Hello John, [:D]

I have the business formula how Equis may re-introduce The Downloader, which many MS users - me included - need, without big damage to its profitability goals. Yes, I found the balance needed for MS to remain the great software it used to be. [:O]

Are you in listening, collaborative, receptive mode these days, or are you in a combative, karate warrior, tough mode?

--------------------------------------------

TO ALL FORUM MEMBERS
Please refrain from posting here until the public discussion between Mr. Slauson and me gets hot.

Also, the polling feature should be activated for all interested parties to vote soon.

Hello John,
I knew myself as someone who could put a positive spin on many people and events, but I did not know I could be as sharp as to penetrate through tons of information at your web site to appear on the front page. [:D]

Thank you for your invitation. You already KNOW that this is going to be BIG, don't you?

John,
I need you to be calm, low volatility, and at a low up turning point. I enter trades and talk big business only in similar situations.
So, are you ready to receive the Gift of Wisdom? [:D]

First off, thank you Eddie for the positive tone you have taken in your post. I'm a sucker for the old adage that "you catch more bees with honey than vinegar" :-). Your suggestion is well taken and I will mark it.

There were a number of factors that we took into consideration when we made the decision to eliminate local data support.

Some of these included:
1. 30% of our support calls involved local data maintenance.
2. The single biggest reason for new product returns is frustration over data maintenance.
3. Piracy of MetaStock runs 90% in many countries and is even high in developed countries. This is devastating to us and our dealers. The thinking of Jack Sparrow goes like this--Why pay for MetaStock and data when I can kife it via a bit torrent network and then grab the data from countless free services.
4. GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). Bad data results in bad trades. Thomson Reuters data is superior most other sources--especially free data.
5. Our data is being repackaged and resold. While this is easy to do with local data, it isn't so easy to do with online data.
6. For the majority of users, the end to end process of doing analysis with MetaStock using online data vs. local data is much faster.
7. The world is moving to "the cloud". (This is the lamest reason).

Now...with all of this said, we admittedly underestimated the uproar caused by our decision. So....we are investigating ways to allow MetaStock to read data from a local data source. This will primarily target folks that maintain their own proprietary data (i.e., data that neither DataLink nor XENITH can provide). For example, data stored in Excel that tracks the odds of "NASA to announce discovery of extraterrestrial life before midnight ET 31 Dec 2013". If you think I'm joking click here. Current BID: $0.15. Current ASK: $0.30.

Thanks again Eddie.

Still Listening,
--john slauson

Hello John, [:)]

1). I have many solutions for you but I remember that Equis has a whole team of specialists who get paid salaries to do the right thing.
Entrepreneurial thinking, like mine, is diametrically opposite of established teams who are in direct contact with the realities of the market for their product. I have nothing more to say than what I already said: two MetaStock versions are required from now on, a server data one and a Downloader one at prices to satisfy Equis’ profitability targets.

However, I highly suggest you do not rely only on your internal accountant who for a salary will say anything you want to hear. Hire 2-3 external accountants to consult with on how Equis’ prices should be recalculated because they – as independent pros – will be more likely to come up with better solutions.

2). For 11 versions, MetaStock dominated the market for technical analysis tools. To me, it is normal after a string of successes for a day to come when Equis does a major mistake. That mistake is v12.

Equis has two choices now:

• A). Continue on the road of v12, which, in my opinion, is wrong because it cancels the original design that made Equis famous to begin with: charting software and data software.
  To me, Equis is now self-destructing, which – with all the bad things happening in the world – is no news.
  Equis is killing demand for cheap software thinking that it is moving towards the high end niche.
  Personally, I do not see what Equis could do to survive only on sales from the high end market. But again, your team needs to know how to do that, not me.
  As for my needs, I need the Downloader more than Rahul Mohindar’s marvels or Xenith, which so far looks like Equis’ zenith: the beginning of the end!
  
  I wonder how Equis’ stock would be doing now if Equis Int’l, not Thompson Reuters, had been a listed company (:D)
  
  
• B). Stop the madness and, even without apologizing, re-introduce the Downloader.
  Everybody, big corporations included, makes mistakes. How nice it would be to correct them in time before vanishing into history!
  

3). I take pride in seeing on forums all over the Internet, that I am the only one who came up with a solution when all that everybody else did was to express their anger at Equis, unable to think how to save the day.

4). I use the event of Equis going astray as a reminder that I should never love the tool more than the objective, meaning that I may have to part with MetaStock killing my present comfort zone just to renew my loyalty to the stock markets with the inconvenience of having to learn new software languages. Every disappointment is a blessing.

I wait until Dec. 31, 2013 to see what Equis will do.

And if Equis decides to go for the two versions, to avoid a new mess, please do not even try to improve the Downloader!

Hello John,

That will be great. [:O] When is the official announcement going to be made? It will bring a lot of joy to all MS users, and the sooner the change, the better.

