[notouch]

Ben is a great guy but I find his service more off-putting than helpful. It's difficult to concentrate with some guy shouting at you through your PC speakers, especially when he's doing stuff like answering telephone calls. It's helpful to know what the investment banks are doing but most of the volume is through Globex not the pit so you'd be better off looking at the tape for large orders. As for pit noise this is mostly just locals shouting at each other and gives you much less information than looking at volume at the bid and ask or just tape reading. The "one of my top 10 locals is pushing lower" type comments seem great when the market then moves but half the time it doesn't. For those who find it useful how do you actually use it?

[brownsfan019]

I agree notouch, I find pit noise a distraction and nothing more. As everyone else here, I've tried it, thought it would give me an edge and all it did was stir up emotions while trying to trade. What I mean is, I could be in a trade (say long for example) and a large sell order comes thru and you panic b/c you are long and a big sell just hit. Well, that 'large' order could just be some covering or not much really at all. Whereas your chart would simply keep you in the trade.

I just found it a waste of money and a distraction.

[keymoo]

I love the pit noise. If you see prices advancing with rising pit noise then you know that the market most of the time is moving higher. If prices then retrace on low volume pit noise, then you know there's not much new selling coming in, just profit taking. If pit noise then increases in volume on a move up you know fresh buying is coming in.

I don't use pit noise at all for signals to enter or exit. It's interesting to note what the banks are doing and the top tenners, and also to observe that the banks do sometimes get it wrong. For example on Feb 27th in the morning, the banks accumulated a huge long position over an hour or so and were then forced to sell out when the market crashed in the afternoon - it was quite something to watch (hear, lol).

Some people like pit noise, some hate it, horses for courses, whatever floats your boat. I like it.

[notouch]

It seems you like it but it doesn't help your trading. What you say about pit noise volume you could just replace with electronic volume and you have an indicator which is easier to read and more reliable.

[keymoo]

Very true, however I like it because it gives confirmation of a lot of my signals. As I said I don't use it to enter or exit trades, just a comfort factor really, and Ben makes me laugh sometimes when he says things like, "Merrill has stuffed these locals BIG TIME here now guys."

[brownsfan019]

Originally Posted by keymoo »

Very true, however I like it because it gives confirmation of a lot of my signals. As I said I don't use it to enter or exit trades, just a comfort factor really, and Ben makes me laugh sometimes when he says things like, "Merrill has stuffed these locals BIG TIME here now guys."

key - so the question is, if you are in a trade and the pit noise does not 'comfort' you, do you exit the trade based on this?

I think the pit noise can give a false sense of security. One example I remember was when a trader friend of mine was using pit noise (he no longer uses it) and we were in a chat room together and he said something like 'pit just said Merrill buying huge lots' during some action. He proceeded to buy. About 30 seconds later he was stopped out. Granted this was one example, but I'll never forget it.

[keymoo]

No, as I said I don't use pit noise to enter or exit trades.

[mikebanger]

I think that Ben is great to listen as far as price action in the pits if you are trying to learn how to correlate what is going on in the pits with what you are seeing on your charts. Being able to read price action is very important as a day trader and I prefer to watch it on my charts rather than listen to it in the pits.

I feel a good exercise to during the lunch time trade move is to listen to Ben and try to understand how what he is saying shows up on your charts. Always being in tune with the day traders in the pit will put you in the correct mindset to correctly read the price action momentum in the market.