[brownsfan019]

Simply, the ES is one of the biggest traded contracts = biggest players are here. And they are good. Along with the bots, I'm not interested. You are pitting yourself up against the biggest traders in the world + the many bots out there ... not an easy task.

What your eyes think they see as easily tradable (I assume you are looking at static charts) aren't so easy in real-time.

So while you are new and looking around to find your groove, it's worthwhile to examine some other 'different' markets - Oil, Gold, Currencies, Grains, even the RLM can act differently to the ES.

Also - daily volume means nothing when you first start. Slippage on 1 contract should not be a factor in your decision making. With 1 contract, you could easily trade the QM with minimal slippage. Check daily volume on that one to see what I mean.

[OsbourneCox]

Originally Posted by HighStakes »

Hello everyone,
I am thinking that for my main market, the S&P 500, I should track sector performance, advance/decline, breadth, highs vs lows, etc, support resistance at higher timeframes, long-term trend, etc.

For the other markets, I will maybe not be that detailed, but track the long-term trend, mid-term trend and short-term trend. Important support resistance on various time frames, etc.

...

From the top of my head, I`m thinking: the other US equity indexes (YM, NQ, TF); currencies (euro, pound, yen, etc); bonds (30 year treasuries, ?), crude oil, gold and possibly some other indexes from the rest of the world (Europe and Asia).
HighStakes

Hi HighStakes,

I'll ignore the question of trading the /ES and get back to your original question about markets to track.

I think it's worth making a distinction between intraday tracking and after hours tracking because some of the things you really want to monitor when you're placing trades and other things are fine being reviewed when you're preparing for the next day just to get a sense of the overall market.

I also think it's worth making a distinction between markets and indicators. Your list includes both.

First of all, you make a lot of comments about mid-term/long-term time frames. So this isn't a market, this is your perspective of the market you're trading. And I'm a big fan of watching multiple time frames. Alexander Elder's book "Come Into My Trading Room" has an excellent writeup about using triple time frames. Check it out and definitely investigate creating a setup screen to view all the time periods simultaneously. It works much better than flipping between windows.

As for what to watch intraday, everyone is spot on with warning against including too much and suffering from analysis paralysis. (It will also affect computer processing power.) Only add things you know you will use and do it incrementally. Remove what you don't use.

In regards to indicators, my screen includes A/D lines, A/D Volume lines and TICK, one set of each for the NYSE and Nasdaq. I take all of these into account when planning trades and rank them high on the list of things to watch.

As for markets that I keep open on my screen, I watch the SPY, QQQQ, IWM and XLF. I also watch the VIX, US Dollar futures, and TLT (30 year treasuries). These aren't the markets I trade, they are simply the markets I watch.

I keep things like gold, oil and other currencies in a "Market Overview" watchlist and will review them from time to time, sometimes during the day, many times not. I guess this is where a lot of the "after hour" candidates can find a home. Things like sector performance, currencies and foreign markets fall into this category. I have found constantly monitoring specific sectors during the day is definitely information overload with very little value added.

Also keep in mind: The auxiliary markets that you track can and should change over time as they become more or less important. For example, a few months ago, the SPX had a very close correlation to the USD. If the dollar fell, the market went up. Eventually that correlation disappeared (basically when the USD started to rise) but while the correlation existed, it was worth watching closely.

But in the end, trading is about finding your style, your edge and what works for you. So take people's suggestions (or criticisms) into consideration but in the end, there's no single best way to trade.

[HighStakes]

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

Simply, the ES is one of the biggest traded contracts = biggest players are here. And they are good. Along with the bots, I'm not interested. You are pitting yourself up against the biggest traders in the world + the many bots out there ... not an easy task.

What your eyes think they see as easily tradable (I assume you are looking at static charts) aren't so easy in real-time.

So while you are new and looking around to find your groove, it's worthwhile to examine some other 'different' markets - Oil, Gold, Currencies, Grains, even the RLM can act differently to the ES.

