Harlequin

Probably called about 5 times in the last 3 years, never had a problem getting through and found them very helpful. Last time was last week, TWS locked up on me after I sent a buy market on FTSE futures, the order just sat there as sent and acknowledged but not filled, called IB and they confirmed the price of the fill in less than a minute of me picking up the 'phone. Restarted TWS and all was well.

The choice of broker is going to depend on your individual requirements. I chose Interactive Brokers beacuse of the following: I'm based in Europe and I can call them on a free phone number. Low commission rates. I can wire money to my non-US bank account free of charge. Global coverage of markets. Universal Account means I can trade futures, stocks, FX and options from one account. If you are only trading US futures other brokers will offer lower intraday margin requirements so you don't need to keep all your capital in your account. If you have a large account size consider cutting out the introducing broker and go direct to a FCM for lower commissions.

Try looking in the Trading Indicators section of this forum.

$5625 is the CME initial overnight margin requirement. Most brokers offer much lower intraday margins, from Interactive Brokers (50% of exchange requirement) down to as low as $300-$500 at many futures brokers.

I have to agree with everything sevesa has said. Unfortunately democracy isn't really suited to the internet. Maybe a system where we report posts and when x reports are made the post is locked and flagged up for review by a moderator to make a decision would work. From what I have seen here it's only the occasional spammer that causes a problem. So rather everyone jumping in and challenging the spammer we could just hit the report button.

I don't have an Apple but I noticed that Zeroline Trader now has an Mac OS X version available. http://www.zerolinetrader.com/download/index.html

It's to do with how the MOC and LOC orders are executed. This article explains how NASDAQ does it. http://www.tradersmagazine.com/issues/20040630/1950-1.html

You might want to start with these 2 threads. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f34/five-tick-trading-3775.html http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f56/five-tic-trading-4678.html Also the search function works very well on this forum.

Not much action in the Options Laboratory. I guess most traders here trade futures and for a good reason. With options you can pick the market direction correctly and still lose money. Interesting statement on the home page of the website you mention: "According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange 76.5% of all options held to expiration at the CME expired worthless during a three year study."

I learnt to code Basic on ZX81 when I was a kid, unfortunately my skill level hasn't improved since. I just borrowed bits from other pivot studies I found here and else where on the web. Hope it helps.

Here's the bit from my pivot study you just need to change the variables to match yours if ShowLabels then begin { only show for today } // If Date = CurrentDate and Time>= Sess1StartTime and Time <= sess1endtime - BarInterval then Begin TextPP = Text_New( Date, Time, PP, "PP " + NumToStr( PP, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextPP, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextPP, PCol); TextS1 = Text_New( Date, Time, S1, "S1 " + NumToStr( S1, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextS1, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextS1, PCol); TextS2 = Text_New( Date, Time, S2, "S2 " + NumToStr( S2, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextS2, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextS2, PCol); TextS3 = Text_New( Date, Time, S3, "S3 " + NumToStr( S3, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextS3, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextS3, PCol); TextS4 = Text_New( Date, Time, S4, "S4 " + NumToStr( S4, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextS4, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextS4, PCol); TextS5 = Text_New( Date, Time, S5, "S5 " + NumToStr( S5, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextS5, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextS5, PCol); TextR1 = Text_New( Date, Time, R1, "R1 " + NumToStr( R1, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextR1, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextR1, PCol); TextR2 = Text_New( Date, Time, R2, "R2 " + NumToStr( R2, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextR2, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextR2, PCol); TextR3 = Text_New( Date, Time, R3, "R3 " + NumToStr( R3, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextR3, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextR3, PCol); TextR4 = Text_New( Date, Time, R4, "R4 " + NumToStr( R4, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextR4, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextR4, PCol); TextR5 = Text_New( Date, Time, R5, "R5 " + NumToStr( R5, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextR5, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextR5, PCol); if showmidpoints=true then begin TextMPS1 = Text_New( Date, Time, MPS1, "S0.5 " + NumToStr( MPS1, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextMPS1, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextMPS1, MidCol); TextMPS2 = Text_New( Date, Time, MPS2, "S1.5 " + NumToStr( MPS2, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextMPS2, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextMPS2, MidCol); TextMPS3 = Text_New( Date, Time, MPS3, "S2.5 " + NumToStr( MPS3, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextMPS3, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextMPS3, MidCol); TextMPR1 = Text_New( Date, Time, MPR1, "R0.5 " + NumToStr( MPR1, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextMPR1, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextMPR1, MidCol); TextMPR2 = Text_New( Date, Time, MPR2, "R1.5 " + NumToStr( MPR2, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextMPR2, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextMPR2, MidCol); TextMPR3 = Text_New( Date, Time, MPR3, "R2.5 " + NumToStr( MPR3, DecP) ) ; Text_SetStyle( TextMPR3, 1, 1 ) ; Text_SetColor(TextMPR3, MidCol); end; end; end; end; end; if ShowLabels then begin text_setlocation(textPP,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,PP); text_setlocation(textS1,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,S1); text_setlocation(textS2,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,S2); text_setlocation(textS3,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,S3); text_setlocation(textS4,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,S4); text_setlocation(textS5,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,S5); text_setlocation(textR1,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,R1); text_setlocation(textR2,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,R2); text_setlocation(textR3,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,R3); text_setlocation(textR4,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,R4); text_setlocation(textR5,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,R5); if showmidpoints then begin text_setlocation(textMPS1,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,MPS1); text_setlocation(textMPS2,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,MPS2); text_setlocation(textMPS3,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,MPS3); text_setlocation(textMPR1,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,MPR1); text_setlocation(textMPR2,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,MPR2); text_setlocation(textMPR3,date,currenttime-HorizontalOffset,MPR3); end; end; end;

