Sunday, March 07, 2010

A Look at My e-Signal Screen


In my last post, I illustrated my main Market Delta screen and the information I gather from that display. Above is my second main screen, from the e-Signal platform (click for detail).

The top of the display is a chart of whatever I'm following at the time, easily toggled from time frame to time frame. Volume is displayed along the X-axis. My main use of the charts is to quickly view the main sectors and asset classes from the quote boards below to see if they are moving to new highs or lows, settling in ranges, etc.

The bottom left quoteboard shows green color if the instrument is trading up from its opening price; red if it is trading below its open. On a range day, we'll see a mix of sectors trading above and below their opening prices; on trend days, such as Friday shown above, we'll see the sectors uniformly trading above or below their opens.

The bottom right quoteboard is where I track the futures indexes and other asset classes (gold, oil, currencies) from their prior closes. I also track selected indicators, such as the advancing and declining issues on the day ($ADD) and NYSE TICK ($TICK). I will also punch up other indicators, sectors, and asset classes periodically during the day.

The main purpose of this screen is to provide me with quick snapshots of intermarket themes during the day's trade and overall market strength/weakness. Combining this information with the data from my Market Delta screen helps me see both larger picture (themes affecting the day's trade; longer time frame perspectives) and smaller picture (short-term sentiment) views. It's coordinating the telescope and microscope views, I find, that provides an understanding of the trading day.

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