A number of the Acme indicators and studies have the ability to play sounds at important events, though I have been leaving those features out of the packs so far.
Why? Some folks are very sensitive to code reading from or writing to their hard drive. Justifiably so. Playing sounds requires directly reading sound files stored on your hard drive, and earlier I pledged to not do anything like that in the FAQs.
One good example is in the Acme Time and Sales Pack. In my private version of Time and Sales, when a “buy” block comes across the tape it plays a high cowbell sound. When a block “sell” order comes across, a low cowbell sound plays. That way I can hear when order flow pace is picking up from another room if I am not at my trading desk.
Another example is the Acme Bar Timer, also in the Time and Sales Pack. In my version it can play a sound for the RTH session opens and/or closes.
What’s more, the market internals packs I am prepping for release can also play sounds for important events. I think these are a whole lot less effective without sounds, because when things are moving fast it can be really hard to watch them and watch the instrument I am trading at the same time.
Of course, if the packs had sound features you’d be able to play whatever sound you wanted for a particular event. Edit: You’d be able to turn them on and off too.
Also, there is a way for you to protect yourself by having Windows limit the locations/folders from which files can be read. But, to be honest, it’s really complicated to explain and set up, and I can’t be supporting Windows security configurations in addition to Acme and NinjaTrader.
Lastly, at this point it’s just not practical for me, from a time management perspective, to make separate releases for those who want sounds and those who don’t. Thus it’s all or nothing, at least for now.
So what say you? Sounds or no sounds? What if anything would make you feel OK about having the Acme packs read sound files from your hard drive?
Please leave your comments below, or if you want to express something less publicly you can use support AT ranchodinero.com.
