Emini-Watch is almost back. We’re here in SFO airport just killing time before our flight to Hawaii. And looking forward to the peace and tranquility of Hanalei Bay in Kauai – and some warm water waves.

Thank you to everyone who sent an email asking if I was still alive. Yes, alive and in good health. Just been travelling and catching up with friends for the last 5 weeks in the South of France and California.

I would have updated the website but tech hassles got in the way. Firstly, abysmal internet connections in Californian hotels – which (along with no snow) caused us to abandon our hotel in Lake Tahoe. Secondly, changing Mac computers mid-travels was not easy and in retrospect should not have been attempted!

(I will not bore you with a long rant about Internet connections in the US and even the heart of Silicon Valley. Suffice it to say: France is better, much better. America, invest in thy infrastructure or ye shall perish.)

But don’t feel sorry for me. Life is good. And a break is always good to re-view, re-assess and re-focus. In light of which, some plans for Emini-Watch during the first half of 2012:

• Better X-Trend will be released – and it will be free. Look out for this next week.
• An Emini-Watch app so you can watch the videos on your iPhone or Android phone.
• Improved version of Better Sine Wave that does not require the Jurik moving average (JMA). Believe it or not, I’ve developed a moving average that is almost as good as the JMA for pre-processing price data.
• Improved version of Better Momentum with Pro Signal Exit, etc. incorporated.
• Simpler indicator installation and setup, with reduced number of inputs, compressed code, etc.
• Better Sine Wave, Momentum and Pro Am will only be available as a package, not individually. The indicators are designed to work together after all – so if you’re missing one, now is the time to get it.
• And I need to do something about lost passwords and lost downloads. Not sure what the answer is here – but forwarding lost files is unproductive (for you and for me). So a simple tech solution is required. If you’ve got any ideas, let me know.
• Lastly, simplified video tutorials that explain the trade setups and help ‘Better’ indicator users get up to speed in the minimum time.

So, that’s what’s on my mind. Apologies if the writing is stilted – been a long time between website updates and I’m out of practice.

Hope your Emini trading is going well.

Charting software is incredibly sophisticated. Over the years traders have asked for more and more features – and the charting software programmers have gladly obliged. The end result is software that is far from “lightweight” and needs careful nursing to run optimally.

Here are 8 tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years. They are based on my experience with TradeStation, but the suggestions also apply to other charting software packages.

1. Get the fastest Internet connection possible

Your biggest bottleneck is not your computer processor speed, RAM, hard disk drive, operating system, etc. – it’s your Internet connection speed. Let me try and explain. Indicators are very simple – just a calculation loop that is repeated at the close of a bar normally. And computers are very good at doing repetitive calculations very fast.

A current computer is probably running something like an Intel Core i3 at 3GHz. This processor will execute 50,000+ MIPS or million instructions per second. That’s 50 billion instructions per second. Now it takes a few instructions to the processor to execute a full calculation, so 50 billion instructions is roughly 5 billion CALCULATIONS per second.

Now let’s compare that to your typical Internet connection speed. You might be lucky and have a T1 connection to your home, but that’s not typical. Let’s assume you have ADSL and you’re getting a download speed of 4 Mbps – that’s 4 million bits per second or 0.5 million bytes per second.

So your processor is capable of running 5 billion calculations per second but your Internet connection is only delivering 0.5 million bytes of data per second. Your computer processor is capable of running 10,000 times faster than your Internet connection. Now I’m not a computer engineer and some of my assumptions might be out – but I’m sure you get the picture. Ever wondered why Goldman Sachs wants to co-locate it’s computers next to the exchange’s computers? Now you know.

The days of upgrading your RAM, computer processor and graphics card are over – they’re moving at warp speed compared to your geriatric Internet connection.

One day I’ll rant about Internet connection speeds and why America is woeful by international standards and why Korea, Hong Kong, France, etc. have already overtaken the US. And why does no one see this as a vital national resource and source of competitive advantage? It’s beyond me – but for now, take my advice and get the fastest Internet connection speed possible – it’s choking your charting software.

2. Re-load your Cached data regularly

This is one of most useful fixes I know of – particularly for heavy users of Tick charts, like me. Slow chart loading can be the result of a corrupted Cache. Plus for some reason when I change location/time zone my Cache causes problems.

