StockCharts Blogs - ChartWatchers

INTERNET CONNECTION AND DATAFEED UPGRADE REPORTS

Internet Connectivity Upgrade Progress Report:

On Monday night we moved our site traffic off of our old 180 megabit T3 connections and back onto the gigabit Fiber connection.  Later we ran a test of our new automatic failover configuration by physically disconnecting the fiber cable from its router and we saw that our traffic immediately moved back onto the old T3 connections.  We then plugged the fiber cable back in and traffic immediately moved back onto the fiber cable.

This means that we should not have a repeat of last month's site disruptions - at least not because of lost connectivity here at the StockCharts offices.  And that is a very good thing indeed.

(BTW, we have ordered a second gigabit fiber connection to replace the T3s as a backup circuit.  That second fiber circuit should be in place by the end of the year.)

Datafeed Upgrade Progress Report:

On the data feed side of things, we continue to have a frustratingly high number of issues with our ThomsonReuters datafeed.  The good news is that because we now also have the IDC/Comstock datafeed, the problems with the Thomson feed have not been as disruptive as they might otherwise have been.

For example on Thursday morning, completely out of the blue, the Thomson feed stopped providing us with US stock information as well as with delayed Canadian information.  If we had not had the IDC/Comstock datafeed here, we would have been unable to provide charts of US stocks at all.  The IDC feed saved us from disaster.

We are continuing to move more and more of our data traffic away from the Thomson feed because of these problems but the process takes time - among other things, we need permission from the numerous exchanges as we move the various indexes across.

Our goal is to have the ability to use either the Thomson or IDC feeds for all ticker symbols that we track.  When we get to that point, a failure of one feed shouldn't disable our charts.  Right now, we have that kind of redundancy for US stocks and may common indexes.  We are working on getting that same level of redundancy for all of our symbols and hope to have that in place by the end of the year.

AUTO-COMPLETE TICKER BOX

We've just added a new "auto-complete" dropdown box feature to our home page.  As you enter a ticker symbol or company name into the "Symbol" box, we now display suggestions from our symbol database for what we think you are looking for.  As you type more information, we'll make better and better suggestions.  It you see what you want, just click on it to see the chart.  Give it a try and let us know what you think.  We plan on adding this capability throughout our website over time.

BIGGER PIPES, BETTER SERVICE

BIGGER PIPES, BETTER SERVICE - On Friday, we upgraded our Internet connection from a 180 Megabit connection to a 1 Gigabit Fiber connection (1 Gigabit is 1024 Megabits).  That's over 5 times more bandwidth!  If you have been experiencing slowness, especially during busy market times, you might see an immediate benefit to this change.  We're going to be monitoring the new connection closely on Monday to make sure it lives up to its promise.  Please let us know if you see any significant changes one way or the other.

DESIGN CHANGES CONTINUE - Look for us to be updating our "Free Charts" area with our new design in the coming days and weeks.

IMPROVEMENTS GALORE!

NEW HOME PAGE DEBUTS - Our slick new home page provides you with a quick way to see all of the latest happenings at StockCharts.  Which stocks are hot; which blogs have been updated recently; the latest improvements to the website; and much more are all right there on http://stockcharts.com.  And - as an extra bonus - no more home page ads!  Bookmark it and check it frequently.

Watch for us to update the "Free Charts" area next.

MARKET MESSAGE SUBSCRIBERS GET MORE FOR THEIR MONEY - ART'S CHARTS & VIDEOS! - Arthur Hill continues to provide additional content for our Market Message subscribers.  Now, in addition to getting John Murphy's higher-level market commentary subscribers also get access to "Art's Charts" - a new blog where Arthur provides more targeted analysis of interesting stocks and ETFs severals times a day.   They also can view Arthur's video presentations showing exactly how he reaches his conclusions.  You can click here to view a sample Video presentation.  And the best part?  Subscribers get all this stuff for no additional cost!

IMPROVED INTERNET CONNECTION COMING SOON - We very close to upgrading our connection to the Internet from our current 180 Megabit connection to a 1 Gigabit(!) connection.  That's over five times more capacity than our current circuit.  Just another way we are continuing to improve our service behind the scenes.

SPECIAL ENDS ON APRIL 30th!