Also, I like to believe that, with the QuoteCenter becoming invalid as of June 30, 2013, the CSV data reading feature will be introduced by then.

Can't wait! ... [:D]

John, [:$]

Large crowds of angry MS users are at the gate with long knives, studded clubs and sharp axes. [:@]
They feel betrayed in their quest for profits and they are demanding their money back. I myself spent more than US$2,500 on MS upgrades over the many years and now I have nothing.
The worst of it all is that, with expressions like "We will probably", "I hesitate to speculate" and "if we add this", I am half an inch away from saying that I don’t know what to believe now.

John, it’s very bad out there, but worse than this is that their loud noise attracts the attention of lots of people who are about to buy charting software. They have cash in hand and now, because of this riot, they don’t know what to buy. [:O]

For God’s sake, do something! Have all the MS programmers move into the offices to eat, work and sleep there for two weeks to correct the hard drive data storage fiasco.

Let’s finish with this nonsense once for all. Have mercy on Equis if not on everybody else.

We rarely (if ever) speak specifically like I am now to future functionality. Local data support via CSV files is a high priority and is already under development, but I still cannot speculate on when it will be tested and released.

Enjoying the medical metaphors! :-)

--john

[:D]

Celebrating the return to common sense:

Louis Armstrong - Hello dolly

Songwriters: HERMAN, JERRYI

Adapted for Stock Markets by Eddie MS Forums

I said hello, Equis ...... [:)]

Well, hello, Equis, [:D]

It's so nice to have you back in my PC,

You're lookin' swell, Equis .......

I can tell, Equis

You're still glowin'... you're still growin'... dollars goin' strong

I feel the stocks swayin'...... and the maaaaarkets playin'

One of those old pattern tricks from way back when

So ..... take her bucks, fellas .......

Find her a nice down gap, fellas

So that prices come up again,

Never go back way down again,

Equis'll never go away again, again ....

Hello Henry1224, [:)]

Your input is my input.

Please remember that staff has a totally diametrically opposite mentality than us, mercenaries.

I do not blame John too much, but rather the sales quotas, corporate structure and everything that makes life to an employee difficult.

John is a Metastock lover. He put together a new much needed add-on on country indexes and he posts code on threads. Who could ask for more? [;)]

You are a Metastock patriot [:)] even if you hate to admit it. You are already up your 1,267th post which shows that you spent considerable time on this forum helping out. You simply cannot walk out on MS without a fight or a conciliatory idea.

I too am a MS patriot and I like to believe that I now established myself as someone who, through silly ideas or hyperboles or black humor, can the turn the tides around. I am a natural born contrarian, which, among other things, means that I say Yes when everybody else says No and vice-versa.

So far so good!

@ John

John I trust you. I know you will rectify the local data problem.

I know it’s not easy for you to work in a job. I personally would not take a job like yours even for double the salary. Most important to me is freedom, and I traded steady income for freedom looooong time ago.

Looking forward to seeing Equis’ new forward thinking …

@ Assad

What more can I say? Do you want me to say something or do we leave it at that? [:D]

Dear Eddie, I still love to use Metastock, but I'm making plans to protect myself from software abandonment.

Equis has but one goal, expand the BOTTOM LINE! This comes from the Salesmen mentality!

User's like you and me are nothing but a pimple on an elephant's butt to them.
There were several software platforms from the past that have folded up their shop!
Kasanjian Research, Advanced Get got bought out by E-Signal, TradeStation became an online brokerage and abandoned it's users and forced them to become clients. You can go back to TASC and search from all of the past software vendors and from the increasing expansion of online brokerages.

here are a few of my suggestion for metastock

Compare the competition? Both from software vendors and Online Brokers, What are the Strengths and weaknesses.

Find ways to close the gap between these platforms

Windows 8 Compatibility possibly Mac I os compatibility

Possible adaptation into some sort of cloud based Platform

Data Feed: Real Time, End of day with integration into 3rd party software

Better Data maintenance of the symbol files

Charting: adaptation to include charts w experts into a portfolio based screen

Easier adaptation to change periodicity of indicators to higher Time Frames

Increasing the indicator formula file and expand functionality

Allow loops

Develop Layers on top of charts

Eliminate the formula limits in experts, indicators, explorations and systems

Integrate the software with online brokers to enhance better trade execution.

Use Metastock charts with Online brokers rt data feeds from their platforms

Enhance the number of bars that one can load onto a chart

System testing: develop a better Enhanced System Tester

Optionscope: integrate it into the Optionvue platform with their data platform

News Feed: develop a better news feed.

Make the software backward compatible even if it has some limitations in functionality.

I don't Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} expect all of these to be addressed in a single update, but I also won't settle for piece meal updates!

Make a QUALITY Charting package and repair minor issues quickly through minor updates, Make Major enhancements every 18 months with software upgrades