Here’s the fix for TradeStation:

1. Shut down TradeStation
2. Find the Cache folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\TradeStation 9.0\Program\Cache
3. Re-name the Cache folder to something like Cache_Old
4. Re-start TradeStation and open some of your charts

This will force TradeStation to access the historic data on their servers and re-build your data Cache. Try to do this out of hours, not during the trading day, as the data downloading will be slow. Try it – it works like a treat every time.

(HT to Dennis W. who suggested re-naming the Cache rather than just deleting it.)

3. Re-install Windows semi-annually

Windows performance degrades over time (note: this is less so with the Apple Mac OS). If you’ve ever done an operating system re-install you’ll know how much of a difference this makes. Yes, there are all kinds of system “tweaking” and registry cleaning applications out there – but I’ve never stuck with any of them. They promise a lot but …

However, scrubbing the hard drive and re-installing your operating system and applications makes a huge difference and has never failed to radically improve computer performance. Yes, it’s a pain in the neck and one of the reasons I try and keep as many applications “in the cloud”. But it also forces you to re-evaluate which applications you actually use and plan for hard drive crashes, etc.

This is a neat trick from David C. for re-installing Windows:

1. Partition your hard drive, keep C: for programs and D: for data
2. Install Windows, programs, drivers, etc. on the C: drive
3. De-frag your C: drive (to compress and optimize it)
4. Create an image of your C: drive on a CD-ROM

Now use the CD-ROM to restore the image of your operating system and programs on the C: drive – and your data will be unaffected and safely stored on the D: drive. Alternatively use a dedicated computer to run your charting software.

4. Replace your computer at least every 2 years

You can’t expect a 5 year old computer to handle modern charting software. Although there is a movement towards “lightweight” software and online applications – the charting software developers don’t seem to be joining in. Their software releases continue to add features and capabilities and are bulking up, instead of slimming down and running faster.

As a result you’ll need to keep up with more RAM and faster processors. The good news is the incremental cost of doing this is coming down. I’d recommend turning over your computer at least every 2 years – sell the old one on eBay and upgrade or use a 24 month lease agreement.

5. Rationalise and standardise your charts regularly

We all do it – try out different indicators, look at different markets, add complexity to our analysis. But “analysis paralysis” can be deadly – day trading decision making needs to be fast and having conflicting indicators or markets will just tie you up in knots.

My suggestion is to regularly go through your charts and delete the ones that are not essential – do you really need that chart of the Japanese Yen versus Swedish Krona?

Then create a standard indicator group that you use for all charts and all time frames. It should have the minimum number of indicators with all the settings just as you like them. Then apply it to all your charts – you’ll become quicker at reading your charts and you’ll see tradable patterns repeating. For me, the ultimate is just having a 500, 1500 and 4500 tick chart open – and nothing else. One day …

6. Use the latest version of your charting software

Sometimes I like being on the “bleeding edge” – other times it’s bitten me on the behind. I don’t recommend upgrading to the latest versions of your charting software straight away – but keep close behind. I can only ever remember “rolling back” my charting software version once – but once was enough.

I don’t want to be discovering problems but rather, waiting for others to do the hard work and gracefully coming in behind them. Sounds callous but ultimately do you want to trade or do you want to troubleshoot hardware/software problems?

7. Read the manual and search the forums

It’s terribly unfashionable to read manuals these days – it should all just work and be totally intuitive, right? Wrong. Charting software is some of the most complex out there and literally takes years to master – particularly if you write your own code.

But getting answers is a lot quicker these days. Manuals usually come in PDF or online format and are searchable. Forums are an amazing resource – and one of the keys in deciding which charting software to use – make sure you’ve bookmarked yours. Plus Google searches work for almost anything. If you’re having a problem or curious about how something works in the charting software, I guarantee there’s a forum thread or article written about it.

Real-time if you notice your data not updating or one of your charts doesn’t look right – check the forums first. The exchange might have done something, other traders might have identified the problem too – you’re not alone out there. Plus a Google search using the “Past 24 hours” or “Past week” sub-menus will pull up information written recently.