OUR TEN-YEAR CELEBRATION IS NOW ON! Chip started StockCharts.com ten years ago this month and to celebrate we are running our best special ever!

* Subscribe to (or renew) any of our online services for a year and get two additional months of service free!
Normally, you'd only get one month free.

* Subscribe to (or renew) any of our online services for six months and get one additional month of service for free.
Normally, you wouldn't get any free months.

* Order anything from our online bookstore and get free shipping (to anywhere in the US or Canada).
US customers will save about $5 and Canadian customerss will save about $10 per order.

* Refer a friend to StockCharts.com and get two free months of service when they sign up.
Normally, you only get one free month for each referral.

Don't delay however. These special deals will end soon. Click on one of the links above to get started!

TEN YEARS YOUNG!

OUR TEN-YEAR CELEBRATION IS NOW ON!  Chip started StockCharts.com ten years ago this month and to celebrate we are running our best special ever!

* Subscribe to (or renew) any of our online services for a year and get two additional months of service free!
Normally, you'd only get one month free.

* Subscribe to (or renew) any of our online services for six months and get one additional month of service for free.
Normally, you wouldn't get any free months.

* Order anything from our online bookstore and get free shipping (to anywhere in the US or Canada).
US customers will save about $5 and Canadian customerss will save about $10 per order.

* Refer a friend to StockCharts.com and get two free months of service when they sign up.
Normally, you only get one free month for each referral.

Don't delay however. These special deals will end soon. Click on one of the links above to get started!

NEW LOOK, NEW FEATURES, NEW NAME FOR OUR MARKET MESSAGE SERVICE

Today we're unveiling several design changes to the "John Murphy" area of our website.  These changes include:

• A new, cleaner design that echos the look of our free commentary areas - i.e. out blogs (i.e., this page!)
• Email notifications that let subscribers see the title of each post along with the author's name without having to visit the website.
• A new name - "StockCharts' Market Message with John Murphy" that reflects our approach of supplementing John's commentary with content from Arthur Hill and others.
• A new video version of the Market Message that will debut soon.

John and I free that these changes will help Market Message subscribers get even more value for their money by increasing the amount of content that's available.  We hope you agree.

As always please let me know if you have suggestions for more improvements.

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UPDATE:  Some nice feedback on the new look has already come in -

Just a quick comment to welcome Arthur as an official commentator, with the redesign of the webpage.  I love John and Arthur both and their different styles give a well rounded look at the markets.

Nice! I can read the comments and see the chart at the same time. Much improved.

Today we're unveiling several design changes to the "John Murphy" area of our website.  These changes include:

• A new, cleaner design that echos the look of our free commentary areas - i.e. out blogs (i.e., this page!)
• Email notifications that let subscribers see the title of each post along with the author's name without having to visit the website.
• A new name - "StockCharts' Market Message with John Murphy" that reflects our approach of supplementing John's commentary with content from Arthur Hill and others.
• A new video version of the Market Message that will debut soon.

John and I free that these changes will help Market Message subscribers get even more value for their money by increasing the amount of content that's available.  We hope you agree.

As always please let me know if you have suggestions for more improvements.

---

UPDATE:  Some nice feedback on the new look has already come in -

Just a quick comment to welcome Arthur as an official commentator, with the redesign of the webpage.  I love John and Arthur both and their different styles give a well rounded look at the markets.

Nice! I can read the comments and see the chart at the same time. Much improved.

SITE NEWS FOR MARCH 7, 2009

NEW "WHAT'S NEW" AREA - We've reworked the "What's New" area on the "Members" page so that it now shows you all of the latest posts from our various blogs.  I know that some of you just look at your charts and never read the "What's New" area but please do yourself a favor and click the "Members" tab every now and then to look for interesting articles and announcements there.

BLOGGING FOR THESTREET.COM - Our new blog "Don't Ignore This Chart!" is pretty popular.  So popular in fact that it has been picked up by TheStreet,com's new website, StockPickr.com!  If you haven't checked it out, click here to see a collection of articles on charts with "interesting" technical developments.

