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Non-Tech : Quote.com QCharts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gibbons Burke who wrote (3845)	10/2/1999 7:10:00 PM
From: Mark L.	Respond to of 17977

I have some ideas for enhancements. 1) On Level 2 I'd like an option on the meter to have the color displayed by a standard pricing gradient. In other words let's say we've got bids of 25 1/2, 25 15/32, 25 7/16, and 25 13/16; then on the ask side we have 25 5/8, 25 3/4, 25 7/8, and 26 1/4. Assuming these are all the same size, they will be displayed on the meter as a nice even rainbow. What would be better would be if the bids and asks were aggregated by, let's say, 1/8's. That would show me in an instant the reality: that there's much greater buying pressure than selling pressure. If you do this, then it brings up the issue of how to color-code the actual Level 2 market-maker detail screen. After all, we've gotten used to seeing each price level assigned its own color. On the other hand, it would be confusing to have the meter's colors not correspond to the detail screen's colors. My suggestion is to have the detail screen's colors go by a common gradient also, but to have thick lines separate each different price level. Please note that I would want this to be an option, not a permanent change. While I'm pretty sure I would use it this way 95% of the time, there might be times when I'd need to see the different price levels instantaneously delineated the way they usually are. Also, if you go with this idea, you'd need to have the gradient levels dynamic or adjustable. In other words, there's a difference between AMZN and INFA, for example, which typically has a $2 spread between the bid and the ask. Also, there's obviously a difference between a $3 stock and a $100 stock. The coloring system should either make a dynamic and logical choice for the gradient levels or it should offer different gradient levels via a drop-down box like the Interval drop-down box. 2) It would be real useful for me to see a "photograph" of what the Level 2 screen looked like 15 seconds ago, 30 seconds ago, or a minute ago. I'd like to see which market makers are moving where and how the meter's changing (see idea #1 above). I don't suppose this would be easy to program, but I do think the benefits would be financially significant. 3) I'd like to see Volume be one of the choices on the chart's Interval drop-down list. In other words, I'd like to see a plot interval be every 1,000 shares (or with heavily traded stocks every 10,000 or 50,000 shares). This would be more useful to me 90% of the time than tick intervals, which ascribe the same interval importance to a 100 share trade as to a 100,000 share trade. I grant that it wouldn't be always more useful, since sometimes massive trades are sui generis and are best segregated as the anomalies they look like on tick charts, but most of the time I believe that volume intervals are more useful than tick intervals.