AlchemCharts

I started a new thread to keep from hijacking the "E" Success discussion. To Chunk's point about TS having chart alignment capabilities, yes, that functionality is available and I have used it many times but it doesn't hold a candle to Alchem. I love TS but you cannot easily align all candles to hard right edge. Also, TS has the same problem as Qcharts and others. Indicators are static. You do not get to see the how the large chart indicators changed during the day. Depending on your screen resolution, window size, number of candles you have set to appear in the window, and timeframe you may or may not get a slight space on the hard right edge that allows you to "peek" at the next candles indicator direction. The proxy for autowave is also static. Alchem provides a "Go to Date". You can then jump back 2 or 3 years without peeking, sync all candles with two keyboard strokes to the hard right edge, and you are ready to roll. As you move a smaller timeframe forward you can watch the higher timeframes build (indicator's build autowaves change if needed, etc.) Indicators you thought were crossing on big chart candles that had not closed will change, etc. It is more realistic when practicing. The only tool I have seen for practice that is better is TOS Replay but in my opinion TOS is best used for short chart traders.

This is not intended to be a infomercial for Alchem. I am a die hard TS fan but Alchem offers a better practicing, the GW way, platform and experience. They have also added just enough features to give me almost everything I used consistently in TS to develop my weekly watch list and annual basket update. I can run both platforms for less than I was paying for Qcharts and get the best of almost all worlds. I say almost because when it comes to actually entering, monitoring, and exiting trades TOS is the best hands down. I personally do not like TOS charts or the short chart limitation of six months of history but that is me. Others are doing quite well with TOS charts and I wish them continued prosperity.

Sorry for being so lengthy. I just had my morning coffee :-) Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

NCT

*** Perform a little housekeeping. Big Chart Thread got a bit off topic. The below response was my answer to my thoughts on Alchem charts vs. other platforms. *** Moving to this location to keep things tidy.



RT,

I really like Alchem and I choose to use that platform day in / day out over TradeStation (which I really like as well). Now that Alchem has added tools that allow better practice I use it on a nightly basis. Started using Alchem as my main platform back in the summer. I am also familiar with TOS and used StrategyDesk years ago. Below are my thoughts on each. Keep in mind each person will have their preference and this is based on my experience / comfort.

Qcharts - too expensive for what you get, price continues to go up, symbol bleeding, eventually support should go away as they would prefer everyone to switch over to ESignal. Had to make a change.

StrategyDesk - closet platform I could find to Qcharts for many years. I was comfortable with the interface, enjoyed the ability to write custom scans/indicators/alerts, and back testing. Enjoyed being able to trade right from the platform. Also liked the price :-) That said, the interface felt like preteen / teenager version of Qcharts. Not really mature and lacked some features (e.g., autowave). I wouldn't be surprised if SD and QC shared some early source code. I eventually reached a point where I felt like the customization features were limited. I could not do everything I wanted to do easily.

TOS - not a fan of the web/java charts. Just not for me. Also doesn't have the ability to run all intraday charts back in time for longer than 6 months. This was a deal breaker for me personally. I need to be able to do historical research and run the charts back many years if needed. On the positive side the On Demand feature is pretty cool, you can trade from the interface, and you have the ability to do all types of customization as seen in this forum. From a charting perspective it is not for me but I do have my charts set up in case all else fails and I am forced to use TOS. That said, I absolutely love trading on TOS. Research, entering, managing, and exiting trades is very fluid. TOS is my main trading platform but I do not use their charts unless I have to. Just me - others love TOS! Oh, and I do like the price.

Tradestation - TS was my main love for about 18 months. Still use as my backup. Any custom coding you want to do can be done if you have the skills. TS also has an extensive community of folks willing to help with coding needs. The only thing I do not like about TS is their trading platform. Just seems clunky and unintuitive compared to trading on TOS. I also like the price. I have an account setup and negotiated platform fees. Only paying $13 per month for data. If you are going to trade GW style then data will probably cost $60ish per month in order to have live futures. If you do not meet minimum equity or trading requirements then the platform will cost $99 per month w/out negotiating.

