CHIP SPEAKING IN LA ON JAN. 25th - Chip Anderson will be giving his presentation "Getting the Most Out of StockCharts.com" down in Los Angeles (Long Beach) on Tuesday, January 25th for the Los Angeles chapter of the MTA. Click here for more details.
CANADIAN REAL-TIME DATA PRICE CHANGE COMING - Because of increased demand we have to change the TSX pricing model that we use for real-time Canadian charts. We will be moving from the TSX's per-chart model to its per-user model which provides unlimited access to real-time time Canadian charts.
That might not sound like a big change at first because up until now, we have been providing Extra RT user with unlimited access to Canadian charts as part of our US$9.95 real-time fee. Behind the scenes however, we have been paying the TSX on a per-chart basis. When we started doing that back in 2004, there were relatively few Canadian real-time subscribers and we expected that the TSX's per-user fees for unlimited real-time charting would eventually come down. Unfortunately, they haven't. In fact the TSX recently clarified for us that the pricing is even more expensive that we originally thought.
Because our costs for Canadian data are continuing to increase, we will be switching to the TSX's per-user pricing model starting on March 1st. After that date, new users and existing subscribers that need to renew will be able to choose if they'd like to use real-time data from the TSX exchange, the Venture exchange or neither one.
If you live in Canada, the cost of unlimited real-time data from the TSX exchange is CD$6.00 per month and the cost of data from the Venture exchange is CD$25.00 per month. If you live outside of Canada, your only choice is to receive data from both exchanges for US$9.50 per month. The pricing details can be found here: Canadians and Non-Canadians.
Because of those huge price differences, existing ExtraRT members that live in Canada will be automatically converted to the TSX-only plan as of March 1st. They can then choose to add the Venture exchange for CD$25 per remaining month. Existing ExtraRT members that live outside of Canada can choose to continue receiving Canadian real-time data for a special one-time conversion fee of US$6.00 per month.
We are not happy about these changes. Clearly the current TSX pricing models for Level 1 real-time data (both per-chart and per-user) are not in line with the expectations of most Canadian investors. We are trying to work with the TSX to get these fees reduced and hopefully something will change between now and March 1st. Thanks to everyone who have recently made their voices heard on this issue.
Note: Originally we stated that the TSX changed their pricing for real-time data. They have not. The per-user pricing quoted above has been in effect since the TSX merged with the CDNX exchange back in 2001. Our apologies for any confusion this has caused.
LONDON DATA IS COMING SOON - We've made good progress on adding data from the LSE to our charting system. We hope to have that data available in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned...