I've had a couple of questions about this, so I will try and post a copy of it to my website so anyone who wants to look at it can do so.
Anyway, here is how I do it. I went down to Wall Mart and bought an battery powered travel alarm with a snooze feature which allows me to set it for 30 minutes. Every half hour an alarm goes off and I reset it and immediately post the following five readings on my blotter (SPX, DJIA, VIX, TICK, TRIN) I use the current quote. I have them set up on my quote server so they are in the right order and it takes me about 10 seconds. I then color in (red or green) a small box which indicates at a glance the market direction for the half hour. Today, thus far, the SPX has ranged between 1393 and 1397 by the half hour. At a glance, I can see that we are ranging, which means that trading the S&P's I'm probably losing money <g>. I can see that the VIX has ranged from 22-23 all day. Tick has had a negative cast while the market index is slightly higher (I mean slightly). I have my key support and resistance levels posted on the blotter as well. Keeps me thinking about them. I also have key economic calendar events on the blotter (as well as the times of the announcements) so as to be mindful of potential market moving announcements which in times past have blindsided me. (today was the inventories number at 8:30, the Atlanta Fed Index at 9:00, and AG speaking to the ACLI at 9:30) I trade premarket on globex so it is relavent to me. Hopefully that gives you some idea of what I use. Like I said, I'll be posting it on my website for viewing soon.
Matt |
