Coming New Tools for Traders: Smoothed TradeFlow and Order Ticker
The Futures Industry Association Expo in Chicago is running from November 28 through November 30. More than 4000 market professionals from more than 20 countries are expected to attend the FIA’s Expo 2006. Companies, such as CQG will profile their current solutions for traders, as well as provide views of new solutions in the pipeline. Here, we will take a glimpse at new features CQG will soon be offering to traders.
First, is called TradeFlow smoothing. TradeFlow bars give you an inside look at whether traders are hitting bids or lifting offers to generate the last price. Important information, however, in active markets like the E-min S&P 500, the TradeFlow bars are occurring at a rapid pace. CQG is offering an aggregated view. One version smoothes the TradeFlow bars. In this example, we can see how the smoothed version is just what the name implies, and a lot of price noise about the trend of the market is removed.
Another form of aggregated TradeFlow bars is setting a range for the high-low of the TradeFlow bar. This example is a three-tick TradeFlow bar. All TradeFlow bars are three ticks in range. This compresses the activity of the individual TradeFlow bars.
SnapTrader, which is available in CQG 7.4, is an easy way to trade right from the chart. You can place market, limit, stop and stop limit orders with a simple click. In addition, the Order Book is displayed on the chart. Here, you can monitor open positions, resting orders, and you can cancel any resting orders.
Another new tool for traders is the order ticker. The order ticker displays using the classic ticker tape look all of the activity in the depth of market window. You can see orders placed, canceled, and trades executed. There is a cutoff limit to only display order activity above a certain level. The top Order Ticker is displaying order activity for the E-mini S&P 500 above 100 contracts. The middle Order Ticker is detailing order activity for the E-mini NASDAQ 100 contract ten contracts and higher. The bottom Order Ticker is displaying DOM activity for the E-CBOT T-bond contract at 100 contracts or higher.
This chart shows the Order Ticker, along with a Smoothed TradeFlow chart and a 5-tick Aggregated TradeFlow chart for the E-mini S&P 500.
Other coming features include trading options on futures from the CQG DOMTrader. Implied volatility, theoretical value and Greeks are listed right on the DOM scale nest to the price.