Alchem - imagine a much more stable version of Qcharts. Still a few quirks from time to time but nothing like I experienced with QC. Technical support is always willing to help and resolve. Charts are already set up using GW settings to reduce the learning curve. You have the ability to scroll charts back in time, hold down "Alt" key, and then watch each chart rebuild historically based on the timeframe you use. In other words, if you scroll everything back and start moving the 55 min chart forward while holding "Alt" you will see exactly what each chart looked like based on each 55 minute interval (or 34, 233, etc.). This is one of my favorite features because the indicators will redraw as you move forward (autowaves redraw as well). They also have games to help practice GW's new style of trading and practice, ways to help with 7M7 research, button to quickly hide everything on the chart to see if indicators are actually crossing, etc. Other options include 7M7 highlighting on the chart so you know where you are in the month, S6 highlighting, SLI signals, etc. These can be turned off as well. Finally, you have access to earnings and splits data within the platform. No need for Briefing (although I have kept mine). I am not doing them justice but that is a decent overview. Alchem's goal is to make it as easy as possible to practice and learn to trade GW's way. Oh, they just added a way to quickly know all subindexes that a stock belongs to in case you use subindexes to support your trades. Alchem also added a way to practice by keeping track of when you enter/exit a position by simply right clicking the corresponding candles in real time.

As for the bad, Alchem is setup for GW style trading w/his indicators. Any variation or additional stuff you want to add has to be run by them. You are not going to find the 200 indicators that are standard in most charting platforms. That's fine w/me but wanted you aware. Finally, the cost. It is less than QC and definitely less than QC and Briefing combined but it's not cheap. Current pricing $195 per month. Keep in mind I did not leave QC based on the cost alone. If someone gives me a tool that provide value then I believe you get what you pay for. Each person has to decide what is best for them.

NCT

NCT,

I was actually just thinking about what folks on this forum thought about Alchem when, lo and behold, you had added this post. Serendipity, or something like that! So I thank you. In my early days in following GW (or trying to) I subscribed to QCharts since GW recommended getting started looking at their charts from the beginning. But I stopped after a month of two since I just didn't feel like I was willing to drop the cash without any real chance of making any money for a long time. I suppose GW would call that short-sighted, but it was a decision I felt I needed to make at the time.

Now my concern is that subscribing to Alchem would be a waste since I won't be able to look at it during the day when I'm at work (won't have my computer there and I can't put the platform on my work computer), and I don't want to waste the money. But I suppose it would still be useful for bigger chart trading and help me with my W&O trades and other things I am thinking about doing. I imagine I'll take the plunge in the near future since I won't feel nearly as confident without the charts to provide more context than the TT thought process of assuming there is no indication of a stock's direction.

Anyway, with the explanation of my situation in mind, would you have any recommendations or thoughts for me to consider?

Thanks again for your thoughtful, quality post.

-Kars

Does anybody know how big the subscriber base for AlchemCharts is, or can you take an educated guess? I am assuming that the subscriber base is almost exclusively GW students, much like for QCharts. After the complete stop in development of QCharts and the somewhat shaky support, I switched to using TOS and TradeStation. It seemed obvious to me that it would be only a matter of time before I would be forced to switch to eSignal which would push the monthly fees beyond the $300 per month mark. Since I use some additional indicators beyond the GW WSB 1-5 and original RTP that I consider very important, AlchemCharts is not an option for me.

Does anyone know who AlchemCharts uses as its data provider? I suppose it could be TradeStation or eSignal in order to get extended, historical intraday data. Also, I am intrigued at how AlchemCharts managed to get the Autowave indicator. I contacted the original developer and he did not have any documentation (at least not any he would share), so I am intrigued as to how it was programmed for AlchemCharts, unless it was licensed from eSignal or if eSignal is the "engine" behind AlchemCharts.

Kars,

The value of Alchem will be based on how much you are plugged into the GW style of trading, especially the new Survival series. If an old 1-5 student only had experience with QCharts and was looking for something new then Alchem would be a good choice. Familiar platform, more stable, and the preconfigured charts. Plus the price is cheaper and they include splits & earnings in the platform - no need to go out to Briefing or look these up. They have tools to remind you when certain stocks are within various catalyst windows. That said, the real value are the additional tools to help with research and practice. The intent, as I understand it, was to help practice GW's way and cut down the time it takes to do a lot of the work (e.g., putting together weekly shortlist, annual stock selection, 7M7 research, etc). Some of the tools will only make sense to someone that has taken a particular level of the new format. Example: we talk a lot about working on predictions and perform various drills to practice. Alchem has a way that you can start on the last candle of the day, then start drawing out what the next completed candle will look like on the chart, draw how the indicators will look, etc. It if are not working on predicting and seeing the hard right edge before it develops then that tool will not be of value. Any Survival student with a desire to trade GW style w/out variation would be at a disadvantage by not using Alchem. Just my opinion.

