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I just accidentally clicked the wrong icon in my quick launch, and opened two copies of MultiCharts x64 at once. I was surprised it opened the second copy, because one would assume this is not going to work (database file locking, sharing, etc).
Can @MultiCharts confirm that opening two concurrent copies of MultiCharts (without virtualization) is supported? Or is this a bug?
You could always open more than one instance of MC on the same computer. Most of the MC 6 processes are shared between instances, but a new MultiCharts.exe process is created each time you open a new one. This way you drag instances to different screens, like desktops in TradeStation.
MultiCharts - Raising the Trading Standard.
Please send me a private message if you have any further questions about MultiCharts
What if one wants to have a copy open IN a VM or on another computer, so that one instance can be used for a live trading strategy and the other can be used for backtesting? I have found that it's easy to get MC to crash when doing a year or more of intrabar testing (not even at tick level, just one minute on hourly chart). if MC could restore my positions from IB on restart, it wouldn't be so bad for hourly plus strategies (still no good for shorter ones though); but the way it is now, I have to manually enter my positions, and the chart loses my order history.
Also for redundancy purposes, I'd rather run the live strategy in a segregated environment. But I am not sure how the licensing check works, if there is one.
You must be doing something else, or running an old copy of MC, or have insufficient memory or bad indicator, strategy, etc... because I've ran MC on years, and years of tick data for the past 2-3 years on a regular basis, and it is absolutely rock solid stable.
What did MC say when you reported the crashing to them?
With regards to license checks, can't speak to that. You should ask MC about licensing restrictions for a second virtualized copy. You also have to worry about data, as for example IQFeed is limited to one concurrent login per account. Rithmic/Zen can do more. TT is limited to one per account, but you can "clone" your account into two separate login ID's and get around it. Not sure about TWS, but I imagine it is restricted to one instance of TWS, and you would need to set one copy of MC to use 127.0.0.1 localhost, and the other copy may need to be in "remote" mode as opposed to localhost to work since the socket isn't directly available when using it from a VM.
I am running the 32 bit version 7. Friday it was really bad - crashed more than ten times total on me, and Saturday when I restarted it, it spontaneously deleted my strategy file (wasn't too happy about that - was just about to set up an auto backup/copy routine too, then had to spend the next 14 hours trying to remember what I had done and rewriting it from scratch).
Since my last restart of it yesterday night, only one crash while running in live mode (just by clicking on the File menu), so I reduced it to 500 bars of data and it's been stable since.
I think you are running 64 bit, right? Perhaps I should try that - but again, wouldn't really want to be using a beta on a live strategy that, even if stable, might need updating often. Also, I don't really want to be using an intrabar strategy on my same machine that might be doing backtesting for 10 hours at a time, with the CPU at nearly 100%.
I realize the data feed would need to be licensed again (or I could just use a historical dump for local backtesting). But the IB client wouldn't be a problem for backtesting (i.e., not needed for a regular backtest; or I could use it against the paper account for semi-live testing).
I was hoping the MC rep could let me know about the ability to run a virtualized copy somewhere else if it's still the same entity using it.
If MC is crashing on your system, you have something wrong, corrupted file, lack of ram etc.
It's rock solid on my 3 year old quad core with 8gb ram..(Windows 7).. Ver 7.4 was solid and I'm currently testing Ver8 beta2 64 bit and so far it's solid, (after a few weeks now).
You might try re-installing MC to fix corrupted files... It should remember the order of your work-spaces too.. They are easy to change the order of too- just drag and drop into the desired location..
Hmm you know what, this just prompted me to think of something - I did try installing FXCM's Strategy Trader (which is rebranded/related version of MCFX) a while back. Perhaps that was causing something and I should try removing that and reinstalling.
Still, for all the other reasons (CPU load while backtesting, user error, Internet latency/potential for downtime), I still think it would be best to host a live strategy running MC offsite, no? I guess if you're watching it and are in a market that has regular hours (stock, futures), it's not so bad to run it locally at your desk; but for forex, and for more of a "black box" solution that I'd rather check in on weekly eventually (or even less), I think it's going to be ideal to run it offsite. Especially if/once I get into lower timeframes and latency is more important (envisioning running it in IB's colo center, for example - bt perhaps once I am at that point I will need to be doing something custom anyway).
In order to get real time data and trade you need to be authorized in MultiCharts. You can run your MultiCharts license only at one PC at a time. You can do backtesting in offline mode using your locally stored data on PC2.
In order to use your license on PC2 in offline - you need to disable the Internet connection on the PC2 that will be in offline mode. You need to login to MC on PC2 first, then switch to offline mode, disable Internet, then you can login to MC on PC1 in online mode.
Please keep in mind that logging in on PC2 will kick out MC on PC1.
In order to transfer your user data (data bases, studies, workspaces) please refer to the following guide.
Please provide more information regarding the crash issues you have. First of all make sure you are running at least MultiCharts 7.4 release. Do you receive any error messages? Does the crash happen when you load the chart or apply a signal to it? What is your regular setup (how many workspaces, charts, bars, studies do you operate with)?
MultiCharts - Raising the Trading Standard.
Please send me a private message if you have any further questions about MultiCharts
Regarding the crash, I have yet to upgrade to the latest revision of 7.4. It seems to happen when I go to the File menu though - suddenly the main chart space will become white, the cursor becomes the spinning wait icon, and I have to restart from task manager to get it going again. I will not have time to try the update for another week or so, but I will let you know then if that fixes it.