Also - daily volume means nothing when you first start. Slippage on 1 contract should not be a factor in your decision making. With 1 contract, you could easily trade the QM with minimal slippage. Check daily volume on that one to see what I mean.

Thank you for your observations and recommendations. I will definitely keep an open mind for other contracts.

To clarify, I have been trading and observing the ES contract in real time.

Originally Posted by OsbourneCox »

Hi HighStakes,

I'll ignore the question of trading the /ES and get back to your original question about markets to track.

I think it's worth making a distinction between intraday tracking and after hours tracking because some of the things you really want to monitor when you're placing trades and other things are fine being reviewed when you're preparing for the next day just to get a sense of the overall market.

I also think it's worth making a distinction between markets and indicators. Your list includes both.

First of all, you make a lot of comments about mid-term/long-term time frames. So this isn't a market, this is your perspective of the market you're trading. And I'm a big fan of watching multiple time frames. Alexander Elder's book "Come Into My Trading Room" has an excellent writeup about using triple time frames. Check it out and definitely investigate creating a setup screen to view all the time periods simultaneously. It works much better than flipping between windows.

As for what to watch intraday, everyone is spot on with warning against including too much and suffering from analysis paralysis. (It will also affect computer processing power.) Only add things you know you will use and do it incrementally. Remove what you don't use.

In regards to indicators, my screen includes A/D lines, A/D Volume lines and TICK, one set of each for the NYSE and Nasdaq. I take all of these into account when planning trades and rank them high on the list of things to watch.

As for markets that I keep open on my screen, I watch the SPY, QQQQ, IWM and XLF. I also watch the VIX, US Dollar futures, and TLT (30 year treasuries). These aren't the markets I trade, they are simply the markets I watch.

I keep things like gold, oil and other currencies in a "Market Overview" watchlist and will review them from time to time, sometimes during the day, many times not. I guess this is where a lot of the "after hour" candidates can find a home. Things like sector performance, currencies and foreign markets fall into this category. I have found constantly monitoring specific sectors during the day is definitely information overload with very little value added.

Also keep in mind: The auxiliary markets that you track can and should change over time as they become more or less important. For example, a few months ago, the SPX had a very close correlation to the USD. If the dollar fell, the market went up. Eventually that correlation disappeared (basically when the USD started to rise) but while the correlation existed, it was worth watching closely.

But in the end, trading is about finding your style, your edge and what works for you. So take people's suggestions (or criticisms) into consideration but in the end, there's no single best way to trade.

Hello OsbourneCox,

Thank you very much for this informative post.

Yes, the distinction between tracking in real time and after markets is important. My work would be after the market close to get an overall sense of the markets as you say and a heads up if an important market is close to an important price level. This was what I alluded to in my initial post.

I`m aware of Elders triple screen system and I will definitely be using that for my main contract on a dedicated screen.

Are you trading the ES contract exclusively yourself? I would appreciate your opinion on this market if so.

An example of how sector performance can be tracked: TraderFeed: Tracking a Basket of Stocks for Volume Weighted Average Price

It should be very valuable for gauging the probabilities of a breakout from a range or a mean reversion trade.

Regards,

HighStakes

[OsbourneCox]

I don't trade futures, just straight equities, so I have no opinion on the comments on the ES market.

As for the TraderFeed example, if you're looking to track sector performance, just track the sector ETFs. No need to bother with a basket of stocks as the ETFs are the basket of stocks. (And more than you'd want to put into a spreadsheet.)

Personally, I have a watchlist for each of the sector ETFs with each component stock so I can quickly review all of the charts.

[HighStakes]

Originally Posted by OsbourneCox »

I don't trade futures, just straight equities, so I have no opinion on the comments on the ES market.

As for the TraderFeed example, if you're looking to track sector performance, just track the sector ETFs. No need to bother with a basket of stocks as the ETFs are the basket of stocks. (And more than you'd want to put into a spreadsheet.)

Personally, I have a watchlist for each of the sector ETFs with each component stock so I can quickly review all of the charts.

I agree. A watchlist of the sector ETFs should do the job