Please post your thoughts on what you would like to see changed about the MultiCharts trading platform.

Mike

I'll start.

I wish there were more people using MC so that there were more EasyLanguage guys around the forum. It's a chicken or the egg type of thing, I think a lot of users don't switch to MC because they love their indicators which are only available on their platform and not (yet) on MC. But until we see more MC people there will be less MC development to produce indicators...

Catch 22.

I wish they had keyboard shortcuts for drawing objects. I mean come on.

I wish the backtesting displayed a lot more info during the actual backtest. It seems not difficult to show a small box beneath the progress bar graph that just contains rough info, like highest net profit, # trades, etc just go give the user an approximate idea of whether or not the tested idea is worth waiting another 'x' minutes to complete, or if they should just cancel.

I wish the optimizing input variables were easier to work with (min, max range). Right now it is very cumbersome and every time you compile the script, the optimize params are reset and you have to re-define all the ranges again. I would really appreciate not having to do this every time.

I wish they would release a MC version that used .NET in addition to EasyLanguage. They are 95% there already, and it would be easier to write native .NET code than calling DLL's.

Can't think of much else right now.

Mike

MC is going 64 bit soon (supposed to be in late Jan) , so it's hard for me to leave..
I'd like to see MC handle the volume studies like NT or CT does... and other bar types like better renko etc..

What is CT? I am thinking you meant Sierra.

Yes, custom bar types would be nice.

Mike

Big Mike 

What is CT? I am thinking you meant Sierra. Yes, custom bar types would be nice. Mike

** Yes, I meant Sierra, sorry..

Hi,
Hmmmm
1. Programmable hot keys. For placing trades or for chart marking etc.

2. I agree with everything said about the optimization. It should start with the parameters currently against the strategy.
3. The actual optimization report seems a but over the place. Ie I look at the equity curve, the system information (Net result) the individual trade analysis ie %profitable, the Risk to reward, the profit ratio. All of these are different screens.
There are half a dozen metrics that most people look at in system testing and it would be good if these could all be put onto the one page.
4. Exporting of the report cannot be done without excel being installed on the computer.

Indicators
5. A slide bar against input parameters would be great, this is in other chart apps. At the minimum an apply button. Then the chart should show the reflected change with out leaving the indicator properties screen. Having to change a MA len from 15 to 20, press the OK and go back to the main chart screen to see the MA fit is a bit ordinary.

Help/Manual
6. Come on. The last manual was version 5.5 from years ago. Lot's of things to longer apply or look the same.
7. Help files are extremely ordinary.
8. The reference files ie EasyLanuage, are way out of date and are actually on TradeStation web sites. Lots of the functions/reserved words no longer work or exist. Try using ExitLong or ExitShort or TrailingStopOrder.

9. Allow different sounds to be applied to various alerts instead of a bong for everything. Similar to NT.
10. A timer that is independent of incoming ticks. Ie EL code that could be fired every 100ms regardless of whether ticks had come in. I was trying to do some code that exited 15 seconds prior to a 5min bar close on the AUS/USD pair. Ie place a Market exit order before the close of the bar. Sometimes it was this bar sometimes the next 5min bar.
You would thing that this pair had enough turnover to do this but no.


Neil.

NW27 

Hi, Hmmmm 1. Programmable hot keys. For placing trades or for chart marking etc. 2. I agree with everything said about the optimization. It should start with the parameters currently against the strategy. 3. The actual optimization report seems a but over the place. Ie I look at the equity curve, the system information (Net result) the individual trade analysis ie %profitable, the Risk to reward, the profit ratio. All of these are different screens. There are half a dozen metrics that most people look at in system testing and it would be good if these could all be put onto the one page. 4. Exporting of the report cannot be done without excel being installed on the computer. Indicators 5. A slide bar against input parameters would be great, this is in other chart apps. At the minimum an apply button. Then the chart should show the reflected change with out leaving the indicator properties screen. Having to change a MA len from 15 to 20, press the OK and go back to the main chart screen to see the MA fit is a bit ordinary. Help/Manual 6. Come on. The last manual was version 5.5 from years ago. Lot's of things to longer apply or look the same. 7. Help files are extremely ordinary. 8. The reference files ie EasyLanuage, are way out of date and are actually on TradeStation web sites. Lots of the functions/reserved words no longer work or exist. Try using ExitLong or ExitShort or TrailingStopOrder. 9. Allow different sounds to be applied to various alerts instead of a bong for everything. Similar to NT. 10. A timer that is independent of incoming ticks. Ie EL code that could be fired every 100ms regardless of whether ticks had come in. I was trying to do some code that exited 15 seconds prior to a 5min bar close on the AUS/USD pair. Ie place a Market exit order before the close of the bar. Sometimes it was this bar sometimes the next 5min bar. You would thing that this pair had enough turnover to do this but no. Neil.