Dan,

The original feed was from Morningstar when they started. I have no idea who they are using now - maybe the same. As for the autowave I have no idea if it was licensed out but knowing ESignal I doubt it. It should not be that hard to come extremely close to the QC's autowave if someone had the time and right skillset. Most of what autowave provided was not used by GW students (future projections). The only things we used was a wave count, fib retracements, and the subdivide wave setting. Folks in this forum, Robert and others, have come up with a proxy for TOS that is relatively close. Thoughts below:

1.The TOS examples I have seen appear to be 90%+ accurate (don't know the exact numbers but based on what I have seen it is relatively accurate). I believe the indicator is based on Fib retracements and possibly ATR. Again, not sure as I do not use

2. As for Tradestation, I started using a very popular Fib retracement indicators mentioned in this forum, located in the community, tweaked for my own purposes, and I know for a fact it matches autowave 95% to 97% of the time as an aggregate for most stocks. That indicator is based on Fib retracements and ATR. I would be fine even it only matched 93%. Why? It's just one tool of many. We all know it can be a liar but it makes better sense to trade in the opposite direction after one has formed than trading against it. Also, Survival/RTP students use it for more than just trade setups so I needed something that was close.

3. When I first started researching how to duplicate autowave I played around in Excel. I knew that replicating fib retracements would not be that hard - basic math. I was playing around with candle counts to see if I could explain how the subdivide wave setting worked. It appears to work just as expected. If you a/w is set for 13 and you have at least 13 candles since last high and you made a low that retraced a certain fib % then it would subdivide the wave marking the low and drawing the new high. In other words the 13 setting is from high to high or low to low - not high to low or low to high. I ran 7 or 8 stocks back 4 years. I was able to manually recreate where a/w was drawn around 95% of the time. Very few misses. One stock was dead on (100%) and another was around 97%. That told me I was onto something.

To sum it up it is my strong belief that a/w as used by GW is based on a combination of candle count and fib retracement levels. That said, I have no desire to continue my efforts on replicating as I have a trading platform that does it for me. My trading profits more than pay for the tools I use and do not have a reason to continue my quest. My original inspiration was not knowing if Alchem would be able to replicate a/w. I am satisfied. I don't know if any of this will help but thought I would share if someone decides research a/w further. It has been awhile but I think I was looking at defined pivot points over the last X number of candles. Tracking new highs and lows based solely on candle count (again, high to high and low to low). Overlay main fib retracement level logic already used in the existing TS or TOS indicators and you should be very close

Hope you all have a great week!

NCT

One last thought regarding autowave. Certainly not suggestion that I located the "key" and someone needs to figure how to insert said key into the lock. I only looked at 8 stocks across 4 years each. Could have been lucky and the next 100 would have proved me wrong :-) I do think that if I was hitting every high and low for those 8 stocks 90%+ of the time I was in the ballpark. Anyone that has studied fib trading knows that die hard fib traders use a combination of retracement levels and time. Candle count is just as important as retracement levels. I am over generalizing but that is what the QC version of autowave was intended to do IMHO. It looked at previously drawn highs and lows and projected into the future the most likely path for the next waves using fib retracements and time. At least that is my interpretation from tearing it apart, reading the original press release, and reading an analysis made by some supposed successful / known trader in Stock and Commodities magazine. Yes, at one time I ordered the reprint to get his thoughts but did not provide a lot of detail to help with recreating.

NCT,

Thanks for the remarks. I may have stated before that I am an old 1-5 student who also took the Advanced course when they were available through GW's former website. When I first heard about GW, I was living in Virginia. But the guy that told me about it was so over the top and in your face that I couldn't accept his recommendation. But a few years later I met someone else that was a former GW student who vouched for the program and told me that he had found success. So I took the plunge.

I e-mailed Brandi a few weeks ago to ask if GW was considering streaming the courses over the internet in some form so those of us that live far away could participate. The answer was no - as expected. The cost of $1700 for the three weekends is significant, but to fly in and other related costs - not to mention take time off work - is prohibitive. (Whine whine whine...) If he would just stream the course, I would pay. I paid in the past. Grumble! So I guess this is my way of asking any of you that are taking the survivor courses to see if you can have him consider streaming it sometime in the future. I'm sure it would make him money.

Enough whining already.

