Tape Reading and The DOM

[conr]

I just viewed the tape reading videos by James. Very well done and very informative. I have a couple of questions. James, or anyone else, do you ever use the order book, (DOM), in combination with the tape? My other question is regarding trade size on the tape. The Globex consolidates their trade messaging to the data vendors. I have to believe that since the CBOT and the CME merged everything will go over to the Globex. How can you trade the tape if you see prints of say 45, 62, 80, etc. and know if they are a group of 1 lots or a single trade?

Thanks in advance.

[Soultrader]

	Quote:	conr
	I just viewed the tape reading videos by James. Very well done and very informative. I have a couple of questions. James, or anyone else, do you ever use the order book, (DOM), in combination with the tape? My other question is regarding trade size on the tape. The Globex consolidates their trade messaging to the data vendors. I have to believe that since the CBOT and the CME merged everything will go over to the Globex. How can you trade the tape if you see prints of say 45, 62, 80, etc. and know if they are a group of 1 lots or a single trade? Thanks in advance.

Being able to read the order book and tape is extremely powerful. The tape shows me clues on short term market direction, supply vs demand at key levels, what type of market participants are evolved, etc....

The order book shows me interest vs no interest, confidence, support and resistance, etc... at specific price levels. On smaller tick contracts I find this harder to see but on larger tick contracts I like to watch the strenght at each level combined with the orders that come across the tape.

I dont quite follow what difference it would make on the YM for the CBOT, CME merger. How would the tape show information differently from the past?

[weiwei]

Corn, If you watch tape long enough then you can notice some very interesting thing happening. But I only read tape on YM and contract over 500 on ES. So what I said can only be true for them two.

On YM tape, some time you will see slamming down or Power up, that mean price just jump up or jump down with a gap, but usually you will not see it on chart, if you are able to see it, so far it is the best momentum indicator for me. Price usually will continue on.

And some time, price jump back and forth, tape color is mixed. Then you see a string of order with same color, that usually mean some things.

Tape reading is hard to said on paper, but if you spend enough time on it, slowly it will tell you some things.

[wiseguy]

So I'm assuming its not necessary to have tick-by-tick data in order to analyse the tape?
From what i've read, Interactive Brokers gives data approximately every 0.2 seconds. is this still ok?

Also how long did it take for you guys to become confident at it? Was there a moment where things just 'clicked'?

I've been watching the time and sales on a demo account and its still pretty confusing i must admit.!

[weiwei]

basically you are looking for the info of
1. Support and Resistance - where is the support and resistance that every see at the moment.
2. order flow- how fast it is, and who is dominating the current moment
3. big orders- what is big boy doing.

[conr]

I dont quite follow what difference it would make on the YM for the CBOT, CME merger. How would the tape show information differently from the past?[/quote]



With the YM now on the Globex, they are going to consolidate trade data rather than each individual trade. How will that affect your tape reading?

I'm sorry. The first sentence in this post is a quote from SoulTrader.

[bertg]

I am glad you started this thread. Thank you.

Can you, please, point me to the video? I had found it months ago when I registered, but can't remember where.

Thanks,
Bert

[conr]

Good question. It used to be under articles but when you click on that it takes you to forums. I can't find any of the videos. Maybe James can answer us.

Thanks.

[darthtrader]

I'm still trying to be able to "hear" the tape but just want to mention how incredible ninjatraders tape is. You can basically custom color code all the different possibilities on the tape.
above ask, at ask, below ask, between, ect...
Also, the CME is having a webinar on order flow on feb 14th that sounds like it could be pretty cool:
Education Events - All Live Webinars