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Some of you may remember my rant about my horrible experience with BestBuy, Gateway and HP. I was transitioning from a regular career to trading for a living. I thought I would be better prepared going into the market with the best trading software and a really pimped out machine to get the job done.

I've been using TeleChart for years. BLOCKS and it's several previous incarnations have also been a pivotal part of my analysis routine. I'm not sure that I could do what I do without either of them. However, Blocks can be a beast if you utilize some of it's capabilities and my Dell laptop (which ran pretty good other than the horrible standard battery) just wasn't up to the task. I went to BestBuy, where I had always had a pleasant experience before, and I dropped more coin than I cared to at the time. I bought the pimped out Gateway and I felt the extra cash would be well worth it. I bought a machine with a Quad-core Intel processor, Vista, 3 gigs of ram (which I understood to be the max Vista would recognize), a huge hard drive and I took off all of the bloat-ware and only ran Blocks and TeleChart software.

After several months of really horrible performance-well, let me go into more detail. When I ran Blocks with TeleChart during market hours, my Quad's fan would kick on and rev so high that it sounded as if it were about to fly out of the case, and then...silence. The entire system would shut down and the screen would go black instantly, no warning. This happened about every hour and at that time I was DAYTRADING! Can you imagine? I went back to my Dell for sometime and just used Blocks on the Gateway after market hours. I ran some update patches to fix the bios and a few other things that Gateway asked me to do. The fan issue stopped, but I now had a machine that would completely scramble the screen every hour, forcing a restart and this during market hours. This pimped out machine was useless. After several months of going back and forth with Worden/TeleChart/Blocks (which by the way were and always have been the cream of the crop when it comes to support), Gateway and BestBuy, I finally returned the hunk of junk computer and set out to look for a replacement.

After several days of research, I ended up buying a top of the line HP, totally pimped out laptop. I found the laptop to be a bit more useful being that I travel and teach a course on trading at the local school at night. I had this computer all of 24 hours-you heard it right, 24 hours! This thing had so many problems I didn't even no where to start. I constantly ended up activating it's media player every time I used a function key. This computer had display problems as well, albeit to a lesser degree. However, even using simple time tested software like Word, it too randomly froze programs and shut down and all of this in 24 hours.

I brought this hunk-o-junk back to BestBuy and got the worst attitude from the manager there as well as their "Geek-Squad". They didn't want to return the computer, even though I had bought extended warranties on both computers and more importantly, the computer's speaker grill was dented and the same speaker crackled badly. On those grounds alone it should have been returned, no questions asked with apologies and a helpful attitude. NEVER WILL I WILLINGLY DO BUSINESS WITH BESTBUY AGAIN.

BESTBUY TOLD ME, "PICK OUT A COMPUTER, PLUG IT IN HERE AND MAKE SURE YOU WANT IT BECAUSE UNDER NO CIRCUMASTANCES WILL WE RETURN IT". There would be no way for me to test the computer under market conditions being it was a weekend. I asked, "what if there is damage that isn't apparent this minute?" -didn't matter, no-how, no-way would they return it. They wouldn't return my money either so I had to pick something there and I had no intention of every returning to BestBuy.

So, I decided to take a leap of faith and plunge head-long into an Apple MacBook. In my mind, there was no way I could risk another PC based computer. This was a huge step for me because I had never even so much as made a single mouse click on an Apple. It was late Saturday afternoon, I had family in town staying with us and I had to learn a totally new operating system, prepare my course for Monday night including a handout on a word processor with chart examples and most importantly, I had to be ready for the market open Monday morning. This meant I had very little time (I had commitments with family). I would need to load up Parallels (to allow me to install windows on the Mac), load up Windows (I went with XP which was 50% more expensive than Vista!) and install all my charting software and import my settings-plus get ready for my class!

Long story short-I got it all done in time. The support team from Parallels was horrible and they charged something around $30 per incident for support. I'd definitely go for VMware's Fusion next time based on Parallels horrible support. Apple on the other hand was top-notch. From the Apple representative who works in BestBuy (about the only person there who was helpful and didn't have a bad attitude) to their phone support, it was an absolute pleasure. A quick word about Apple's support, it's FREE! They don't charge for it and they certainly don't charge more to speak with an American like some other company does. There was never a wait on the phone, the representatives spoke perfect English, answered all questions easily and there was no sense of being rushed at all. It was like they would spend the entire day with me if need be and gladly. There's only one other company that I've EVER dealt with that has support on this level and that is Worden.

