The most valuable tool in my arsenal as a trader is my esignal.com "Tape", as pictured below. When used in combination with the 1-minute candle charts, sector charts/percentages, trin/COMPQ chart and other indicators, it becomes hugely valuable to me in figuring out exactly when to "pull the trigger" on my trading entries and exits.

Here's what it looks like, in future posts I'll cover more details regarding how to best use it to decide when to get in and out of trades:

http://www.TradingTalk.com/charts/ti...OG_29Feb08.gif



There's a lot to look for, not to mention how exciting it is, to be in a trade and see the prices scrolling by faster and faster as the price moves in your favor - it's this thrill that keeps me excited about trading, year after year. How about you?

-ken

Ken,
When you change your colors (black background and white numbers) in properties for the tape, which do you designate to show up on your tape screen? I.E. bid , ask, trade above ask. Make sense. Hope so. New at this forum so hope I am asking this in the right place.
thanks,
Steve D

Ken,
Figured that one out about what you used in properties. I had an issue I figured out so made the previous question a mute point.

Ken,
On the platform that I'm trading on TD Ameritrade, I can pull up the Time to Sales Tape with the number of shares in the 100 increments. I have to open up the Level II, window to get the block shares (Bid X Ask). How important is it to have the Bid X Ask blocks as shown in your attachment?
Thanks in advance,
Dave

Hi - it's critical to see the bid x ask increments, as the "pattern" of increasing shifts from buy to sell, or vice-versa, is detected by following that differential in the data column.

You can try esignal for a 30 day trial free, it's a superior platform and I wouldn't trade without it. Also you can't daytrade with a browser-based slow broker, you need a direct-access broker like cybertrader.com or realtick.com or other like that, which has fast fills and a better short list etc.

-k

Ken, here's a little trick I use along with tape reading and it might help some of you? It does for me, it's a visual tool. I use the NAS/NYSE highs and lows. It tell me the sentiment and momentum of the markets. The highs will be printed in green while the lows in red. It might start off a mixture of green and red, plus prints running real slow.

All of a sudden the tape will speed up and start printing one color. Showing me what the majority of stock are doing, going up or down. An example would be, along with tape reading. Lets say if your long on a stock and it's coming into resistance. The momentum indicator as I call it (NAS/NYSE highs & lows) is changing color from slowing green to a mixture of green and red, then to a faster red. And the time and sale window is slowing down and price is stalling.

That would tell me to exist my trade. Well, it's just another confirming indicator in my eyes. I'll keep it on the side of the time and sales window. Plus occasional I can find some good stocks to trade there.

Thanks Cash, great idea. Personally I don't like using the color because it distracts me from following pure price action, but if it works for you, that's good to hear.

Ken

Hi Ken,

I'm using QuoteTracker for my charts, but their Time & Sales doesn't display the sizes in bid x ask.

After getting the "jump start video 3" from your website re Time & Sales, I'm convinced that this piece of info is absolutely necessary.

Where can I find this information other than in e-Signal? (A little costly..)

Hi - great question. At just $100/month, esignal is a "must have" imho for day trading; I wouldn't trade without it. Quotetracker is great to get started with, and was what I used (with Datek as my broker) back in the late 90's. I don't know of any other chart provider that has a complete tape like esignal does, which is one of many reasons I really like the platform. Besides, day trading requires a $25K+ account, so it's mostly for if you have a lot of $$ to trade with, so the esignal fee is small compared to trade sizes etc..

Traders don't need the tape for swing trading, though, so quotetracker (and the free stockcharts.com and bigcharts.com) are great tools for swing trading, for those who don't need time/sales.

Ken

Ken in case you don't have an idea for new DTU videos I'd suggest you reading the tape during trading time.

Cause I think the tape is the one thing that if you have great skills you can benefit greatly.

Q: can you actually read from the tape if a stock is going to make just a small pullback or an actual reversal?

I typically use the tape to identify "how strong" a stock is, at it gets near key support/resistance levels and likely trading entry areas.

Here's a recent movie on "Tape Reading" I recorded for everyone, a full 30+ minutes of the open in June, at:

http://www.TradingTelevision.com/TapeReadingJune2008/


To success,

Ken

Which is great, thanks for doing it!

(q re t&s and long/short alerts)