Great list, I agree with all of them and have run up against them all the time.

Have you taken time to create project management requests for each of these features? Tedious, but likely the only way they will ever get done.

Mike

Mike, I think your statement below is the biggest adoption roadblock for MC, although is nice to have all the EasyLanguage legacy I personally want to be investing in a newer language such as .NET or Java ... Similar issue with ESignal and their EFS (it's a thing on its own), Sierra and C++ and Investor RT/MD with their RTL....

"I wish they would release a MC version that used .NET in addition to EasyLanguage. They are 95% there already, and it would be easier to write native .NET code than calling DLL's."

The only software that managed to get away with a non-stream language was Amibroker and the reason "I believe" is because it's very affordable and also extremely fast (fastest I know )....

And yes, the fact that they don't have keyboard shortcuts for certain things is pretty disappointing ... they also left behind minor things such as being able to specific colors of up/down bars for OHLC bars ... yes, basic but most users would not want to do any programming ...

Big Mike 

I'll start. I wish there were more people using MC so that there were more EasyLanguage guys around the forum. It's a chicken or the egg type of thing, I think a lot of users don't switch to MC because they love their indicators which are only available on their platform and not (yet) on MC. But until we see more MC people there will be less MC development to produce indicators... Catch 22. I wish they had keyboard shortcuts for drawing objects. I mean come on. I wish the backtesting displayed a lot more info during the actual backtest. It seems not difficult to show a small box beneath the progress bar graph that just contains rough info, like highest net profit, # trades, etc just go give the user an approximate idea of whether or not the tested idea is worth waiting another 'x' minutes to complete, or if they should just cancel. I wish the optimizing input variables were easier to work with (min, max range). Right now it is very cumbersome and every time you compile the script, the optimize params are reset and you have to re-define all the ranges again. I would really appreciate not having to do this every time. I wish they would release a MC version that used .NET in addition to EasyLanguage. They are 95% there already, and it would be easier to write native .NET code than calling DLL's. Can't think of much else right now. Mike

My two cents:


1) Renko Bars with wicks and custom bar types

2) A working Cumulative Delta indicator like what is available in Investor IRT, Market Delta, Ninjatrader - (GOM) and Sierra Chart

3) Have an option to be able to easily split multi-lot orders in the dom

4) A built in Sim engine

5) Customizable keyboard shortcuts

xevian 

My two cents: 1) Renko Bars with wicks and custom bar types 2) A working Cumulative Delta indicator like what is available in Investor IRT, Market Delta, Ninjatrader - (GOM) and Sierra Chart 3) Have an option to be able to easily split multi-lot orders in the dom 4) A built in Sim engine 5) Customizable keyboard shortcuts

YES! (all the above and what BM and others have mentioned)

plus...

6) add a "return" statement to EasyLanguage even if it's not part of the current syntax
7) extend EL so text can be "absolutely positioned" any where on a chart (and stay "sticky" OR shift as the chart is scrolled)
8) I've only seen this with 7.x (since that's all I'm familiar with), but in porting the "ReversalBars" indicator, it would have been handy for plotted bars to adjust to chart compression/expansion commands. I'll hopefully be able to explain better when I upload my MC ports of the indicators used in Jeff's "True Strength Indicator" thread; when I try to compress the bar width of an already-drawn chart, the bar width stays the same rather than compress like the rest of the chart does. The indicator does read/use the current bar width on initial load and I guess the chart can be refreshed, but it would be nice if there were a way to have that happen "automagically" in real-time.
9) a way to create "fill" areas on indicators like NT does; the best I've been able to do (or have seen) with EL is to "fill with lines" (throw in opacity, etc. too ).

-Guy