Support Board
Date/Time: Mon, 25 Nov 2024 05:37:00 +0000
Post From: Our Experience with E-Signal
| [2013-10-11 09:50:26] |
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Hello, We first want to say, we are exceptionally disappointed with the E-Signal treatment of us. This is going to be a brief summary of our quite negative experience with E-Signal. Sierra Chart has been in business a very long time. Since the late 90s. E-Signal has been around since that time. We have never added support for E-Signal previously, because it is an expensive data feed and generally based upon feedback, there is minimal interest in it. Periodically we would get requests to add support for E-Signal. We consistently rejected them. However, we began to realize that because of the broad exchange support that E-Signal has, thus parent company Interactive Data supports apparently all the exchanges in the world, it probably would be a good idea to bring support for E-Signal on. We knew that the interest in it would still be limited because it is an expensive data feed. About $100 a month. This decision-making was made near the end of 2012. We try to obtain a technical specifications for their API from them back then. They were very slow to provide them. The main sales contact we were working with at E-Signal, was terminated by the company just before Christmas. This was a surprise to him. We have been told the company was in disarray. So we decided it probably was not a good idea to get involved with E-Signal. We still had contact with this person and they thought because of the broad exchange support that E-Signal has, that it was best we follow through because we could not get access to all those exchanges with other providers. We integrated to E-Signal earlier in the year using the JSON protocol. They had to provide an order form for the JSON service and make the service available to our customers. They never did. There were all kinds of excuses given for the delay, and most recently, they started asking us lots of questions about our software and business. They then have made a recent claim that they have to lodge clients, such as us, with all the exchanges they work with order to provide the data feed. This may be a recent development with the NASDAQ, but certainly it could not be the case with all the other exchanges in the world. As a solution to this, we told them we only are interested in the Asian exchanges. No other exchanges. We have alternative data feeds we support for all of the other major exchanges. They then also told us, that in order to provide the data feed they want a minimum of 3000 a month business from our customers. Otherwise, we have to make up the shortfall. It is unlikely, anytime soon we could ever meet that if at all. This was an item of nondisclosure. In relationship such as these, minimums are never necessary. We asked them if we had used their standard API, would there still be a 3000 a month minimum? They said yes. So basically they go from $0 to $36,000 a year. This is clearly breaching the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. We would never have added support for E-Signal if we knew about this minimum. Otherwise, the whole thing would not be economical for us. Certainly there will be some customers, but we do not know how many and it would take time to build up to the minimum. They cannot arbitrarily impose this kind of minimum. We incurred a significant detriment adding support for E-Signal. This was a cost to us that has yet to be recovered. So they have to perform, in order to provide the customers data feed, and allow us to recover our investment. They are not imposing this minimum on any other third-party software provider that we know of. Furthermore, we are marketing and supporting the E-Signal data feed and to impose a minimum, is simply just completely unfair and turns this into nothing more than a slave relationship. We will certainly be referring business, but we cannot guarantee a certain minimum amount. We have no control over that. At this point, we are still waiting for E-Signal to begin to offer the data feed providing access to Asian exchanges. As of yet it still has not happened. When it does, we will make it available. But we are not going to agree to a minimum. The final comment here is that one thing that you customers are not aware of is all of the problems we deal with with Data and Trading service providers. This is what makes our business exceptionally difficult and challenging. The problems range from business issues to technical problems. This is not the first time something like this has happened. So whenever people ask can you add support for this data feed or can you add support for this trading service, you are asking for a huge amount from us and exposing us to all kinds of problems. Integration to Data and Trading services is a substantial task. It is not trivial at all. This is why we are very hesitant to do anything new with Data or Trading services. As of this time, we are not going to add support for new Data or Trading services for some time now and there better be a very good reason why we should. Although we will be completing integration to Tele-trader. For some other information as to the technical problems we face with services, refer to this help topic: http://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=doc/helpdetails76.html One good thing we have to look forward to, is that we ourselves, are now beginning to become a data provider with the upcoming release of the CME data feed. This is going to mean, that there will not need to be a definite reliance on external providers of market data . Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy: https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service: Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing Date Time Of Last Edit: 2013-10-31 17:35:11
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