On the advice of someone in these forums, I decided to check out the free trial of the squawk box these guys provide. Yes, I agree he sounds like an auctioneer, but the real problem I have with it is that the words are almost impossible to understand. They are all sort of mumbled or slurred together, all I hear is garbled words, or pieces of words. This is not an issue of modem speed, I use a cable modem, thats just the way this guy talks. And yet some of you claim you listen to this guy all over your office all day long? First of all, I don't know how you can stand this guy's voice all day long. But you must see some benefit to it? I just don't see it. I am trading ONLY the eminio Nasdaq and this guy is commenting on the S&P futures. If this sqwauk box of any use to me at all? What should I listen for? I already have an entry and exit point in mind, all I want to do is use this sqwauk box to know what's going to happen in the next few seconds, to try to get a VERY slightly better price on the entry and/or exit. Is this possible? Anyone have any comments on this issue? Does anyone clearly understand what this guy is saying? And how is it helpful to you? Or me?
Most people are averse to the squawk when they first hear it. It takes some getting used to. Some people grow to love it; I'm sure many, many people do just fine without it. It does give you a sense of the current emotions on the floor. There is another squawk at los.net - it is more laid back and you might like it better.
Agree, but I'd venture that as at some point the floor aint gonna be no more, you might be getting used to an advantage that at some point you won't any longer have, and then you'll have to start learning to walk from scratch again. Just a thought.
It took me a few weeks to understand all the mumble jumble 'squawking' when I was daytrading at a daytrading firm. It's just as bad as at a car auction (or any auction!). I liked it, it gives some auditive live entertainment after looking at the lev2 screen for too long. However, a friend of mine hated it because several times, he got out of positions because the announcer was saying something like this : "... ten...tenhalf...ten...tenhalf...we'reonlylocalhere... localtolocal..ahhh... IthinkMerryljustcamein... tenhalf... eleven... tenhalf...elevenhalftoMerryl... elevenhafttoMerryl... twelve..." So thinking ML may come in to buy big, my friend covered his short, only to see the price went up a bit and back down.... The M.Lynch guy may just came in to buy 3 contracts for his mother in law, and said hello to his buddy local with grand gestures (they are good buddies?), and left. So just to say that the squawk box, in my opinion, is not the tool that could give you an edge (it's fun thou') What I do now is just to stick with a FEW indicators that I like best or those best fit my personnality (including the squawk box if you like it) and work on them for years, perfecting my interpretation of their signals, instead of jumping around from one technique to another. Cheers !