knowing who is buying and selling in the pit can be helpful for a few ticks. When you hear "Merrill selling 1000 at a half!!!!", you can bet that you're gonna tick down a point or so, when it's a little slower the big locals can push the market around too. But 90% of the day is just choppy trading and noise. It pays off a couple times a month having Ben or Al backing you up. It can be pretty entertaining at times as well.
I love it not for trades but for quotes it allows me to walk away from the screens and hear the quotes rather watch. to me thats priceless especially when choppy. who wants to watch a day like today if your only a es trader like me. turn up the volume and walk around
Way back when there was a computer generated voice that you could change from man to woman and even an accent. It was free for a time. It's long gone now. The sound never helped me, but the female voice was better than my ex-wives.
Any computer generated women sound is better from past (and present) wives. One notable difference. The shut down option. Back to topic. Some article I'm reading about (which is 6 years old material) talks about the squawkbox. It's not concerned about the specific chatter of the pits, rather, it talks about the noise that traders generate when some major happens to the stock index. Still fishing.....
the roar of the pit can be misleading at times, the traders in the pit may start screaming sold, but that doesn't move the market as much as large paper coming in and traders backing away from it, so it gets a little more quiet. Similarly, when locals get stuck, it gets quiet as they bite their nails watching and waiting to get themselves out of a jam. It takes a little while, but if you listen to the squawk enough you can pick up on a lot of things that globex isn't gonna give you.
This is a good service as all the big institutions (Goldman, Merrill, Morgan) do large size through the pit. I subscribed this year and continue to have the service ($125/month for the S&P 500) and a good 2.5 ES points or 1/2 SP point will pay for it, so why not?
I used the dedicated phone service as a quote device on an unlimited cell plan. You become attuned to the action, but it's maddening after a week or so.
Maybe not but when newbs come out with statements like yours you wonder what they are really in the game for and for most it seems its the percieved rush. You can get that many other ways that probably will cost you less
I don't use it solely for basing a trade that may work. Sure, sometimes I use it for quick scalps when a big local is driving it up or Merrill/GS is bidding or offering and I can catch a 1/2 point in 10-20 seconds. At times, I'll check the pit action when I see a key reversal point coming, or when volume trails off, and then check it if there are any big players doing the same in the pit. It's kind of nice to be backed by a 100-300 contract SP buyer (equivalent 500-1500 E-Minis) when you're on the same side.