I know of some people that come from Alaska, Washington, Arizona and California. (I, myself, come from California - picked up a 2nd job to be able to pay for everything from classes/travel expenses to webinars to charting fees)

Not sure how far away you are, but I'd say if one believes in GW's system/style/discipline, then that person will do whatever it takes to take the classes. GW has dropped S1's price again in 2016. When I first took it in 2012 it was $1,500 ... in 2016, it will be just $400 (not re-take price, mind you).

If you believe in the system/style/discipline, you need to do whatever it takes. If not, find one you do believe in and do whatever it takes to take those classes.

A side note... I doubt you'll find any current students willing to ask Gary on your behalf as they have all done whatever it takes to be there, and don't want the shortcuts to success. As he has stated in the live classes, this isn't about him making money - he's made his money in the market, and continues to. There is a reason for the live classes.




Kars Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NCT,
>
> Thanks for the remarks. I may have stated before
> that I am an old 1-5 student who also took the
> Advanced course when they were available through
> GW's former website. When I first heard about GW,
> I was living in Virginia. But the guy that told
> me about it was so over the top and in your face
> that I couldn't accept his recommendation. But a
> few years later I met someone else that was a
> former GW student who vouched for the program and
> told me that he had found success. So I took the
> plunge.
>
> I e-mailed Brandi a few weeks ago to ask if GW was
> considering streaming the courses over the
> internet in some form so those of us that live far
> away could participate. The answer was no - as
> expected. The cost of $1700 for the three
> weekends is significant, but to fly in and other
> related costs - not to mention take time off work
> - is prohibitive. (Whine whine whine...) If he
> would just stream the course, I would pay. I paid
> in the past. Grumble! So I guess this is my way
> of asking any of you that are taking the survivor
> courses to see if you can have him consider
> streaming it sometime in the future. I'm sure it
> would make him money.
>
> Enough whining already.

Good points, awesomeness. I knew I was barking up a tree, and almost didn't say anything...probably shouldn't have.

Thanks for the reality check. I'll have to consider if I'm willing to take the plunge

Good luck and best wishes..

As most of you already know, StrategyDesk (SD) has been "retired", may it R.I.P. I've now switched to AlchemCharts (AC), and so far, I like it. I took WSB in 2005, RTP in 2007, Advanced Course and DE, but have not taken any of the Survivor courses, and don't have an appreciation (yet) of some aspects of AC. But that's ok, I have pretty much what I need to continue to trade successfully, but am always looking for better ways to do things. I know that AC supports scripts, and I can access the list of functions/indicators that can be scripted and applied to charts. What would be nice is a completed list of these w/ an explanation of the parameters. Not sure how many folks are on AC, but it would be great to share this level of info as has been done with TOS. I've also requested this of the AC Support Team.

Perhaps the biggest thing I miss between SD and AC is that in SD, I could create custom fields/columns to reflect indicator conditions that met my targets, and had the ability to see/sort those on a quote sheet. In AC, even if I apply scripts to the charts, I have to scroll through each stock. This isn't too bad, as the charts load relatively quickly. It would be great if, as the AC user base grows, we can collectively push for features we'd like to have. I think AC is a great platform, and plan to use it exclusively. Just sharing my thoughts, as I've had several private messages asking me what I was going to do since SD was going away. Well, now you know

Thanks for the update RT.

I was under the impression that Alchem Charts (AC) was locked down in such a way that they didn't allow any custom stuff. I suppose I could be wrong, but that was my impression. I know that AC is built on the Quant Share platform that is VERY open to customization, maybe even more so than TOS is.

I do have a question though. Since you were on SD and loving it, why didn't you not just jump over to TOS??? I'm using TOS, but I also have Alchem Charts. Only because I had TOS first, and I dig it. I can get most all the same stuff from both programs.

Only thing I can't get from TOS is the indices list that is associated with stocks on my watch list. That seems to be something that I have to go out and find manually if I add a new stock to my watch list. Not a big deal though, because yahoo finance is my friend.

AC is pretty well locked down. You have to go through their Support Team if you have something on your wish list to have added. And, in my view, their support team is fantastic. I don't think it's a big operation, but they are very responsive and I like that. Reason I didn't just switch to TOS automatically is because the interface appeared overly complicated for what I wanted, and AC was already set up with 95% of what I needed. The extra 5% of what I want I'm able to work around. I know TOS is free if you a TDAmeritrade account, but I don't mind paying for the convenience of something that's already configured.

