Bullcharts

[Uncle Festivus]

Thought I'd start a thread for Bullcharts users, as there seems to be a few floating around here. Also, the official BC forum seems to get very few visitors these days. How many here use Bullcharts?

 

[tech/a]

Trialed it when it as under construction.
Found it to be an excellent package.
Dont use it as I'm already set with other software.

 

[GreatPig]

I also trialled it a few years ago but had lots of problems with it. It had a lot of good features, but was very slow and kept locking up on me. Plus you had to be online to their servers to access the data (although I think there was some option to download stuff to your PC), and that also made it slow.

It may well have just been the version I was given, but I talked to their guy a few times and still couldn't get the issues sorted, so I didn't buy it.

GP

 

[BBand]

Hi,
I use Bullcharts and I find it easy to use and very reliable - I can honestly say that I have never had a problem using it.

I use EOD data, which takes about a minute to download each night

I have had no lock up problems - ever

It does everything that I require to trade, as I said I use EOD data, but if I wanted, I could switch to live data - I think the minimum "contract time for live data is one month". Snapshots are also available

I am certainly no software buff - but find that I can quite easily construct detailed scans using their scan statement type option. (its almost foolproof) The more detailed scans are available thro their Bullscript software (incorporated)

If you would like a particular feature, just ask them, and they will consider including it in their next update

You do not have to pay for updates

For anyone new to trading who wishes to fast forward their chart analysis, and indicator interpretation skills, they have a "training mode" incorporated

All in all, I think their package is well presented, easy to use, and is a work in progress - they keep adding new features.

Have a look at their site for all the details.

They also offer a free trial period.

Regards
Peter

 

[investforwealth]

I trialed BullCharts quite recently and was impressed enough to make a purchase.

I like the wide range of indicators available and the ease with which you can create new ones. BullScript seems to be a lot simpler than the MetaStock programming language and I've heard from numerous users that the developers are very responsive to requests from users for new features.

They have included a lot of scans and indicators described in popular trading books, from authors such as Guppy, Hull, Wilson, Bedford, Elder, Pring and Bollinger, to name but a few.

BullCharts can be integrated with TradeSim to provide an environment for the development of mechanical trading systems.

If you're a chartist and haven't tried BullCharts, it's well worth a trial, they'll even give you live data throughout your trial if you ask for it!

The only disappointing thing for me was the user manual, which I paid $39 for plus $9 postage. I was expecting a professionally printed and bound book, but was surprised to get an A4 manual laser printed and comb bound. I figure if that's my biggest complaint, though, then they're doing pretty well!

Thanks Uncle F. for starting the thread... I've noticed that the official forums seem to be dying somewhat, and it's good to know there's other users out there who are as enthusiastic about the power of this package as I am!

 

[marty8]

I finished my 2 week trial with Bullcharts last week. I was so impressed that I bought the software (with EOD data).

I'd trialed other software out there and found that Metastock is the only real competitor. Both are compatible with TradeSim.

Metstock is a fine program but I found Bullcharts far easier to use, more intuitive, and unlike Metastock the software upgrades are free - although it isn't Vista ready yet). I also like the fact that it can accommodate live data, whereas you would have to spend a small fortune on the Metastock equivalent.

I haven't had too much bother yet creating my own custom explorations, converting existing indicators to oscillators, or converting Metstock formulas and explorations to Bullscript. In two and a half weeks I'm surprised at how comfortable I am with the program. All my templates, watched stocks and sector folders are set up and off I go.

There's a review by the Star Trader Report:

http://www.bullcharts.com.au/Reviews/StarTrader BullCharts Review.pdf

It's a shame that the Bullcharts User forum appears to have fizzled, but I've found the staff have so far been happy to help with emailed questions (now I've bought the software, maybe they won't be so responsive - we'll see).

Very happy with it.

 

[investforwealth]

I recently bought a new PC. It came with Vista 64-bit preinstalled.

Because BullCharts uses Microsoft's MS SQL Server 2000 Desktop Edition, the database won't run under Vista. BullCharts itself will run fine but it's pretty useless without its database.

I originally thought I'd just go back to using Windows XP until BullCharts upgraded their database engine, but ran into the problem of XP recognising only 3 of my 4GB of RAM. Scrap that idea.

In the end, I bit the bullet and spent $230 on VMware, virtual PC software. I reinstalled Vista on my new PC and installed Windows XP inside the virtual machine. The latest version of VMware has support for multiple monitors, so I can run BullCharts on one screen (inside the virtual machine) and have other apps on other monitors, moving my mouse seamlessly between the two.

Because BullCharts uses SQL Server for its database, I have even been able to create connections between Excel running on my Vista machine and the BullCharts database on the virtual machine, allowing me to grab the latest snapshot prices from BullCharts for use in my spreadsheets. The spreadsheets retrieve the latest prices each time I open them, or whenever I click Refresh on the data tab in Excel.

All in all, I'm relatively happy with the solution. Of course, I'll be even happier when BullCharts updgrade their database engine and I can run it natively on Vista.

If anyone wants help with setting up any of the stuff I've mentioned, PM me... I'm more than happy to help. I'm also in the process of writing some how-to's and when they're finished, I'll put them on my website and post a link here.

 

[happyjack]

Hi, I applied for a trial version of bullcharts last November, (2007) I made it clear that my machine was vista, I received an XP version of bull charts for a trial, I guess they had a stack they wanted to get rid of, I loaded it on to an old machine and it worked ok so I ordered a full version for the vista machines that I have,

It loaded Ok on the desktop HP Pavilion Media centre but not on the laptop a Toshiba satellite p200 as I do not actually need it on that machine just yet I have not emailed them to sort the problem out, the XT worked fine but I have disabled the machine so I could cannibalise the monitor, and Bullcharts works great on the HP Pavilion only problem is it sometimes takes a while to shut down, I have found turning the Internet connection off and on again normally wakes it up

On one occasion I decided not to wait for it and pulled the plug and when I started it the next day I had lost my chart setup and had to put it all back in again, only 15 minutes but annoying trying to remember what order I had them in and what names I hade saved them under.

Moral when you save a template give it a meaningful name like "guppymma_macd_stoch" so you know what is on it, I woke up to late for this and half of my templates I have to load to find out what they do, but it is only a matter of spending a little time renaming them. apart from that I am very happy with it. I use "Incredible" for the yank market and international indices and sectors but I don't think anything could beat bullcharts for the Aussie indices and sectors

happyjack

 

[TraderTim]

I trialed and then bought Bullcharts about two and a half years ago after retiring and deciding to have a go at "full time" trading. At the time I knew very little about trading software (or trading) even though I had been "lunchtime" trading for several years.

After driving numerous suppliers mad with my questions, the choice for me came down to Metastock or BullCharts. At the time they were both much the same price so I decided to be patriotic and give the "Aussie" offering a go.

I have really put this product through its paces. I started with EOD data and then latter upgraded to intraday data. I use Bullcharts every day and frequently knock up a scan or custom indicator in a matter of minutes to check out some aspect of the everchanging markets. I have a programming background so I guess that helps but I think any reasonably intelligent person who is prepared to persevere could master the programming side if they want to and need to. Some traders may not need to program at all. It depends on your trading style and what you want to achieve.

The product has been very reliable and the support has been good.

Most of my gripes about Bullcharts are the rather cludgy interfaces to some of the intraday facilities like market depth, watch lists and alerts. I believe that the developers are addressing some of these problems in future releases.

My other gripe, which wouldn't affect most people is that I would like to be able to use my programming skills to extend Bullcharts and also get at the intraday data. (It is pretty easy to tap into the EOD data in the database)

Bullcharts dont really offer much in the way of help to do this but they did tell me that the Metastock Development Kit (MDK) "will probably" work with Bullcharts. I am presently investigating this with a view to writing my own plugins for exotic things like neural network indicators and digital filters.
I don't really think that you need these things for sucessfull trading but for someone like me they are fun to play with.

By the way, readily available Metastock scripts and custom indicators can be used in Bullcharts usually with little or minimal modification. I am not sure how userfriendly Bullcharts is to various commercial Metastock plugins. I do know that TradeSim, another excellent program works well with Bullcharts.

I doubt if any one program can meet all requirements but Bullcharts has provided me with a good basis for technical trading and it will probably remain a part of my trading software well into the foreseeable future.

 

[ozstocktrader]

Extracting Bullcharts Data

I have posted a HOW-TO (step-by-step instructions) document on extracting BullCharts data for use in Excel 2007 at http://tech.ozstocktraders.com/. Hope that someone finds value in it. I would be pleased to receive any feedback, be it positive or negative.

I'm also happy to answer questions if you run a different version of Excel or other programs that implement ODBC connections for data retrieval.

 

[Luscord]

Does anyone know whether bull charts has alerts such as; if price triggers or breaks a trend line or price level you are notified? I currently use metastock v7 (very old) and thinking of upgrading to bullcharts.
Cheers

 

[Iron Man]

Does anyone know whether bull charts has alerts such as; if price triggers or breaks a trend line or price level you are notified? I currently use metastock v7 (very old) and thinking of upgrading to bullcharts.
Cheers

Yes the new version on Beta has price triggers and is very good tool to have

 

[rbbrain]

Hi,
Latest update on Alerts in BullCharts.
It was implemented recently, and has been tweaked a little in the latest minor update. Current version is 3.8.4. Some of the User Group members really like the feature.
Cheers

 

[chubacca]

To me each just liked like a new metastock. New interface and looks but nothing really that new and exciting.

 

[rbbrain]

To me each just liked like a new metastock. New interface and looks but nothing really that new and exciting.

Hi.

A couple of the key things that people like in BullCharts these days include:

• The Watchlists feature in the Securities Manager - simple; but very easy to use and powerful.
• Scans - very easy to use with drop down selections
• Alerts feature

Cheers

 

[TradeSim]

One other nice feature that people may not be aware of is the fact that you can view price charts of all delisted and expired securities. These are securities that are no longer current and are not downloaded onto your machine but the Bull Charts server can slurp up the data to you at any time.

For example you can view NCP before it was changed to NWS and the NWS chart shows both the adjusted and non adjusted data in different colors.

I don't know any other data supplier that supplies this information

Unfortunately you can't use this data in a scan for historical backtesting and survivorship bias free backtesting etc but maybe this may change in the future

Also there is a market map which gives a visual break down of stock performance so at a glance you can visualize the performance of all stocks. Other than webiress I don't believe any other charting package has this feature.

 

[wombat40]

im trying to use a formula as a tradesim stop,

(Close < ((hist(Close, 1))*0.9)); (10% stop)

the bullcharts scan is accepting it but wen i run the bullcharts scan i get message:

"Cannot use risk based position size model without initial stop or max loss data-non risk based ps model selected."

any bullchart users know what im doing wrong here.....

salamat.....thankyou

 

[$20shoes]

[FONT=Courier New, monospace]What if the value was returned as a Reference (could use Hist or previous too)?[/FONT] In this way, I think "Ref" would become your initial stop ( i hope)


Ref((Close < (Close*0.9,-1)));

 

[wombat40]

no that doesnt work....doesnt recognize it...ill keep trying

 

[rnr]

Do you want to use this code (less some excess brackets)

Close < hist(Close,1)*0.9;

so that you can use a risk based position size model or is it only needed as a Trailing Stop as part of an exit strategy?