This is a significant new release of MasterDATAlink. MasterDATACSV.com and MasterDATACompositePlugin.com subscribers use MasterDATAlink to download any or all of MasterDATA’s historical composite / breadth datafiles. Once configured to the user’s specifications, the program downloads, manually or with one click or automatically at times configured by the user. I will present here the areas that have been changed and/or improved and/or added.
Before I do however, an observation or two. In the financial industry, there is a tendency to work pretty much solo. Things happen so fast, it is hard to tell who’s word you can trust or opinion has value. Kind of funny really in that the basis of the financial markets is a handshake (or, at least, it used to be that way). I have been doing this for more than 30 years now. Still, as best I can, I try to really listen and when I do, often enough, the benefit to all is substantial. This new revision is a good example. Recently, a conversation with a subscriber started with him requesting additional features be added to MasterDATAlink. The additions would facilitate his using our data in his day to day market analysis. I gather his primary analysis was being done in Trade Station. Although he had figured out his own method of getting the data from our .csv format datafiles, he also saw a way that would make it much easier and efficient. Frankly, I would like to accommodate Trade Station users as much as possible. I need their support too to get this ball rolling. That combined with the credible way he came across ultimately led to this new significantly improved version of MasterDATAlink. If you would like to read the full conversations with this and other users regarding the motivation for this new revision, go to the following two links in our User Forum:
http://www.masterdata.com/forum/bbpress/topic/individual-csv-statistic-files-for-tradestation
and more recently …
http://www.masterdata.com/forum/bbpress/topic/any-plans-on-providing-just-the-daily-updates
I do appreciate input from our users and, certainly, this user. Anything that I can do to facilitate the use of MasterDATA’s composite / breadth data will be done, if I can possibly do it. The needs of one user often parallel the needs of many.
Market breadth analysis is one of the oldest methods of technical analysis. It was stifled, however, because such data was limited to the major exchange composites, NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ. Although over my 30 years in the financial markets I heard much moaning and groaning from brokers that “breadth” data was non-existent on indexes and more recently ETFs, no one did anything about it. That is, until MasterDATA. It is a challenge, to say the least, getting the word out about composite / breadth data analysis and the fact that data is now available. We are gaining ground albeit hard fought.
MasterDATAlink Version 3.00 now updates your datafiles significantly faster than ever before.
Previous to this version, the program downloaded individual “update” files for each index and ETF specified by the user. The logic for doing it this way, was that these small 2 Kb files would be fast to download and by having separate files more flexibility could be built into the downloader. It seemed to make sense and, in fact, it was substantially faster than previous approaches. I knew it should be faster, but it did not occur to me where the bottleneck was. A few choice words from our users, however, and it became quite clear. The problem was not file size or Internet connection speed or even CPU speed. The problem was that each file request had to make its own new connection with our servers. When the previously mentioned user was recently in Eastern Asia, the problem became so exacerbated that a blind man could see it. The solution? Put all the updated statistics for all indexes and ETFs into one file. This 200 Kb file takes only a few seconds to download and only one Internet connection to our severs. Then MasterDATAlink simply divvies it up among the indexes and ETFs requested by the user. End result? Updates are fast!
MetaStock format price files can now be generated on any values in the historical .csv format datafiles
MetaStock and other financial analysis programs can only display bar and candlestick charts using MetaStock formatted price files. MasterDATAlink has always generated price files containing traditional open, high, low, close and volume historical values. The MasterDATA Composite Plug-in can display and use any value from our composite / breadth datafiles. But what if you want a bar chart of say advancing issues, unchanged issues and declining issues? I am not sure, at this early stage, what could be done with such a chart, but who knows until you work with it. Unless you manually imported the data using the Equis Downloader or a few other not-so-easy methods this MetaStock format price file was not available. All investors and traders are looking at the same thing. One key to success is to to look at it in different ways.
Single statistic .csv format datafiles can now be generated with a click of the mouse or automatically.
This was the initial request from one of the users referred to previously. Using a very straightforward interface, you can select any or all composite / breadth statistics in the full historical datafile and generate a new historical .csv datafile containing only that statistic and the date. Data and files can be structured in many different ways and can be created with a mouse click and/or as part of the normal download process. Since downloads can be easily automated, if you need this type of datafile structure, the entire process can happen automatically and in the background.
Help files are revised and expanded to cover the new MasterDATAlink functionality
I am truly amazed at how fast help files can become inaccurate. A few code changes here and tweaks there apparently add up very quickly to out-of-date help files. Also, one of my “theories of life” is that “if it ain’t easy, sooner or later it don’t get done“. Because several variations of MasterDATAlink existed for various purposes, several variations of help files existed. Updating help files meant updating numerous versions. Rather than doing at least one, often, none of them got done. All MasterDATAlink versions are now consolidated into one universal program with one set of help files. I know I often did not assign a high enough priority to “Demo” help files. This is fixed and should never happen again. My particular apologies to “Demo” subscribers.
There are numerous additional changes both internal and cosmetic, but the bottom line is this is a very clean version of MasterDATAlink. Its fast and easier than ever. Maybe its even becoming intuitive, but read the new help files. They will do just that … help. I will never try to claim perfection, but the least we can do is try to keep moving in that general direction.
To download and for additional information go to the following URLs:
MasterDATACSV
http://www.masterdatacsv.com/
MasterDATA Composite Plug-in
http://www.masterdatacompositeplugin.com/
Thank you all for your continuing support.