I concur with the above. I have a few custom features configured with Alchem but you have to reach out and ask. That was in the original documentation. I believe Alchem was built to support GW students first but will allow some customization if you simply ask. Support team originally told me that the scripting language is not self explanatory by design. AC was not created to be another TOS or TradeStation with custom features. By the way, if you want customization TS is the way to go. I still use TS on occasion but gave up ability to customize to get everything I needed out of the box with AC.

All of that said, I believe AC is cannibalizing their potential revenue stream by focusing most of their efforts on GW students. If it were my idea, I would be reaching out to as many folks as possible. Could be that GW's original stake in AC had something to do with the business decision. As I recall, when AC was first announced GW told us that he had a small stake. Could be that is where AC got the capital to purchase the original QCharts source code. Just a guess.

.

What is the price per month for AC?

Did Alchem Charts actually go after the source code from Qcharts or was that just part of your guess???

Not sure why they would need to. With the help of others, and google I've been able to duplicate everything perfectly from Qcharts within TOS except for one thing. That would be the Autowave stuff. As it is it's very close, but still doesn't match Qcharts autowave perfectly.

I've heard a rumor or three that GW hasn't been pleased with how AC turned out. He's still locked in on Qcharts last I heard, and isn't willing to jump to AC. Take that for what it's worth, as you know how rumors are.


@ncptech - AC is $195.00 per month. Cheaper than Qcharts, but not by much.


R

Yes, Alchem purchased the original QC source code. That was mentioned when the founder attended an RTP session a couple of years back back. Came to class to demo and answer questions. GW also mentioned, for full disclosure, that he had a small stake. So, not sure if that is where Alchem got the funds to purchase the source code but it was a reasonable assumption :-)

As for GW not being pleased, well, I am not part of the inner circle so I really can't say. Just what he has mentioned in class. My take based on the comments is that he was not pleased due to some of the functionality Alchem tried to incorporate (SLO signals, tweezer signals, etc.) GW suggested they tried to over engineer the product. Per GW's comments, he has not switched because QCharts works for him. He doesn't have the problems as everyone else. When he does switch he stated both platforms will be run in parallel for at least a year to give him a warm and fuzzy. Quote "that's what successful people do". They do not simply jump around to the newest technology. Again, quoting. He also stated many times that there is nothing wrong with Alchem. He just didn't like the extra stuff that was added and suggested you turn it off as it was probably noise.

As an aside, even if someone has not attended the newer classes Alchem can still help. You just need to learn the software and be trying to learn GW's way of trading. A lot of things added to simplify the process. That said, I do not foresee Alchem adding any type of "scanner" as previously suggested. GW's way is being able to read the charts. Looking at each stock's set of charts individually and making a decision. Not relying on a piece of software to tell you conditions have been met. I agree that a scanner would be nice; however, I am also guilty of relying too heavily on software so I like the limitation.



NCT

Yeah, I don't care much for those "signals" either. By default those things are turned off when you first load up AC. You'd have to go into the settings and enable them if you want to see them.

The "inner circle". Hehehe.... you mean Gary's Groupies. He's developed somewhat of a cult following hasn't he. I think many of them retake the classes just to sit near him and hear him breath.... and yell of course.

Hey all,

I just subscribed to alchemcharts and I was wondering if any of you kind folk would help me figure out how to open up multiple windows to allow for a multi-screen setup.

I am not able to find any options to create a new window to allow for multiple charts to be viewed along multiple screens. Are you all simply just stretching the screen across all of the monitors?

Cheers,
John

Well it is a very small program when it is running. Maybe you can have multiple copies running and use one in each monitor. Just a thought.

Hi John, Yes I can confirm that popping out separate windows is not possible with Alchemcharts. I really wish it was too. I also wondered about this and asked them if it was possible. They told me that everyone just stretches out the workspace to fit the monitors. I tried to explain that most other charting applications let you separate windows but they didn't seem to interested in programming in the feature. But maybe if enough people request it they will. I think it is something that is pretty easy to add on.

It can be extremely helpful when trading on a laptop and using multiple desktops instead of multiple monitors.

I just tried to open multiple copies of the program. It doesn't allow that either, so that's out.

They also have games to help practice GW's new style of trading and practice, ways to help with 7M7 research, button to quickly hide everything on the chart to see if indicators are actually crossing, etc. Other options include 7M7 highlighting on the chart so you know where you are in the month, S6 highlighting.


What is 7M7 and S6?