Stocks & Commodities V. 25:2 (76-78): Product Review: eSignal 8.0 by Dennis D. Peterson
Product Description
Stocks & Commodities V. 25:2 (76-78): Product Review: eSignal 8.0 by Dennis D. Peterson
W hile eSignal does an excellent job of providing quotes, they also offer other capabilities such as charting and backtesting, and providing a number of indicators (many free but some requiring a fee). Their datafeed streams US, Canadian, South/Latin American, European, African, Asian, and Pacific Rim exchanges, as well as Level II, foreign exchange, fixed income, and more than 100 indexes. eSignal offers a lot of features and reviewing all of it in detail would take more space than we have available. So I have focused on some highlights.
eSignal is the vendor for 13 third-party software packages, including John Ehlers’ MESA software. The advanced charting feature of eSignal includes access to more than 30 add-on studies from third-party partners.
LEVEL II DATA
The presentation of Level II–type data, which eSignal refers to as “market depth,” is typical of many suppliers, with bids and asks on the left and time and sales on the right. At the bottom of the depth screen (Figure 1) are viewing options labeled as “Montage, TotalView, Island, Arca, NYOB,” which are references to different views of Level II data. “Montage” is a reference to SuperMontage, which NASDAQ created to offer some features unique to electronic communications networks (ECNs).
When your selected view is “Montage,” you are seeing the best bid or offer from a market maker or ECN. To clarify, suppose that a market maker has two orders, both of which are buys. If one is for $42.50 and the other for $42.45, you will only see the $42.50 offer independent of its size. If the $42.50 offer is 100 shares and the $42.45 offer is for 100,000 shares, you won’t see the liquidity sitting there because your Montage view will only show the 100-share offer. For a bid or ask size of 100 shares you will see a “1” in the HSIZE column since the granularity is 100 shares (Figure 1).
W hile eSignal does an excellent job of providing quotes, they also offer other capabilities such as charting and backtesting, and providing a number of indicators (many free but some requiring a fee). Their datafeed streams US, Canadian, South/Latin American, European, African, Asian, and Pacific Rim exchanges, as well as Level II, foreign exchange, fixed income, and more than 100 indexes. eSignal offers a lot of features and reviewing all of it in detail would take more space than we have available. So I have focused on some highlights.
eSignal is the vendor for 13 third-party software packages, including John Ehlers’ MESA software. The advanced charting feature of eSignal includes access to more than 30 add-on studies from third-party partners.
LEVEL II DATA
The presentation of Level II–type data, which eSignal refers to as “market depth,” is typical of many suppliers, with bids and asks on the left and time and sales on the right. At the bottom of the depth screen (Figure 1) are viewing options labeled as “Montage, TotalView, Island, Arca, NYOB,” which are references to different views of Level II data. “Montage” is a reference to SuperMontage, which NASDAQ created to offer some features unique to electronic communications networks (ECNs).
When your selected view is “Montage,” you are seeing the best bid or offer from a market maker or ECN. To clarify, suppose that a market maker has two orders, both of which are buys. If one is for $42.50 and the other for $42.45, you will only see the $42.50 offer independent of its size. If the $42.50 offer is 100 shares and the $42.45 offer is for 100,000 shares, you won’t see the liquidity sitting there because your Montage view will only show the 100-share offer. For a bid or ask size of 100 shares you will see a “1” in the HSIZE column since the granularity is 100 shares (Figure 1).
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