As I'm sure you are aware, we and many of you have had a long and tiresome battle with Java when trying to use our streaming services. We have therefore been working on a solution to remove this problem.

We are pleased to announce that we have a new stockwatch available for use which no longer uses Java. We are currently making this available as a technical beta version, which means we are interested in your feedback regarding performance, bugs and browser/operating system/device compatibility issues (note: design and styling will be addressed in later beta releases).

For the purpose of allowing the old and new stockwatch versions to run concurrently, the technical functionality of the new stockwatch mimics the old one for now (not style, fonts or look). Editing and managing watchlists uses the same process as the current java stockwatch but is now at the top of the page. This will allow you to switch between the versions should you have any problems. All technical features of the current stockwatch are available in the new version except for the ability to drag resize columns. In the near future and as we migrate away from the java version of stockwatch, we will add new usability features as well as design it up to make the whole stockwatch experience smoother than it has ever been.

As this new version does not require java, you should expect it to work on your android devices and ipad/iphones. For now the display has not been optimised for smaller screens, but this will come in future development.

NOTE: Due to javascript performance in Internet Explorer 8, this new stockwatch can cause high CPU load. We recommend you use a current version of a modern browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for best results.

The new version can be found on the following link:

http://www.moneyam.com/stockwatch/beta.php

NOTE: Non java versions of streaming trades, streaming news and level 2 will be released over the coming weeks.

Please do not worry about design/style at the moment as this version has not been styled it is purely a technical beta test environment it will be styled before it is released. We have put this here purely for feedback on its technical functionality i.e does it work in your browser and on your PC/Laptop/Tablet/Mobile

Please post your technical feedback in this discussion thread

Thank you for your feedback and we hope you enjoy it

IanT - you were right: activated pop-up blocker. Thanks for that. BTW, I think the Java-free version is fine. Seems quicker, too.

This is great as I have not been able to see streamed data on my Android Samsung galaxy S3 before and had to use heat maps!! A great step forward, thankyou.

Works well on my Apple iPad

ALL: UPDATES RELEASED.

You can toggle the Name and Notes columns widths. Just click the arrow, it's not draggable.

seriously fed up with the problems associated and I welcome this change

Excellent. Only small problem I have is not being able to add PMO1 to my stock list.

Well done guys

Thanks for name column toggle!

Star fellas

Martini: This problem is not related to the stockwatch, we don't have that epic code in our list. PMO is the closest match.

George - Corporate bond with Premier Oil which shows when you put it into Share Price but not the chart which reverts to PMO. Maybe unrelated to this new Stockwatch.

I frequently use the trades facility which seems to function only using Java. Will this be a feature of non-Java in the future?

I frequently use the trades facility which seems to function only using Java. Will this be a feature of non-Java in the future?

surinrog,

yes trades will also be moved away from java over the coming weeks,

Ian

Ian
Great improvement (I’m using Firefox in W8.1). Watch List scrolling can be achieved without waiting for the screen to do multiple refreshes. Also prefer the Watch list menu choices at the top of the screen.

Only one slight niggle so far – the pop-up ‘note’ window (which I use a lot - perhaps I'm in the minority) looks to be smaller than in the Java version. The text within the box is not very pronounced and the ‘Note’ box within the pop up requires scrolling to see all the contents.

Can't get level 2 Ian ??

yuff - can you log off and back on to see if that helps,

Ian

Thanks for narrowing the stock name column, so I can trial the new stockwatch properly.

I know layout isn't important for the beta test, but having the news flag the wrong side of the chart,trades and L2 buttons is a bad move IMO as news is much more important and I usually scroll the chart,trades and L2 buttons out of view to keep column widths down.

Also, I'm finding reading the new stockwatch to be more effort.

This is due to several factors.

1. Company names in all capitals are harder to read quickly. There's a whole body of research that shows reading comprehension is much quicker with lower case text.

2. The horizontal spacing between lines is less than on the Java version making read across less easy.

3. I found the pale blue horizontal stripes easier on the eye than the new grey ones but that might just be personal preference.

I'd suggest adjusting company names to lower case ASAP (as they were in the Java version) as it might be possible to mentally adjust for the other changes if company names can be visually scanned faster.

Running the same group of watchlists and L2 in firefox/XP results in considerably less memory use than Java stockwatch & IE8/XP, but CPU usage is way, way higher causing my CPU fan to run much faster.

pbridle: Adjusting the Note window was on our todo list and has now been resolved and deployed.

dell314: In response to your comments.
1) Company Names actually come on the feed from the supplier in upper case. The Java applet changed them to title case but this didn't always lead to accurate names e.g. Usd instead of USD in places. We have chosen for now to display the name as they are provided to us in full.

2) Yes, the horizontal spacing is 1 pixel less per line. It can allow a few more stocks to be displayed on a page without vertical scrolling. If other people complain too we will add the pixel back. I don't know if you noticed but if you mouse over a row it highlights it in yellow. This should help you read across.

3) This style matches that of the stock price page. The old blue colour is no longer in use on any part of the site so it looks out of place. Again, maybe use the mouse-over row highlighting to help you.

4) IE8 has a terribly slow javascript engine and won't work well with larger watchlists with lots of columns. You should be able to use it ok with up to 10 stocks and filtered columns. The best resolution though is to use another browser.

5) The N flag being on the left was a more suitable option for the HTML version. It was a decision based on the technical problems of having it the other way around and we considered there was no real trade off. Sorry if it doesn't suit the way you scroll across.

Had to log in twice this morning. Has the old problem returned?

Seems to work very well. Thanks. Thoroughly fed up with java.