You can display live, updating quote data or historical data from TeleTrader WorkStation in Excel or Open Office spreadsheets, using the DDE protocol (Dynamic Data Exchange) or RTD (Real-Time Data; only for Microsoft Excel). To do this, you can simply use a Copy command in TeleTrader WorkStation, or use a flexible syntax to request different data sets. DDE and RTD offer similar functionality: To help you decide which one to use, see below.
If you want to access data from other data feeds in TeleTrader WorkStation, you can use the Security Data Wizard to import external security data in Metastock or ASCII format to your local database, and use it in TeleTrader WorkStation charts.
If you have a list of ISINs or other symbol identifiers that you want to open as a price page in TeleTrader WorkStation, you have the possibility to import security lists from text files (must be used together with the RTD Lookup command to transform ISINs, WKNs, tickers or names to internal symbol IDs).
You can also copy the content of most documents as text and insert it into other programs.
DDE vs. RTD for Microsoft Excel
When displaying data in Microsoft Excel, you can choose between DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) or RTD (Real-Time Data). Both offer similar functionalities. The main differences between TeleTrader WorkStation DDE and TeleTrader WorkStation RTD are:
▫ Speed: RTD is a newer technology than DDE and was specifically designed for live data scenarios. On the other hand, DDE can handle arrays of data, while RTD uses single connections for every cell. In most cases, RTD should perform better, but when using a lot of arrays, DDE might be the better choice.
▫ Cell references: RTD uses an Excel function syntax and can therefore also use cell references as part of the formula. This is not possible with DDE, as it uses a different function format than other standard Excel functions.
▫ Functionality: RTD offers more functionality than DDE, for example the possibility to search for symbols from within an Excel spreadsheet and to set a custom time zone.
▫ Syntax hints: When creating links manually, TeleTrader WorkStation RTD offers hints when minor syntax errors are detected (for example using the wrong date format).
▫ Studies: Copying Price Page studies into Microsoft Excel is only supported by TeleTrader WorkStation RTD.
RTD - Retrieving Real-Time Data with
Excel