HQuote Pro F.A.Q.

  1. What is HQuote Pro ?
  2. What's the data format and the length of historical data?
  3. What's the source of historical data used in HQuote Pro?
  4. What do I need to use your software?
  5. Do you have a free trial period? What are the limitations of a trial version?
  6. How do I register HQuote Pro ?
  7. I have not found the answer to my question. What do I do?
  8. How many symbols can I update?
  9. Where is the downloaded data being stored?
  10. How do I know that the newer version is available?
  11. Does HQuote Pro append newer data or overwrites existing files?
  12. How do I update software?
  13. How do I transfer the program to a new computer?
  14. I can't receive any data. What do I do?
  15. What's "Data request ignored: too often" message meaning?
  16. How can I speed up the data update?
  17. Canadian symbols stopped to update since 11/10/2004 What to do?
  18. What's the meaning of Trend, HighVol, 52wHL, Spike columns?

What is HQuote Pro ?

HQuote Pro is a program that allows you to retrieve historical intraday and End-Of-Day quotes for virtually any stock, index, mutual fund or commodity futures publicly traded in USA or Canada. The data is stored in the form of Metastock and ASCII files on your hard disk and can be easily analyzed in any charting software package.

What's the data format and the length of historical data?

The data is being stored in Metastock 8.0 format. You can automatically export it to ASCII as well. The length of available from Quote.com server historical data is 500 data bars on any intraday time frame. For End-of-Day time window the data is being downloaded from Yahoo and its length might be as long as 10 calendar years. In most cases this is enough data for any market analysis. ASCII is a standard text data file format used by many programs, including spreadsheet and word-processing programs. Unlike files in other formats, files in ASCII format are in simple text and do not contain any formatting codes or special characters. The fields in the data file produced by HQuote Pro are comma separated and represent : Date , Time , Open , High , Low , Close , Volume of security and other optional fields. Such organization of data in ASCII file is compatible with widely spread software such as Omega Research Tradestation, SuperCharts, Metastock, Advanced Get, etc.

What's the source of historical data used in HQuote Pro?

The data source are free Internet data servers : Yahoo Finance (End-of-Day symbols) and Intraday data server. Starting 2006 Quote.com no longer provides free downloading. Anyway, intraday stock quotes are being downloaded from other sources for free.

What do I need to use your software?

Two things: (1) an Internet connection, and (2) a charting program that can read Metastock or ASCII data, such as Metastock, Tradestation, Elliott Wave Analyzer II, Advanced Get 7.x, MS Excel or any other program. If you have these two things, you are ready to use HQuote Pro.

Do you have a free trial period? What are the limitations of a trial version?

You can enjoy free 12-day trial of HQuote Pro. It is fully functional program with the only restriction - it will stop to work when the trial period expires and it allows you to create portfolios with no more than 10 symbols in intraday portfolios and up to 200 symbols in EOD portfolios. This is done to limit the Internet traffic.

How do I register HQuote Pro ?

To register HQuote Pro you need to receive from us a small security file. It's usually sent via e-mail within 12 to 24 hours after your payment is received. If your trial has expired at the moment you register, you still don't need to re-install software as the registration file will automatically enable the program's Registered Mode. This file comes usually in the zipped form. You may need to download and install WinZip utility in order to extract the original file. To register it right now, please click here.

I have not found the answer to my question. What do I do?

We'd suggest to read the help file which is provided with the program. You can access it either from the program menu Help->Contents or by pressing F1. Also you can contact our technical support.

How many symbols can I update?

Up to 100 intraday symbols and up to 5 000 End-of-Day symbols. These limitations are imposed to avoid exceeding a daily download quota.

Where is the downloaded data being stored?

HQuote Pro stores the data in the Portfolio directories in the form of Metastock files. If you need ASCII formatted data, then we'd recommend to enable "Auto-Export to ASCII" option for this portfolio. To do that simply right-mouse click on the portfolio and choose Properties menu. Next, click 'Auto-export' tab and check the corresponding option.

How do I know that the newer version is available?

Please click Help->About HQuote Pro menu and click 'Information' icon and this will update the latest news about the program including the latest version of HQuote Pro available.

Does HQuote Pro append newer data or overwrites existing files?

HQuote Pro appends the newer data to existing data files.

How do I update software?

We always try to maintain backward compatibility between newer and older versions (if otherwise not specified). So you simply download a newer version of the program and install it over the older copy. No data will be lost. Make sure that during installation the older program is not running.

How do I transfer the program to a new computer?

You need to download and install the latest version of HQuote Pro from our web site. Then copy the registration file regkey.reg (sent to you when you registered HQuote Pro) to your new computer and double-click on it. This will make Windows to import the encrypted registration information into Windows registry. When you run HQuote Pro next time, it will be fully registered on your new machine.

I can't receive any data. What do I do?

First of all check your connection to the Internet. If you're capable to surf the web sites but still do no receive any data updates in HQuote Pro, then you probably are accessing the Internet through a proxy server. In this case please click Tools->Settings->Internet menu and make appropriate changes. If you're not sure please contact your network administrator for more details. The question asked should be " Do I use proxy server for HTTP protocol on my machine? If so what is its name or IP address and its port number?" Some users install firewall software, in this case do not forget to allow HQuote software to access the Internet : you need to give authorization for accessing Internet to 'qcenter.exe' file which is located in the HQuote's directory.

What's "Data request ignored: too often" message meaning?

There's a "Successful Download Delay" parameter which controls how often you can request the data for the same symbol. The default value is 30 minutes. This means that if you updated one symbol, say INTC, then within 30 minutes any data update requests for INTC will be ignored. You can adjust this parameter by clicking Tools->Settings->Internet menu.

How can I speed up the data update?

Using LRD (Last Requested Date) is very effective way to quickly update your data files if they lack only one day of data. Basically, LRD is the last date which will be requested by HQuote when you hit Update button. If today is early morning before market opens and you need to get yesterday's closes , then double-click on status bar of the main window of HQuote and change LRD to yesterday. This will make your download up to 30 times faster, as HQuote Pro requests up to 30 tickers in one go for those tickers which lack only one day of data. LRD is useless if your portfolio contains intraday symbols or if most of EOD symbols need more than one day of data.

Canadian symbols stopped to update since 11/10/2004 What to do?

The problem is that Yahoo had modified symbols again:
now you need to use 'NVG-UN.TO' symbol instead of nvg_u.to ,e.g. In other words, underscore should be replaced by hyphen character.
To do that, select a symbol in HQuote and press <F2> and make modifications.

What's the meaning of Trend, HighVol, 52wHL, Spike columns?

Added in HQuote v6.50, new columns have the following meaning:

Last updated - 01/19/2009
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