MORE STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIALS - We're continuing to add more tutorials to our Step-by-Step area.  Or first two were about how to create charts with multiple stocks on them - either overlaid or side-by-side.  Since then, we've been cranking out tutorials that can help you make sure your computer is configured correctly.  Look for more charting-oriented tutorials soon.

MASTERING OUR BLOGS

In case you missed it, we are now publishing a ton of new content about charting and technical analysis on our seven(!) different blogs.  One of the great things about blogs is that you can "subscribe" to a blog and then get notified as soon as anything new is posted.  Each one of our blogs has a "Subscribe" button up top and I encourage you to click on them and set up a subscription in order to stay up-to-date with the latest info from us.

If you are new to using blog subscriptions (also called "RSS Feeds"), then just click on the "View Feed XML" link that appears after you hit subscribe.  That should take you to a page that lets you subscribe to the feed using your web browser.  For more information about Feeds, I urge you to review the information on this page and watch the video at the bottom (it's very entertaining!).

Finally, if you are like me, you want to everything that's happening at StockCharts all the time.  If that's the case, then instead of looking at each one of our blogs individually, you can look at the "Master StockCharts Blog" which contains copies of all the recent articles from all of the other seven blogs in one place.  You can also chose to subscribe to the master blog instead of subscribing to all seven of the other blogs.

Next ChartWatchers Will Be Published Next Weekend

Just a reminder, ChartWatchers is published on the first and third full weekends of each month.  Our next issue will be published on the weekend of Feb. 21st., with articles appearing in this blog starting on Feb. 20th.

BTW, the US and Canadian Markets are closed on Monday, Feb. 16th due to the President's Day holiday in the US and the Family Day holiday in Canada.

No ChartWatchers This Weekend

Just a reminder that ChartWatchers is published on the first and third full weekends of each month.  Since Feb. 1st falls on a Sunday this year, we'll be publishing ChartWatchers next weekend.

BOOKSTORE NEWS: FREE SHIPPING FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

That's right folks! Beginning today (November 16th), we are offering free shipping for all orders in our Online Bookstore. Now is the time to stock up on those books you have been considering, or purchase that holiday gift for friends and family. We have a number of really useful book bundles that would make wonderful gifts for the investor.

No coupon code is needed - simply go to the Bookstore, select the items you wish to purchase, and the "Free Shipping" option will be available in the drop-down in the checkout process. Please note that the free shipping offer is only available for shipments being sent within the US, and for standard USPS shipments only. This offer is valid until Dec. 31st, 2008.

SITE NEWS: "UNIVERSAL LOGIN" NOW WORKING

"UNIVERSAL LOGIN" NOW WORKING - We've finally, finally, finally fixed something that has been bugging lots of people for a long time. In the past, we had two very different ways to log into our website. People who subscribed to our Extra or Basic charting service logged in using the boxes on our homepage. People who subscribed to John Murphy's Market Message logged in by clicking the "John Murphy" tab and then entering their information in the popup box that appeared. People that subscribed to both services had to enter their information in both places (ugh!). WELL NO LONGER! Now, everyone can use the boxes on our homepage to login regardless of their subscription type and "combo" subscribers can move between the charting sections and the Market Message area without getting harassed a second time. Finally!

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO BACK

As we continue to evaluate alternative data feeds, we continue to be surprised by the results we are getting especially when it comes to data accuracy. Last week, we finally started charting intraday data from several different providers in our test lab. That allowed us to visible compare the results and see which vendors could give us the "best" data. We were surprised to find out that our current vendors data was by far the "cleanest" of all the feeds we were looking at. That was surprising because our users alert us to minor intraday spikes on our charts all the time. We've asked the other data vendors to explain why their data is so "spikey" - hopefully, they will be able to find and fix the problem. If not, we'll move forward knowing that we are providing our members with the cleanest data available - even if it isn't always perfect.

JON MARKMAN'S NEW BOOK ON SPECIAL!

Jon Markman's first book "Online Investing" came out in 2000 and was a HUGE hit with Internet investors. Now Jon is back with a new offering, The New Day Trader Advantage, and we now have it on special in our bookstore. Jon's clear, easy-to-understand writing style and no-nonsense advice make this book invaluable and the newest member of our "Must Have" book list. Don't be fooled by the title - this book can help all kinds of investors. Order your copy today.

DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS CHANGING

Dow Jones announced last week that they are removing Altria and Honeywell from the index and adding Citibank and Chevron. The change takes effect at the start of trading on Tuesday.

MARKET HOLIDAY ON MONDAY - Don't forget that both the US and Canadian markets are closed on Monday.

DATAFEED MILESTONES

We hit two milestones with our Datafeed Upgrade project during the past week. First, the upgraded data connections for our older Thomson feed were installed on Friday. The problems we had last summer were because there was too much data to fit through our 3 megabit data connections. We now have 15 megabit data connections in place so that particular problem shouldn't reoccur. Second, because of last year's snafu, we are adding a second data vendor and last week we also started getting test data from our new IDC ComStock datafeed. Now that the IDC hardware is installed and working we can focus on the next step - reprogramming our systems to use the IDC data in addition to the Thomson data we use now. Look for us to start incorporating IDC ComStock data into our charts in a month or so.

AVOIDING PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY START

Here are three things that everyone should do periodically to ensure that your computer works well when using StockCharts.com. Every day we get messages from lots of people that are having problems with their web browser and usually one of these steps will fix the problem. If you follow these tips at least once a week, you'll have a better browsing experience on StockCharts.com (and most other websites too!).

• CLEAR YOUR BROWSER'S TEMPORARY FILE CACHE PERIODICALLY - Your browser stores copies of all the web pages you visit on your hard disk in something called the "Temporary File Cache." In theory, by storing stuff in the cache, your browser can reduce the time it takes old pages to load. Normally, your browser manages all of things it stores in the cache automatically but sometimes it gets confused. This can cause lots of problems, especially with complex pages like our Charting Workbench. Confused caches can also eat lots of hard drive space. By clearing out your browser's temporary file cache at least once a week, you can keep your browser working efficiently and prevent website problems before they appear. The instructions for clearing your cache can be found here. We've set Firefox to clear our caches every time we shut it down. (BTW, Be careful to NOT erase your Cookies when clearing your cache.)

• REBOOT YOUR COMPUTER DAILY - Computers, especially older ones, need to be restarted from time to time in order to keep running efficiently. After several hard days of browsing the net, things like plug-ins and hung programs can start to build up - especially in older versions of Windows. We've heard stories of people leaving their computers on for months at a time, seemingly without problems, until... By rebooting your computer every day you'll ensure that it is running efficiently and stuck programs aren't waiting to ambush you later. We reboot our computers every day.

• MAKE SURE YOU HAVE FREE SPACE ON YOUR DISK - Web browsers (and many other computer programs) assume that you have lots of free space on your hard disk. If they encounter a computer with a full hard drive, lots of bad things can happen. They may crash. They may corrupt the temporary file cache. They may run really slowly. They may hang. They may display lots of red X's on the pages you are looking at. They may refuse to run Java applets. Etc. etc. etc. Always make sure you have several 100 Megabytes of free storage on your hard disk before starting a big browsing session. It will save you a ton of grief.

SINGING IN THE (TICKER) RAIN

Just what you wanted right? Actually, this is the "Ticker Rain" that we talked about in the last newsletter. It is finally up on our website at http://stockcharts.com/charts/tickerrain.html. What is "Ticker Rain" you ask? It's a Java program that creates a chart which shows you many of the ticker symbols that are being requested by StockCharts.com users. The ticker symbols "rain" down the chart and stack up into columns. The taller the column, the more popular the ticker symbol. Up to 100 columns build up over time. You can click on any of the columns to see a SharpChart for that ticker symbol. Every 30 seconds, we remove whichever column has been inactive for the longest time and add a new ticker symbol on the right side of the chart. Over time, the more active columns collect on the left side of the chart.

You can use Ticker Rain to see which symbols are hot and whether people are looking at long-term or short-term charts of those symbols. It can help you see if there are any new trends in the market that you should be aware of.

Note: Ticker Rain only shows a small subset of the chart requests that we get. Ticker Rain also works better when the market is open - it can be slow on the weekends and late a night.

You kind of have to see Ticker Rain in action to fully understand it. First, make sure you have Java properly installed on your computer, then click here to start the rain!

