It is possible to use the Playback function to import data that you have downloaded for Playback, into your charts.  In this way, you can import data far beyond the six days of tick data your chart is able to refresh.  This is useful if you have not been "accumulating" data day by day, or if you have lost data.

The following explanation has only been tested with the Esignal data feed.  It refers to a 360-tick chart that is set for 24-hours ("Day Session Only" is unchecked in the Chart Properties window).  Please note:

• 24-hour tick data is saved in the \ENSIGN\TICK2 folder
• "Day Session Only" data is saved in the \ENSIGN\TICK folder

The following instructions may appear somewhat complicated at first, but once you have imported a few "days" then it is really quite easy and repetitive.

This example is for a 360-tick chart set for 24 hours. It will work for other tick charts as well, but the process may be slightly different for "Day Session Only" charts.
 

1. Back up all of your tick data files. 
   
   I do this on a daily basis as a matter of course. I created a subdirectory under the \TICK2 folder as shown:
   
    
2. Make sure that the Max Bars in ALL the tick charts for which you will be using this data, is set to 65530.  This is the maximum number that Ensign allows for tick charts.
   
   
    
3. Close your current workspace and start with a blank workspace.
   
   Name the blank workspace "Blank"  for future reference. 
   Open an ES-360 chart. 
   Confirm that "Max Bars" is set to 65530 and that "Day Session Only" is unchecked, as shown above.
   Also confirm that the Drive path is \TICK2, which confirms that the 24-hour data will be saved in that folder.
   Note that the name of this file will be ES #F.-360  (if you are using the continuous ES contract, which most of us do).
    
4. Download Playback data from Ensign's Internet Services window.
   
   Note that date format is YYMMDD
   
    
5. Use Set-up Charts -> Playback to open the Playback file for the SAME DATE as the earliest date for which you have data.  In this example, April 19 4:48 am was our earliest data.  Therefore you want to import the ES040419 file in order to get the 24 hour data from the beginning of that day, which actually starts after the market closed on April 18.
   
   
    
6. Press "Open Demo Chart" as shown above.  Make sure that  "Play Back Enabled" is not checked.  Also make sure 24:00 is the Start time, although I believe this should not matter.  A Demo chart should automatically open.  You should now have two charts in your workspace:
   
   ES #F 360-tick
   DEMO 360-tick
   
   Align these two charts so that the beginning of your ES #F chart aligns with the DEMO chart as shown below, so you can see where there is overlap.
   
   
    
7. You will notice there is overlapping data.  Delete the overlapping data, otherwise when you import, you will get double data. 
   
   To do this, find the point of overlap on your DEMO chart, right click on the point, and use Delete Right, as shown below.
   
   
    
8. The result should look like this. You are now ready to import the contiguous data from the DEMO chart into your ES chart.
   
   
   
   
    
9. Go to File Manager and select Merge Chart Files.  Your workspace will go blank.  That is ok.
   
   
    
10. Look in your \ENSIGN\TICK2 folder.  Select the DEMO.-360 chart, then click Open.  That chart name and location should appear in the "Source" field in the "Merge Chart Files" window, as shown below.
    
    
     
11. Now insert the name of the ES file as your Target.  I simply copy and past the Source file name into the Target file name, then change "DEMO" to read "ES #F", as shown below:
    
    
    
     
12. Click Merge ONCE.  Then click OK.  Your screen should still be blank. Open the workspace entitled "Blank".  You should see the two files, ES and DEMO, as shown below.  The ES file should now have the imported data from the DEMO file.
    
    
    
     
13. Repeat these steps to merge previous successive days of data.