My Trading Strategy for Using eSignal

I generally keep my main screen at full-page length, showing the indicators I like to watch, to get a feel for how the market is performing in real time. The screen shot of my main page is below. The major indices -- $INDU, $SPX (S&P 500), the S&P 500 futures premium ($PREM), Value Line Index ($VLE), advances and declines ($ADV and $DECL), the Volatility Index ($VIX) and $OEX (S&P 100) comprise the first section of the page.

These are all items that short-term traders should watch, especially the futures $PREM and the $VIX, as well as the relationship between $SPX and $INDX, or $SPX and $OEX. If the market is operating "normally," $SPX should be moving approximately twice as fast as $OEX, and $INDU should be moving nearly 7.5 times as fast as $SPX. If not, I do some investigating to find out why. With respect to the latter comparison, I keep a watch on a Dow Jones 30 Industrials window to see what's moving the Dow.

Below that area, in the second portion of my page, I watch the S&P futures trading. The electronic market is represented by the E-mini futures (ES M2, for example). The day trading of the S&P futures themselves (SP M2=2, for example) is always important, and, during the evening and early morning hours, I watch the S&P futures trading on Globex (SP M2=1, for example).

Below that, I have the bond futures listed. I also consider them important in assessing how the market is behaving. I used to keep track of the T-Bonds (US M2, for example), but they are being de-listed, so, now, I also watch the 10-Year Note futures (TY M2).

I monitor the night trading of these bond and note futures as well because I am often at my computer in the evening. (ZB M2 is the night trading in the T-Bond futures and ZN M2 is the night trading in the 10-Year Note futures.) You can find symbols on anything by using eSignal's Trader's Toobox and then clicking on "Symbol Guide" under the "Tools" column.

Below the bond futures, I have two Tick indicators -- the NYSE TICK ($TICK) and the Ticks on the 30 Dow Jones Industrials ($TICKI).

Finally, I list the NASDAQ-oriented items: the NASDAQ futures (ND is the base symbol), both the night version (ND M2=1, for example) and the day version (ND M2=2, for example). The NASDAQ 100 Index ($NDX), the NASDAQ 100 tracking stock (QQQ) and the NASDAQ Composite ($COMPQ) complete my list of NASDAQ items to watch.

The last thing I keep on my main screen is the Arms Index (also known as the TRaders INdex) (symbol: $TRIN).

Other windows that I use a lot include a daily, real-time tick chart of the S&P 500 futures and an options page, where I not only use the standard column heading but also include Delta and Implied Volatility (known as Sigma on eSignal). A screen shot of my options page is included here as well.

The rest of my eSignal screens are a myriad of symbols that I watch in conjunction with various strategies. I also make very liberal use of the Limit Alerts feature to notify me when a stock, index or futures contract hits a price at which I am inclined to take some action.