Resources for Traders

Making Better Charts - Recall that I posted a request for comments to the blog regarding improvements traders wanted to see in their charting software. The response was most gratifying, with dozens of excellent suggestions (they follow the blog post linked above). Well, the software firm that I met with, Market Delta, took the comments to heart and has illustrated in their own blog post how many of the ideas that were suggested can be tracked in real time. They are adding new features to the Market Delta program that will make it possible to follow such indicators as money flow, cumulative TICK, cumulative Delta, pivot-based price targets, and Market Profile-based value areas--all on a single screen. I look forward to the new release and hope to use screenshots and Twitter "tweets" as free blog-based tools for trader development.

A Day in the Life - Here is a really well produced video that provides a peek at the life of a prop trader at SMB Capital. I especially like the midday review and the focus on trading as a team, with traders learning from each other. Great stuff.

Common Trading Patterns - Certain patterns repeat in markets across different price and time scales. One common pattern is that a market will move above or below a clear area of support/resistance (often defined by prior day's lows/highs), but the breakout move will fail to attract significant fresh selling/buying. The reversal back into the range traps the traders who were playing the breakout and, as they disgorge their positions, the market moves back into its prior trading range, often with the day's or week's pivot level as a price target. If you review my Twitter comments on the day (free subscription), you'll see where I pointed this out. In the future, I'll be using Twitter for market comments as well as indicator updates and links; many of these comments will be designed to help traders recognize these common trading patterns.
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