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For about $38 a month I get DTN delayed data coming in all
day long. The data comes in by cable (Satelite dish
available also) to a box that strips the data off the
cable. A monitor comes with that presents the data. In
addition I pay $8/month to transfer the data to my PC where
I feed it into a separate program called Livewire. From
Livewire you can export data to MetaStock for further
analysis.
This setup initially cost me about $1000 to set up with the
DTN installation charge and the cost of the Livewire
program. After paying that my monthly cost is now $38 + $8,
cheap for what I get. I get news, stock data, commodity
data and a lot of indices.
If you use Livewire you have to set up a separate computer
for it since there is a constant flow of data that will slow
a PC down. I have a 200mz Pentium Pro running NT that I can
use for both Livewire and my other work but even with this
fast machine it is better to use another computer. I use a
486-66 with 20mg memory and a 1 gig HD and it works fine.
The charts a drawn almost as fast as the fast machine.
Livewire is a DOS program which is good because it is fast.
You can try this setup for awhile at low cost. I think DTN
gives a 30 day trial. Livewire will sell you a trial
version of their program for about $55 that you can use for
one or two months.
Livewire is an amazing program. There are several software
programs you can use with DTN but IMO Livewire is head &
shoulders above the rest. It will accumulate your data from
DTN. When I go on vacation I just let it run and the data
is there when I get back. It charts the data as it comes in
giving you weekly, daily, hourly or tick by tick charts. As
the data comes in the charts change. If you have a version
of MetaStock before 6.0 it will export the data easily to
MS. I bought MS 6.0 and found out that the conversion
utility won't work because MS changed their file structure.
I can still convert but it is more laborious.
Livewire allows you to set up individual portfolios. I have
one called ALL that contains all my stocks. Then I will
create others for specialized groups. For example I have
one called SEMI that has all the semiconductor stocks I
follow. I can take the Semi group and record buying 1 share
of each stock and then chart the performance of the group in
effect creating my own index. I have a portfolio for each
of my brokerage accounts where I list all the transactions
and I can chart the value of the portfolios on a daily or
hourly basis. It keeps track of my gains & losses for
taxes. The charting portion has a lot of tech indicators.
I can show 7 windows at a time with seven indicators. I can
set up synthetic symbols to get around the delayed data.
For example the market indices comes in real time. I thus
get the S&P500 and the S&P futures premium with only about a
couple of minutes delay for transmission. I set up a
calculated symbol for the S&P futures that takes the S&P500
and adds the premium to it to give me a close estimate of
the S&P futures price. I trade off this and the calculated
price is very close to the actual price so for all intents &
purposes I'm trading the S&P using real time data at a cost
of delayed data.
I have no connection with Cablesoft which makes Livewire.
No commissions, no freebies. I've used the program for two
years with much satisfaction. It takes awhile to get used
to the way the program works. Your computer's clock has to
be accurate. Otherwise your data can get screwed up. Other
small problems until you get used to the program.
I had some reluctance to post this info on MS's forum but on
thinking about this I'm really talking about data collection
and while LW has good charting capabilities many will want
to use MS in addition because it carries charting to another
level.
DTN= 1-800-485-4000
Cablesoft (Livewire)= 1-805-646-0094
Bob Doeden
Chicago
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Ed Hessler wrote:
> >From Ed: David, a relatively cheap way of getting
> intraday quotes is to
> use telescan for the quotes at any time during the day;
> then delete the
> data, and repeat at a later. In that way I have obtained
> several quotes in
> a day for the stocks that I am interested in. The
> Telescan service is
> about $29.00/mo.
>
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