Whether you’re experienced with eSignal or just getting started, one fact remains true -- the more organized and efficient a page is, the more organized and efficient your trade decision process will be. In this article, we’ll look at ways to create a work area that is effective for your needs and how to make existing pages even better.
A Purpose-Driven Page
Figure 1: Sample Goals and Trading Style
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The first step toward improving an existing page or developing a new page is determining what should and should not be on the page. Try jotting down on a piece of paper the main purpose for the page and your own goals for it. Consider the following questions.
- What’s Your Trading Style?
Are you day trading, swing trading or position investing? Will you be using technical analysis? What about fundamental data? Are you trading with the trend, looking for reversals or scalping small moves?
- What about Symbols and Intervals?
Do you have a defined list of symbols or intervals you will be following? Or, will you be searching, honing or scanning for symbols with this page? Or, both?
- What Tasks Will You Be Doing?
Are you a chartist who will be using a lot of line tools? Looking for patterns in bar structure and flipping through lots of charts? Perhaps, you’re a tape-reader, and you use Time and Sales to grab quick opportunities.
Size Matters
Take a step back and look at what you wrote down. Some traders will have a long list of things they want to do on the page while others may have a short, defined set of tasks. Some will have 21 charts while others might use just a single window. No matter where, along this spectrum, you fall, you’ll need space to work in. But, is more always better?
An ideal page:
- Meets the needs of the user
It should contain 80 - 95 percent of what that person will use throughout the work session. And, it will make the remaining content easily accessible via toolbars, symbol linking and / or hot keys.
- Should be an appropriate size
You can justify having a large page if you feel there is a need for it. However, if the page is too large, and the content is spread out and overdone, you will lose efficiency. The notion of “analysis / paralysis” may come into play as well; meaning that, if you try to over-analyze, you could miss an opportunity.
- Is organized and efficient
Putting similar windows or tasks together leads to time savings and organized trade analysis. We’ll look at ways to improve in these areas in the next section.
Putting the Page Together
Now that we’ve defined what we want in the page and how big we want it, let’s take a look at the "where”. Deciding where to put each window depends a lot on how you trade, your own personal needs and preferences and how you commonly use a PC (i.e., prefer a mouse versus a keyboard, and so forth).
Let’s refer back to the example notes we took from before, with a focus on the tasks we will be performing. In our "Forex Swing Trading" example, the trader will be clicking through a list of Forex symbols looking for patterns and breaks in trend lines on 60-minute, 240-minute and daily chart intervals.
The trader will likely be pausing on occasion to draw Fibonacci or trend lines and also has a goal (unwritten) to be able to view multiple contributors in a Market Depth window. This makes 5 windows in total: 3 charts, 1 Market Depth window and 1 Quote window. Let’s throw all these windows into our page and see how it looks.
Figure 2: Forex Swing Trading Page (Before)
Take a look at the previously shown screenshot and see if you can find some immediate ways we can improve this page. Here are some ideas to make this page better.
- Move, or Remove, Unnecessary Toolbars (View Menu)
We don’t have any need for the eSignal Central toolbar in our everyday tasks. And, while having the Status Bar is good feedback about our connection, it is taking up space we could be using for our page. We can also drag the Line toolbar to the left of the Advanced Chart toolbar to save horizontal space.
- Consider Other Window Types
Our Quote window is a bit too large for our needs. We’re only following 7 symbols, and we don't have a great need for the variety of other features the Quote window provides. The Quoteboard has a compact way of displaying a few symbols, along with an option “thermometer” to help gauge the moves of the day.
- Save Space on Market Depth
By default, the Market Depth window includes a lot of extras we don’t need, such as the Quote Area, Time and Sales Ticker, and more. Let’s remove these under the Market Depth Options menu.
- Turn on Symbol Linking (“S” Button)
As it stands now, the user will need to manually enter a symbol into each window in order to change symbols. Symbol Linking will save time by updating all the windows with one click from the Quote window.
- Minimize Title Bars
The title bars that come by default on Windows XP are great for style and visibility, but they take up a ton of space -- space that we could be using for our charting. Turn them off by right clicking, selecting View and, then, unchecking the Title Bar.
- Customize the Charts
Squeezing the bars together by dragging the mouse along the X-Axis of a chart is a good way to see more historical data. You can also change to different chart types that may better suit your needs. Adding a background color can also make charts easier to look at over extended periods.
Now, let’s take a look at these changes.
Figure 3: Forex Swing Trading Page (After)
I’m sure you’d agree that it’s a vast improvement over the first page. Not only is more space created, but we've gained efficiencies by symbol linking and using a Quoteboard.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about how to develop organized and efficient pages. Try taking a look at your own layouts and pages. How can you make them even better?
Writer’s Note: As you’ve seen in our viewable examples, we have been working with only one screen, but one of the benefits of using eSignal is that you aren’t confined to the borders of the application. You can pop a window out of your work area and place it on another monitor using the Floating window feature.
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