As we work our way into 2005, eSignal developers are working on the final installment in our 7 Series. eSignal 7.9 will be released later this month and comes with some exciting new features for every type of trader. For those of you interested in taking an early look, you can visit the File Share on eSignal Central to join our Beta group and help us with the final testing. Let’s look at several of the key new features in detail.

For the Active Trader in 7.9…
We’re moving to the next level in charting analytics with the introduction of EFS2. This new evolution of our scripting language will make it much easier for developers and end users to create custom formulas and build strategies. EFS2 will be released in the next 2 versions of eSignal. The first phase will be released in 7.9 and will be the core of the code. This enhancement will be most useful to the developers and users who have braved the arena of formula scripting -- it will make the code much simpler to use.

This first phase of EFS2 will allow developers and users to create formulas with just a few lines of code, where it previously took dozens or hundreds of lines to do the same thing in the original code of EFS.

This new layer of EFS has also added an easy way to build studies of studies, such as a Moving Average of an RSI, and base the study on a different interval and / or symbol. Now, you’ll be able to look at the 30-minute MACD of the Dow in a study panel while simultaneously looking at a 5-minute MSFT chart (as an example). (See examples of the comparisons in EFS and EFS2 code, as well as a sample chart image, at the end of this article.)

…And for the Active Trader in 8.0
The second phase of EFS2 will add a user interface, so users can create studies and strategies easily without having to understand the underlying code. This second phase will come in the 8.0 release, due out sometime in the summer of this year as we introduce the 8 Series of eSignal.

For the Futures Trader
The next big thing in the 7.9 release is the addition of a Continuous Contract tool on the desktop. With it, you will be able to create the equivalent of a #F symbol based on your own roll preferences. You will also be able to do this for any futures contract, including the international contracts that we haven’t been able to provide a #F symbol for. (See the subsequent example screen shot for a look at the dialog windows that make up this tool.)

This new Continuous Contract tool can be found under the Tools menu. The new symbology requires you to use a 1! in place of the month / year code (for example, ES 1! to get the front month of the minis). You can also look at forward months in the same way. 2! will give you the next forward month, 3! the following forward month, and so on. This lets you have ES 1!, ES 2! and ES 3! in a quote window to look at the next 3 contracts without requiring you to change the symbol. Each symbol will roll on the default roll schedule or your user-defined roll preference.

Figure 1: Continuous Contract Dialog

Figure 2: Roll Preference Templates

Other Changes to Come in 7.9
Another change worth mentioning is the upgrade to the Quote Board window. The Quote Board fields are now completely customizable. You can right click on a cell and go to Customize Fields to get to the full list of fields available in this window. You can select the specific fields you want and arrange them in the order desired. The cells will grow or shrink automatically based on the number of fields chosen.

The Market Profile window will also have a few features added based on feedback from Profile experts, such as Steve Hawkins of Steidlmayer Software. We’re adding a TPO summary that gives you a quick look at the overall TPO count of each distribution, as well as the count at the price of the largest number of opportunities. We’re making it easier to merge distributions and separate individual merges without having to refresh the entire window. These changes, as well as other minor enhancements (such as making it possible to save user-defined scales), will bring eSignal’s Market Profile window to the front of the pack.

Figure 3: TPO Summary in the Market Profile Window

Figure 4: Right Click Menu of Profile Showing
New Menu Choices to Merge and Unmerge

A Look Back and a Look Forward
As I look back on the entire 7 Series of eSignal software, I’m amazed at how far we’ve come and how far we can continue to expect to go in the 8 Series starting later this year. We began with the introduction of Advanced Charting, which got us off with a bang, and are now ending with the beginnings of a newer and more powerful version of the formula study engine that will take us to the next level of charting analysis.

Please join us as we take this next step by upgrading to the 7.9 version of eSignal as soon as it gets posted to the eSignal website in the next few weeks. Of course, if you just can’t wait, please go to the 7 Series Beta file share group at eSignal Central and be a part of the final testing phase of the release.

Figure 5: EFS Code Showing What It Takes to Build
a Simple Formula

Figure 6: EFS2 Code Showing How Simple It Now Is
to Create the Same Code

Figure 7: Chart of Both Studies Showing How
They Give the Same Results