The eSignal Comeback?

Back in the early 2000's eSignal was known as one of the premier charting/technical analysis platforms, primarily because of their data which has always been top-shelf. During this decade eSignal was consistently in the running for top charting platform based on the annual Readers' Choice awards at Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities.
We had just begun our relationship with eSignal as a 3rd party developer and we had a lot of interaction with eSignal personnel at all levels in those early years. During this period the company almost had a "mom and pop" feel about it, which was refreshing. The energy level was high and we were all expecting great things in terms of future product development.

...ICE is finally bringing its considerable resources to bear in an effort to reestablish the eSignal product as a top-tier charting platform. 

Around 2009 Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), the parent company of eSignal, sold the company to a group of equity partners (Silver Lakes Investments) and Chuck Thompson, who was then CEO of eSignal/IDC, stepped away. This was the beginning of the "fall from grace" that lasted for several years. Budgets were tightened, priorities redirected, and many long-time eSignal employees moved on to other companies (and a lot of the company history went with them). From a user perspective we noticed that the web site was no longer being updated in a timely fashion and the support mechanism was not as efficient as it once was. Also, product advertising/marketing was on the decline and it felt like the user base was declining as well.

Courtesy of MSN Money

Just when it seemed like things could not get any worse, in 2016 IDC was acquired by ICE Data Services (Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.) in a $5.2B deal. eSignal was just a small part of the overall acquisition and ICE initially focused its attention on the more valuable market data components. On the eSignal side of things, priorities were once again reshuffled, more budgets cut, and a number of internal operations were moved from eSignal's Hayward, CA headquarters to ICE's Atlanta, GA facilities. At this point it felt like support was nearly non-existent and that eSignal was no longer actively marketing its product, at least not in a competitive fashion.

Late in 2017, though, we started to notice a change. eSignal product updates seemed to be coming in at a faster clip, the level of support and communication began to improve, and recently the eSignal website was completely revamped which was a pleasant surprise. So it would seem that ICE is finally bringing its considerable resources to bear in an effort to reestablish the eSignal product as a top-tier charting platform.

It is important to note that eSignal has always had a core of very loyal followers. The fact that our company (i.e., primarily an eSignal 3rd party developer) could remain in business during the tough years is testament to that. Serious traders have always appreciated the reliable and clean data and the stable platform. While many of our clients did move away from eSignal over the years, almost all of them returned at some point...most of the time citing data issues as the primary reason.

It is also important to mention that the development group at eSignal never wavered in their endeavor to update the product and keep it current. Since 2009 we have seen updates taking us from version 10.x to 11.x, and most recently from 11.x to 12.x. eSignal now supports both the 32-bit and 64-bit environments and, while it has its fair share of gremlins, it is a very stable product overall and it provides a robust development environment.

We look forward to 2018 and the changes ICE will likely bring to eSignal, both as a product and as a company.

Divergence Software, Inc.
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