I listened to the sample of pit action for Marketsound and thought the audio was a disaster, it was terribly scratchy and kept breaking up. Are there other sources where I can get an audio feed of the stock future pits. Thanks.
not to sound too cynical - but what does this do for your P/L ??? How would you say ascertain if the noise increases in the SP pit which way is the wind blowing ???? Just curious....
I've subscribed to http://www.realtimefutures.com for about 4 months now. Although I agree that the computer automated services don't have much value, when you have someone sitting over the pit telling you exactly whats happening it can be extrememly useful...especially if you are a scalper like myself. For example during one long jnpr trade today I was getting ready to exit becuase all my indicators where telling me the market was overbought. But, the announcer was commenting how MLCO, who had been buying for about 5 mins was still actively buying...so I held off for a minute. I ended up getting an extra dime or so out of my 2k share trade. That makes the $100/mo cost of the service well worth it. These situations happen every day.
How can someone in the futures pits tell what MLCO is doing? Do they mention specific stocks? I assumed they just commented on the S&Ps.
Being in the pits myself it's pretty easy to see what others are doing. MLCO for others reference is short for Merril Lynch Traders tend to watch the big brokers/traders. In fact clerks signal trading desks about what different traders are doing. If the announcer is decent he will notify listeners that Merril Lynch is still a buyer. It's also useful for hearing background noise. How loud is the roar of the pits? Quiet = be careful loud = follow move very loud = really follow move deafening means opposite orders are coming in = turn around now before it's too late. if a roar goes to quiet it can me orders are running out. This might help a few of you figure out what is going on. rtharp
OK, I know its an old thread but I didn't think I should start a new one on this topic. I've searched the forum but did not find much recent info on the topic. I'm interested in trying a good S&P squawk box service and would like to know if anyone is with a service they would recommend. I have found several. http://los.net/ http://www.realtimefutures.com/ http://www.marketsound.com/ http://www.xsquawk.com/ I'd think the most important things are timeliness (someone mentioned that one squawk had a 45 second delay) intelligibility, sound app stability (even though it won't be running on my trading machine) and a commentator who is not too annoying. I'm guessing they are all around $100/month so within a certain price range it doesn't matter. If the service is good it will easily pay for itself. Most of them offer trial periods of various lengths but I'd rather not take the time to weed thru them all personally if you guys have already done that .
I tried los.net and realtimefutures.com...I think realtimefutures.com is the best. That guy knows his stuff.
My firm supplies an S&P feed free of charge. The service does prove to be beneficial during certain market periods. However, I am not sure I would subscribe if I was responsible for the fees. Most traders use it solely as background noise in the event of unexpected volatility which is evident in the callers verbal tone and speed.