Note: TradeStation Network Status has never worked for me in showing problems real-time. It invariably shows all green lights and everything is working fine. Not.

8. Backup your indicator code and chart setup weekly

You’ve heard this before from me – backup, backup, backup. Think it can’t happen to you? You know – the hard drive fails or you get burgled. Save yourself the stress and plan for disaster.

As far as your charting platform is concerned the most important thing to backup is your indicator code, passwords and chart setups. Most charting platforms have automated backup capabilities – for TradeStation I use a weekly backup (Monday 4am) of all my indicator and system code, charts and chart settings, hotkeys, etc.

If you’ve been waiting for more NinjaTrader indicators – finally some good news. Better Pro Am for NinjaTrader is now available – with versions for both NinjaTrader 6.5 and 7. Just go to the bottom of the Better Pro Am feature article here for the download link.

Now my NinjaTrader programmer has finished this project, he’s working on updating Better Sine Wave for NinjaTrader 7 (there is already a working version of Better Sine Wave for NinjaTrader 6.5). That should be released to existing customers next week.

Then I’ll get him to program Better Momentum and Better Volume for NinjaTrader 7. So hopefully, the full suite of Better indicators should be available for NinjaTrader 7 by early (to mid) September.

It’s been a rocky road finding a reliable NinajTrader programmer. All along I’ve refused to pick up the slack and learn NinjaScript. I’m a trader, first and foremost, and only got into the software coding game because the traditional stuff (Moving averages, MACD, Fibonacci, Candlesticks, etc.) didn’t work – at least for me.

Lastly, been slack posting any updates to Emini-Watch.com lately. My wife and I are heading back to France in a week and there’s so much to do getting ready for another 7 months away.

The brake below the daily support level on the Emini at 1,066 led to some nice Short trades. I’ll post another video update soon. Good luck with your Emini trading.

Something a little different today. Before showing Tuesday's Emini trading charts, I wanted to talk about trading software and the importance of backing up.

I regularly receive emails from customers who have had hard disk crashes, requesting copies of software they've downloaded and lost.

Don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to provide them with the software and this post is not a criticism of them. Heaven knows, I've been there too – lost everything!

Do you know that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you've lost literally thousand of hours of work? Start shouting obscenities at Bill Gates and Microsoft? Then you realize you've got literally days ahead of you trying to rebuild you computer and documents. Oh boy, never again.

The Answer: Online Backup Services

That's why I'm surprised that more people aren't using online backup services. Yes, you can buy a tape or hard drive backup for your home office. But what if you have a fire. If you're burgled they'll take the backup drive too!

But fire and theft are the least likely catastrophies you'll encounter. You know what's more likely? You let "Little Johnny" play online computer games and he'll accidentally download some hideous, crash-inducing virus. Or worse yet, you'll do it yourself – mucking around with some setting you'll cause your own hard disk crash.

Online backup services are:

• Simple to operate and restore in the event of a catastrophe
• Work in the background, backing up as you go
• Cheap ($55 a year)

There are 2 major providers – Carbonite and Mozy – and I've used them both. Frankly, there's little to choose from between the two. But I now use Mozy and am very happy.

So if you're not backing up or have been thinking about it and just haven't got around to it ….. just do it.

Emini Trading Charts from Tuesday 11 August 2009

OK, now a couple of Emini trading charts. Holding the 990 support level is going to be critical on Wednesday.

Volume Indicator – Low Volume Up Day (Emini daily)

Monday was a Low Volume Up Day. The Better Volume indicator colors Low Volume bars yellow (default). This showed a lack of demand and was a sign of weakness – then we sold off on Tuesday.

Volume Indicator – Test of Support (Emini 15 minute)

Tuesday's action showed large volume selling early in the morning. But the Professionals stepped in about 10:15am to buy the 990 level. We then re-tested on low volume during lunch.

At the end of the day we had high volume selling followed by a High Volume Churn (blue) bar back down at 992. This could be a push down to re-test the 990 level and an opportunity for the Professionals to scare the Amateurs into selling.

Let's see if the 990 level holds tomorrow and we get a Pull Back in uptrend signal on the 135 minute chart. Good luck with your Emini trading.