TICKER RAIN BETA STARTS NEXT WEEK

We've developed a nifty little tool called "Ticker Rain" that will show you, in real time, which ticker symbols are being heavily requested by StockCharts.com users at any given moment. Similar to our "Ticker Cloud" page, Ticker Rain will help you see if there are other interesting stocks out there that you should be looking at. When the market is open, small lines will drop from the top of the page and pile up at the bottom of the page in columns. Each column represents a different ticker symbol and each falling line represents a recent chart request. The result is both informative and fascinating to watch. We will post a link to our Ticker Rain tool in the "What's New" section of the website later this week.

COMSTOCK DATA FEED EQUIPMENT BEING INSTALLED THIS WEEK - Remember when we told everyone that it takes a l-o-n-g time to get a second datafeed installed? Well, it takes about "this" long. The new networking equipment showed up last week and we expect the Comstock servers to show up this week. At that point, we'll be able to start converting our software to work with the new feed and then we can begin performance testing. In a perfect world, that stuff will be complete by the end of January. We'll see how long it takes in the world in which we live. Stay tuned...

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS GROUP DIRECTORY

We at StockCharts.com want to make it easier for people to find information about the various technical analysis resources in their local area. If you run a non-profit T/A user's group and would like us to list it on our website, please send details about your group (name, purpose, meeting place, typical meeting times) to chipa@stockcharts.com. We'll create a page with information on all the groups we learn about soon.

S&P COMSTOCK DATA PROGRESS REPORT - The data circuits for our new S&P Comstock datafeed are starting to be installed! While we still don't know when the work will be finished, we wanted to let you know that things are still progressing.

FALL SPECIAL ENDING

JOHN MURPHY VIDEO UPDATES NOW ONLINE! - In case you haven't seen it already, John Murphy is now posting video updates as part of the Market Message service. Now John's subscribers can watch him discuss the various twists and turn in the market and learn more about technical analysis from John's clear presentation style. "I hope we can use this new format to better educate our viewers about the tools I use to analyse the market" - John Murphy. If you subscribe to John Murphy's Market Message, just click on this link to see John's latest video.

LAST CHANCE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR FALL SPECIAL! - Our Fall special runs from now until the end of October. After that, you will no longer be able to get an additional free month of service. Don't delay! Right now, you can get 7 months for the price of 6, or 14 months for the price of 12. This offer applies to BOTH new members and existing members. Even if your account doesn't expire for several more months, you can take advantage of this special offer by renewing now. Click here to get started.

2008 TRADERS ALMANAC NOW ON SALE - Last year we sold out of these fantastic books - a one-year calendar stuffed with important dates and valuable trading information that's sure to help anyone make better trading decisions. Don't be left out this year. We've increased our allotment to help with demand but chances are we'll still run short. At only $29.95, this book is a steal - Order your copy today!

ATTENTION PUBLIC CHART LIST AUTHORS! Next month we are changing the procedure for Public Chart List voting. There have been way too many people pushing the rules about voting for Public Chart Lists. Look for us to add a "Captcha" to the voting process. A "captcha" is one of those images of squiggly letters and numbers that you have to identify correctly to prove that you are a human. We hope this change will improve the quality of the votes that we get.

HEAD IN THE (TICKER) CLOUDS

Last week we launched our new Ticker Cloud feature. Have you seen it? It's a dynamic list of the most requested stocks we've seen over the past 15 minutes. Wanna see what everyone else is looking at? Get your head in the cloud!

TICKER CLOUDS ARE GATHERING

Later this week, we hope to release another new feature here at StockCharts - "Ticker Clouds!" A Ticker Cloud is a list of the most requested ticker symbols we've seen (calculated over the past 5 minutes). The size of each ticker is determined by its popularity and each ticker can be clicked to see its chart. Ticker Clouds are very similar to "tag clouds" that you may be familiar with from photo sites like "Flickr.com". Again, we hope to have them in place by the end of this week.

SITE DESIGN UPDATE ON THE WAY

We've started working on a site redesign that will update the way you get around the website. Right now there are too many parts of the site that are hard to find or inconsistant with other areas of the site. In addition, our site search feature is too hard to use and often doesn't give useful results. It will take us a couple of months to get everything worked out, but you can look forward to a better StockCharts.com experience once we've completed things.