Data Source
Date Posted: 28 Oct 2007 at 10:00pm

Im currently using BullSystems as my datasource and have had no problems with this setup.

However, I am looking at switching to using Metastock EOD format as I can use the same feed for Tradeguider. That way I can avoid paying for two datafeeds.

1.Has anyone had any problems using Metastock data as their datasource?
2.And which supplier are you using JUSTDATA, Paritech or ...???
3. How easy is it to update Bullcharts ie get Daily Data
4. What functionality in BullCharts will I lose if I switch to Metastock EOD?

Thanks,
steve

Replies:

Posted By: tearawaybull
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2007 at 9:18pm

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.

Posted By: blackdog
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 10:44am

Hi sleepy,

The metastock import into BC was designed for adding data from other exchanges such as tearawaybull has described.

I believe the BC datafeed also contains the updates to fundamental data for the ASX, so if you cease to subscribe to BC data feed, the fundamental data that is displayed in the Security Summary would be out of date and the ability to perform scans on fundamental data wold be impaired. You would probably also lose the updates to BC that are free to subscribers.

To me the real pain is that the BC data cannot be extracted to a metastock database for use in other software.

I suggest that you email Brendon at BC to confirm that you lose the fundamental data and to add your voice to the call to be able to extract data from BC. He will respond promptly to emails but unfortunately, he does not regularly read the posts in the forum.

Posted By: Owen
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 10:56am

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.

Posted By: Dingo
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2007 at 3:57pm

Intelli-Charts is unusable for me using DATAHQ Custom Folders.

BC saves the Intelli-Charts as a subfolder of the folder the chart was selected from; therefore if you have more than one folder with the same stock in it (i.e ASX200, 300, Industrials, Financial etc); you end up with multiple Intelli-Chart files of the same stock, each with possibly different info on them.

The problem has existed since July 2005 and as yet nothing has been done to fix it.

See my thread titled Intelli-Charts

Posted By: IT-Trader
Date Posted: 01 Nov 2007 at 7:12pm

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.

Posted By: Dingo
Date Posted: 02 Nov 2007 at 9:45am

ITT,

I went to V3.6 recently to see if the Intelli-Chart issue had been fixed (Not).

It still reads the Metastock Data normally for me as it did with previous versions.

Posted By: IT-Trader
Date Posted: 16 Nov 2007 at 3:02pm

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.

Posted By: Dingo
Date Posted: 24 Nov 2007 at 10:23am

ITT,

how do you go when you use the watchlists?

Do you end up with different versions of the Intelli-Chart; 1 when you select a chart from the main folder, and another when you select the same ticker from a watchlist?

Posted By: IT-Trader
Date Posted: 02 Dec 2007 at 10:43pm

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.

Posted By: Owen
Date Posted: 03 Dec 2007 at 9:37pm

Originally posted by IT-Trader

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.

With Norgate data, 3.6.6 works fine if I simply type in the symbol to bring up a chart. But if I go into the menu and choose "Open Metastock data file" (usually I do this when I'm not sure what the symbol is), there is about 60% chance that Bullcharts will crash. I can't find a pattern to the problem. Informed Brendon of the bug, don't know if it's been fixed yet.

I seem to recall that creating customer folders can cause problems with Bullcharts, which is probably why I no longer use customer folders, but I'm not 100% sure.

Posted By: jakethedog
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2008 at 10:07pm

I have problems accessing my Forex data from Paritech on version 3.6.7 - program often crashes. Have contacted Brendon - not much help.

Have 3.4.1 on a laptop accessing same data - runs prefectly.

Thinking of going back to 3.4.1 on desktop.