Level 2 became pretty much useless over 10 years ago, when the "public" gained access. Much more worthless now due to HFTrading. Charts are "ok" for research, not much help during the day unless you cannot watch the screen. We pay $5.00 per month for charts for this purpose. eSignal can interface with our platform, and some prefer this for pairs trading. A good running T&S can help you with determining how bad the sub penny trading is in your particular stock at any given time. FWIW, Don
Be sure the L1 quotes and T&S are set to 4 decimal places so that you can see the sub-pennies. Charts are more of a personal choice in the end. Don
And if we see the sub-pennies, what then? I've read articles that saying the sub-pennies have something to do with hft front running the nbbo under the guise of providing price improvement, but with the climate of mistrust and blame regarding hft, I do not know what to make of it. I don't understand hft well enough myself to know if someone else actually understands hft when they speak as if they do, so I am at a loss when I read up on the topic. Shed any light, Don?
Level 2 is the most important. The books will almost always be teaching you the wrong stuff. Why do you think most traders are losers? Its because they read bullshit books.
@kivd: Level 2 is the most important.... oh really! that is very interesting. it must be another divergence in the diversified trading methodologies again. you wanna say that again and explain why you deem it so, pls? thx