Hi Art- Welcome to the forum! There are several threads here on the forum regarding the use of "free" data. Start by scanning the ones in the Data-Related forum. Conversion will depend on the data provider. If you want a broad sword, you'll wind up licensing someone's application to do it for you. If you are looking at sticking with a specific data provider, you might be able to get by writing your own conversion utility or adapting one of the few posted here on the forum. Speaking of licensing, before you get too excited (or bummed), you might want to check the Equis End User License Agreement regarding the purchase of your product off of Ebay... specifically regarding authorization, support and future upgrades. If you have any questions after that, you can contact Equis Sales. The time required to d/l the data will depend on several factors, including the amount of data being d/l'd (updated or created); and, the connection speed. This is variable amongst users. If you are unable to d/l certain symbols, check the d/l report and/or the format of the symbol you are trying to d/l and make sure it is compatible with your data provider.

Welcome to the forum. I just want to add to clarify, it is not legal to purchase the software from eBay. You are not eligable for upgrades or support. For your future reference, most, if not all, companies have that same rule. As for data, I would obviously recomend Reuters DataLink. It is very cheap for the speed and accuaracy that you get. You get access to a lot of data, early, fast, and reliable. Also, it goes directly into MetaStock and the DownLoader without any extra utility or conversion program. If you want a more unbiased reason, I actually have tried multiple data vendors, and have honestly found Reuters Datalink to be the fastest by far.

The problem is it isn't a legal copy. Most companies can sell their product and count on the user not having returned it or the disc being required to run in order to know someone hasn't purchased a product, installed it, then sold it to someone else while they still use it. Selling software isn't usually legal for that reason. Someone can buy it, use it, and get their money back. You just don't know what the seller is doing. I realize it is a bit late since you already got a copy from eBay, but you could have saved all your money and ordered the product from us. We have a 30 day money back guarantee. If you didn't like it, you would have got your money back after returning the product. Now you know for future versions if you decide to try us again in the future. Also, when you purchase the product from us, you can call our free support and they'll happily walk you through any questions you have on how to use the product. Not that I want to promote the software you got from eBay, but the manual under the Help menu has all the same content as the manual you say you're missing and I'm sure the people here on the forum are still willing to help you learn whatever you need to get going. Another note, I just noticed you say you got version 8. You may want to give a copy from us a try. We are currently selling version 9.2 for QuoteCenter and 9.1 for the other data vendors. Again, when you purchase the software from us, you will be eligable for a discounted upgrade price and free support over chat, email, and phone. Good luck with your trading and I hope you find what it is you're looking for.

Glad it helped. If that pricing plan is what you're after, you may be interested to know we have a deal that sounds like that. You basically get the software free (on lease terms) with a subscription to our EOD data from Reuters DataLink. Catch is the software only works as long as you're subscribed to the data. Or you can buy the software and use it with other data providers. Honestly, I actually agree with you. I think it is a lot of money, but would be happy about the guarantee. Though, I'd probably give a one month subscription (software on lease with data) a try and see how I like it. As much as I'd like to answer all those questions, I have to leave them unananswered. Sorry. No problem. Feel free to ask your questions, I'll answer the ones I can. I think if you call up our sales department, you'll find we're pretty reasonable about trying to get you what you're looking for and then we have an excellent support department to answer your questions about using the software. Also, don't forget the people on this forum, they are really an amazing help. I just started trying to use our software to do some paper trading and I have been reading through the posts here to get a better idea how to use our software to do well. I found setting up the software to be a bit frustrating and I know we have some things we need to fix/add (I am actually tempted to write a few utilities to put on this forum) but after getting set up, I have found the software to be quite flexible and easy to use from day to day after that. So, if you continue to try the software and find something you find frustrating or wish was there or not, please post it in the wish list area. We are looking at that for future versions and sometimes you'll find what you're wishing for is already there, but you may have missed it (I've done that one).

If you are looking in the symbol database, Select North America Stocks (or Stocks Common, depending on vendor and version) for the type and then All for the Group. If you are looking at the vendor Open dialog it is basically the same, just stop going down the folders when you get to the folder you want (Stocks Common or North America Stocks) and don't open the specific group. I'm not sure what it is you're looking at since you don't sound as though you're using a data provider that we support built in (eSignal, QCharts, Reuters DataLink, or QuoteCenter). I have never used MetaQuote so I don't know what they have done to seperate the stocks. You may be stuck when you get your data from them. I hope that helps

Well, I am glad you gave us a try, but I do hope you really give us a try with our latest version and with our data (then you can see how fast data should be). Even if you don't, maybe you could tell us in the wish list area what it was that you didn't like or what was missing in order to help us improve. Either way, I hope everything works out for you and thank you for understanding.