Does OEC support the ELCollections.dll This is how I do it in Multicharts. You have a daily chart or scanner window with one indicator to save the values from the previous trading day and then another indicator reads the values on your intraday chart.

TraderJen, There are many other brokers and FCM's about, give a few more a call and play them off against each other for the best commission rates and judge the level of service from how they deal with your inquiries. Good luck and remember you can always move to another broker if it doesn't work out.

That's the point I'm making about styles. For a scalper it makes sense to have target for each trade and for the day. If you're trading for the swings the market has a habit of deciding how much you make. For example if you use an entry signal in the opposite direction as your exit then the market is telling you what it wants to give.

Have I no experience of Zaner but they are a "full service broker". If you are looking for investment/trading advice then ask to see proof of their track record. If you are making your own trading decisions then save yourself the extra commission charges and go direct to Transact or any other FCM.

It depends on trading style, size of stops, scalping or going for intraday swings etc. But as a rule of thumb I know a few ex-pit traders and they all quote capturing 30% of daily range as a realistic goal.

Thanks Db, That's pretty much what I thought you meant, but I'm not familiar with the significance of congestion zones other than consolidation followed by breakout. Something for me to look into.

Mmmmm.....

Would you care to expand on "the same fix", or point us to your post on Sunday where I assume we can find your interpretation of your charts?

.... and China. But fundamentals always show up in the charts first.

Good point Brownsfan. I think it also depends what type of intraday trader you are though. The biggest breakthrough I had in my trading was when I started looking at the bigger time frames and coming up with a plan everyday to identify areas for entries and also to determine key levels where I would switch from long/short bias. I also know other successful traders who only look at the here and now and stay away from any idea of bias. Whatever works for you as they say.

A longer term view support from October 2002 now becomes resistance.

My interpretation on that is 3 days closing above the November low. Yesterday it did that but not in a convincing way. So as you said it's down to whether it now holds as support. As a day trader my bias today is down but if it takes out yesterdays highs I expect to see 793 soon.

No the first thing I'm looking for a a close above that upper trendline (currently 793 ish). What I was trying to get at was the way yesterdays action run up a bit ran out of steam then closed slightly below Fridays close. Also take a look at yesterday NQ action. NQ has been holding up much better than the other indices (still above November lows) but yesterday it was the leader on the downside. This makes me think this is may be spreading from the financials/housing/motor industry etc. through to the techs. "Dead cat bounce" is just a throw away comment, but I use it to indicate I'm still seeing this as a bear market. I will be until we work through all that overhead resistance you mentioned. It's been interesting reading many of the on-line market commentators, opinion seems to be split on this one. I'm just offering my interpretation of the charts as an alternative view to the OP. I'm certainly not claiming 100% that I'll be proved right.

There is nothing wrong with IB I have also been using them for years. Mavrik00 has been spending the whole day resurrecting old threads so he can spam on Mirus' behalf and ask everyone to PM him so he can probably sell whatever bucket and shovel he's pushing.