About the Mac...I've always used Windows and it took me less time to figure out Leopard than Vista. As a matter of fact, I was never comfortable with Vista. Leopard and all of their applications are so easy and make so much sense, there's nothing to it at all. Everything works together seamlessly, everything. And all those error messages, "...has to shut down, do you want to send a report to...." , you don't realize how many of those you get on Windows until you use a Mac for a few weeks and realize, "hey, I haven't even seen an error message". I upgraded my Ram to 4 gigs for less than $100. Even using Parallels (I understand using Apple's BootCamp allows you to utilize more system resources) I can easily run multiple applications during market hours including a monster BlocksTrader layout with dozens of real-time scans running and real-time TeleChart as well as my quotes and trading software. I DON"T HAVE PROBLEMS, or very few.

I say this over and over again to people who ask, "How do you like the Mac"-I can't understand how thousands of companies working on the same system (Windows) could get it so wrong and one company get it so right. You'd think having so many companies working on one system would lead to amazing advances, just the opposite. I'll never go back to a PC-EVER!

Now, the point of this post. I love TeleChart, I love BlocksTrader. I can't see any reason I'd ever use anything else. These guys are making amazing advances not only with charting platforms, but they are redefining software in the process. This company is so close to the complete integration, seamless, and simple applications that Apple has come up with. Their Customer Service and support is top-notch, it almost seems to me as if they are run by the same people at Apple because their mentality and culture is so similar.

This post is a plea to the guys at TeleChart/BlocksTrader. Please make your system totally compatible with Apple, it is meant to be. I know that Apple's market share is nowhere even close to PC's, but that is changing. Since Apple has deployed Intel's chips, more and more people like myself are finding fewer reasons not to make the switch. The way Apple's utilize the Intel chips makes them so far superior to PC's. The difference is obvious, even for a computer underling like myself. My BlocksTrader routines run so much faster on a Core 2 Duo (Mac Laptop) then they did on a pimped out Quad-core (Desktop PC). I can only imagine how much better if they were truly integrated with a Mac instead of running Windows on a Mac via Parallels. The possibilities are mind-numbing.

As for market share, I haven't seen much in the way of charting software on a Mac. TeleChart and BlocksTrader would absolutely dominate the space and believe me, the Mac crowd are loyal to the death. We all know that the dominance of 64 bit architecture is right around the corner and when it hits, it will be like the scenario unfolding in HDTV, if you don't get on board, you'll have a worthless paperweight for a TV in a few years. Not all Macs are deployed with 64 bit as they are making the switch to Intel based chips, but as I understand, that is where they are heading and I believe that the Core 2 Duo machines are 64 bit now.

It seems BlocksTrader is definitely the priority as far as development goes, but TeleChart is time-tested and stable. Even with the advanced features of BlocksTrader, I can't imagine they day when I will not use TeleChart as my main platform during market hours. I know that these guys are waist deep into development and it is scary how far they have come, it's beyond my imagination as far as what is truly possible. If you haven't tried these platforms, you don't know what you are missing. They have opened a new front in Technical Analysis, several new fronts including making Fundamental analysis completely technical. Analyzing Fundamentals no longer means pouring through hundreds of pages of reports and needing to be a CPA. It is now as easy as applying a moving average to price-it has become integrated completely into the Technical arena via BlocksTrader. The scanning and Backtesting in both programs, but more so BlocksTrader, shatters the long-held beliefs of technicians. You can quickly find out what really works and what is simply a load of (insert adjective). If you are truly serious about trading and investing, you can not possibly compete with Wall Street without being armed with these platforms, otherwise you might as well throw darts at the financial page.

So check out TeleChart and Blocks, remember I'm an affiliate so I'd really appreciate it if you used links from my site or you tell them that you heard about them from Trade-Guild.net, it helps keep the free content here flowing and doesn't cost you a penny more.

As for you guys at<]=[be substantial, it the seed of the Mustard tree (one of the smallest seeds producing one of the largest trees). Microsoft products have peaked, the instability and total disappointment in Vista is evidence of their fall from grace. The switch to Macs will grow exponentially and you guys will be positioned to dominate the space. More than that, your culture is so similar to Apple's, I can't imagine the advances that would follow from that relationship.

I'll submit this post to Worden/BlocksTrader for comment.